Nigeria's pairing system for tournaments is under heavy fire!

The Nigerian Chess Federation has been advised to revise its method for pairing players in national chess tournaments.  The NCF currently uses the Swiss system currently being criticized for not producing the best players at the tournament's end. Joachim Idada, President of the Fiji Chess Club in Nigeria says, "The Swiss format is fraught with defects. One of these is that the players do not all get to play themselves and the best player may get eliminated early in the championship for one reason or the other." Idada advises that the NCF adopt the Round Robin, a format primarily used in Closed Championships.

Certainly, one would agree that stronger players are better off playing other strong players, but the question remains … if a player does not consistently emerge at the top of the heap (in ANY system), is that player really the best player? It is opined that the adoption of the Round Robin will make Nigerian champions more competitive with African chess powers like Egypt. Idada says that until the current system is replaced, "our chess  champions will never achieve success internationally." For a certainty, Nigerian Masters around the world will have a lot to say about this.

"Latest Chess News out of Nigeria," (posted 3 November 2001) by The Chess Drum.

Posted by The Chess Drum: 10 January 2002