Nigeria to host Olympiad trials

Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) last week, departed from its traditional selection trial process following the directive that all state chess associations must organize a tournament to select three male and female chess players that will converge on Lagos for the national trial to select the team that will represent the country at the next World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia.

The 39th edition of the competition will hold from 19th September till October 4th next year and the NCF is planning to raise a formidable team to the event and believed it can be justified if all the states organize their respective trial and present the qualified candidates for the Lagos final meet.

“We want to encourage all the zonal representatives on the board of NCF to go out there and look for sponsors and later organize the trial in their respective zones just as we want to bring the best out of the players,” DCP Sani Mohammed the chess boss revealed.

L-R: Akinola Abidemi (Nigeria), Dr. Omar Esau (South Africa), Sani Mohammad (Nigeria), Dr. Daaim Shabazz (USA), Andolo Ambasi (Kenya) at the African Continental Meeting at the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

He directed that all the states are expected to conclude the trials on or before 31st December this year while the Technical Committee of the federation will take the players from there and organize a flawless trial in two stages in Lagos before the end of second quarter next year.

“The federation is looking forward to having he final selection of the players that will attend the world meet in Siberia next year at least three months before the event instead of series of problems that always befall the federation’s preparations before departure.

Any state that failed to comply with the directive will have itself to blame and this explains why we have sent letters to all the stakeholders well in time before the December date.

The federation has a lot of events next year and the trials to select players that will represent Nigeria is very important and the earlier we start the better for the good of the game,” Mohammed said.

Nigeria participated at the last edition in Dresden, Germany where the male team won zonal silver medals, the same feat the female team achieved in Turin, Italy in 2006.

Source: https://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=159452

Nigeria vs. Netherlands Antilles. (L-R) Benjamin Omorere, Adebayo Adegboyega, Bomo Kigigha, Charles Campbell. Adegboyega is facing Fabio Mensing and Kigigha is facing Sherman Maduro. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.