CLEOPHAS Charles Mrope, one of Tanzania’s top chess players and a Business Analytics student at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) in Poland, was recently called up to represent his university at the Academic Chess Championships of the Lublin Region, held in South-East Poland.

The tournament followed a double round-robin format and was officiated by Chief Arbiter Łukasz Dymek.

Mrope delivered an impressive performance, winning four matches - two each against Patrycja Majczyna and Szymon Szpila - and drawing two games against Krystian Dębczak and Patrycja Majczyna. 

Notably, he remained undefeated throughout the competition.

With a rating of 1672, Mrope was the second-highest-ranked player on the UMCS team and was recognized as the top performer on Board 4 across all participating universities.

UMCS secured fourth place overall, behind the Technical University of Lublin (champions), the University of Medicine in Lublin, and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. 

Mrope’s contributions were instrumental in earning draws against the latter two institutions.

The UMCS team was notably impacted by the absence of top female player Aliaksandra Shaban (rating 1916), who was unable to participate due to travel delays at the Polish-Belarusian border.

According to the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Mrope’s performance boosted his Rapid Chess rating by 65 points, pushing him past the 1700 mark and placing him among the top 10 active Tanzanian players in the Rapid Chess category.