IM Essam El-Gindy takes African Crown!

With a record 15 International Masters and five FIDE Masters in the Men's competition, Africa's best squared off for the five berths in the World Championship cycle and a total of $30,000 in prizes. If there were any doubts about the strength of the Egyptian players, they were silenced over the course of the All-Africa Games.

Egypt's  IM Essam El-Gindy, who was part of the gold medal Egyptian team, bested the field of 50 players with 7½/9 and took the individual gold medal. The other qualifiers will be: silver medal winner, IM Ahmed Adly (Egypt), bronze medal winner, IM Amon Simutowe (Zambia), FM Kenny Solomon (South Africa) and Arab Adlane (Algeria). All scored 6½ points.  El-Gindy will get a GM norm for his performance while both Solomon and Adlane may have qualified for the IM title.

FIDE Continental President Nizar ElHaj with winner IM Essam El-Gindy. Photo courtesy of FIDE.

In the woman's competition, Algeria's WIM Farida Arouche scored 7/9 for the gold; South Africa's WIM Cecile Van der Merwe scored 6½-2½ for the silver; Algeria's WIM Houli Asma was on 6-3 which won the bronze.  A solid performance was turned in by Nigeria's Tobi Olutunji in her 1st international tournament with 6-3.

Posted by The Chess Drum: 19 October 2003