Africa’s top chess player Grandmaster Bassem Amin of Egypt recently beat chess legend Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. Amin, who had the black pieces met the Ukrainain grandmaster in Round 2 of the Turnir Mira Tournament in Croatia. The tournament, which runs from November 12 to November 23, is still in progress at the time of publishing this article.
Bassem Amin has established himself as the very best African chess player over the years and he is now rated above the 2700 mark for Super Grandmasters. On the other hand, Vassily Ivanchuk is one of the very best chess players never to become a World Chess Champion, but claimed the Rapid Championship about 2 years ago. He has always been in the elite class of the world’s chess players for at least a decade and is well known for his encyclopedic knowledge of chess openings.
Here is a video of their game
You can replay their game below.
Does this show that the Africa Number 1 is now up there with the very best chess players in the world? Or does he need to win the tournament and show his stuff in Tata Steel, where he was invited and finished 3rd earlier this year?
Africa is rising and it takes just one of ours in GM Amin Bassem to show that Africans can actually beat the very best and compete in the grandest of stages.
