The Danhypro U-20 Abuja edition event had a total of 64 participants and was a gaping contrast to the first edition (Port Harcourt) which had 25 participants.

It was a 9-round rapid tournament and was very interesting through to round 9 as the participation of new players made a whole lot of difference.

The hosts consisted of The Tournament director, Samuel Ojikutu, Assistant Tournament director, Michael Benson and Chief Arbiter, Titoluwanimi Rapheal. All protocols were duly observed in the playing hall and all players followed all chess rules, as such, dispute resolution was reduced to the barest minimum.

The event was covered by Africa Chess Media and Bruvschess media.

The DanhyPro Chess U-20 Tournament started at exactly 9:00 AM. The arbiters ensured fairness and kept coaches, guardians and parents from distracting the players as necessary.

As expected, the Swiss manager paired the rated players with the unrated players in the first and second rounds which gave some unrated players the chance to showcase their preparations and the rated players didn’t exactly find it easy defending themselves.

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The round six games were filled with interesting games almost on all the boards, Eyetonghan Denyefa Callistus-2014 picked a win on board 18 against Abubakar Hassan after missing the fifth game yesterday due to late arrival for the round.

Onoja Iyefu Joy, Suleiman Azumi Ayisha, both won the sixth games to get ahead of the race for best female prices while Jessica Tirnom Bello and Iguehi Elora Oise were slowed down.

Osadebe Michael Ikechukwu, Olisa Tennyson, Okemakinde Toluwanimi and   Okeke Daniel, all on 4 points before the round of six, but won their games to catch up with CM Okeke Isaac who drew his match with Idara Emmanuel on board one.

At the seventh round, only two players were without a loss in the tournament namely; Okeke Issac-1728 and Okemakinde Toluwanimi-1975, but they sure aren’t winning all either, not with such level of competition going on. Virtually all the top 6 players all held 5 points respectively and the top 20 rank all held 4 points as at the seventh round of the nine rounds event.

After Idara Emmanuel successfully took out Olisa Tennyson off the medal race in the 8^th round, he was unable to consolidate in his last game against Okemakinde Toluwanimi in the last round where he ran out of time on his clock in the endgame play.

The round 9 pairing had Onoja Iyefu Joy paired on board two as white against CM Okeke Isaac, which is very coincidental with the same pairing of the round 8 of the Port Harcourt Edition.

As at round 9, Onoja Iyefu Joy is with 6 points at this point now competes for more than just the ladies prize but a place on the top 10 rank maybe top five if she wins the last game. But CM Okeke Isaac was the opponent and also needs a win to secure himself the silver medal or maybe a chance at the gold.

Iyefu lost the game by time flag but then, the 6 points was sufficient for her to win the BEST FEMALE Gold Medal by tie-break as Suleiman Azumi Ayisha-1726 also finished 6points after she was able to defeat Iguehi Elora Oise.

Even though Okemakinde and Isaac finished with no loss, and also played a draw on their personal encounter, Toluwani had the lower performance rating due to the first-round game which he won by walkover. Hence, CM Isaac Okeke takes the champion’s trophy ranking #1 by tie-break.

