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| Egypt’s GM Adly Ahmed is the tournaments highest rated player |
Namibia is proud to host the 2014 Africa Individual
Chess Championship (AICC) this coming weekend in Windhoek at the Safari Court
and Hotel. The event has registered close to 15 African nations that will be
arriving this weekend. The competition is poised to be the continent’s most exhilarating
and competitive chess event this year.
Under the auspices of the African Chess Confederation
(ACC), the Namibia Chess Federation (NCF) will be showcasing Africa’s crème de
la crème of chess tournaments for individuals from the 12th to the
23rd December. The federation agreed late this year to host the
championship at short notice, even so the President, Otto Nakapunda was very
tenacious in maintaining that the NCF will make it a success. Nakapunda
motivated that the federation is very confident and in a buoyant mood to
welcome some of Africa’s best chess players to Windhoek this Friday. He
explained that this comes just after a fruitful hosting the Zone 4.3 Chess
Championship held in the capital in June this year and will thus not be a new
experience for him and the organizing team.
Players at this year’s championship will be coming to
blows for a whopping US$27 500 (N$315 975.00) total cash prize for the top 8 in
the open section and top 7 in the female section. Apart from the cash prizes
the chess masterminds will also be sweating unimaginable for the invaluable
Grand Master (GM) and Women Grand Master (WGM) titles that will be awarded by the
world chess body – FIDE, to the overall winner of each category.
Countries that have
confirmed their participation include Sao Tome & Principe, Ghana, Libya, Namibia,
Botswana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Algeria, Seychelles, and Malawi. Amongst
these Egypt, Nigeria,
Zambia and South African have the largest contingents and are all favorites to
claim the big prizes.
Top seed players from the female section comprise of
Algeria’s WIM Mezioud Amina, Egypt’s WGM Wafa Shrook and South Africa’s WIM
Frick Denise. In the tightly packed open segment, Egypt’s GM Adly Ahmed, and GM
El Gindy Essam and Algeria’s GM Haddouche Mohamed all lead the pack as likely
winners.
The NCF employed some of country’s best players to
take-part in this event with some notable absentees however. The Namibian team
includes; Candidate Master (CM) McLean Handjaba, the 2013 national champion
Goodwill Khoa, junior champion Immanuel Gariseb, national female champion Nicola
Tjaronda, Mentile Lishen, Tjatindi Kamutuua and CM Jolly Nepando. Absentees from the Namibian lineup includes
mainly veteran players in likes of Swiss based 2014 National Champion, Leonard
Mueller, Sanders Oberholzer, Simon Shidolo, four times national champion CM Charles Eichab and Max Nitzborn. One of the
players, Immanuel Gariseb is currently taking part in the African Junior
Championship being held in Angola and is said to return in-form to compete by
the start of Round 1 on Saturday.
National chess coach, Charles Eichab clarified however
that the youthful male and female players nominated to compete have been training
hard and should attain good results and very good FIDE ratings from this
tournament.
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