Africa
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After viral story, the work begins for Tani Adewumi
On March 16th, the New York Times ran a story on Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a Nigerian boy whose family migrated to the U.S. for a better life. The story generated more than 400 comments. A follow-up story generated another 400 comments. “Homeless,” “refugee,” and “chess champion” are an unlikely combination of…
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Magnus Carlsen in Africa, May 8th-12th!
When it was announced that Africa would be one of the hosts to a leg of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT), there was a bit of a celebration throughout the continent’s chess community. Magnus Carlsen will compete May 8th-12th in the Rapid and Blitz event in Abijdan, Cote d’Ivoire. He…
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Phiona Mutesi reflects on life after “Queen of Katwe”
About 14 years ago, a little girl in Katwe, Uganda followed her older brother who was increasingly occupied with an activity after school. After seeing him disappear inside of a building, she wandered inside and found the Sports Outreach Institute, a sports club where there was a chess club meeting…
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Where are they now? Jessica Wamala
Jessica Wamala Hometown: Milford, New Hampshire Education: B.A. Villanova University (2013), M.A. Villanova (2014), MPhil Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford (2016) Peak Chess Rating: 1790 (USCF) Chess Accolades: Massachusetts Junior High co-champ, U.S. Open “C” champion Activities: Phi Beta Kappa (honor society), Rhodes Scholar, Villanova varsity women’s basketball, Delta…
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Nigerian schoolboy Tani Adewumi making waves in New York
Tanitoluwa Adewumi Photo by Nicholas Kristof Nigeria has long been one of Africa’s most heralded chess countries with an ambitious goal of producing the next generation of chess masters. Having already produced a number of International Masters, the country has recently launched a fundraising campaign to produce the first Grandmaster…
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Who will be the 1st Nigerian Grandmaster?
Africa is a massive continent with approximately 1.2 billion inhabitants. It has an incredible amount of natural resource and breath-taking natural beauty. The 54 countries that represent the continent are diverse in their makeup and span a spectrum of many religions, cultures, languages and traditions. One tradition that has remained…
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Hurricane Kolade blows through Gilbraltar Chess Open
Kolade Onabogun being interviewed by Tania Sachdev after round three.Photo by John Saunders (Gibchess) Die-hard chess players have an idea of the elite tournaments around the world, but there are few in which amateur players can brush shoulders with the elite brass. Besides the Olympiad, the Gibraltar Chess Open is…
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Chess in Djibouti!
Djibouti at 2018 Chess OlympiadPhoto by Federation Djiboutienne de Jeu d’Echecs Africa continues to expand and add more countries to the community of chess nations. Djibouti, a country of 9.5 million bordering Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, has reemerged from a long hiatus of almost 20 years. The federation registered three…
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Burkina Faso making moves in chess!
We have not written on Burkina Faso since 2014 shortly after they joined the community of chess-playing nations in FIDE. Comité National Burkinabé des Echecs has been very active since 2014 and held national championships in the past three years with Oumar Briba winning in 2016 and Clément Guissou winning…
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Grand Chess Tour coming to Africa in 2019!
Dr. Essoh Essis, President of the Ivorian Chess Federation will host one of the rapid and blitz events as part of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. It will be the first elite event held in Africa since the 2004 FIDE Knockout in Tripoli, Libya. Photo by Alina L’Ami Hikaru Nakamura…
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