GM Bassem Amin of Egypt has been crowned the 2018 African Individual Chess Champion. GM Bassem has now won this event a record 5 times! He victories in this event came in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018 and certainly puts him as the top player in Africa.
WGM Wafa Sahenda of Egypt retained the Ladies title that she won in 2017.
The event was held at the Warm Harbour Hotel in Livingstone, Zambia and ran from 12th to 22nd May 2018.
GM Bassem & WFM Wafa both clinched gold medals in the Blitz sections as well.
GM Adly Ahmed of Egypt and WIM Amina Mezioud of Algeria won gold medals in the Rapid sections.
The event had a total of 30 players in the Open section and 20 players in the Ladies section. The event which is one of Africa’s premier event in the FIDE calendar had players from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Egypt, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
14 year old FM Dante Beukes of Namibia scored an impressive 4.5 points out of 9 points to certainly gain valuable Elo points on the way.
WFM Angolikin Gorreti of Uganda was the only representative from East Africa. We can only hope that some of the top players from this region compete in next year’s event.
