Online Chess Headlines

Nigeria suffer low start in world university chess championships

Nigerian players taking part at the ongoing the 9th World University Chess Championships in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, began their campaign poorly on Tuesday as they lost their five opening games in the first round.

Femi Solaja, an official of the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF), told reporters that the results showed the level of the game in the country.

"This is a reflection of the level of chess development in Nigeria.Apart from playing in Africa, where we play against Egypt and South Africa, the standard in Europe is different," he said.

"It is interesting to note that all the players at this tournament are students, but we have among them Grandmasters and several rated players but we only have two rated players in Nigeria," he added.

Solaja attributed the failure to the fact that the Nigerian players were not familiar with the electronic chess board. "In the next round we expect them to have outgrown the initial stage fright," he said.

However, he was optimistic, saying that hope was not lost. "This is just the first round. We have nine round Swiss events, which means Nigeria can still make an impact," he said.

Source: Xinhua

Fisu Chess: Nigerian Players in Poor Start

As expected Nigeria began it quest for glory at the on going World University Chess Championship on a poor note with all the players losing their first round games.
Allor Chuk set the tone of defeat for the host nation after losing to a more experienced Ni Hua of China. The Nigerian had a very comfortable position against one of the strongest Grandmasters in China but his opponent showed his better prowess in the middle play.
Another hopeful, Ajibowo Olamide failed to take the advantage of playing white against Florian Jenni of Switzerland just as Bomo Kighiga also in white lost to superior prowess of Darban Mortezd of Iran in a short game.
Team captain, Abimbola Ogunnowo did not give Switzerlands Julien Carron much resistance in a complex end game while Adebayo Owoeye playing the black side of English opening lost to Java Alavi of Iran and Oteri Efemuai completed the routing of the Nigerian male team lossing to Willem Dejong Jan of Netherlands.
While in the female section, Tobi Olatunji, a silver medalist at the last All-Africa Games in 2003 and the only female International Master, fell to Shadi Paridar of Iran.
Meanwhile, in spite of Nigerias poor start, Chairman of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University sports council, Eng. Bawa Mohammed has reassured Nigerians that the nations representatives at the on-going 9th World University Chess Championship taking place in Lagos will soon bounce back. The championship ends in Sunday.

Chess: National Braille Chess Championship held in Kolkata

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 (Kolkata):

Turning a blind eye to the handicap, 90-odd kids from 15 states got cracking in the National Braille Championship in Kolkata.

"The main purpose of this tournament is to create awareness because you know 2.1 per cent of India's population is visually handicapped, and they have a right to be in the mainstream," said Ashok K Bose, President, Indian Braille Chess Association.

They may have never seen Viswanathan Anand or Dibyendu Barua or for that matter even the chessmen on board, but that was hardly a dampener.

With stars in their eyes, the young grandmasters - mostly from very poor backgrounds - are confident of being able to make it big one day.

"I love the Queen in the chess game. She is the only one who can move in all directions," said one participant.

"I chose chess since we can play it with the normal, sighted persons. My idol is Viswanathan Anand. I too want to go ahead in life," said another.

Although they may be visually impaired, they are not disabled. This game of chess has proved once again that the differently-abled can do wonders.

A little bit of help from the government is all they need to get integrated with the mainstream of life.