Event: Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena 3 2018
Time Control: 3+0
Duration: 90 Minutes
Venue: Lichess.org
Winner: CM Donaldo Paiva (Moztiger)
Points: 44
Date: 15th July, 2018.
Tournament Link: https://lichess.org/tournament/Fv4BksH0
Numbers of Participants: 43 Players, Over 20 Titled Players.
A rife idiom in Africa is ‘having a tiger by its tail’. It portends danger.
This is exactly what happened at the Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena III.
In a night when Football buffs, which are always found among the chess lovers around here were celebrating the largely ‘African’ French team, at the just concluded FIFA world cup, 2018, in far away Russia, the Africa Elite chose to make a replay of the high goal scoring finals that characterized the FIFA World Cup Finals!
Even with the tongue-in-cheek congratulatory messages that followed:
Finally Africa wins it's 1st world Cup but in french colours lol. Congratulations France,well deserved. Love the Croatian spirit though & their great team spirit.
— Sunday Oliseh (@SundayOOliseh) July 15, 2018
Back to the chess. The Points Cap for Africa Grand Prix elite Arena was raised from thirty nine (39) points in the last two (2) editions, to forty four (44) Points, and a new Elite Arena ‘King’ was enthroned. All hail the Moztiger!
It was a night when the Tiger came to town, and your guess is as good as mine. There was gory tales of blood.
Pre Move:
Chess Enthusiast were eagerly awaiting the Surprise Africa Chess Pty will introduce for the Night as it has previously done .
Will it be an unknown GM, or an ‘alien’ IM?
Some thought maybe GM Magnus Carlsen will sneak in on us with one of his alias, but the surprise of the Night was the Tiger that came to town.
The Opening
The first top game of the night was the battle of two Olympiad bound Zambians, in FM Daniel Munenga (@endgamegenious) and CM-elect Prince Daniel Mulenga (@tactinhos2900).
The CM Elect, popularly known as PDM, deviated from his traditional 1. d4 queen pawn opening, to play 1. e4, which signified his readiness for the battle ahead. No doubt, he must have prepared something for his opponent or maybe he was intending to surprise him.
But in honor of the triumphant French National Football Team at the just concluded FIFA world Cup, @endgamegenious stuck to the effective French defence.
And just like the French team formula worked for football, the French defence also delivered the first win of the night.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/0CFphXfY/black#42
The top guns also secured wins in their first games.
CM Paiva Donaldo (@Moztiger) dislodged @Dotsquare with the black pieces.
IM Odion Aikhoje (@Odirovski), using the London system, got an easy win over @Jesselroy99, after a blunder on move seventeen (17), gifting away his Light square bishop.
Omosebi Adebowale (@Skydeborov), deploying the old Benoni Defense on FM Harold Wanyama (@Wanyaland) for his first win.
Other result of the first round included the hot blazing Ugandan @Attrition picking up an interesting draw against the brilliant @Erydyoung4 in his first games.
The Middle Game
With an early win by @Moztiger and a taste of being at the top, the Mozambican Candidate Master (CM) held on for most part of the tournament.
His best win of the night was a win over the highly rated @endgamegenious, who had a lichess rating of 2400 at the time of play.
In a Cambridge Springs Defence of Queens Gambit Decline , the CM capitalized on a poorly placed light squared bishop on the e8 square by move twenty four (24), to force a convincing win by move thirty nine (39).
Game Here: https://lichess.org/ag7ihCi3/white#47
His only few losses for the night came from his countryman @Vvageiro, his nemesis @Odirovski and a revenge win by @endgamegenious.
@Odirovski in second place kept the heat on Moztiga and topped the tournament for a few seconds, before @Motziger took back the place and never let go any longer.
A streak of loses to his country man @Fawolizzo, Zambia’s @tactinhos2900, and Zimbabwean @jesselroy90 were too grave to recover from for the brilliant @Odirovski.
In one of his brilliant games of the night, the highly revered IM turned around a Zukertort Variation of Queen Pawns game against the very strong @skydeborov.
On move 34, he played a Stockfish suggested Bf6! to reduce his deficit in the game.
But it was @Skydeborov that gave out the win, when he missed a prophylactic Qe6!? on move 40.
The IM quickly deployed his Kingside pawn majority, to secure a hard fought win.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/Ne8LoD8P/white#39
@attrition made a huge announcement at the Elite Arena.
His only losses for the night were against the Mozambican duo of @Vvageiro and @Moztiger .
And he ended the tournament with a 2496 Performance Rating, but the low berserk rate made him end the Arena in third position.
He defeated @skydeborov, the Trompowsky disciple, using the Big Centre Variation of Classical defence, to counter the attack in one of his games.
Games Here: https://lichess.org/HAsMh34C/black#43
The End Game
Towards the end game, there was a cameo appearance by the Angolan chess prodigy , IM David Silva using his handle @Forstrongchess.
He quickly stamped his authority on everyone that came his way but was too late to move up the ladder. Perhaps he will start earlier on in the next Arena Battle.
It was a night of fighting to the finish as a last seconds, a draw secured by @Odirovski would have seen him topple the ‘Tiger’, who had held his own throughout the night to snatch the territory.
The rampaging Mozambican Tiger did not allow anyone take over the coveted first place.
And so the story goes, next time you see a Tiger from Mozambique, get ready for battle.
Congrats to ‘King’ Moztiger on his Maiden win at The Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena.
Tournament Summary showed:
Average Rating: 2200
Games Played: 247
Moves Played: 21,160
White Wins: 49%
Black Wins: 45%
Draw: 6%
Berserk rate 13%
This week, the players with the White pieces won more games than the players with the black pieces.
As more players gets more comfortable with the Berserk button, the Berserk rates leaped from 10% – 13%.
The most improved player of the night is none other than King Moztiger who has been improving his position amongst the top 10 in the subsequent editions.
A new inclusions in the top ten (10) are @Attrition from Uganda finishing in third (3rd) place, @Jesselroy from Zimbabwe finishing in the sixth (6th) position and @Silencerbaba from Nigeria finishing in Seventh (7th) position.
And all these were brought to Africans by the company that brings our your building designs like none other, the passionate sponsor of the Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena: AVANTILINE
Below is the list of the top ten (10) finishers of the tournament and the countries they represent:
Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena Top Ten (10)
- Moztiger Mozambique 44 Points
- Odirovski Nigeria 43 Points
- Attrition Uganda 34 Point
- Endgamegenious Zambia 30 Points
- Gupta_Approach South Africa 29 Points
- Jesselroy90 Zimbabwe 28 Points
- SilencerBaba Nigeria 26 Points
- Vviageiro Mozambique 26 Points
- Tactinhos2900 Zambia 24 Points
- Skydeborov Nigeria 21 Points
If you want to watch the best online chess from Africa, tune in to the African Chess Elite Arena this coming Sunday.