(Article courtesy of Uganda Chess Federation)
The curtains were drawn on the star studded Africa Individual Chess Championship in Maputo, Mozambique on Monday 13th June 2011 with Uganda’s Elijah Emojong finishing in an impressive joint eighth position with 5 points out of 9 to win himself a cash prize of 575 US dollars.
Elijah Emojong at the 2011 Africa Individual Chess Championship
Emojong tied in the same position with Zambia’s IM Stanley Chumfwa, and Egypt’s IM El Taher Fouad and IM Ezat Mohammed.
To attain this feat, Emojong beat South Africa’s Candidate Master Solomons Deon in the final round played last morning after tussling it out for hours in a tricky endgame that arose out of a Kings Indian opening. He had earlier beaten Angola’s FIDE Master Ediberto Domingos (rated 2201), Mozambique’s FM Mucongoma Miguel (rated 2240) and Angola’s IM Pedro Aderito (rated 2339) among others. He lost to Egypt’s IM Ezat Mohammed (rated 2453), Nyazi Nehad (rated 2216), Mozambique’s Paivo Donaldo (rated 2121) and Tunisia’s Njili Kamel (rated 2305).
The continental event is Africa’s biggest show piece and drew a strong field that attracted 28 of the continent’s top players including 3 Grandmasters, 8 International Masters, 7 FIDE Masters and 1 Candidate Master.
The Ugandan narrowly missed an IM performance by one point as he needed to score 6 points to get an IM tittle.
The men’s event was won by Egypt’s GM Adley Ahmed with 8 points (won seven games and drew two) followed by GM El Gindy Essam also from Egypt with 6.5 points and South Africa’s fast rising Robert Steel Henry also with 6.5 points. The top three qualified to represent Africa at the World Chess Cup to be held in Khanty Mansisyk, Russia in August 2011. The event’s winner walked off with 6,000 US dollars. All the prizes in the Men’s event totalled 28,000 US dollars.
The ladies category was won by Egypt’s WGM Mona Khaled with 7.5 points followed by Algeria’s WIM Mezioud Amina also with 7.5 while in joint third was South Africa’s Denise Frick and Melisa Greeff. At the time of filing this report the two were involved in a tense head to head Rapid play off to determine the one to join the top two ladies in representing Africa at the World Chess Cup.
Uganda Chess Federation’s Vice President, Stephen Kisuze was Deputy to the Chief Arbiter in the event and this earned him one norm towards becoming an International Arbiter (IA).
The top 20 finishers in the men’s event who received cash prizes were as follows:
| NAME | COUNTRY | RATING | POINTS | |
| 1 | GM Adley Ahmed | Egypt | 2630 | 8 points |
| 2 | GM El Gindy Essam | Egypt | 2506 | 6.5 points |
| 3 | IM Steel H. Robert | South Africa | 2328 | 6.5 points |
| 4 | IM Haddouche M. | Algeria | 2398 | 5.5 points |
| 5 | IM Jere Daniel | Zambia | 2320 | 5.5 points |
| 6 | GM Amin Bassem | Egypt | 2596 | 5.5 points |
| 7 | Makoto Rodwel | Zimbabwe | 2157 | 5.5 points |
| 8 | IM Chumfwa Stanley | Zambia | 2340 | 5 points |
| 9 | IM El Taher Fouad | Egypt | 2486 | 5 points |
| 10 | IM Ezat Mohammed | Egypt | 2453 | 5 points |
| 11 | Elijah Emojong | Uganda | - | 5 points |
| 12 | IM Solomon Kenny | South Africa | 2433 | 4.5 points |
| 13 | Paiva Donaldo | Mozambique | 2121 | 4.5 points |
| 14 | IM Belouadah Saad | Algeria | 2342 | 4.5 points |
| 15 | FM Njili Kamel | Tunisia | 2305 | 4.5 points |
| 16 | IM Aderito Pedro | Angola | 2339 | 4.5 points |
| 17 | FM Nyazi Nehad | Egypt | 2216 | 4 points |
| 18 | FM Mucongoma Miguel | Mozambique | 2246 | 4 points |
| 19 | Dimba James | Zambia | - | 4 points |
| 20 | Seraoui Mohcen | Algeria | 2099 | 4 points |