Bloombreed Chess Team at the 2nd Edition South-South National Chess Tournament, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
The South-South national chess tournament is a zonal chess tournament that is conducted yearly all around the Geo-political zones in the country hosted by any state within the hosting zone with the support of the other states in the zone.
The just concluded south-south national chess competition happens to be the 2nd edition of this highly prestigious event in this particular zone hosted in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. The tournament was scheduled to run from on the 12th to 17th of September 2023. This edition was made an open competition accommodating participants from all over the country and most especially to accommodate participants from other countries and nations in the world.
The event was graced by a Grandmaster from Egypt in the person of GM Abdelrahman Hesham who was a participant also in the first edition as well as the winner of the first Edition, a foreign based player from the United States of America in the name of Osemkhian I. Omoifo as well as players from the hosting zone and other zones within the country.
The event was graced by Five (5) students from Bloombreed School names as stated below in no particular order;
Obinna Eke
Hameed Hamadina
Hakeem Hamadina
Okafor Ikechukwu Fortune
Ojeniyi Abdulbasit
With a time control of 90 minutes for each players, the tournament was an open competition as the pairings was done automatically by AI (Swiss Manager) on the basis of starting ranking and preceding performances. The players were paired against each other without regards to age or size but on the basis of their performances.
The tournament was won by the Grandmaster present at the event for the second time in a row. With Hameed Hamadina, Obinna Eke and Hakeem Hamadina finishing on the medal table for the under-14 category whilst Hameed Hamadina and Obinna eke respectively won a chess set and shared a cash prize of N33,300 each, Okafor Ikechukwu Fortune won the sum of N10,000 over a raffle draw during the course of the tournament and last but not least, Hakeem Hamadina won an award cash prize of N5,000.
We expressly want to thank Bloombreed Schools for according our kids the opportunity to partake in their first rated tournament which in turn has granted them both exposure and experience.
We do hope that parents and schools would keep this in active minds and keep the torch burning by supporting kids in their pursuit for excellence.