By RONALD CHAWE In Mansa –
ZAMBIA proved to be a good hunting ground for Egyptian Grand Master (GM) Ahmed Adly who posted an impressive score to win the Henry Chilufya Inaugural Memorial Chess tournament in Mansa.
Ahmed, who is Africa second ranked player, managed eight wins and a draw to end his campaign on 8.5 points ahead of fellow GM Alon Greenfeld, who finished one and half point behind.
The Egyptian pocketed US$1600 with Greenfeld of Israel going away with US$1200 as India’s Abhijeet Gupta, also a GM, got US$1000 for his third place finish.
Russia’s GM Petr Kiriakov and IM Chitumbo Mwali, who had an identical score of three wins, four draws and two losses and finished fourth and fifth respectively with five points each and received US$600 apiece.
Uganda’s IM Arthur Sseqwanyi was sixth with four points followed by the Zambian IMs Richmond Phiri and Stanley Chumfwa, and Uganda Fide Master (FM) Harold Wanyama all tied 2.5 points but were separated by tie breaker to be in seventh, eighth and ninth positions.
IM Gillian Bwalya was 10th with two points.
Adly said in an interview that he was happy to have won a tournament in Zambia again having won his first competition way back in 2001 during the Africa Under-20 Championship-then as a 14-year-old.
“Actually I have won for the fourth time in Zambia because I got my Grand Master Norm here in when I competed and won the Under-20 championship and I believe it’s my lucky country,” he said.
This was Adly fourth title win in Zambia having won African Individual Championship twice and Under-20 event.
During the U-20 category, he had a perfect score of nine despite being the second youngest at the tournament besides his countryman, Amin Bassem, who was the youngest that time but now holds a GM and is Africa’s first ranked player.
Adly started his campaign with wins came over Chumfya and Gupta before he drew with Kiriakov but there was no stopping him from there as he won matches against Greenfeld, Ssegwanyi, Mwali, Wanyama, Bwalya and Phiri.
He commended the organisers for putting up a wonderful event and said there was need for the competition is ranked among the major events in Africa.