2007 World Cup Chess has begun!
Angola’s Pedro Aderito facing the Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk on board #1. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Alexander Filippenko (governor of Khanty-Mansiysk) make the ceremonial first move.
The World Cup Chess Championship has begun and the African contingent has fought valiantly but have bowed out. Only Essam El-Gindy could break into the win column with a win over Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov. World Junior Champion Ahmed Adly held Gata Kamsky in the first game, but lost the second.
Ahmed Adly (right) playing against Gata Kamsky
It is time that African players begin to make a stronger presence and advance to the second round. I believe El-Gindy’s win may be the first since South Africa’s Watu Kobese beat Peter Leko some years ago.
Official Site: https://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/main_e.htm
Drum: https://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2007/NB_WorldCup07.html
The african players are starting to prove their worth, i belive this is a sign of things to come in the future. With Simutowe gaining his GM title soon and Robert Gwaze probaly on his way too, sub saharan africa chess has never been brighter. Now to add the icing on the cake Amed ‘madly’ Adly is world junior champion!
The Egyptians have proved their strength with GM Bassem making light work of the strong panomirov and Adly drawing an opponent 270 points elo ratings higher!?
Angola’s pedro the lowest rated player in the tournament was given the true baptisim of fire when he was paired in board 1 aganaist the newly minted world blitz champion V. Ivanchuk.
Congragulations to you all.
Wow thanks once again brother Shabazz for providind great coverage on some of theses young African players vs the higher rated competitors! This ” Shuffle Chess” that you speak of from Aderito vs Ivanchuk i believe is a cause of the current form of chess being a bit more difficult for theses young African to grasp strategically, theses slower restrictive methods of the hypermoderns! From an Ultramodern perspective it is like asking Michael Jordan to go back to the 1960s and play bastketball ” below the rim “, Of course that would be difficult for him to do because it goes against what is natural for him to do! (I.E. Above the Rim!) LOoking forward to 2008 when theses young people can compete and evolve with their own form of chess thats is Ultramodern. Peace.
African chess is improving brothers, it is evident in the results. Other than Aderito from Angola, a formidable performance was put up by some individuals though the overall result was bad. The African individual championship 2007 winner Gwaze ,who carried most of the hopes went through some middlegame complexities in game one with shirov only to loose ,though his performance was a little lucking . Adly is my hero .He did give a good account of himself in game one with Gata kamsky this showed this young Egyptian has a good understading of chess and might carry many African hopes in the near future. The man of the moment was El-Gindy , whose style of exercising great patience in equal positions paid off when ponomariov blundered,giving mother Africa a respectable lead and real hopes of advancing to round two though this didn’t happen.
The overall play during these games shows animprovement in the game of these young Africn men and here in Kampala,Uganda i welcome the result.
Look guys, lets face it. Africa is simply not good enough to play against the BIG players. We will always be satisfied with maybe getting a lucky draw or a lucky win now and again. It will probably take another 100 years or more before someone from Africa can actually challenge the world’s best. Sorry that I sound so negative but that is the truth.
Hello chess brothers my predictions concerning African growth happen to be a bit more in the here and now so i will offer the idea that we will subdue the “BIG PLAYERS” in 2008 . Our Ultramodern Strategy vs their traditional ideas and to be completely honest with you all 20- 100 years is absurd at best!When have u know Africans to take so long in anything, haha! PEACE. 😆