Amos Simiyu wins AAG Phase 2 Amos Simiyu was the surprise winner in Phase 2 of the All Africa Games Qualifiers held over the weekend.
Man of the moment – Amos Simiyu in action. Photo credit James Mwangi. He was ranked 11th at the start of the event and it was impressive that he won this event which had an average rating of 1873.
Cheryl Ngima on the hand played extremely well when she topped the Ladies Section with 5 points out of 6 games. She was ranked 15th of the 20 players who took part.
Playing hall. Photo credit James Mwangi. The venue for the event was the KCB Club along Thika Road.
Kenya ladies in action from left – Lyndah Abur, Daphne Mwikali & Agnes Thuo. Photo credit James Mwangi. Qualifiers for the Final Section
Players who qualified for the Final Section are shown below.
Open Section.
The above 7 players will be joined in the Final Phase with the following players;
Dr. Victor Ng’ani – Reigning National Champion.
Aguda Lwanga – Top Junior.
CM Benjamin Magana – Top player FIDE rating list.
Joseph Methu – Second ranked FIDE rating list.
Ladies Section
The above 8 players will be joined in the Final Phase with the following players.
Gloria Jumba – Reigning National Ladies Champion.
Cynthia Awino – Top Junior.
WCM Joyce Nyaruai – Top lady in FIDE rating list.
Akello Atwoli v Mehul Gohil
[Event "ALL AFRICA GAMES (AAG) 2ND PHASE "]
[Site "KCB Sports Club Ruaraka, Nairobi"]
[Date "2019.02.01"]
[Round "2.4"]
[White "Atwoli, Joseph"]
[Black "Gohil, Mehul"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B02"]
[WhiteElo "1975"]
[BlackElo "1950"]
[Annotator "Mehul Gohil"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2019.02.01"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "KEN"]
{It was a heavyweight clash between Gorilla and Kaidanz (Atwoli) in Rd2.
Both play provocative chess and do not shy away from sharp positions. So the
game quickly built up dynamic tension and lots of complexity…both strategic
and tactical. Kaidanz essayed a trademark K-side attack and Gorilla kept
character by inviting the fire and even pouring more gasoline onto it. In the
ensuing tactical melee, replete with sacrifices from both sides, a crisis
point was reached. Atwoli denuded Gorilla’s king cover with a flamboyant
bishop sacrifice on g6; Gorilla returned fire by pointing out Kaidanz’s back
rank was without underpants with an even more flamboyant queen sacrifice. The
position was razor sharp with no margin for error but dynamically balanced.
At this point a forced repetition was in the offing with both sides having to
tread the tactical minefield with only moves which were not obvious. For a
moment the repetition seemed in the offing. Then Kaidanz became ambitious.
He slyly re-routed his queen, hitting the h7 point from a different direction.
Unfortunately for him, the Gorilla had spotted the tactical flaw with
Kadainz’s idea and sacrificed his knight, totally exploiting the
underpantsless Kaidanz back rank and won material and eventually the game.
Gorilla thanks the gods, starting with Ganesh, for showering him with two
utterly precious points on day one.} 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. Nc3 Nxc3 4. bxc3 d5
5. d4 c5 6. f4 Nc6 7. Nf3 Bg4 8. Be2 e6 9. O-O Rc8 10. Rb1 Bxf3 11. Rxf3 cxd4
12. Rxb7 Bc5 13. Kh1 O-O 14. Bd3 g6 15. Rg3 Rc7 16. Rb5 Bb6 17. Qh5 f5 18. exf6
Qxf6 19. Bxg6 Kh8 20. Rh3 Qe5 21. Qd1 Qf6 22. Qd3 Ne5 23. Bxh7 Nxd3 24. Bxd3+
Kg8 25. Ba3 dxc3 26. Bd6 Qd4 27. Rb1 Rxf4 28. Bxf4 Qxf4 29. Rf3 Qd4 30. Rbf1
Bc5 31. Rf6 e5 32. Bf5 Qh4 33. Be6+ Kg7 34. Bxd5 Qxf6 0-1
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Amos Simiyu v Milton Kihara
[Event "ALL AFRICA GAMES (AAG) 2ND PHASE KENYA Q"]
[Site "KCB Sports Club Ruaraka, Nairobi"]
[Date "2019.02.01"]
[Round "2.6"]
[White "Simiyu, Amos"]
[Black "Mwangi, John Milton Kihara"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D53"]
[WhiteElo "1870"]
[BlackElo "1749"]
[PlyCount "67"]
[EventDate "2019.02.01"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "KEN"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Bg5 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. e3 Be7 6. Nf3 h6 7. Bh4 b6 8. cxd5
