Event: Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena, 2018
Time Control: 3+0
Duration: 90 Minutes
Venue: Lichess.org
Winner: Mr Adebowale Omosebi (Skydeborov)
Points: 39
Date: 1st July, 2018.
Tournament Link: https://lichess.org/tournament/Qm5pNnH9
Numbers of Participants: 33 Players, Over 11 Titled Players.

With Africa Elite Arena Morphed into Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena, Africa was eagerly awaiting the Sparks that will be ignited by Africa’s Elite players.
True to the hype, it was Chatalona (Fire) on the board.

The Opening
IM Odion Aikhoje (@Odirovski) of Nigeria drew the first blood by beating FM Douglas Munenga (@endgamegenious) of Zambia to set the tone of the event, on a night when Africa Elites came out for intellectual war.

In a London system opening by @Odirovski, against @endgamegenious, it took 28 strong moves from both players to determine the eventual winner. And after the ensuing melee, it was IM Odion who triumphed.
Game Here:

<iframe src="https://lichess.org/embed/oJ0rL2vC?theme=auto&bg=auto"
width=600 height=397 frameborder=0></iframe>

The Middle Game
Keith Khumalo (@Gupta_approach), is the super fast South African Chess Prodigy, who had been showing huge development, struggled at the beginning of the tournament, due to what he claimed to be an unfavorable internet connection. But he rallied round to finish in the top ten (10).
A way to announce that he is the kid to watch out for in the South African Chess Industry.

In no time, FM Daniel Anwuli (@adminbrucefan) and Omosebi Adebowale (@skydeborov) came charging from the rear, consuming everything in their path.
But the ever resolute @odirovski and @endgamegenious will not allow them to get an easy ride, as they continued to exchange batons as to who would creep in on the duo, but were unable to catch up with the speed and berserk of the speedsters.

A surprise claimant to the top five (5), is the resurgent Olympiad veteran from Nigeria, CM Charles Campbell (@candychessmaster). All the way from the United State of America, where he is currently studying, the Scholar kept throwing ‘candies’ at his opponents and they fell for the ‘poison’ laced freebies. Step by step, the Candidate Masters rose to the top rank.
Candidate Master (CM) Donaldo Paiva (@Moztiger), the top ranked Mozambican also made a good showing at the tournament. In a win some, lose some situation, the CM picked his winnings right and finished in the top ten (10) as a reward.

Another brilliant performance experienced on the night, was from the Mozambican Under 16 top rated player Vasco Viageiro. The fifteen (15) year old made a great showing against some of the top rated players on the night to book a place among the top ten (10), one spot above his compatriot on the night.

In his trail, were winnings against @odirovski, @adminbrucefan and @gupta_approach. A good way to announce his presence at the Grand Prix.

International Master (IM) Femi Balogun (@stuffings), who is the Online Blitz shy, Kings Indian Defence (KID) and Pirc exponent, announced his new found love for speed, as he cast aside five (5) back to back loses, which he experienced earlier in the tournament, to pick up the same number of winning streak. A show of the strength availed him by Grandmaster (GM) Magnus Carlsen, the world best chess player, when the two played last year, after they were paired at the Chess World Cup Tournament.

FM Harold Wanyama (@wanyaland), the King from the Eastern Africa could not find his right footings on the night, as he finished at a distant 10th place, but Kudos should be given to the ‘power horse’ from Uganda, as he got over some lackluster performances at the start of the tournament to make his claim on the top ten (10), when all odds were stacked against him. A true show of Class.

The End Game
It was a ding-dong affair at the tail end of the tournament. @Odirovski led for the earlier part of the tournament, after which @Gupta_approach took the baton briefly, then passed it to @adminbrucefan, who finally had to tussle with @skydeborov for a while, until @skydeborov edged him out and stole the show.

The top five (5) contenders had to resort to berserking towards the end, to lay any form of claim to the throne, but not only was speed required, accuracy and precision was also a great tool.

For those unfamiliar with the term, beserk mode is when a player clicks the Berserk button at the beginning of the game, they lose half of their clock time, but the win is worth one extra tournament point.

Going Berserk in time controls with an increment also cancels the increment. (1+2 is an exception, it gives 1+0)

Berserk is not available for games with zero initial time (0+1, 0+2).

Berserk only grants an extra point if you play at least 7 moves in the game.

 

Before the cock could crow in Africa, our Elite chess men had left the gladiator arena with unsettled dust of winnings and ‘blood’ of their hapless opponents begging for mercy.
Congrats to King Skydeborov for adding yet another crown to his head.

Tournament Summary showed:
Average Rating: 2216
Games Played: 200
Moves Played: 16,518
White Wins: 45%
Black Wins: 52%
Draw: 4%
Berserk rate 7%
The Above summary shows that more chess players are now discovering the fact that “defence (black) is the best form of attack”, as the players won more games with the black pieces than with the white pieces.

At Africa Chess we are working hard to see the next edition become even tougher and exciting with addition of African Grandmasters and Top Players around the continent. The Africa Elite Grand Prix holds every Sunday, and the scores accumulated by each player would be added together at the end of the month, to determine the top three (3) players who will receive our prizes for the month, proudly brought to us by our Partner: Avantiline Design Limited

Below is the list of the top ten (10) finishers of the tournament and the countries they represent:
Africa Elite Grand Prix Arena:

The Top Ten (10)

1. Skydeborov Nigeria 39 Points
2. Adminbrucefan Nigeria 37 Points
3. Endgamegenious Zambia 32 Points
4. CM CandychessMaster Nigeria 31 Points
5. Odirovski Nigeria 31 Points
6. Gupta_Approach South Africa 30 Points
7. Stuffings Nigeria 26 Points
8. Vviageiro Mozambique 25 Points
9. Moztiger – Mozambique 23 Points
   10.Wanyaland Uganda 18 Points