Despite the lack of many "Big" tournaments, the game is gaining grounds, especially due to the private initiatives of lovers of the game. Not so long ago, I was in Ilorin as a chess tourist, and participated in the 2005 Busari Alao Chess Opens. I hereby share with you some of the sights and wonders of the town and the tourney.
Tolu and his modest lodgings.
Despite my arriving late in the as yet unknown town of Ilorin, I was heartily welcomed by Yemi Ajibade who was meeting me for the first time. He housed and fed me throughout my stay. The ‘gens una sumus’ stuff really clicked in this case.
Round three.
The tournament had about 33 players in the male category and about 10 in the female category. Besices myself, the only other ‘foreign’ player was from LAUTECH, Ogbomosho.
Dr....... Who?
Play was was quite competitive, as
you can see from this game annotated by Demola Sorungbe the tourney
winner.
OLAWUYI Tope – SORUNGBE
Demola 12/12/05
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5(The Trompowsky)
Ne4 3.Bf4 e6 4.f3 Nf6 5.e4(White gets
the perfect
central pawn structure with a tempo in replacement for a partially
weakened kingside ands difficulty in kingside development) Be7 6.Bd3 0-0
7.Ne2 d5 8.e5 Nfd7 9.0-0 c5 10.c3
Qb6(10...Nc6 would have been better
after which Qb6 would be
able to exploit the the a7-g1 diagonal).
11.Qb3 Nc6
12.Qb6 Nb6 13.Be3 cd 14.cd Nb4 15.Rd1 Na4 16.Bc1 Bd7
17.Nbc3 Rac8 18.a3
Nd3(dispossessing him of his bishop pair).
19.Rd3 Nc3 20.Nc3 Rc7 21.Bd2 Rfc8 22.f4 a5 23.Kf2 b5 24.Rc1
b4
25.ab ab 26.Na2 Rc1 27.Nc1 Rc2 28.Ke1 Rb2 29.Rb3 Rc2 30.Nd3
Ba4.
Score: 0 - 1
The name of the prize winners in the male category are:
- Demola Sorungbe
- Tolulope Ogunwobi
- Ore Francis
Some how I managed not to get the names of the female prize winners.Sorry.( Ed- I think Tolu was not sure how to adress the young women in Hijabs!)
And so ended the Busari Alao Chess Opens. I leave you with pictures of the prize winners and the city of Ilorin.
Sorungbe 1st prize
Tolu 2nd prize
Ore 3rd prize
And the winner is ?
Ilorin has quite a few beautiful mosques.
Cattle herd.