Lopang wins medal as chess team finishes fourth

KENNETH BOIKHUTSWANE
Correspondent | Friday July 27, 2007 00:00

 

Though the Botswana team failed to make the cut, national champion Tshepiso Lopang atoned for this by scooping bronze in the individual category.
Due to the low turnout in the women competition, the tournament was played on a double round-robin basis. Botswana started the games well, beating Libya 4-0 in the opening round and then holding favourites Algeria to a draw. Defeats to Nigeria and then South Africa pushed Botswana down. But a draw against Egypt in the final matches of the first round saw the country rise to joint third position.

 
The second set of games proved too difficult for the Botswana women. They managed to beat Libya 3-1, but a painful 4-0 loss to Algeria saw medal hopes begin to fade. The situation was worsened by heavy defeats to both Nigeria and South Africa with scores of 3-1 and 3.5-0.5 respectively. A 3-1 last round win over Egypt could not repair the damage that had been done as Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria were already far ahead.
In the men's section, the Egyptians had a field day as they proved stronger than any of their rivals.

The team boasted a powerful line-up with the only Grand Masters (GM) in the tournament - Ahmed Adly and Baseem Amin. Amin won the Africa Junior Chess Championships hosted by Botswana in 2005, while Adly is the current African champion. The Egyptians amassed a massive 40 points to grab gold ahead of South Africa with 35.5 points and Zambia with 35. South Africa fielded their strongest team including International Masters (IM) Watu Kobese and Kenny Solomon but Zambia was missing their top man, IM Amon Simutowe, who withdrew from the team citing differences with the authorities.

Nigeria scored 31 points to finish fourth, but the country could have done better as a team had it fielded its strongest players at the lower boards. Whereas this strategy saw them perform exceptionally well as individuals, it had the opposite effect of dragging the team down as crucial points were lost at the top boards. Zimbabwe signified its improving status as a chess-playing nation by scoring an incredible 29.5 points to finish fifth. The average age of team Zimbabwe is 26, which speaks well for the future. If John Cochrane, who is aged 44, is taken out, then the team's age falls down to 23.

The organisation of the chess games were a nightmare. The Internet, which in recent years has proved an effective tool not only for relaying results but the actual games as well, hardly had any results for several days at a time.

As a result, there are no games from the event that can give a better insight into the standard of play. There have been complaints from Algeria that the organisation of the chess tournament did not match World Chess Federation levels expected for an event of such magnitude. There was no international arbiter to oversee the overall progress of the tournament, which is surprising given that some of the best players on the continent were present.