Femi Solaja
The much anticipated Nigeria/Hungary virtual chess friendly held yesterday with International Master Oladapo Adu and Peace Sampson winning their respective games for both nations to end the tournament on parity.
The One-day event was the initiative of the present board of the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) led by DIG Sani Mohammed (rtd) with the primary aim to foster sports collaboration between the two nations.
“We have been on this project for some and I am delighted that our players played against highly rated field from the Hungarians who provided the technical assistance and the event is in-line with FIDE online Olympiad regulations,” Mohammed said last night after the match in which Nigeria lined up six players against the strong field from the east European nation.
Aside Adu, others who played for Nigeria include; International Master Bunmi Olape (a veteran of several World Chess Olympiad), Peace Sampson, Perpetua Ogbiyoyo, Toluwanimi Okemakinde and Azumi Suleiman. International Arbiter Obinna Ogbonnaya was captain of the team.
Hungary’s team was made up of Grand Master Kozak Adam, Grand master Acs Peter, Woman International Master Terbe Julianna, Mihok-Juhasz Barbara, Matyas Palczert and Toth Lili played against Nigeria in the 15 minutes plus five additional seconds increment per move.
But the star match of the day was IM Adu’s dexterity on board one against Grand Master Adam.
The Nigerian master playing in White-side of King’s Indian Attack showed shade of genius in middle play and on move 16 played Nc4 for his opponent to capture his Knight and the exchange led to loss of pawn but created a strong pressure on D file which led to a Kingside attack.
On move 85, the highly rated player resigned to the amazement of several Nigerian chess communities following the proceedings of the tournament online.
However, the Hungarian won the reverse fixture after Adu took a sacrifice that backfired and was forced to resign.
Aside Adu, Peace Sampson (Female) also won her game against International Woman Master Julianna but Olape drew against GM Peter, same with Okemade against Matyas.
In all, the Nigeria team was composed of two senior players in Adu and Olape. Ayisa Azuni as junior female player and Toluwanimi Okemakinde as the junior male player.
