Edo 2020 Chess Event Update: Round Eight

Let’s start with the good news! Mr. Austin Apemiye the Initiator of the Go For West African Grand Master who is also the Continental development Chairman on the African Chess Confederation (ACC) board has just spiced up the National Sports Festival by promising rewards for specific performance and appearances. It is good to know that some people still care so much about the development of chess in Nigeria and actually do something to show it.

Report By: Tolulope Fasinu

While the round 8 match is important to everyone, the wins can only go to one team on each of the boards. In the women’s section, Edo State team made what we can only consider a very good strategy based on the outcome against the Ogun State team. The Match ended ½ – 3 ½ in favor of Edo State.

Lagos state and Oyo state took the match points from their opponents comfortably, playing KWARA vs OYO 1 – 3 and ABIA vs LAGOS 1- 3.

Team pairings

Round 8 on 2021/04/12 at 9AM
No.	Team	Team	Res.	:	Res.
1	KWARA	OYO	1	:	3
2	ABIA	LAGOS	1	:	3
3	OGUN	EDO	½	:	3½
4	PLATEAU	DELTA	0	:	4
5	BAYELSA	RIVERS	3	:	1
6	GOMBE	YOBE	2	:	2
7	IMO	EKITI	3	:	1
8	FCT	KOGI	2	:	2
9	SOKOTO	OSUN	3	:	1
10	BENUE	bye	2	:

In the male section there was only three 4-0 knock-out wins from table one, two and eleven, while others shared the game points.

Team pairings

Round 8 on 2021/04/12 at 9AM
No.	Team	Team	Res.	:	Res.
1	BAUCHI	OYO	0	:	4
2	DELTA	OGUN	4	:	0
3	BAYELSA	ONDO	3	:	1
4	EDO	IMO	3	:	1
5	YOBE	PLATEAU	3	:	1
6	KWARA	EKITI	2	:	2
7	ABIA	KANO	2	:	2
8	JIGAWA	KADUNA	2	:	2
9	KOGI	NIGER	1	:	3
10	BENUE	FCT	2	:	2
11	EBONYI	GOMBE	0	:	4
12	OSUN	CROSS RIVER	0	:	2
13	AKWA IBOM	bye	2	:

The Chief Arbiter—Mrs. Tayo Amisu finally called the team captains to apologize for not setting up an Appeal committee at the start of the tournament, according to the her: ”we all (Arbiters and Captains) forgot and we can quickly make amend right now” the captains immediately elected some individuals to make the appeal committee.

After the completion of round 8 games, there was players’ congress hosted by the Chess Players’ Association of Nigeria (CPAN), the items discussed are as follows:

CPAN President Martins Amabipi after opening the congress by stating that the meeting is not to solve problems but to bring us information and get us all (players from everywhere across the nation) acquainted. He also mentioned that there are plans ongoing for a larger CPAN CHESS LEAGUE that will involve the whole Geo-Political Zones of Nigeria.

The NCF president—Mr. Adeyemi Lekan welcomed everyone and greeted the sportsmen for the job well-done so far in the National Sports Festival, he introduced the NCF Secretary—Mr. Oladapo Akinyele to the people. Furthermore, the NCF president mentioned that he is happy about the News made by the CPAN president (Martins Amabipi). He further stated that it is an encouraging change in the right direction and he will always make available his support to make sure we all grow chess together.

International Arbiter Obinna Ogbonnaya took the stage next to express how impressed he is with the News of the CPAN president. IA Obinna encouraged the players to support chess in all fields not just the playing, “Everyone can’t be a player” he said, sighting an example of himself when he started playing chess and aspiring to become a world champion but ended up an International Arbiter and more. Arbiter Obinna concluded by encouraging everyone to register and support CPAN because that is the beginning of the growth process.

International Master Odion Aikhoje also addressed a similar point as International Arbiter Obinna Ogbonnaya encouraging everyone to think beyond playing as there is so much to be developed when it comes to chess in Nigeria. We are yet to exploit the business and journalism aspect of the game as we should so we all should give it some consideration.

Players were then given opportunities to make contributions. Some pointed out that chess development in Nigeria has so far been happening in Lagos mostly therefore there should be plans on spreading the growth across the Nation.

Some mentioned that NCF and CPAN need to consider the League and other tournaments to carry better prizes preferably in Millions so as to get more people interested in the game.

Finally, Mr. Asibor Robert addressed that the NSF format needs to be restructured to reduce the unethical acts of dealing games and promoting corruption. He suggested that the NSF should have Master’s category and Opens Section, this way players have their ratings at stake. Most people seem in support of this as they applauded Mr. Asibor Robert. The congress was adjourned after this.

The final round of the National Sports Festival is coming up next… Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with the board pairing here yet as it has been taken off the chess-results server but you can see the team pairings below.

Team pairings female

Round 9 on 2021/04/12 at 2PM
No.	Team	Team	Res.	:	Res.
1	OYO	BAYELSA		:
2	LAGOS	KWARA		:
3	DELTA	IMO		:
4	EDO	SOKOTO		:
5	YOBE	OGUN		:
6	BENUE	ABIA		:
7	EKITI	GOMBE		:
8	PLATEAU	OSUN		:
9	RIVERS	FCT		:
10	KOGI	bye		:

Team pairings male

Round 9 on 2021/04/12 at 2PM
No.	Team	Team	Res.	:	Res.
1	OYO	AKWA IBOM		:
2	DELTA	BAUCHI		:
3	NIGER	BAYELSA		:
4	EDO	YOBE		:
5	OGUN	KWARA		:
6	EKITI	JIGAWA		:
7	ONDO	ABIA		:
8	GOMBE	KANO		:
9	KADUNA	KOGI		:
10	IMO	BENUE		:
11	CROSS RIVER	EBONYI		:
12	PLATEAU	OSUN		:
13	FCT	bye		:

Report By: Tolulope Fasinu