Nxd5 9. Nxd5 exd5 10. Bxe7 Qxe7 11. Qb3 Bb7 12. Rc1 c6 13. Bd3 O-O 14. O-O c5
15. Bf5 c4 16. Qa4 Nf6 17. Ne5 Bc8 18. Bb1 Be6 19. b3 cxb3 20. axb3 Rfc8 21.
Bd3 Rxc1 22. Rxc1 Rc8 23. Rxc8+ Bxc8 24. Qc6 Qb7 25. Qd6 Bd7 26. Qe7 Bc6 27.
Qd8+ Be8 28. Bb5 Kf8 29. Bxe8 Nxe8 30. Nd7+ Kg8 31. Qxe8+ Kh7 32. Qxf7 Qc6 33.
g3 Qc7 34. Nf6+ 1-0
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Proudly wearing his club uniform – Mehul Gohil who also qualified for the final phase. Photo credit James Mwangi. Amos Simiyu v Mehul Gohil
[Event "All Africa Games Qualifiers Phase 2"]
[Site "KCB Sports Club Ruaraka"]
[Date "2019.02.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Amos Simiyu"]
[Black "Mehul Gohil"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D66"]
[WhiteElo "1870"]
[BlackElo "1950"]
[Annotator "Amos Simiyu"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[Source "Analyze This App"]
1. d4 {I loved this game. It was a deep positional game and very psychological
and emotionally draining. In analysis as often it may look easy but on the
board.. not at all. Mehul also thought I got lucky and that he was better.
However I think differently. I never lost thread of the position.} d5 2. c4 e6
3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nc3 Nbd7 6. e3 h6 7. Bh4 O-O 8. Rc1 c6 9. Bd3 {All
these is basic theory, then..} a6 10. c5 {Telling Black the a6 move will not
help you much now. Black is maybe looking for} (10. O-O dxc4 11. Bxc4 b5 12.
Bd3 c5 {I do not want to go this route, Black has many ways to equalise maybe
already done.}) 10... e5 {perfect counter. Break White’s center. But I am
comfortable with the slight imbalance.} 11. dxe5 Ne8 12. Bg3 {lets keep pieces
on the board and complicate} Nxc5 13. Bb1 {The diagonal is open, lets keep our
White bishop, we can mate him one day at h7} f5 {Now some weaknesses on the
light squares, can we attack this already?} 14. Nd4 g6 {And there goes, a
critical point in the game. Rook is on c1. I cannot castle long but do I
really need to castle? Plan: attack the 2 weak squares g6 and f5. They
look alright but intuition says they will buckle under pressure later.} 15. h4
Ng7 {Stopping h5 or does he? I went into a 25min think and decided to sac the
exchange with} 16. h5 {Gorilla pissed me here, he rejected the sac after 10
secs amd I am like ‘dude take the exchange’ and we go into the jungle. I
have just invested 25mins but ..} g5 {This is the best move. Taking the sac
is a disaster. Gorilla analysed it too in my 25min think and had decided he
wasn’t going to muddy waters without knowing the depth. It wud have been crazy
e.g} (16... Nxh5 17. Rxh5 gxh5 18. Qxh5 Qe8 19. Qxh6 Qf7 20. e6 Qf6 21. Nxf5 {
A trap, white shouldn’t pick the e6 pawn!} Bxe6 22. Be5 {!! Boom! Had it
appeared on the board and not just in our analysis, It would have been the
move of the tournament.} Qxe5 (22... Qxh6 23. Nxh6#) 23. Qg6+ Kh8 24. Qh5+ Kg8
25. Nxe7+ Kg7 26. Qg6+ Kh8 27. Qh7# {and other crazy lines}) 17. Qc2 {Still
playing on the b1-h7 diagonal while developing} Nce6 {During the game, I felt
C5 was a positional threat now if i play something slow like f3 etc so..} 18.
