Femi Solaja
FIDE Master, Daniel Anwuli, was the toast of global chess community at the famous Millionaire Chess event that was rounded up last night in which the Nigerian Chess prodigy secured a massive 4.5 points from seven round of play.
Anwuli, a debutant at the last World Chess Olympiad in Baku Azerbaijan showed shade of his genius in end games after defeating two Grand Masters of the game in the last two rounds to hit the big playoff for the U/2400 level.
After a poor start, losing to Grand Master Jones Gawain of Great Britain (2647) and Tomb Maroun (2109) of Canada in the first two rounds, the Nigerian prodigy bounced back to winning way with a massive win over Candidate Master, Bayaraa Chinguun USA (2065), and Francisco Alonso (1925) but drew with IM Gorovets Andrey (2543).
However in the last two, the prospect of the Nigerian got a big boost after sending the Grand Masters to the cleaner, making it the fourth time this year since his famous win at the Dubai Opens.
Playing in the white side of English opening, Anwuli dominated GM Ivanov Alexander (2476) all through before the highly rated player resigned in the 55th move.
In the last round, he became more resilient against GM Holt Conrad (2549) USA in black side of Grunfeld opening in 146 moves and received a loud ovation from several chess commentators in the playing arena. The feat of the Nigerian went viral on all social media platforms.
“I am very proud of the young lad and same with other Nigerian players that participated in this event. Anwuli is a promising player and still have a lot to do for the country if only he can attend more tournaments of this stature. He is one of the best in his generation of players in the country,” Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) President, Lekan Adeyemi who is at the event, remarked last night.
In his remark, Anwuli noted that he was able to adjust after the initial setback to hit the main pool for the Millionaire play-off but hope to get better result next time.
“I had this similar problem last year when I had unimpressive outing but the series of international exposure I had in the last few months were enough impetus for me to attain this summit here. I will do better next time,” he commented in a chat monday.
The winner of the main section will earn $30,000 whilst the second placed player is worth $15,000.
