Botswana senior national Chess team recovered from a poor start to win two medals at the 2019 Africa Zone 4.3 Chess Championships which was held in Madagascar despite the gender row which threatened the team prior to the tournament. The competition was held from the 27th of April until the 4th of May. Botswana had sent three athletes to the tournament; that is two males and one lady to face the best players from the rest of the South African region. However the team was joined by two youthful players who self sponsored themselves to the event. All the two medals came from the ladies section with Woman International Master Onkemetse Francis wining silver while young chess star Woman Fide Master Naledi Marape scooped bronze. Having won bronze medal in the last edition in Mozambique last year, WIM Francis was determined to perform better this year going unbeaten in the tournament with seven wins and two draws to finish with 8 points. This a performance which earned Francis the second position with just a half a point behind the champion WIM Carita Esparanca of Angola. “The tourney was fairly competitive and I was the second highest rated player and I…