Nigerian International Schools Chess Championship League

The finals of the Nigerian International Schools Chess Championship League took place on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at Chrisland College, Idimu, Lagos.

It was a spectacular event that featured the final chess matches of the league, a tense 12 board simultaneous display, a convivial meal from our hospitable hosts and awards of laurels for outstanding performance.

Before continuing this story, first some background information is required. The league has been in existence for 4 years now and it has not missed a season. This is no small feat considering the low liquidity state for chess affairs over the years in Nigeria.
The concept behind the league is that the intellectual nature of chess is very useful for young children who are still developing there mental capacity and that it is necessay to augment their growth with broad chess activity e.g. competing with a wide variety of opponents that the league offers. Chess also teaches the child how to struggle against opposition and succeed, thereby developing his/her character.

Without a doubt, the survival of the league so far is due to the persistent effort of its chief organizer, Mr. Kunle Fasan.

This season, a total of 13 schools participated, including;

1. Atlantic Hall

2. Grange School

3. Corona

4. Nigeria-Turkey International

5. Vivian Fowler

6. Chrisland

7. America International

8. Queens College

9. Dowen College

10. Diamond School
    

Please take note that the league has several categories : Senior high school, Junior high school, Senior girls high school, Junior girls high school and Primary school.

Before closing this section, it is proper to add the latest landmark achievement of the league and Mr. Kunle Fasan which is the plan to send top players of the league to the World School Teams Championship 2007 taking place in Czech Republic from 11 - 18, July, 2007. Here is the link to the FIDE web page http://www.fide.com/calendar/fidecalendar.phtml

ChessHeights proudly supports this latest effort of the ‘Nigerian International Schools Chess League’.

There was, however, some delay before the event began, due to the chief arbiter, Charles Campbell (one of Nigeria’s top players for over a decade) being held up in traffic. In his possessions were the pairings for the day, results and performance statistics for the entire season and as a result, very little could be done without him..

Like all games, the waiting game ran out of time. Charles Campbell arrived with the needed data and the group of arbiters came up with a rapid chess game solution (15 minutes for each side) so as to enable the event to be completed quickly.

One thing that the games showed was that Nigeria is not short on chess talent and although their opening knowledge could be better, their originality was enviable. Though our favorite player at the event was Grange’s Fahkry Mansour, whose game with a Queens College representative deserves praise and applause.

The tense final games would have been enough excitement for the day but ChessHeights stepped into the program after the games to create a ' not to be forgotten to soon' display. Ademola Sorungbe, a member of the Gold winning Oyo state team at the last Sports Festival (and chessheights roving correspondent), challenged all the teams to send their top players to play against him. Simultaneously.
Twelve players were selected and they took their places opposite Ademola . Kunle Fasan warned the kids to play their best as there was the possibility of a 12-0 loss against top master player, Ademola Sorungbe; while Tolulope Ogunwobi of ChessHeights read out the rules for the event. 

One unusual challenge for Demola in this contest was that he could not play any opening by rote as he was facing most of the lines for the first time. Though this allowed him to secure advantage quickly, it also forced him to do a lot of thinking thereby sapping his energy.
Sorungbe finally managed to gain winning positions on all boards (I can testify that there was no board that he didn’t have overwhelming material advantage), but the organizers complained that there was no time to continue the simultaneous and declared, to the kids relief, all boards drawn. Therefore Sorungbe vs League players ended 6 - 6.

The next item of the program was the the award of laurels.

The Awards

Most Encouraging School Team:	Dowen College.
Most Improved School Team:	Corona
Most Outstanding School Team:	Chrisland
Best Primary Female School Team:	1. Grange School, Ikeja. 2. Diamond Primary School.
Best Primary School Player:	Ademide Ajayi, ST. Saviors School, Ikoyi
Best Junior high School Team:	1. Nigeria-Turkey International College Team B 2. Atlantic Hall Team B   3. Nigeria-Turkey International College Team A
Best Senior High School Team:	1. Atlantic Hall Team A 2. Vivian Fowler 3. Grange
Best Junior Players:	1. Kerwe Fadahunsi, Atlantic Hall. 2. Zaiyan Bello, Nigeria-Turkey International College. 3. Kola Mohammed, Nigeria-Turkey International College.
Best Senior Players:	1. Gabriel Bassey, Atlantic Hall 2. Michelle Balonwu, Vivian Fowler 3. Fahkry Mansour, Grange