Grand and International Masters from Belarus, Romania, Egypt and Uganda have confirmed their participation in the Lagos International Chess Classics holding next week.
The tournament is one of the series in the Lagos-organised Sports Classics and has been endorsed by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) as a ranking event. The tournament holds from October 8 to 11 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
According to the Main Organising Committee (MOC), one of world’s grandmaster, Belarus’ Sergei Kasparov, as well as Woman Grand Master (WGM), Alina L’Ami of Romania have signified their interest to be part of the four-day championship in Lagos.
The 45 year-old Belarus’ number 12 rated player will compete alongside Egypt’s trio of Mohamed Ezat, Abdelrahman Hesham and Walaa Sarwat.
The three Egyptians are International Masters with Hesham being the youngest of them.
Also, Uganda’s sole International Master, Elijah Emojong, who is also Uganda’s number one rated player will be in Lagos for the competition.
Bunmi Olape will spearhead Nigeria’s International Masters, while others are Fola Akintola, Odion Aikhoje and Oladapo Adu.
However, the Chairman, Main Organising Committee (MOC), Wahid Oshodi said that the tournament would be well organized according to international standard.
“The Lagos Chess Classics is one of the events in the Lagos Sports Classics and it is coming after the publicly acclaimed successful table tennis event of the classics. We have taken every step to ensure that we maintain the high standards we have set for this series of events. Once again, we are appealing to our friends in the media to continue to help us inform the public about this event. We want the fans to come in and support the international and local players to do their best.”
He added: “The Chairman of the Lagos State Chess Association (LSCA), Fela Bank-Olemoh with his team, the NCF along with FIDE have worked very hard to put all necessary processes in place to ensure an excellent tournament in a safe and secure atmosphere. And we believe that events like this will help increase the appeal of chess to our sports loving public.”
It would be recalled that the President of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, lauded Nigeria for joining the league of countries staging international tournaments.
Also, the President, Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF), Lekan Adeyemi, has thrown his weight behind championship, while also pledging support for the Lagos Classics.
The players would compete in three categories and these are men and women Open as well as U-14 boys and girls. This is the first international chess tournament to be staged in Nigeria this year.
