2010 Olympiad: Round 4, Ghana 0.5-3.5 Nigeria

Round 4 was a local derby between Ghana and it´s West African counterpart, Nigeria. Historically, Nigeria has had a stronger chess team than Ghana. Team Ghana was however hoping to turn the tables around with the presence of Anquandah and Thompson still in the team. At the end though, Ghana lost to Nigeria 0.5-3.5.

Anquandah, Francis Eric - Ajibola, Olanrewaju, 0-1
The Queens came off the board as early as move 12 and from then on it was Ajibola´s greater piece activity versus Anquandah´s better pawn structure.

Ajibowo, Olamide - Thompson, Edward Nii Lamp, 1-0
It was a Ruy Lopez, Steinitz variation. Thompson had winning chances after Ajibowo´s exchange sac on move 27. After more piece sacrifices by Ajibowo, Thompson was up a full Rook but with some defending to do. After a blunder on move 45 Thompson had a bad position.

Kojo Bempa Bonsu - Kigigha, Inimo, 0-1
Kigigha had firm control of the central squares and good positions for his pieces after the opening phase of the game and after an exchange sac on move 25, he had an attack going against Kojo´s King.

Campbell, Charles – Kees, 0.5-0.5
This was a hard fought draw where Kees equalized easily and had better piece activity. A series of exchanges in the middle game occurred afterwards resulting in an endgame of Rook and Knight versus Rook and Bishop.

Ghana plays San Marino in Round 5.

2010 Olympiad: Round 3

Team Ghana couldn´t sustain their improved performance in round 2 as they lost 3.5 - 0.5 to Thailand. In this round "Player of the Day" for round 2, Kojo Bonsu, was rested. Nii Koney played instead.

Pornariyasombat, Atippat - Anquandah, Francis Eric, 1 – 0,
Anquandah isn´t having a particularly good tournament, losing for the third time in a row. However playing on board one is tough and Team Ghana most hope that he picks up some winning luck. In this round a lot of credit must be given to his opponent who sac´d a Queen for a Rook and Bishop. With an impending material loss Anquandah resigned.

Teerapabpaisit, Wisuwat – Thompson, 1-0
Thompson also lost in his favourite opening, the Pirc Defense. After a couple of blunders right from move 12, he was down 2 pawns. His opponent was able to set his pawn majority on the Queenside rolling and Thompson resigned.

Nii Koney - Kongsee, Uaychai, 0-1
It was a Closed Sicilian where Nii´s opponent easily equalized and obtained a better position with good as early as move 10. Black had better piece placement and a firm control of the centre with pawns. In the middle game Nii´s position looked very bad with all his pieces pushed to the bank rank. After a few blunders he was down the exchange and resigned on move 38.

Kees - Tuamsang, Sawapop, 0.5-0-5
This was a Sicilian Dragon and although Kees had a slight advantage in space there wasn´t much to fight for after Queens were traded. In a bishop-of-opposite-colour ending with equal number of pawns the game was drawn after 43 moves.

Ghana plays Nigeria in Round 4 on Friday, 24 September. Good luck, guys!

Picture gallery

Ready for battle...Round 3

Francis Anquandah

Nii Koney

Eddie Thompson

2010 Olympiad: Round 2

After their first round loss, Team Ghana finished round 2 with an improved performance, drawing 2-2 with Mauritius

Anquandah - Phillips, Roy Jean-Noel, 0 - 1
It wasn´t difficult for Black to equalize after the opening. Black actually had an easy development and obtained a better position in terms of space and position of pieces. As a result was able to put pressure on White´s isolated pawn which eventually fell. Later Black created a passed pawn and won.

Chinasamy, Devarajen – Thompson, 1 - 0
Thompson showed his knowledge of openings when he played the Black side of the Two Knights Defence: Max Lange Attack. However in the middle game he fell to tactics due to his weak back rank.

Kojo Bonsu - Seegolam, Pradeep, 1 - 0
The game of the round for Team Ghana. In a King´s Indian with opposite side castling, Black had to move his K to the centre for safetly, however Kojo was able to find a way to the Black King with pawn sacs and some fine tactics. Great game Kojo!!

Marie, Patrick - Hoogendijk, Cornelis Will, 0 - 1

Kees gave Team Ghana the second win of the day playing his beloved Scandinavian Defense. Kees obtained a good position right after the opening with well coordinated pieces, a castled King and a lead in development. It wasn´t long in coming when his opponent blundered a Knight away and resigned a few moves later.

Picture gallery

The second round against Mauritius

Team Ghana

2010 Olympiad starts: Ghana lose to Montenegro 0-4 in Round 1

The 2010 Chess Olympiad takes place from September 21st to October 3rd in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It is an 11-round Swiss System team event, in which each team has four players with one reserve. There are a total of 143 nations, with 1294 competitors of which 797 are titled. Of the titled players there are about 254 grandmasters, 65 WGMs, 159 IMs, and 90 WIMs. 34 players are rated 2700 or more, and 117 are rated at least 2600.

The official opening ceremony of the Olympiad took place late Monday evening in Complex “Arena Ugra” of Khanty-Mansiysk. As part of the ceremony there were national dances and a live chess game played on a huge chess board with people as pieces. This was an enactment of the Anderson - Kizeritsky game.

