ALL AFRICAN GAMES; The scores, the results and the drama

As Ben magana blazes the trail Steve Ouma is proving why his inclusion in the team was a mistake from the word go. But the drama does not end there, larry kagambi has come out of retirement to play chess for kenya!


With 9 rounds already played, Kenyan players have gone through their ups and downs in Algiers. All medal hopes have virtually disappeared with Egypt, Nigeria and Zambia most likely to pull of with the medals. Kenyan players have given a good account of themselves with nguku and Magana playing to good scores. Debutant Joseph atwoli has won one game in board 1. but Steve ouma is proving to be the disaster of the tournament with no win so far from 8 games but the real deal is that larry kagambi has come out of retirement to play chess for Kenya!

Round 1
KENYA 1 ZAMBIA 3 (12/07/07)
ATWOLI JOSEPH ½ ½ CHUMWA
MAGANA BEN 0 1 LUNGU
STEVE OUMA 0 1 DANIEL
NGUKU BEN 1/2 1/2 PHIRI

Poor start by Kenya but great performance by Awoli on board 1 and Nguku who just cant loose.

Round 2
SAO TOME 2.5 KENYA 1.5 (13/07/07)
ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 RIOPO
STEVE OUMA ½ ½ ERI
NGUKU BEN 1 0 DOS SAN TOS
MAGANA BEN 1 1 PHIRI

The demolition squad of nguku and Magana at their best.


Round 3
MOZAMBIQUE 2 KENYA2 (13/07/07)
ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 SILVA
NGUKU BEN 0 1 MIQUEL
MAGANA BEN 1 0 ALICE
NGUKU BEN 1 0 MAJA

All square

Round 4
ETHIOPIA 2 KENYA 2 (14/07/07)
SISAY 0 1 ATWOLI JOSEPH
BELLOW 1 0 STEVE OUMA
TEFERA 0 1 BEN NGUKU
GEPRA 1 0 BEN MAGANA

After Kenyan Ethiopian duels on the athletic track the war was taken to the chessboard and our chessmen were not about to disappoint us.

Round 5
KENYA 1.5 LIBYA 2.5 (15/7/07)
STEVE OUMA 0 1 ALI
BEN NGUKU ½ ½ MUSTAPHA
BEN MAGANA 1 0 HUSSEIN
KAGAMBI 0 1 ELRABI

The Libyans were a bit stronger as kagambi comes out of retirement.

Round 6
KENYA 0 NIGERIA 4 (17/7/07)
ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 ADIO
STEVE OUMA 0 1 ADEBAYO
BEN NGUKU 0 1 OLAPE
KAGAMBI 0 1 KOLADE

Oga! Dis nigerians

Round 7
KENYA 1.5 NAMIBIA 2.5 (17/07/07)
ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 BICHAB
STEVE OUMA ½ ½ TUPEJA
BEN MAGANA 1 0 OTTO
KAGAMBI 0 1 JOSEPH


Round 8
ANGOLA 2.5 KENYA 1.5
CAMPOS 1 0 ATWOLI
PETERO 1 0 OUMA
PASCAL ½ ½ NGUKU
ARMDO 0 1 MAGANA


Round 9
KENYA 0 ZIMBABWE 4
ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 OWAZ
NGUKU 0 1 FARAU
BEN MAGANA 0 1 MASANGO
KAGAMBI 0 1 MAKOTO

This Zimsmust be so good

THE SCORE CARD
So after 9 rounds the Kenyan players results are in. how did they perform

Ben Magana 5/8 (62.5%)
Ben nguku 3.5/8 (43.7%)
Kagambi 1/5 (20%)
Joseph atwoli 1.5/8 (18%)
Steve ouma 1/7 (14%)

The two bens are still reliable to lift Kenya up. Kudos to joseph atwoli on his international debut for such a performance in board 1. steve ouma is still the only player without a win (suprising?) and larry well I did not know he was in the Kenyan team.


ALL AFRICAN GAMES CHESS IN GENERAL
Adopted from THE CHESS DRUM

As the chess competition heads toward its last stages, medals are still in the balance at the 9th All-Africa Games. Currently, the Egyptian men's team holds a comfortable three-point lead after 10 rounds. Zambia is second on 28 while Nigeria is third on 25. In the last three rounds, Zambia gets a 0-point bye, São Tome & Principé (weakest) and Egypt (strongest). Their chances are very good, but Nigeria will have a slightly easier schedule with 0-point bye, Namibia, Angola. The South Africa men stand a chance to leap into medal contention since they are only 1½ points back and play Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia, all struggling teams. They could get all 12 points here, so I'm picking Egypt, South Africa and Zambia for the medals.

In the women's competition, the three medallists are already decided. Algeria, who has held the lead the entire tournament, plays Nigeria in a big match while the South Africa-Nigeria finale will decide the other two medals. Algeria will most likely clinch the gold since they will probably score full marks against Libya while both Nigeria and South Africa will battle medal contenders. Botswana is 5½ points back from medal contention and again has had a disappointing performance. Only a medal would have softened the pain from their 0/36 debacle in Russia.