With four games to play, the tension level rose at the African Chess Championships in Lusaka with players getting agitated. Late Thursday evening, the chief arbiter, Webster Kafumbwe had to get off his bed to call an emergency technical meeting as some players protested the way the pairing was being done.

The meeting, which took place at 11pm followed protests by Grandmaster (GM) Slim Belkhodja of Tunisia and International Master (IM) Aimed Rizouk of Algeria. The two players were particularly concerned with the rule that players from the same country will not play each other in the last two rounds. This clause had been agreed upon at the technical meeting held before the start of the first round. It was meant to protect possible match fixing by fellow countrymen in the critical rounds.

The two professionals felt that the conditions agreed at the first technical meeting, which they did not attend, would be of great advantage to the Egyptians who are occupying the top places. Of great concern to them was that it was possible for an Egyptian on six points to play against someone on low points, say four, and this would be contrary to the norm of the Swiss System. This system pairs together opponents whose scores are close.

A situation that arose earlier meant that at some point, the arbiter would have had to do the draw by hand. The biggest omission, it transpired, was that it was not decided at which round the arbiter had to do this.

South African IM, Watu Kobese said this was now not easy to correct as play had already progressed to the crucial rounds and therefore the logical way forward is to follow the Swiss System to the letter.

After heated debates, the arbiter made the decision that the Swiss System will prevail, much to the dismay of the Egyptian contingent. GM Ahmed Adly was particularly unhappy and made known his intention to complain to the World Chess Federation (FIDE). His main contention was that a decision made at the first technical meeting cannot be changed during the course of the tournament.