17-year-old Nyuima Tersee is new Nigerian Champion!
Nyuima Ferdinand Tersee won the 2024 Nigerian National Championship over several titled and veteran players. The 17-year-old from Benue State bested a field of veterans and titled players as the youngest in the nation’s history to win the coveted title. In the aftermath of Gukesh Dommaraju’s world title, the age barriers in chess continue to drop.
A year earlier, Nigeria crowned its youngest female champion in Deborah Quickpen, who also scored a 7/8 performance on the open team at the Budapest Olympiad. Prior to that, Nigeria announced it would put resources into producing its first Grandmaster. Perhaps Tersee and Quickpen will be candidates for the sport’s highest title.
Photo Nigeria Chess Federation
Bruvschess Media (Nigeria) covered the historic feat and gave a detailed rundown of the events leading up to the finale. While Tersee had established a goal to win the national championship, he faced a field of veterans, including many former champions and Olympiad medalist IM Odion Aikhoje. In the penultimate round, the stage was set. Bruvschess called the action:
Terese had the White Pieces against FM Callistus Eyetonghan (both contenders and on 6½/10). Then there was IM Balogun Oluwafemi, with the White pieces, also on 6½/10, playing IM Aikhoje Odion. But the greatest obstacle to his ascension was FM Abdulrahman Abdulraheem Akintoye, who was half a point ahead of the field on 7/10 and had the White pieces against Lapite Oluwadurotimi. Too many things had to align for Tersee to become Champion. One by one, they did!
Tersee won his last game setting up a playoff against FM Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, who was held by Oluwadurotimi Lapite. This set up a playoff of Tersee-Abdulraheem, with the FM winning their head-to-head match during the tournament. Looking at that critical encounter is instructive. In the following ending, white could’ve held a draw with best play. What would you play?
In the above position, white can hold a draw with the simple 55.axb4, but played 55.Kd2?? after a few seconds of thought. Black gained the opposition with 55…b3! and will outflank the white king. Tersee will not have squares on which to wait and spent the next 14 minutes trying to save the game, to no avail. The game continued 56.Ke2 c4 57.Kd2 Kf3! with the obvious zugzwang plan to follow.
Nevertheless, the tiebreaks represented a fresh start. There is a backstory. Tersee’s coach, Eluekezi Phoenix Chukwuwikeh, forbids playing blitz chess, but in a 10+2, there is a bit more time to assess properly. After splitting two blitz games, it would come down to Armageddon, where Tersee would get black (with draw odds). Tersee would play black with five minutes while Abdulraheem would get four minutes, needing to win with white. The teenager won the game, making history in the process.
Photo Credit: John Fawole
Games: https://lichess.org/broadcast/ncc-2024/round-11/wObRNUmP#boards
Participants in the Open Section
This is wonderful news for Nigeria who had the rise of Deborah Quickpen, the youngest female national champion. While she did not repeat her success this year, a bright future awaits.
In the women’s championship, Toritsewuma Ofowino crushed the field with 9.5/11 to win her second national title. Her only blemish was a loss to Ifefu Onoja and a draw with Quickpen. What a banner year it has been for Ofowino, who got a “clean sheet” 7/7 in the 2024 West African Chess Championship in Liberia. She also represented Nigeria’s Olympiad open team in Budapest, Hungary. Another bright spot was 11-year-old Michelle Nwankwo, who came in second on 8/11.
Photo by Babatunde Ogunsiku
In a 2019 Africa Chess Media article titled “The Lady of Nigerian Chess,” author Babatunde Ogunsiku gave the readers some insight into why her story is so remarkable.
Learning chess at the age of 21 years (2010), one would feel the time was past to make any major impact, but not for the dogged Ofowino Toritsemuwa. She learnt the game from a local chess club at Ekosodin, in the University of Benin, and grew with the help of some young chess players in the club (at the time), with the inclusion of Igwubor Micah, Nesimeye Ejomafuvwe, and a host of other Benin chess playing boys.
Starting her chess playing career in the year 2010, the same year she learnt the game, and she was well baptized on the board of play, but she still picked up one of the female prizes on offer. However, knowing where she was coming from, she did not give up, she could not give up, she had to get better, she had to get stronger, and she dedicated her life to understanding the game better.
Games: https://lichess.org/broadcast/ncc-women-2024/round-11/CRCnoltz#boards
Participants in the Women’s Section
