Top 10 African countries at the 2018 Batumi Chess Olympiad after Round 6

The 43rd Chess Olympiad period in Batumi, Georgia from 23 September to 6 October 2018 will be 11 rounds long.

With six rounds having been played at the time of writing this report, it is a good time to take stock of how would the top 10 African countries are doing.

Six rounds is just after the halfway mark so we will have a good indication of how these countries have played so far. There is still a good deal to playful and distending is right now may be very different from the final standings after around 11.

Based on the latest standings after Round 6, here is the list of the top 10 countries from Africa. We are looking at the top 10 countries after Round 6 of the Olympiad.

Below are the Top 10 African Countries:

Here is a break down of how the teams have done so far.

It shows the number of matches played, matches won, lost and drawn so far.

We will look at the ranking at the beginning of the Olympiad and the ranking after Round 6.

Here are a few observations regarding this top 10 list.

All the countries in the top to have both been formed their inking before the event with the exception of Tunisia and Uganda.

Egypt is doing incredibly well at the moment. It is placed 13 the compared to a ranking of 40th.

The other countries have also seen a huge improvement from their ranking before the tournament to their ranking after ranking around six. If things continue like this until the end of the event, these countries would probably be very happy with their performance.

Going into country detail

EGYPT

Egypt was headed by Grandmaster Bassem Amin on board 1. After 6 rounds he has not lost a single game.

Team Egypt continue their dominating performance at the Olympiad.

They edged out a decent Slovakia Team at Round 6.

GM Bassem Amin provided the necessary leadership by winning his game on board 1 against GM Repka Christopher(2523).

GM Ahdly Ahmed on Board 2 had his first loss of the tournament as  Petrik Tomas edged him out.

With IM Fawzy Adham(2431) securing a draw against Gazik Victor(2486) both team relied on the score on Board 4 for Match Point.

GM Hesham Abdelrahman on board 4 for Egypt knows that the hope of the country lies on his and he dispassionately dispatched his Opponent IM Nayhebaver Martin to secure the Match point at 2.5- 1.5 in favour of Team Egypt.

This result has leap frogged Team Egypt into top 20 of the Olympiad Open Standings.

Today at Round 7, they will be playing against India the Ancenstral Home of Chess.

Here are the games played by the Board 1 player.

ALGERIA

On the second spot for Africa is Algeria. Algeria has Grandmaster Billel Bellahcene on Board 1.

Their performance earned them a spot among the top 20 best countrIES at the ongoing Olympiad .

In Round 6 games, the Northern African country thrashed Ireland 3-1. Their only loss for the Day came from Board 1 .

Today, they will be playing against another European Neighbor Spain.

Spain currently sit at the 14th spot and they are better ranked than the Algerian.

But we hope the Algerian will repeat the form they exhibited against Team Slovenia when they met on Match Day 5.

GM Bellachene , Bilel(2501) will  be  called upon again to lead his team into this decisive war.

Here are the games played by Algeria’s top board.

SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa has International Master (IM) Daniel Cawdery on Board 1.

Team South African retains their spot as the third best playing African nation at the Olympiads at the end of Match Day 6 after dispatching the affluent United Arab Emirate Team.

They won them 3-1.

South Africa will be playing Turkey today which is Match Day 7.

The South Africans need to be resolute and consistent to force out a favorable result.

Here are the games played by South Africa’s top board.

 ZAMBIA

Team Zambia had a good outing on Match Day 6 as they triumphed over a solid Kyrgyzstan Team.

Olympiad Veteran IM Kayonde Andrew won on board one to pave the way for his other team members to deliver the Match Point.

A win from Fm Munenga Douglas and a Draw from Prince Daniel Mulenga were enough to give a match point.

The game ended 2.5-1.5 in favour of the Zambians.

Team Zambia has a daunting task today as they play against Team Montenegro.

The Zambians will be resting Prince Daniel Mulenga on Board 4 against the higher rated Montenegro Team.

Zambia has IM Andrew Kayonde on Board 1.

Here are games played by Zambia’s top board.

MOROCCO

Morocco has IM Mohamed Tissir on Board 1.

Here are the games played by Morocco’s top board.

NIGERIA

Team Nigeria Leaped to the Top 5 for Africa after winning Team Zimbabwe 2.5-1.5 on match day 6.

The match between the two African country was almost ending in Two(2) all draw until a visibly tired IM Rodwell Makoto(2338) over reach against FM Bomo Kigigha(2300) of Nigeria and he got his rook caught up by his opponents pawns.

The loss was a major setback for the Zimbabwean Team as they have another tough African Team (Sudan) to battle on Day 7.

Team Nigeria’s win has ‘rewarded’ them with a tougher opponent in Team Romania.

The west African Chess Power House will fancy their chance against an all GM Romanian Team today in Batumi.

They were on bye in their first game as they arrived Batumi late on Match Day 1 and they are playing catch up on these missed points.

IM Bunmi Olape will be rested today to have a team filled with GM slayers to salvage critical points today.

Nigeria has Fide Master Bomo Kigigha on Board 1.

Here are the games played by Nigeria’s top board.

MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique has Candidate Master Donaldo Paiva on Board 1.

Here are the games from Mozambique’s top board.

SOUTH SUDAN

South Sudan has Rehan Cypriano Deng on Board 1.

Here are games from South Sudan’s Top Board.

TUNISIA

Tunisia has Fide Master (FM) Zoubaier Amdouni

Here are games from Tunisia’s Top board

UGANDA

Uganda has IM Arthur Ssegwanyi on Board 1.

Here are games from Uganda’s Top board.