Chess: African Junior Championship |30 December 2015

Seychelles hosts Africa’s top young players

Seychelles is for the second time playing host to some of the best young chess players on the African continent as 13 countries are represented at the 2015 African Junior Chess Championships.

The competition started on Monday and the brightest young prospects from Seychelles are competing alongside challengers from 12 other African nations until January 6 at the National Library’s ex-National Assembly hall.

Egypt, South Africa, Madagascar, Somalia, Kenya, Burundi, Angola, Malawi, Morocco, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Algeria are the other 12 nations being represented at the tournament which the chairman of the Seychelles Chess Federation (SCF), Benjamin Hoareau, has said is being played at a high level.

“As is normal at every international competition, there is a bit of a culture shock for the foreign players, but so far they have all adapted well and the competition is going smoothly,” he said.

He added that although the opponents are of a high level, the Seychellois chesslers are doing their best and producing some good performances with the first Seychellois winner being Jesse Eulentin.

“I would encourage the Seychellois youths to come by the venue to get the chance to see some top players in action and hopefully get more interested in the game,” Mr Hoareau added.

He added that although the federation is doing its best to promote chess locally, it needs much more support if it is going to take chess to an even higher level as at the moment most of the support comes from the small chess community itself and this is not enough.

The competition is being played from 9am to 2pm and from 5pm to 7pm for those interested to pop by and witness the minds at work.

The following are the results of the Seychellois players after the first two rounds and all players are scheduled to play 10 rounds of matches:

Girls

Elgine Crea (Sey) 0-1 Esperanca Caxita (Angola)

Sune Du Toit (S. Africa) 1-0 Liza Adeline (Sey)

Maria Domingos (Ang) 1-0 Elza Hoareau (Sey)

Jesse Eulentin 0-1 Luzia Pires (Ang)

Snegha Pillay 0-1 Sune Du Toit (RSA)

Delfina Joao (Ang) 1-0 Elgine Crea (Sey)

Liza Adeline (Sey) 0-1 Jesse Eulentin (Sey)

Boys

Timothy Kate (Sey) 0-1 David Silva (Ang)

Richiraj Krisnamoorthy (Sey) 0-1 Cristiano Aguiar (Ang)

Samuel Nalletamby (Sey) 0-1 Alessandro Crismann (RSA)

Elias Musonda (Zambia) 1-0 Harish Pillay (Sey)

Keith Vital (Sey) ½ - ½ Mohamed Amin El Fazari (Morocco)

David Silva (Ang) 1-0 Aakash Chetty (Sey)

Jemusse Zhemba (Zimbabwe) 1-0 Keith Vital (Sey)

Richiraj Krishnamoorthy (Sey) 0-1 Ezra Chambers (Burundi)

Moses Maina Wanjiru (Kenya) 1-0 Samuel Nalletamby (Sey)

Harish Pillay (Sey) 0-1 Timothy Kate (Sey)

S. N.