The maiden edition of the Africa Online Individual Chess Championship 2021 will commence today, Monday, February 1st, 2021. This is a welcomed event for many African players who have been raring to play against elites at a super competitive level. This is made all the more important because many over the board (OTB) activities have been suspended due to the raging pandemic, which enforced lockdowns by the various governments.
A warm up event was successfully held both on Friday (the juniors) and yesterday (the opens), to test out the platform and help familiarize players with the various tools they may require on the platform, like signing in, calling on arbiter assistance, draw offers, etc.
Official kick off time for the Opening Ceremony is scheduled at 16:00 East African Time (EAT) GMT+3 (15:00 CAT) and play will resume by 16:30. All games will be hosted on the Tornelo platform.
As mentioned in previous articles players had to pay (through their federations) a minimum participation fee of €60. While some Federations like Angola and others managed to secure sponsorships, the majority of participants are using personal resources to join the event. It is also important to note that this event will not be rated and with the success of this one, future events might be.
How can I follow this event?
The Africa Online Individual Chess Tournament runs from February 01-06, 2021. It holds the closing ceremony on February 07, 2021.
All rounds start at 16:00 EAT daily, except for the final games on the 6th, where there will be 2 rounds at 16:00 EAT, and at 19:00 EAT respectively. You can follow the games using the following link https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/africa/events/african-online-individual-chess-championships/lobby.
Tournament Conditions
The event is a 9 round Swiss tournament with a time control of 25 min + 10 seconds per move. Tie breaks will be handled in this manner: Buccholz, Progressive, Direct encounter, Number of wins and lastly Number of wins with the black pieces.
The tournament will be played in five (5) divisions (Open, Women, Senior S50, Open U20, Girls U20) and the age groups are based on players’ year of birth (eg. U20 players must be born in 2001 or later).
Arbiters
Chief Arbiter: IA Abdelfattah Akkour (MAR)
Deputy Chief Arbiter: FA Ts’eliso Motloheloa (LSO)
Sector Arbiter: FA Mario Kpan (CIV)
Sector Arbiter: FA Franklin Maina (KEN)
Appeals Committee
An appeals committee chaired by the organizer Mr. Bernard Wanjala (KEN) and Tornelo platform founder Mr. David Cordover has been set up as oversight. Any decision by the chief arbiter (CA) can be appealed, except for fair-play decisions and a $100 USD charge will apply should the appeal be denied.
Fair Play
No appeals are allowed on fair-play decisions, all such decisions are final. Players must participate using their full real name. Players must be visible on Zoom video camera feed at all times and use screen-share with only Zoom and Tornelo running on their computers.
All games will be recorded for internal Fair Play verification purposes. Games will be deleted 14 days after the end of the event. Players are required to stay in the room at all times during the game no other persons are allowed to be present in the room except in special pre arranged cases where players are playing in one central location.
No electronic communication devices or any chess playing aids are allowed to be present in the room. All games will be subjected to statistical correlation analysis to verify fair-play
All results are provisional until the conclusion of the fair play process.
I will be covering all the exciting action on this tournament for the entire duration. Stay tuned. Stay attentive!