Round 1:

In round one Ghana lost 0-4 to Montenegro. Anquandah - Djukic was a Pirc game where Djukic (Black) was able to equalize easily. In the end game where Anquadah was down a pawn his Knight got trapped and was captured. In Kosic - Koney, Black had the Modern Benoni Defense setup but after a few blunders was down a piece and lost.

Thompson - Drasko was a Nimzo-Indian. In this game Black equalized fairly easily. Thompson went down two pawns in the endgame and resigned. The second Modern Benoni Defense of the day was played by Kojo Bonsu in his game against Blagojevic. In the standard position, Kojo strangely moved his Knights back and forth and allowed his opponent to gain space and good positions for his pieces. Eventually Black´s position was overrun. At move 30 it was White to play and mate in 3.

                        Results

Tomorrow (22/09/2010) Ghana plays Mauritius in Round 2. Best of luck, guys!!

Pictures from the Opening ceremony

Peter Nsiah wins "May" Open

The tournament was held at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra on the 5th of June, 2010 with over 30 players participating. The 6 round G/30 tournament was held in two divisions, A and B, and it´s one of the tournaments that would be used to select players to make up the Ghana Team for the Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk this year.

At the end, Peter Nsiah took first place with 5/6, Kojo Hasford and Ernesto Baro shared second to third place with 4.5/6. Check out the final standings and some photos below.

Final Standings:

Place  Name                   Score

  1   ANANE-NSIAH, PETER       5

 2-3  HASFORD, KOJO            4.5

      BARO, ERNESTO            4.5

 4-8  BUSUMTWI, KOFI           4   

      THOMPSON, EDDIE          4   

      LAMP, PASTOR             4       

      OTOO, EMMANUEL           4       

      WINFUL, FRANCIS          4      

9-10  COLEMAN, VITALY          3.5    

      NKRUMAN, SEKOU           3.5    

11-16 ASHAGBLEY, VICTOR        3      

      ADI, WILLIAM             3      

      AMANOR, MICHAEL          3      

      KONEY, NII KONEY-KWAKU   3      

      GABAH, RICHARD           3      

      SAAKA, BOLINA            3       

 17   SAAKA, FELIX             2.5     

18-21 AHADZIE, EMMA            2      

      SOSU, EDWARD             2      

      MILLS PAPOE, AARON       2      

      ODIAKA, EMEKE            2      

 22   ADJEI, MICHAEL           1.5   

 23   ABBEY, OGUNLEYE          1     

 24   NUAMAH, FRANK            0       

Picture gallery

 

The playing hall at the Ohene Djan Stadium

 Kojo Hasford (Left) battling it out with Eddie Thompson; 

was it a KID discussion?

The controversial game of the tournament: 

Sekou Nkrumah vs Vitaly Coleman (right)

Tournamenet winner, Peter Nsiah playing with Black vs Ernesto Baro

 Nii Koney (right), one of the promising players of Ghana chess 

plays it out with Edward Sosu in round 6

African Regent Championship

On the 10th of April, 2010, the Ghana Chess Association organized a chess tournament at the African Regent Hotel in Accra. Over forty (40) players participated in the seven round, G/30 event. At the end of the tournament, Francis Anquandah came in first after winning the tie-break against Edward Thompson. Both players scored 6/7 after 7 rounds. Peter Nsiah came in 3rd with 5.5/7.

Final standings:

Place       Name                                                                                           Score

 1-2  Anquandah, Francis                      6      

      Thompson, Edward                        6     

  3   Anane, Nsiah                            5.5   

 4-6  Barro, Ernesto                          5     

      Ashagbley, Victor                       5     

      Kidi, Charles                           5     

7-13  Winful, Francis                         4.5   

      Konney, Nii                             4.5   

      Busumtwi, Billy                         4.5   

      Nkrumah, Sekou                          4.5   

      Hasford, Kojo                           4.5   

      Bonsu, Kojo                             4.5   

      Lamp, Pastor Shepered                   4.5   

14-20 Otoo, Emmanuel                          4     

      Mills Pappoe, Ogidigidi                 4     

      Lawrence, Peter                         4     

      Seye, Passawey                          4     

      Amano, Michael                          4     

      Adjei, Michael                          4       

      Sosu, Emmanuel                          4       

21-22 Coleman, Vitally                        3.5     

      Sekyere, Kwame                          3.5     

23-30 Mills Pappoe, Benjamin                  3       

      Gabah, Richard                          3       

      Ackun, Henry Mensah                     3       

      Vanguet, Paulina                        3       

      Amewounou, Jack                         3       

      Abeasi, Isaac                           3       

      Adusei, Ben                             3       

      Dongo, Henri                            3       

31-38 Adiepena, Charles                       2       

      Nantoh, Issmaila Armed                  2       

      Gardesey, Mark                          2       

      Acheampong, David                       2       

      Sannie, Allahiji Mohammed               2       

      Adomako, Kwame                          2       

      Ahaji, Emmanuel                         2       

      Allotey, Dorcas                         2       

39-41 Brown, Alex                             1       

      Ayiku, Angela                           1       

      Agyeinyo, Marian                        1       

Picture gallery

 

Tournament winner Francis Anquandah talking to e.tv Ghana

 Edward Thompson (right) came in second place

3rd place finish, Peter Nsiah (right) playing Ernesto Barro

Players busy with their games in the playing hall

Up and coming players...