Month: July 2019
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The Chess Drum
2019 African Championships: Round #6
Round #6:Amin on a roll, crushes Fawzy… Adly back in the huntShrook devastating field, 6/6 OPEN Another exciting round of chess. Three of the top seeds are back on course and are sitting atop the field with 5/6. The situation may favor Ahmed Adly since he has already played three…
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Africa
2019 African Championships: Round #5
Round #5:Amin beats Adly moves back into joint first… Shrook Wafa on 5/5 OPEN GM Hesham Abdelrahman has exited the tournament after five rounds. The 2016 African Champion suffered three losses and one can only imagine that something is not well with the Egyptian player. Takaedza Chipanga of Zimbabwe also…
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The Chess Drum
2019 African Championships: Round #4
Round #4:Adly and Shrook win… both lead the field on 4/4 OPEN Tunisia is sizzling right now. It is not the heat of the weather, but it is the action at Hotel Caribbean. After the top seed went down yesterday, the player who beat lost to Ahmed Adly leaving him…
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Opinion/Editorials
Is there still magic at the World Open?
The World Open has been a fixture in the American chess circuit for 47 editions. Bill Goichberg and his staff have turned it into a franchise, and it remains a big draw. The tournament routinely draws 1000+ players from around the world hence the tournament’s name. There was always an…
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The Chess Drum
2019 African Championships: Round #3
Round #3:Tournament heats up… top seed Bassem Amin goes down! OPEN It was “Fire on Board” at the 2019 African Championships as the top two boards saw titanic struggles lead to decisive results. Amin-Ballahcene and Hamdouchi-Adly represented three different generations of chess. GM Bassem Amin battling upstart GM Bilel BallahcenePhoto…
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The Chess Drum
2019 African Championships: Round #2
Round #2:Tense battles in Open Section… Lorita Mwango breaks through! OPEN One of the truths about African chess is you never really know how strong a player from the continent is. The idea that Africans play in so few international tournaments is lost on the fact that the continent is…
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The Chess Drum
2019 African Championships: Round #1
Round #1: Tournament starts off with a few nicks Venue for the 2019 African Individual Chess Championships OPEN In general the top seeds prevailed… except for one result. IM Rodwell Makoto got a taste of home cooking with a loss to an unheralded Tunisian Jmila Omar. Nevertheless, it is a…
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The Chess Drum
2019 African Individual Championships (Tunis, Tunisia)
This has been an outstanding year for African chess thus far. With successful subzonals held, new zone format and the groundbreaking Grand Chess Tour held in Abidjan, there is hope that this just may be the “African Century.” The momentum continues in Tunis, Tunisia where the 2019 African Individual is…
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The Chess Drum
Le Quang Liem edges Xiong at 2019 World Open!
The 47th World Open ended in an exciting tiebreak with Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem winning over Jeffery Xiong. Both ended the tournament with a sterling 7.5/9. Five players following on 7/9 were: GMs Hrant Melkumyan, Ray Robson, Aleksandr Lenderman, Saven Andirasian and Fidel Corrales Jimenez. More than 1000 players trekked…
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The Chess Drum
2019 Grand Chess Tour (Zagreb, Croatia)
After the history Rapid and Blitz tournament in Abidjan, the Grand Chess Tour moves to another new city in Zagreb, Croatia. Chess historians may remember the town being host to a number of important tournaments including the 1959 Candidates. Sixty years later, the elite assemble again for the second event…
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