The 2016 African Individual Chess Championships were held from 17-26th of July with the Classical, Rapid and Blitz formats. The venue was the TICK hotel in Kampala, Uganda.
In the classical event there were a total of 30 players from Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia, Uganda and Zambia. The field consisted of 3 GM’s, 9 IM’s, 6 FM’s and 3 CM’s bring the total title count to 21.
There was chances for players to achieve GM norm’s and if winning the tournament outright and you were not a GM, pick up the title as per the FIDE regulations for direct titles. The winner of the Open section was IM Abdelrahman Hesham of Egypt with a score of 7/9.
In the Women’s section there were 22 players participating from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Egypt, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. The field had 1 WGM, 9 WIM’s, 4 WFM’s and 2 WCM’s bring the total title count to 16 players. The winners of the women’s event were all from Egypt, namely WGM Shrook Wafa, WIM Shahenda Wafa and WFM Eman Elansary.
On 25th July the Rapid event took place at the time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds. Only 27 players participated in the Open event which was taken out by GM Samy Shoker with a score of 8/9. In the women’s event only 18 players played and this was won by WGM Shrook Wafa (Egypt), WIM Shahenda Wafa (Egypt) and WIM Amina Meizoud (Algeria).
The final event was the blitz and this was played at the time control of 5 minutes + 3 seconds. 21 players decided to play in the Open Blitz and this was won by the only GM’s in the field, Ahmed Adly and Samy Shoker; both from Egypt. The Women’s event saw 16 players and this was also a tie between WGM Shrook Wafa (Egypt), WIM Sabrina Latreche (Algeria) and WIM Amina Meizoud (Algeria).
Report by Jamie Kenmure / Photo gallery
Final standings – Open (top 10):
1 IM Hesham Abdelrahman EGY 2400 – 7
2 FM Kayonde Andrew ZAM 2404 – 6.5
3 GM Adly Ahmed EGY 2607 – 6.5
4 IM Arab Adlane ALG 2482 – 6.5
5 GM El Gindy Essam EGY 2431 – 6.5
6 GM Shoker Samy EGY 2489 – 6
7 IM Cawdery Daniel RSA 2412 – 6
8 IM Ameir Moheb EGY 2438 – 5.5
9 IM Ssegwanyi Arthur UGA 2366 – 5
10 FM Kawuma Patrick UGA 2247 – 5