AAG: Lagos Play-offs

After much ado, we take a retrospective look at Nigeria’s preparations for the 9th All African Games with regards to Chess.

The first step taken by the Nigerian Chess Federation (NCF) was to organize a trial event at the National Stadium, Lagos from Jan. 22-26. After a very vigorous (Swiss system) rapid tournament, twenty players equally comprising of males and females were invited to the closed camp in the ancient city of Kaduna, Kaduna State.

The male qualifiers were; Emuakpaje Ochuko (the winner with 10.5 points), Fawole Yemi & Olape Bunmi (a.k.a Undertaker)with 9.5 points and Onabogun Kolade, Inimo Kighiga, Bomo Kighiga, Olape Femi , (IM) Aikhoje Odion, Dasaolu Rotimi (Dashe) and Olarenwaju Ajibola all tied on 9 points. They were joined by four other players namely, Omotosho Tunde, Abdulkadir Umar, Adegboyega Adebayo and US based (IM)Adu Oladapo who were all granted 'wild card' entry to cam, which took the total number of male players to fourteen.

Their female counterparts were; Nsisong Asanga, Doris Omoragbon, Rosemary Amadasun, Dappa Rachael, Olatunji Tobi, Alabi Omolola, Ozah Nkem, Lyan Ossai, Funmi Oyegunle, Phybian Omogbale, Doris Bomeye and Pauline Glewis-Ikpa.

At camp,we gathered, several training round robin contests were played and also the players drew some incisive tutorials from their coaches; (IM) Fola , Bayo, Peter, Musa et al. Lectures on several opening systems, including the intricate Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence, were analysed. Also present in the camp were NCF officials including Mr Adeyemi Olalekan (Vice Chairman) and Mrs Jideonwo-George (Secretary).

Finally, it was time to select those to go on the training tour in Germany where they would be privileged to meet with one of the best British chess players and raining Commonwealth Chess Champion, (GM) Nigel Short.

The final and major rapid round robin was therefore held, from which 8 male and female players respectively qualified .The players that qualified were Olape Bunmi, Onabogun Kolade, Inimo Kighiga, Bomo Kighiga, (IM) Aikhoje Odion, Omotosho Tunde, Adegboyega Adebayo and (IM)Adu Oladapo.

During the female trails, which started after the men were done, the number of slots were increased 10 male and 10 female.Thus after both selection events we had 10 ladies and 8 men.The male team was two men short.
The female players were Nsisong Asanga, Doris Omoragbon, Rosemary Amadasun, Olatunji Tobi, Alabi Omolola, Lyan Ossai, Funmi Oyegunle, Phybian Omogbale, Doris Bomeye and Pauline Glewis-Ikpa.

The biggest upset was the non qualification of Rachael Dappa, one of Nigeria's female representatives at the last Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy and sole female representative to the 2006 Commonwealth Championships in India.

The male non-qualifiers, whom were preparing to leave camp, where then informed of the additional slots and that they were to be play-offs to determine the two players to join the others at camp, though the obvious move would have been to choose the closest runners up.

This brings us to our destination; the male play-offs.

All the players : Left bottom to top; Fawole, Olanrewaju, Ochuko. Right bottom to top; Dasaolu, Olape, Umar.

The National Stadium Lagos was favored as the venue for the games though the playing area (i.e an open space in front of the media center) was far from conducive. At the venue Benjamin Omorere (whom it was later gathered protested to the NCF authorities concerning the firs trials in Lagos) joine the six returnees from Kaduna.

Benjamin Omorere

At 11:30am on Thursday, March 22nd, the rapid play-off, began in front of the Media Center, and Chessheights, in the person of Ademola Sorungbe, was there to bring you a pictorial report.

In round 1, Omorere lost with black to Ochuko, Fawole drew a winning position with the white pieces against Femi, while Ajibola-Dashe ended in a draw. Umar was on a bye (little did he know he was going to win the play-off).
Ochuko(white) was brought down by Femi in round 2. The critical point of the game was Femi's g5 which initially looked weak because it opened up his castled king's position.

Ochuko - Olape

f*g5 looses to B*h7+ 2.Kh7 h*g5 with the idea of Kg7 Rh8. Bg3 and Bf2 were suggested by Fritz 10. In both cases advantage to black.

Jibola virtually did not put up any fight against a rampaging Umar(Black). Dashe was on bye.

Round 3 saw white loose on two of the boards, except on Umars' were he won Fawole who would have drawn had he played the defensive move Rf8.

Umar - Fawole

Dashe and Omorere were victorious against Ochuko and Olape respectively. Olanrewaju was on a bye.

White scored woefully in round 4. Dashe, Jibola, and Omorere all with the white pieces lost to Olape, Ochuko, and Umar respectively.Fawole was on a bye.

Yemi Fawole, Lagos state player, drew with Dashe Lagos state coach in round 5.

Fawole Oyeyemi, wondering what went wrong He finished with 1.5/5.

Femi Olape lost in a kings gambit to Jibola, while the blazing Umar 'burnt' Ochuko to ashes. Omorere was on bye.

Again another poor performance by white was seen in round 6 when Ajibola, Omorere, and Umar won with the black pieces against Fawole, Dashe, and Olape respectively, while a disappointed Ochuko observed from the sidelines.

In the final round, an already successful Umar was out in a formality game against Dashe which he lost. Ochuko-Fawole was a quick draw.
The all important game of the round was between Omorere and Jibola.

Omorere - Ajibola

Omorere, with the white pieces needed just a draw to qualify, while Ajibola was in a must win situation. Omorere was strangely pressing for the win and as a result sank into deep thought,from which he emergered just as he lost on time. I'm sure he's still trying to forgive himself for not playing 'simple chess' when he needed to.

A mild drama occured at the end of round 4 when Leonard Etuk-Akpan arrived at the venue and said he was told by the NCF Chairman ACP Sanni Mohammed to join the trialsl. A decision on this of the drama was postponed till the following morning at the beginning of the 5th round.
At this time the players were divided over the issue. Those with little or no chance of qualification, understandably, moved for a restart to accomodate the Leonard. The other players were of the opinion that Leonard should join the event and play all his games. It was eventually decided that Leonard could not join.
Another issue that shouldn't go without being mentioned is the poor scoring by most of the players when they handled the white pieces. This could be due to the time controls and the nature of the trials i.e Eight to play ,Two to qualify and everyone on edge and I believe it will be addressed by the coaching crew .

Percentage score for both colors at the event were:
White:   23.8%
Black:    76.2% .

Players	U	D	B	O	F	F	J	Total
Umar	*	0	1	1	1	1	1	5/6
Dashe	1	*	0	1	0	1/2	1/2	3/6
Ben	0	1	*	0	1	1	0	3/6
Ochuko	0	0	1	*	0	1/2	1	2.5/6
Femi	0	1	0	1	*	1/2	0	2.5/6
Fawole	0	1/2	0	1/2	1/2	*	0	1.5/6
Jibola	0	1/2	1	0	1	1	*	3.5/6

 

Umar Abdulkadir, won the event with 1.5 points to spare.

Olanrewaju Ajibola, second with 3.5 points.

I.A Clement, "Arbiter in charge".

Our roving correspondent, Demola Sorungbe.