“SQUARE 65!?”

 ...Hope for the Future – Ajayi, Taiwo and Ajayi, Kehinde

08/08/08 marked the kick off of a long-awaited annual chess tournament in the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife tagged “SQUARE 65!?”. It was the first in a very long time since there had been a serious chess competition in the great citadel of learning.

The tournament aimed at upholding the standard of chess play in the school as it was known for its landmark achievements in the NUGA games and for producing well-renowned players like Dashaolu Rotimi ‘Dashe’ (Friends of Chess Coordinator), Dapo Adu (Former National Champion), Ogunwobi Tolu (Team Nigeria, Slovenia ‘02),  Ogunnowo Bimbo (Bronze medallist, COJA Abuja ‘03), Ajibowo Olamide (Silver medallist, Gateway ‘06), Jegede Oluwatoyin (Gold medallist, KADA ’09), Fawole John Oyeyemi (Former National Junior Champion), Olatunji Tobi (Gold Medallist, Algiers ’07), Edunwale Abimbola (Team Nigeria, Slovenia ‘02) and a host of others.

The idea of the tournament was conceived by a 500L Chemical Engineering student – Ajayi Taiwo (Team Lagos, KADA ’09) and was brought to reality with the support of the OAU Ile-Ife Sports Council, National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), Nestle Nigeria Plc (Milo) and Clicks Digital Studio. It also had help from some individuals which included Ajibowo Olamide (Team OAU captain), Ajayi Kehinde (500L, Medicine), Ofune Macdonald (500L, President Mech Engr) among others.

The opening ceremony of the three-day event had Professor Kunle Adeyanju as Chairman and he made the official opening move of the tournament. It also featured a blitz demonstration between Fawole and Jegede who agreed on a draw after about three minutes of play.

The competition, which was opened both to students and non-students, featured three major categories – Masters, Opens and Female categories. These were stratified, of course, with reference to the playing strengths of the school team. Ajibowo and Ogunnowo were the arbiters.

The Masters category, which featured 14 players including the bitter rivals Fawole and Jegede, had two subcategories – Rapids and Blitz. Six rounds of 25min rapids would determine the winners of the grand prize (N10 000), 2nd prize (N5 000) and 3rd prize (N3 000). A five minutes knockout blitz would also produce another set of winners of 1st prize (N3 000), 2nd (N2 000) and 3rd (N1 000) prizes respectively.

Fawole, who was the grand prize winner, finished the tournament quite easily with a perfect score after winning a nothing-to-lose final round against Jegede who was on 3/5 and was then struggling but failed to qualify for playoffs for the third prize. Taiwo (facilitator) came 2nd scoring 4.5 after losing to Fawole in the 2nd round and drawing with Abejide Ayodele (former Team OAU) in the 4th round. Ositelu Siji ‘Shydon’ (500L, Mech Eng – Team OAU) won the 3rd prize after winning Bejide, who was on a 3/5, in the last round and ending up with a 4/6.

The rapids subcategory was filled with lots of intrigues and upsets. Noteworthy was a round three game between Kehinde (W) and Jegede (B) that had a white double-exclamation long-term knight sac on d6 right from the eleventh move (!) that eventually lead to a white win.

The Blitz (5min+2s) subcategory was even more interesting as it featured one female – Tobi Olatunji, who was not available to compete in the rapids and was only beaten in the quarter-finals by Ijishakin Michael ‘Skimyke’ (300L, PPE – Team OAU). Jegede seemed to gain back his ‘pound of flesh’ as he won, quite conveniently, Fawole in a best-of-five final round encounter claiming the 1st prize. Duruzor Chike Henry (300L, Geology) won the 3rd prize after winning the two games of the best-of-two encounter with Bejide in the quarter-finals, losing to Fawole in the semis and then winning a third place playoff against Skimyke.

The Opens category featured 21 competitors who played five rounds in Swiss pairings with no time controls due to unavailability of chess clocks. Philip (MSc, Chem Engr), won the first prize (N5 000) with a score of 4.5 while Femi ‘Archangel’ (200L, Chem Engr) and Simi (300L, Microbiology) tied for the 2nd and 3rd prizes (N2 500+N1 500) scoring 4/5 each.

The Female category comprised of six players in Round Robin from which school team members were exempt. Oluwatumininu, Onimole Adetola and Olabisi Seun won the 1st (N4 000), 2nd (N2 500) & 3rd (N1 500) prizes respectively which was solely sponsored by Clicks Digital Studio.

Snacks and Nestle Milo was served to refresh the players on the day 1 of the event. The life-size chess pieces used for the official opening of the tournament and blitz exhibition was provided by the NACA HIV/AIDS youth friendly centre.

At the end of the event, all 41 contestants appreciated the efforts of the organising committee and acknowledged the importance of the clamour for more support from all spheres of chess enthusiasts ranging from within the school community to those around and away from its environs.

The need for sponsorship for this event cannot be overemphasised because it, not only, increases the awareness of the game in OAU, Ile-Ife but culminates in building an auspicious future for Nigerian chess.

Here are pictures from the event:

A cross-section of players of the Opens category.

Another cross-sectional view of the Opens category in Fajuyi Cafe.

Chykeman; A notable chess person in OAU chess community.

The heat is on in Abejide Ayodele vs Duruzor Chike.

Toyin Jegede vs Shydon

Yemi Fawole vs Duruzor Chike

Mac D vs Yemi Fawole

Arbiter Bimbo Ogunnowo hands the Female category 3rd prize to Olabisi Seun.

He likewise hands the Female category 2nd prize to Onimole Adetola.

Archangel and Simi tied for 2nd and 3rd in the Opens category.

 Duruzor Chike collects his prize for being 3rd in the Blitz event from Ajayi Kehinde.

Yemi Fawole gets his prize for being 2nd in the Blitz event.

Toyin "Jegedizzle" Jegede won the Blitz event.

Yemi Fawole was Champion of the main event.

We hope you enjoyed this article. If you will like to support the growth of chess in OAU, Ile-Ife through this tournament you can contact us at info@chessheights.com .