Rd1 {I doid not want a slow game with Mehul the Gorilla. This move is meant for
mayhem and imbalance.} Qe8 {If now} (18... c5 {Then the ‘Tal Sac’} 19. Nxd5
cxd4 20. Nxe7+ Qxe7 21. exd4 Bd7 22. d5 Rac8 23. Qb3 {May not be a very sound
sac especially if you analyse from home but on the board. Gorilla will have
to battle the 2 connected passed pawns.}) 19. Qe2 {Waiting game more than
defending the always sacrificed h5 pawn.} Bd7 20. f3 {Here I decided to go for
the breakthrough g4. I think the position is semi closed and I can play Bf7
and not loose critical time.} Qf7 (20... Nxh5) 21. Bf2 Nxd4 22. Rxd4 {My first
mistake of the game. An oversight really . I was worried that with..} (22. exd4
Nxh5 {My attack is seriously slowed by} 23. g4 Nf4 {I honestly overlooked that
Nxh5 is not possible because of the fork at e6! So I captured with Rook
daring him to still take the pawn.}) 22... Bc5 {Mehul avoids the complications
and plays Solid.} 23. Rd1 Rae8 24. f4 Ne6 {A good move and practical but I
have also been waiting for this moment the whole game: weak light squares so..}
25. g4 {This is not such a ‘body’ move but practically Black is walking on a
mine field and he must play accurately, No second best moves now} d4 {True to
the spirit of the move, one wrong move is played by Black and maybe he is lost
already.} 26. gxf5 dxc3 27. fxe6 {This is why Black is lost; first, his Black
Bishop is unprotected at c5 and secondly the weak square g6 finally gives to
an exchange loss} Bxe6 {No better way! If} (27... Qxe6 28. Qc2 {Threatens mate
at h7.} (28. Qd3 {same thing}) 28... Rf7 {Stops mate but..} 29. Qxc3 {Attacks
the hanging c5 Bishop maintaining bishop skewer square ‘g6’} Be7 30. Bg6) 28.
Bg6 {finally! lets get the exchange.} Qg7 29. Bxe8 Rxe8 30. bxc3 {After all
the hullabaloo, Black is an exchange down with absolutely no compensation.
Bishop is still unprotected at c5. Black’s position is lost.} Qf7 {Attacking
A2 but now..} 31. Rg1 g4 {Douglas could not believe I did not give back the
exchange by R x g4 and win easy. I saw e4 wins and did not feel the need to
complicate further thus played..} 32. e4 {Thanks to the unprotected c5 ‘Bishop’
} Bxf2+ 33. Qxf2 Qxh5 34. f5 Bxf5 35. Qxf5 Qxf5 36. exf5 Rxe5+ 37. Kd2 {I was
a little careful not to lose another pawn but the rest is a formality really.}
h5 38. Rdf1 Ra5 39. Rh1 Rxa2+ 40. Kd3 g3 41. Rxh5 g2 42. Rg1 Kf7 43. Rg5 Kf6
44. R1xg2 Ra1 45. Rf2 {My second and last mistake I think, but thankfully not
fatal. I still win. I did not hang the Rook but I overlooked Rd1+ and
Rook goes back to d8 but luckily my King’s position helps to convert.} Kxg5 46.
f6 Rd1+ 47. Ke4 Rd8 48. Ke5 Re8+ 49. Kd6 Ra8 50. f7 a5 51. f8=Q Rxf8 52. Rxf8
a4 53. Ra8 Kf4 54. Rxa4+ Ke3 55. Rd4 {Black resigns……. My best game in the
tournament. My only regret is Gorilla should have picked the exchange sac on
move 16. I do not know who would have won, but we would have given
spectators a game to watch.} 1-0
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12th All African Games The 12th All African Games will take place from 23 August to 3 September 2019 in Rabat, Morocco.
This will be Kenya’s 3rd appearance that the event. These included Algiers, Algeria (2009) and Maputo, Mozambique (2011). An article on the 2011 edition can be found in the link below.
Dates of the Final Phase The final phase will be held over two consecutive weekends from 1st to 3rd and 8th to 10th March 2019. The event will be a single Round-Robin for both Women and Men’s sections.
Links Standings & Results.
Chess article on the 2011 All Africa Games.
