Gorilla Fart #5 – Round 5 Review

Report by – Mehul Gohil aka ‘Gorilla’

After today’s round, there will be a one day break at the Olympiad. 5rds in the Team Kenya (Open Section) performance can be summarised as: Promising.

After the 4-0 blow out we gave Guam, Kenya is currently at position 121. This is satisfactory. It is sort of similar to the promising situation at the same point Team Kenya had in the last Olympiad.

The toughest rounds will happen in the second half. In the last Olympiad Team Kenya underperformed in the 2nd half and the eventual team ranking was position 130. Team Kenya generally floats around position 120-140 at the Olympiads. If we can finish above position 120 we can consider the outing to have been a success.

Much depends on today’s round. We play a strong team in the form of Sudan. If we can beat them then it is likely we will finish above position 120. A set back will mean we will probably do our usual position 120 to 140 finish indicating in the larger sense vis a vis the rest of the world we have not improved.

Some statistics at the end of Rd 5:

Kenya is ranked no.14 amongst African countries. This is how the top 14 African countries are performing.

South Africa – 58
Egypt – 66
Angola – 70
Zambia – 73
Zimbabwe – 82
Mozambique – 89
Uganda – 94
Botswana – 96
Tunisia – 98
Algeria – 101
Madagascar – 109
Libya – 113
Nigeria – 119
Kenya – 121

4/5 players on Team Kenya currently have a plus 2000 Elo TPR.

McLigeyo has the best TPR on the team at 2091

All 5 players have so far gained Elos. This is a good sign.

Chess-wise, the main strengths for Team Kenya so far as I see it have been ability to maintain cool heads and keep fighting. Hopefully the stamina is there in the 2nd half. The previous two Olympiads, and indeed most, we have tended to fade away in the 2nd half. McLigeyo has played the best chess on the team.

As for chess weaknesses, I will sum up three of the main ones as I have observed them:

a) Openings: Only McLigeyo has shown any sort of decent opening prep. For the rest, there is much food for thought to take back.

b) Positional play: Everyone on the team has played some suspect positional play. In general, Kenyan chess is weak in this department.

c) Losing nerve in time pressure: this has cost us some points already.

Guam information (Editor’s note)

Guam, island and unincorporated territory of the United States in the North Pacific Ocean, the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. It lies about 5,800 miles (9,300 km) west of San Francisco and 1,600 miles (2,600 km) east of Manila.

Game Corner

About Mehul Gohil

Mehul Gohil is the a three times Kenya National Chess Champion (2014, 2019 & 2022. He has won several major events in the country including the 66th Nairobi Chess Club Championship.