Zimbabwe’s Mandizha gets 2nd GM norm!

Farai Mandizha (Zimbabwe)
Photo by David Llada

Over the years, IM Farai Mandizha has made strides since coming from Zimbabwe nearly a decade ago. Initially, he developed a reputation for his blitz skills, but as he developed a plan for earning his titles, he focused more on incremental improvements. In this time he has earned his IM title with three norms and last weekend scored his second GM norm at the 2017 World Open. Farai scored 6/9 with 4.5/7 (+3=3-1) against GMs.

Based in New York with wife Respina, Farai has been teaching at Hunter College Prep for the past four years. He told The Chess Drum of one of his prized pupils in 16-year old Fikirte Hunt. Sometimes it is difficult for a chess coach to keep their own game sharp, but Farai will have a lot of instructional material for his students at Hunter after his sterling result. He is hoping to earn the last norm in the coming months. He is hoping to become the first Zimbabwean Grandmaster and only the third sub-Saharan African player to earn the coveted GM title.

Following are three of his games from the tournament:

IM Farai Mandizha (2342-Zimbabwe)
#	Player	ELO	Nation	Flag	Result
1	Jesse James Lozano	2024	USA		1
2	GM Andrey Stukopin	2577	Russia		1
3	GM Ruifeng Li	2571	USA		1
4	GM Jeffery Xiong	2658	USA		½
5	GM Aleksandr Lenderman	2585	USA		½
6	GM Jianchao Zhou	2595	China		0
7	GM Ashwin Jayaram	2492	India		1
8	GM Alexander Stripunsky	2536	USA		½
9	IM Andrew Tang	2461	USA		½
Score: 6-3 (GM NORM)