Event: Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena 4
Time Control: 3+0
Duration: 90 Minutes
Venue: Lichess.org
Winner: IM Odion Aikhoje (Odirovski)
Points: 47
Date: 22nd July, 2018.
Tournament Link:
Numbers of Participants: 36 Players.
“I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” – Marcel Duchamp
Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena 4 brought the artists in Africa’s elite players.
Not in the way draws were made but in the beautiful masterpiece that characterized the wins of the night.
And so the beautiful skyline of Africa was rendered with modern weapons from the arsenals of Africa’s elite chess players.
The Points Cap for Africa Grand Prix elite Arena was raised further from 44 to 47 Points.
Pre Move:
As it was our tradition to make the Arena better every night, the intention of one of Africa’s best chess players to grace the event was announced some few minutes to the beginning of the event.
Members of the Africa chess Lichess group were eager to know what the surprise will be this time around.
But just as chess is regarded as a battle, the identity of the ‘visiting’ elite was kept under wraps. You may be correct to say Surprise is one of the effective weapons of war.
The Opening
The first top game of the night was the battle of two top Nigerians.
IM Odion Aikhoje (@Odirovski) took on the very versatile @Skydeborov.
In a Trompowsky attack handled by @skydeborov, it took some queen maneuvering and a pawn break on the white’s king side to give white the advantage at move 37 but @skydeborov gave up his advantage at move 39 when he missed a Ng7+ fork to wrap the game up.
@skydeborov later went on to lose his first game of the night to time.
Game Here:
https://lichess.org/MeR1NlY7/black#108
A new handle @lethalsaint associated with the Zambian tactician Prince Daniel Mulenga (PDM) also took Mozambican CM@Moztiger to the cleaners in their first game of the night.
Using the English opening, @lethalsaint did not resort to the use of the queens language but a trick which the CM@moztiger fell for on move 37 was all that was needed to decide the game.
Game Here:
https://lichess.org/Xf9VgUIS/white#73.
However, like a defence of the Mozambican honour, @Vvageiro restored the honor of his country by defeating @lethalsaint in the next pairing.
@Vvageiro dug into Anglo Indian defence to wage off the English attack.
Game Here:
https://lichess.org/E1qmtRGB/white#86
The Middle Game
With all the elites set for the top position, it was @jesselroy that had the first go at it after his first 3 games.
The young talented Zimbabwean could not however stay long on the position as @Moztiger quickly take over.
But in a very dynamic night , @Attrition quickly took over , then handed over to the ‘King’ from the East @Wanyaland.
But a network issue would later ruin the blistering form of @Wanyaland as his network disappeared in the middle of his game with @GrandmasterBomo whom he had earlier defeated.
This marked the end of the tournament for the Ugandan Veteran.
@Odirovski was then ‘gifted’ a win to take over the first position after the South African @Mawe who was at the end of his Wits as he berserked on the highly revered International Master.
The IM wasted no time in converting in 28 moves.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/JsE7EL4F/black#0
People are quick to say IM@stuffings made GM Magnus Carlsen to start playing Kings Indian Defence.
This may not be far from the truth as the IM has shown his perfection of the defence.
This brought him many wins on the black side for the night.
One of his best games of the night is as seen Below against@Moztiger.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/TAmAwyMb/black#67
@Gupta_Approach from had a very impressive performance in the night.
The reward for this was a top 3 placement.
The rising chess power from South Africa has promised to always make top 10 in the Grand Prix and he has been true to this.
One of his games for the night is seen below:
Game Here: https://lichess.org/QAP2eNRs/black#0
@Attrition means slow destruction, but the top Uganda Chess Player was quick to dislodge his opponents.
He had a really impressive night.
His best win of the night was against @skydeborov who put up a superlative performance but lost to time. Like the name of the opening played Exchange Variation. He exchanged his good position on board for the loss on time in the game.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/6huy4sDR/white#107
@Grandmasterbomo knows the drill when he used the Drill Variation of English Opening to post a superlative result against the very Lethal @Lethalsaint in one of his many wins for the night.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/1bCeuUTJ/white#0
@Moztiger the winner of last weeks edition must have left his armour and complete arsenal at home for the night as he came a distant 8th position.
His Mozambican compatriot @Vvageiro couldn’t even make top 10.
@Skydeborov who complained to have had a busy day that imparted on his performance for the night could not make top 10 as well.
The End game
A very brilliant game of the night is @guntriga versus @lethalsaint.
In an elephant Gambit defence to the Kings Gambit, the ‘hunters’ trigger found the Elephant and there were fireworks on the board.
It was a 21 moves miniature.
Games Here:
https://lichess.org/znT7VGqI/white#41
This loss did not deter @ lethalsaint as he went ahead to make the top 10 after having his ‘revenge’ on the gun touting @guntriga.
Our guest finally made a cameo appearance towards the end of the event after playing earlier in a wrong tournament.
The man popularly known as AK47 in the continent quickly announced himself on the board at less than 30 minutes to go.
He couldn’t claim much scalps as time was limited and he was just familiarizing himself to the lichess platform as he had just registered on it less than an hour to the event.
His two loses of the night were against @skydeborov and @lethalsaint.
The loss to @Skydeborov is a very interesting game.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/KAYDvoXW/white#0
He ended his short sojourn with a 2512 Performance and had a 7/9 scores.
Enjoy one of his beautiful games of the night below.
https://lichess.org/kOZLBaeo/black
He promised to participate fully in future editions.
It was however IM@Odirovski who appeared too hot to be stopped.
His marauding Olympiad bound compatriot IM@Stuffings was 8 points short of catching up with him.
In the fashion he is known to claim his wins, immediately he took over the first Position, he didn’t let it go till the end of the event.
Congrats to king @Odirovski for raking in yet another important win in the elite arena.
Tournament Summary showed:
Average Rating: 2216
Games Played: 246
Moves Played: 20,912
White Wins: 43%
Black Wins: 51%
Draw: 7%
Berserk rate 16%
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 best performer of the night is FM@wanyaland with a 2650 Tournament Performance.
The FM who had a series of average performance in previous editions for the month was riding easy in the tournament until bad network struck him out.
The new inclusions in the top 10 are @grandmasterbomo the highest FIDE rated Nigerian Finishing in Fifth(5th) place, @Tehila finishing in the Seventh(7th) position, @Godov from Zimbabwe at 9th position and @ lethalsaint from Zambia at Tenth(10th) position round off the top 10.
@Godov was a very surprising inclusion in the top 10.
He worked hard to earn the top 10.
Enjoy below one of his games for the night.
Game Here: https://lichess.org/T0XfpVqm/white
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)
- Odirovski Nigeria 47 Points
- Stuffings Nigeria 39 Points
- Gupta Approach South Africa 33 Points
- Attrition Uganda 32 Points
- Grandmasterbomo Nigeria 29 Points
- Wanyaland Uganda 28 Points
- Tehilah Uknown 27 Points
- Moztiger Mozambique 27 Points
- Godov Zimbabwe 25 Points
10.Lethalsaint Zambia 25 Points
Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena Top Ten Standings as at Week 4
This tournament is proudly sponsored by Avantline Ltd a top Fashion design and consultancy firm based in Nigeria.