Africans wracked by visa problems… again!
We remember the visa problems suffered by African players for the 2008 Olympiad. There were a multitude of reasons that Africans were denied. These problems have surfaced at 2009 the African Individual Championships and the backlash has been voiced.
The tournament is being held in Tripoli Libya without several of the continent’s strongest players. The breaking news is that several players have been denied entry because of passport technicalities. Defending champion Robert Gwaze of Zimbabwe (pictured right) is one of them.
In one case, two players from Angola (IM Pedro Aderito and FM Erikson Soares) were traveling from South Africa to Libya with GM Amon Simutowe. They had gotten a flight to Libya to Dubai, but when they arrived in Libya they did not have the passport translated into Arabic as was requested in the official invitation. It appears that some players did not fulfill this requirement. All the visas had been approved initially. Simutowe had the paperwork and was admitted through customs.
i was out waiting for them to come out…only to hear they had been sent back..initial word was that they would fly up to dubai then fly back…but it turns out the situation was worse than that…
Jackie Ngubeni then posted to The Chess Drum that the two players were back in South Africa at a hotel and would miss the championship. Defending champion IM Robert Gwaze of Zimbabwe was also unable to get a visa, but the reasons for his denial are unknown. So both Gwaze (champion) and Aderito (2nd) will not make this year’s championship.
The tournament is entering its second day of action. More details are forthcoming.
I wonder why Daaim you seem to be stressing about all this,we all know the situation with organisation in F.IDE and African Federations don’t we ? Whats new here?This is normal in Africa ,life goes on .Honestlt I expected this and more.We been here before many many times.
Just doing a lookup to see if in the previous WOrld knock-out world championship in Tripoli, Libya anyone faced problem so far got this
https://www.pocketfritz.de/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2566
Thank you for the info Daaim At least a debate about next venue for next African Champs can start and the participants consulted before maybe ?! in advance or i am just dreaming?!
Yes maybe Amon Simutowe will be OUR CHESS “OBAMA” if you get what i mean !?
Afropessimism? Church!
What kind of f___ed up championship is this? Half of the participants can’t play, there is no website, no games, no results,…
And this is supposed to be continental championship???
Do the organizers think that they are playing only for them???
Funny that I could only find results for women’s championship, but not for the men’s
https://chess-results.com/tnr23976.aspx?art=4&lan=1&m=-1&wi=1000
How can the defending champion not participate in this edition of the African individuals?? has this ever happened? Its sad we shall miss gwazes chess at these games…. and yet again Visa denial shows its ugly head…I must say that the invitations were sent late and I personally gave up on attending (4 Uganda)after just 1 week of trying… Kawuma Steven also couldnt make it but that was because of visa denial.. Its almost like getting a visa to the states!
WAMYAMA ACCEPT MY 6MIN CHALLENGE ON PLAYCHESS
You can’t expect players to play well with such nagging issues on their minds….GM Amon Simutowe has time and again “wrestled” with the Chess federation of Zambia and other relevant authorities for not reimbursing him..The guy pays for all his expenses!…It’s been rough for you Amon but good luck with the games…Too bad for Gwaze and the rest that couldn’t part of this showpiece I always look forward to every year….
Could players not well in advanced apply for visas and all such stuff? I would have thought that each country’s official chess body would help/support the players? or am I a bit “miss-informed” about how things are done? That’s just my logical mind, I might sound a bit silly…but that’s what I would think those people are there for too – to take care of their players?
too bad for africa’s chess
No. It’s very untypical. They don’t have a website, fine – but how hard is it to publish the results and a crosstabble ANYWHERE.
Arbiters take a copy of a scoresheet where players record the game. They have it. And I believe they have to send it to FIDE after the tournament is finished. No classical game can ever be “lost”.
Even if there is no live transmission, we would be content if we got the games with a 2 or 3 day delay, which could be easely done.
This one is mind-bogling. Results from tournaments that normally use Swiss Manager are sent to this server. So they are either using a different pairing program (very unlikely) for men’s competition or the organisers/arbiters are so incompetent (very likely) that they “forgot” to send it.
I’m curious to see whether women’s competition will be updated at daily basis or not.
I disagree.
Afterall this is a continental championship and a qualifier for the World Cup – in short – it is the most important tournament in Africa that only happens every two years.
What did organisers do for this tournament? From what I see they’ve done absolutely nothing. They made no atempts to present this tournament to public (do you know that these blog is the only site that has ANY information on this tournament?)
And believe me I know, because I followed/am following ALL the continental and zonal tournament that are part of this world championship cycle. Before this, I had most troubles finding information on the 3.1 zonal and I’m still uncertain thether Al Sayed or Al Modiahki qualified (they had the same score). I saw some report said that Al Modiahki qualified, but this is very unofficial, since that report only mentions it (no mentions on the official tie-breaker or anything).
So I thought I already reached the low point with 3.1 zone, but now this. A continental championship and I even don’t know who is playing, not to mention the current ranking or even games (I already gave up on ever seeing them).
That would be great.
Finally some results:
https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/african-individual-chess-tournament-2009/
hi Daaim,
What about faxing scoresheets/scanning it, sending if off to sites to publish results…just my thoughts. I know this is not a very professional way to do it, but if there’s a problem with internetconnection, then there are always other ways to get things done. Even a telephone. Still no results of the men at this stage, very sad.
Deskpro just seen ur reply… Wats ur username on playchess and when are u usually on?
