Nigeria, Egypt Dominate Lagos International Chess Classics

After four-days of action, host – Nigeria and Egypt tied in their rating to dominate the Lagos International Chess Classics.

After seven round of matches, Nigeria’s trio of Omoifo Osemekhia, Ochuko Onovughe and Emmanuel Maduagwuna tied with Egypt’s duo of Abdelrahman Hesham and Mohammed Ezat to share the star prize.

The five players all tied with six points each, while the grandmaster, Serbia’s Dejan Antic and Uganda international master, Elijah Emojong, who were topping after six round of matches lose their last match to settle for 5.5points.

According to the tournament director, Adebayo Babalola, the competition has been successful with the players benefiting from taking part.

 “I think every player that took part in the championship has commended the organization while the foreigners were not left out of this and this for us will spur us on to do better in subsequent editions,” he said.
  Babalola added: “The unrated players will surely improve in their ranking while the rated ones will get improved ranking from the World Chess Federation (FIDE). This alone for us has scored the tournament high and we believe our players have indeed gained from participating in the competition.”

Meanwhile, a one-day lecture for players that took part in the championship holds today. It will be handled by the Serbian grandmaster.

Aside from the lecture, the Serbian is expected to play an exhibition matches with 20 selected players including the top five in the U-14 category.

According to the tournament director, Adebayo Babalola, the essence of the lecture was to improve the skills of the players as well as to expose them to what obtains globally.

 “Basically, the lecture is to update the knowledge of our players and the grand master who is also an expert in the game will handle the lecture. We are hoping that from this, they will improve their skills and also get to know the new tips in the game.

20 selected players both male and female will play an exhibition match with the Serbian grand master. For us, it is an opportunity for us that we have a grand master and it behooves on us to avail ourselves this opportunity by tapping from the knowledge of the Serbian,” Babalola said.

  Over 145 players including 40 students took part in the four-day tournament held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.