Posted in Olympiad, Tournaments on Sep 23rd, 2010 5 Comments »
Women’s Grandmaster Yana Melnikova wrote an essay titled, “Carlsen, Topalov? Kramnik?” It dealt with the awarding of Olympiad medals. She endorses the awarding of medals on total performance rating (TPR) and admits that it limits the pool primarily to the top players such as Carlsen, Topalov and Kramnik. This is correct because performance ratings are [...]
Posted in Europe, FIDE, Olympiad, Opinion/Editorials, Russia on Aug 28th, 2010 32 Comments »
The Chess Olympiad is less than one month away and there are continued grumblings about the logistical arrangements. One month ago there was a story about the venue in Khanty-Mansiysk still being under construction. There was also the revelation that the organizers may have chosen a venue unable to accommodate all the attendees. Israel Gelfer, [...]
Posted in Croatia, Europe, FIDE, Tournaments on Mar 10th, 2010 No Comments »
An interesting development is taking place at the European Individual Championships in Rijeka, Croatia. Participants in the tournament have shown their aversion to the “zero tolerance” rule which states that a player must be present when the round starts or suffer a forfeit. It was a matter of time before a protest would challenge the [...]
Posted in Africa, Egypt, Tactics Lab, Zambia on Sep 7th, 2009 8 Comments »
There was an interesting (albeit erroneous) document circulating on the Kenyan Chess Forum that was highlighted here yesterday. I removed the story after GM Amon Simutowe stated that it was simply one of many data entry errors in Libya. The report illustrated a game from the 2009 African Championships between Simutowe (Zambia) and IM Khaled [...]
Posted in USA on Aug 11th, 2009 7 Comments »
Controversy continues in American chess. GM Susan (Zsuzsa) Polgar and FM Paul Truong (who are married) have had their memberships revoked from the United States Chess Federation. This brings to a head the vitriolic media battle within America’s top chess brass. This action was apparently enacted by the USCF Executive Board in a special session. [...]
Posted in Africa, Libya on Jul 22nd, 2009 45 Comments »
We remember the visa problems suffered by African players for the 2008 Olympiad. There were a multitude of reasons that Africans were denied. These problems have surfaced at 2009 the African Individual Championships and the backlash has been voiced. The tournament is being held in Tripoli Libya without several of the continent’s strongest players. The [...]
Posted in Scholastic, Uganda, USA on Jan 18th, 2009 2 Comments »
Severine Wamala was convicted of several counts of rape in a highly-charged case last year that rocked Lowell, Massachusetts. The case pitted students at Lowell High School against Severine Wamala, a former mathematics teacher and respected chess organizer. Wamala had three children who were standout chess players… the two oldest were ranked near the top [...]
Posted in FIDE on Jan 13th, 2009 1 Comment »
All international organizations have tremendous challenges. One can look no further than the United Nations and their ongoing challenges of mediating conflict around the world. While FIDE is not an organization that is designed to resolve conflict, it has had a share of its own to deal with. It’s motto, “GENS UNA SUMUS” champions the [...]
Posted in Africa, Germany, Olympiad, Rwanda, Tournaments on Dec 6th, 2008 No Comments »
Rwanda, only fielding three players, also had visa problems and were not permitted to stay until the end of the Olympiad. It’s ironic that they mentioned the success of Uganda, a team fielding two players due to visa problems. Several other African nations reported visa problems. Other affected African nations were Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, [...]
Posted in Africa, Drum Majors, Nigeria, Olympiad on Nov 16th, 2008 3 Comments »
International Master Odion Aikhoje is celebrating the 10th year anniversary of his gold medal performance at the Elista Olympiad in 1998. This was a crowning achievement for Africa’s most populous nation, but Aikhoje had to leave before receiving the medal at the closing ceremony. What happened to his medal thereafter is the subject of fierce [...]
Posted in Africa, Germany, Olympiad, Uganda on Nov 15th, 2008 7 Comments »
Wanyama Harold (Uganda) After months of desparately trying to raise funds and attend the Olympiad, players on the Ugandan side are without visas to travel. Only two players have been able to secure a visa, but the team forfeited for failing to field 50% of the team. They have missed the first three rounds and [...]
Posted in Africa, Botswana, Germany, Olympiad on Nov 11th, 2008 No Comments »
Given that African federations raised the possibility of visa troubles in Germany at the 2004 FIDE General Assembly, the Dresden organizers should have forseen the current debacles. Botswana is the latest of African nations to have visa problems to attend the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany. The tournament starts tomorrow. The Chess Drum has [...]
Posted in Africa, Ethiopia, Olympiad on Nov 6th, 2008 18 Comments »
BREAKING NEWS!! Ethiopians denied visas for Olympiad! Kebadu Belachew has lobbied for the past four months for funding to send an Ethiopian contingent to the Chess Olympiad in Dresden. Initially, Ethiopia had been barred due to arrears in FIDE dues. After negotiating with FIDE, it was agreed that they would receive accommodations and be allowed [...]
Posted in Africa, Opinion/Editorials on Oct 24th, 2008 29 Comments »
In what appears to be an ongoing impasse between three African nations and FIDE Accounts Office, Bermuda’s Nigel Freeman (FIDE Treasurer) has written a letter to Olympiad organizer banning Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria from the event in Dresden. In general, nations failing to meet financial obligations to FIDE and have been barred from rating lists [...]
Posted in Drum Majors, Opinion/Editorials on Jul 9th, 2008 34 Comments »
Rene’ Phillips (left) blitzing with Sulaiman Smith in Atlanta. Photo by Frank Johnson (shootfilm.net). There are many controversies in chess. Lately the chess world has had to address a number of cheating allegations of players who have tried to take advantage of the system. These players are often barred, suspended or expelled. However, another question [...]
Posted in Africa, Uganda on Jan 24th, 2008 2 Comments »
Sande Bashaija & Lambert Rusoke, “Cash Crisis Hurts Chess ,” The Monitor, 3 January 2008 (Kampala, Uganda). There were some tremendous individual performances but financial hiccups continued to hinder the development of chess in 2007. The Uganda Chess Federation (UCF) was throughout the year rocked in a financial quagmire that saw national team players miss [...]
Posted in Europe, Spain, Tournaments, Videos on Jan 21st, 2008 9 Comments »
CONTROVERSY!! Bulgarian Grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov was initially forfeited for not shaking hands with England’s Nigel Short. Case Short came to the board, and with his opponent absent, he played the move 1.e4, and walked away. A few minutes later, Cheparinov came to the board, sat down, and played 1…c5. As Short came over, and held [...]
Posted in Africa, Uganda, USA on Aug 22nd, 2007 15 Comments »
Disclaimer: The Chess Drum takes no position of guilt or innocence against Severine Wamala. Last September, a disturbing story broke about the arrest of Severine Wamala on counts of incest and rape while serving as a math teacher at Lowell High School. Three young women have confessed that Wamala had repeated sexually assaulted them. It [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Opinion/Editorials, The Chess Drum on Jul 14th, 2007 44 Comments »
Back in June, I had an exchange with International Master Javier Gil, the creator of the website, Chessnia.com. I first visited this site in 2001 and remember writing him to ask if he would consider changing the fluorescent blue background of his site. He had interesting content, but it was very difficult to read for a long [...]
Posted in Africa, Kenya, Tournaments on Jul 13th, 2007 4 Comments »
Kenyan ace, Ben Magana I have found a story on the Kenyan team and their strategy to field their boards in reverse order… from weakest to strongest. This is sometimes called “stacking” your boards. The idea is that the lower boards will be sure points and anything the top board can get will be a [...]
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