Femi Solaja
19 November 2008
Dresden, Germany — International Master Dapo Adu, yesterday showed his mastery of famous the Sicilian Defence, using it to lead Nigeria to a 3.5 - 0.5 win over boastful Jamaica in the male section of the on-going 38th World Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany.
The USA-based Nigerian came back from two game losses in previous rounds to secured his famous win over FIDE Master, Warren Elliot on Board One, just as other players did on their respective boards, with the exception of Adegboyega Adebayo, who uncharacteristically played himself into an unfamiliar position, thereby allowing his opponent to pick a vital draw on Board Three.
Adu, on Board One, played the black side of Sicilian Defence (Paulsen Variation) starting early with a strong Qb6 on the fifth move, just like he did years back against a woman Grand Master in a tournament in America, only this time around, his opponent resorted to aggressive play with speedy development of minor soldiers, canceling to the king side on move 11 while the Nigerian concentrated on the Queen side for both his development and counter attack.
His h5 on move 17, which he would, two moves afterwards, follow up with more attacking forays, left his opponent's position weakened. His consequent exchange of a Rook for a Knight on move 23 would be considered in most quarters as brilliant, and this would result in his gain of a free Rook on the 31st move. This left the crowd cheering and the poor Jamaican intimidated. A few moves afterwards, the loss of his Queen imminent in a planned King's check, he was forced to offer his resignation. The alternative was to be checkmated.
In other games, Bomo Kighiga, in white side of English opening, played the e6 variation. He would go on to have luck on his side when his opponent, Bradon Wilson (2112) made a positional error of Ba6 on move 20, which he capitalised on to bring the game to a ruthless conclusion on move 42.
Chess Olympiad debutant, Benjamin Omorere, also won his game against Shane Matthews (2179). However, Adebayo gave some relief to the Jamaicans with a halved point. His Jamaican opponent, who is higher in rating sensibly choose a variation of Catalan, where the game is evenly balanced.
At the first chance, the Jamaican (2226) would seize the Queen-side space with a c5 move. However, the resultant battle showed the weaknesses of white's d4 as against black's c6, which normally should be a risky progression. The game was brought to a drawn set up shortly after.
While the male team had good day, the same cannot be said of the female one who were roundly beaten by the more experienced Canadian side by 4-0.
Interestingly, all the Nigerian players were better on all the boards but failed to hold on to the advantages they had and allowed Canada with three-Woman International Masters on parade to dominate the end games.
"I was not expecting much from the team, considering the fact that it is an assemblage of new players gunning for exposure. Still, they were all doing well on the boards that I could be forgiven for thinking we were on to something good. I was very happy at that point and my thoughts were like, if they could at least two games, we would have been well on our way to a great advantage in the category award," Lekan Adeyemi, the captain of the team said.
Meanwhile on the Top Board, Russia, Ukraine and China continue to proclaim themselves as the class of the open division, with all three recording two-point margin victories each. GM Vladimir Kramnik made his first entry into the Olympiad with a draw against Top Board GM Kamil Miton of Poland, while young talent GM Dmitry Jakovenko used a pillaging knight to win his game against Ruy Lopez game, and with it the match.
China rolled over Belarus 3-1 as GM Hua Ni recovered from a first-round loss to beat his grandmaster opponent. Tenth-seed United States could only tie Greece as the fourth and final board was decided by GM Varuzhan Akobian's second consecutive queen-and-pawn end game. GM Alexei Shirov defended a worse position that also eventually became a queen-and-pawn ending, but unlike Akobian, his position was tenable and the draw pushed his Spanish contingent past a feisty Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Accelerated pairings have left a few unheralded federations also at 2-0, including the usually ignominious teams of Malta, Faroe Islands and El Salvador . Things get much tougher for them this round as the fields merge and they face the likes of England, Armenia and India, respectively.
In the women's section, fifth seed France and seventh seed United States both lost 2.5 - 1.5. Fourteen women's teams are now on 2-0.
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