I would like to open this with my thank you note to the Danhypro Chess team and Honorable Mr. Austin Apemiye for the birthday cakes and surprise party. I very much appreciate the love.
Meanwhile, I was not the only one who got pleasant gifts from the 2nd Dahnypro Invitational Chess Tournament. Here is the list of top benefactors of the amazing event…
Ogosi Raphael-Mary finished the event as the only player without a loss. Clinching the first place prize of N120,000 with eight points winning seven out of nine games and two draws. The 2019 Malogy champion, Raphael-Mary is the only senior player who managed to slip out of the scorpions’ nest without a scratch, well nearly.
The top-seeded junior player, Isaac Okeke who finished the tournament with 6 points out of a possible 9, went home with N55, 000 and a rating gain of 44points! It’s interesting to note that Isaac Okeke will be breaking the record of highest rated u18 player in Nigeria beating IM Daniel Anwuli’s 2179 in 2015, hopefully, he might even hit 2200 before the end of 2021.
Afolabi Emmanuel gained the most rating points from the 2nd DanhyPro Chess Invitational Tournament.
We sometimes underestimate our own potential, so much that we settle for a “just okay” goal. The young lad lost only 1 game out of 9, with 6 draws from games he was mostly having the better position but gave in due to uncertainty, but in any case, a performance of 2062 is not a bad one from the 16year old player.
Afolabi started the tournament with a rating of 1585 but went home with a hundred and thirty-one addition (131elo)!
Finally, Emmanuel Idara will be on the list of rated players in Nigeria and he will be starting off with a rating of over 2000elo. Idara made hard efforts putting in fights but, I guess he’s got more work to do.
Other players who joined the tournament as just another unrated junior player but went home as a national (rated) player include Ihenacho Emmanuel, Orjiekwe Raphael Chidera, Chima Mount Zion, and Ekunke Iyambe Perez.
A big kudos to the DanhyPro Chess organizers who have made yet another great contribution in Nigeria Professional Chess. We look forward to more fantastic tourneys like this