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7		Okeke Issac	NGR	1728	7,5	0,5	6	53,0
2	2		Okemakinde Toluwanimi	NGR	1975	7,5	0,5	6	48,5
3	28		Idara Emmanuel	NGR	0	7,0	1,0	6	54,5
4	4		Olisa Tennyson	NGR	1853	7,0	0,0	6	49,5
5	11		Akinbodewa Adebayo	NGR	1479	6,5	1,0	6	49,0
6	34		Keyi Lucky Musa	NGR	0	6,5	0,0	6	51,0
7	30		Iheanacho Emmanuel	NGR	0	6,0	0,0	6	47,5
8	8		Suleiman Azumi Ayisha	NGR	1726	6,0	0,0	6	45,0
9	1		Eyetonghan Denyefa Callistus	NGR	2014	6,0	0,0	6	44,5
10	5		Onoja Iyefu Joy	NGR	1768	6,0	0,0	6	44,0
11	6		Salako Clinton	NGR	1767	6,0	0,0	6	43,0
12	54		Uchegbu Damianson	NGR	0	6,0	0,0	6	41,0
13	47		Osadebe Michael Ikechukwu	NGR	0	6,0	0,0	5	53,5
14	13		Abdullahi Adamu	NGR	0	5,5	0,0	5	50,0
15	12	ACM	Iwuozor John	NGR	0	5,5	0,0	5	48,0
16	3		Matan Adebayo Oludayo	NGR	1915	5,5	0,0	5	48,0
17	24		Ekunke Odey Goodness	NGR	0	5,5	0,0	5	40,5
18	60		Iwuagwu Williams Onyedikachi	NGR	0	5,5	0,0	5	37,5
19	53		Ferdinard Tersay Joseph	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	49,0
20	39		Okeke Daniel	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	48,5
21	35		Khalid Ahmed	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	48,0
22	29		Iguehi Elora Oise	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	45,5
23	16		Adedapo Jeremiah	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	44,5
24	32		Jessica Tirnom Bello	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	44,0
25	10		Afolabi Emmanuel	NGR	1585	5,0	0,0	5	44,0
26	31		Isah Abubakar	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	42,0
27	57		Yakubu Daniel Jason	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	40,5
28	61		Iwuagwu Ayomide Ifesinachi	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	36,0
29	37		Ocheja Ojochoguwu Esther	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	5	35,5
30	15		Abubakar Hassan	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	4	49,0
31	48		Raphael Orjiekwe	NGR	0	5,0	0,0	4	40,0
32	23		Ekunke Iyambe Perez	NGR	0	4,5	0,0	4	42,0
33	20		Chinonso Chuks Samuel	NGR	0	4,5	0,0	4	38,0
34	26		Gloria Ishaya Karu	NGR	0	4,5	0,0	4	33,0
35	33		Jonathan Tiko	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	45,5
36	52		Suurshater Gbertyoh	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	43,5
37	58		Yakubu Emmanuel	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	40,5
38	18		Ahmad Sadiq Muazu	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	40,0
39	56		Utange Kevin Aondokator	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	40,0
40	62		Abdulmajeed Chadi	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	38,5
41	51		Shekwolo Daniel	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	37,0
42	19		Bernice Onoriode	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	35,5
43	41		Okeke Prince Nzubechukwu	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	35,0
44	46		Orji Nmesomachukwu	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	34,5
45	27		Grace Okunola Ajibola	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	33,5
46	25		Emmanuel Samuel	NGR	0	4,0	0,0	4	31,0
47	49		Samad Mohammed	NGR	0	3,5	0,0	3	40,5
48	14		Abdulrazaq Muhammed	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	40,0
49	40		Okeke Praise Akachukwu	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	38,5
50	36		Mofiba Ogunwumiju	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	36,0
51	21		Edith Ishaya	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	34,5
52	22		Egwudah Anslem	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	33,0
53	50		Samuel Isaac	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	32,5
54	43		Olofu Jesse	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	31,0
55	45		Orji Kosisochukwu	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	3	28,0
56	59		Ziptaram Anyankah	NGR	0	3,0	0,0	2	35,5
57	63		Precious Ainsa	NGR	0	2,5	0,0	2	38,0
58	38		Oha Michael	NGR	0	2,0	0,0	2	33,0
59	55		Oha Emmanuel	NGR	0	2,0	0,0	1	26,5
60	42		Olofu Ephraim	NGR	0	2,0	0,0	1	26,0
61	64		Stephanie Nwachukwu	NGR	0	1,5	1,0	1	28,0
62	17		Jess Egwundah	NGR	0	1,5	0,0	1	28,5
63	9		Maxwell Titus	NGR	1681	0,0	0,0	0	27,0
	44		Omesu Miracle Chinyere	NGR	0	0,0	0,0	0	27,0

Annotation:
Tie Break1: Direct Encounter (The results of the players in the same point group)
Tie Break2: The greater number of victories (variable)
Tie Break3: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)

The under-14 category saw 10-year-old Ekunke Goodness come out tops again, remaining a talent to be reckoned with. He went home not only as a winner of the category but also a special award for the youngest contestant with the best performance.

We had a total of 23 prizes, all adding up to a massive 425,000 naira! A great number went home with smiles on their faces as a result of surpassing standards set in the previous Port Harcourt edition of the DanhyPro U-20 chess Tour series and doing better in the Abuja edition with certain promise to do more in the Asaba and Lagos edition due in the months of July and October respectively. The whole tour after the four states has a total cash prize of 2 million naira.

The closing ceremony started at 3pm in the noon of Sunday 25^th April, 2021 and the award ceremony was an exciting one for everyone because the chief arbiter made sure to fill the hall with smiles and laughter.  There was call to the high table after which an opening prayer was given by the tournament director, Ojikutu Samuel.

A brief opening speech was given by the assistant tournament director, Mr. Michael Benson who gave a insight about Danhypro services limited and also shared the vision behind the Danhypro tour.

The Danhypro tour is aimed at discovering talents in Nigeria, which leaders in the various zones can see and put in their resources to see them evolve into top players in the not too distant future. In his words, “Danhypro Services limited is a firm that is very passionate about chess development in Nigeria and will continue to promote chess development via sponsorship and support to aid junior chess development and growth in Nigeria, thereby making valid contributions to the future of Nigeria chess”.

Also, there was an exhibition match held between Veteran chess player Mr. Josh Ali and Okemakinde Toluwanimi, which ended in a drawi

After the medals and prizes were awarded, THE GO FOR WEST AFRICAN GRAND-MASTER INITIATIVE sponsored a special awards segment to encourage some participants, the first was the N10,000 cash prize award for Youngest player with the best performance which was merited by Ekunke Goodness and the award to a PLAYER IN A CHESS TOURNAMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME with over 50% performance, the N10,000 cash prize was awarded to Khalid Ahmed who finished with 5 points of 9 games in his first tournament.

After the closing ceremony, the tournament director (Ojikutu Samuel) Scheduled an open blitz competition as an after-tournament event to give everyone a feel of tournament thrill.

The after-tournament event lasted 5 rounds and surprisingly, CM Okeke Isaac and Okemakinde Toluwanimi won joint first in the event.

Special thanks to the CEO of DanhyPro Services Limited, International Master Daniel Anwuli, sponsors, Africa Chess Media, BruvsChess media, and the entire Danhypro team – Tournament director – Samuel Ojikutu, Assistant Tournament Director – Michael Benson, Chief Arbiter – Titoluwanimi Rapheal for making this happen!

Also, special thanks to Royalton hotels for providing a most wonderful and serene environment coupled with impeccable service from staff truly worth five stars!

Catch you all next in the Asaba edition!