Despite not being rated, Nigeria’s Nnamdi Nwoye caused one of the upsets at the ongoing Lagos International Chess Classics, after beating number fifth seed, Egypt’s Sarwat in one of the matches played on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, number one seed, Serbia’s grand master, Dejan Antic was made to work hard for his victory in a five hours marathon game against Nigeria’s Denemi Miedo.
As matches were played till late in the night on Tuesday, the foreigners who are mostly international masters were shocked with the standard of play by their unrated Nigerian counterparts.
Nwoye, who is an architect was in superb form against the Egyptian in the encounter and he was rewarded with the victory at the end of the game.
Uganda’s Elijah Emojong admitted that he was surprised with the quality of play displayed by the Nigerian players, adding that he was not expecting what he has seen so far in the competition.
“Nigerian players are really playing well especially those of them that were not rated so I want to say that the standard of the game is really high in Nigeria,” Emojong admitted.
Serbia’s Antic spent more than five hours before he could salvage a win over Bayelsa’s Miedo.
The Serbian grand master had to confessed after the encounter that his opponent was flawless in the encounter.
Also, Nigeria’s Bunmi Olape had to rely on default to win his first round match against Hakeem Edunwale. The match lasted for over five hours.
After the conclusion of two round of matches, Egypt’s Mohammed Ezat is leading and he is followed by Uganda’s Emojong while Nigeria’s second world rated player, Chukwunonso Oragwu is third in the rating.
However, the competition’s number one seed, Serbia’s Antic is 14 on the rating log while Nigeria’s Bunmi Olape is 15.
Meanwhile, the U-14 event will commence today with players from schools and clubs expected to take part in this category after the organisers concluded the registration yesterday.
For the chief arbiter of the competition, Eugene Akhiwu, the quality of play has shown that every player has the chance to win the competition.
He disclosed that each player is expected to play seven round of matches in the tournament.
The player with the highest points at the event of the seven round will automatically emerges as winner.
Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos is hosting the N3.5million prize money championship. The star prize is $5,000.