People should simply get over this .Its very normal when you allocate Federation posts to people who don’t care about Chess .This is simply what they do .if any professional players in Africa are reading this ,its simple ,stop whinging and get in there yourselves or you will get abused until your soul cannot take it anymore.
The solution is simple ,players should run the Federations themselves because nobody else cares about them .Do you honestly think a President of Angolan Chess would care if Aderito Pedro is starving??Ok Azmai and Makro are at least GM.s themselves.Ever wondered why patzers like Omuku,Dabilani and Ncube hang around Chess?? of coz the money and small incentives!!
I love the Jamaican Federation where the players hold posts themselves like Shane Matthews,Elliot Warren ,nobody pushes them around and decisions are made collectively . Why should people give responsibility to non responsive reptilians to run something their lives depend on??
See results of General section here:
https://www.chess-results.com/tnr24026.aspx?art=0&lan=1&fed=ALG&m=-1&wi=1000
Darren you are so correct concerning your comments about chess players concerning chess.
There is nothing complex about that Daaim ,if Sunye Neto,Azmai ,Joel Lautier,Tregubov etc can do it ,looks very possible,I know of a Polish GM who does the same .Anything else is better than placing your destiny in hands of someone who does not care especially if you are a professional.
The patzer organisers have taken a speciality these days in “Organizing” tournaments week in week out from extortation like entry fees .This is not helping the Chess World.Its ultimately to the players themselves to shape their destiny than whinge over and over again.
Daaim what you have exactly are a bunch of selfish people.I know countless GMs and IMs who are occupied with small hustles ,i.e blogging rubbish and printing worthless paperbacks.The majority are even prepared to hussle for a prize fund as little as $400 with amateurs .Imagine what would happen if they would come together try take Chess on Tv ,set up sponsorship committe.es than try “professionalism” in small hustles that ultimately go nowhere.As long as they trust anybody especially “patzer organisers” ,nothing will come out and their poor souls will even be more sorry. You forget to mention Yacizi narrowly won last time against player power.Azmai and Joel see sense and play only where its worth it not small hustles.Nigel Short tried a bit in Commonwealth and lost in ECF ,an example of a player trying to do something.You keep referring to this Abiye case and keep on ranting on this sham event in Libya where costs run over $2000 for players chasing in case of women something like $2500 .You just do not get it .We are discouraging these kind of shams yet you keep insisting on people to participate.I am sure blogging from the comfort of Florida you can be excused for not knowing how it feels to leave your Children (if you got any at all) hungry chasing a prize fund that does not cover travelling expenses ,something you keep referring to as “sacrifice”.I bet you could make one of these “organisers” anytime.
Daaim I would not want to delve into the personal lives of these players but as Jackie Ngubeni wrote about the dejection on the players’ faces when he broke down the expenses ,the whole story is obvious .To cut a long story short ,there is a thin line between sacrifice and foolhardy .
Daaim & Darren
I read your comments with great interest and believe that somehow, by debating the issue around Chess moving forward, you are touching on pivotal issues that require rigorour addressing. In fact, since I know many of the African players personally, some even when they were literally boys, and has had an impact on their current chess and or otherwise being, I am excited by your verbatim tussles. However please disist from attacking each other personally. You will then fail the incredible moment you unwittingly stumbled upon; i.e. DRUMMING-UP POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO WHAT’S HOLDING BACK THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHESS. In fact Darren, you really are passionate about us moving forward. You truly excite me and make me believe that there is hope! Albeit in a no nonsense approach. Just don’t get carried away into personal domains, hammer the point relentlessly! I see this as not pointing a finger at Daaim, I can imagine some people being uncomfortable with what you say in places you may not expect!I have spent the last 15 years delving into this Game. In my humble opinion you both are raising important issues that have readily been swept under the rug. The Libyan imbroglio is indelible through-out all developing countries. No reporting, no games, no pictures, and yet we wish that the sport be sponsored and progress be made. The problems we experience in hosting this important event for this besieged continent, a continent riddled with corruption and mismanagement from a political perspective, is emblematic of just how difficult it is to play chess and hope to make a living out of it. Thus think about then how a person like IM. Kobese feels when faced with all this brohaha, looks back at his teen age where he was a straight A top student, who made a wrong detour persuing chess when his less intellectually gifted peers went on to “make it” in the “normal” world? The challenge is similar to other erstwhile obscure sports or persuations that emerged to take center stage and made those who sacrificed deservedly heroes. I am a believer that because of the lack of recognition for this heroes, we are destroying the future of this sport. One thing is crystal clear, The current bunch of ACU officials have no interest in moving the sport forward. Don’t forget that Nizar was the ACU President! So, maybe the Idea that chess players take over affairs of their destiny is no far fetched!
I am in total agreement with you Daaim. With the hearsay that Solomon and Kobese have been sponsored for Libya, i am sure the sponsor is going to think twice now! Thanks to this inept organisation.
Thanks Daaim for the info.
Methinks nobody must condone any shabby treatment meant out to any one.
The Libyans must be ashamed of themselves for a poor tournament.
I am quite shocked at the strange visa arrangement.
Ghana’s rep.(Francis Anquandah) to the games pulled out at the last minute due to this same visa problem.
I personally sent a complain to FIDE.
We should do it better next time.
Now the tournament is over, please the organizers should make sure the next venue of tournament is known atleast a three month time.
Here in Malawi we failed to send a team in Libya just because of Visa problem. we received an invitation letter in July 2009.
We are Africans do not be too harsh, see only few players from Sourthen part of Africa participated