Home Chess News 2025 Super Zonals Chess Championship

2025 Super Zonals Chess Championship

April 18, 2025

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2025 Super Zonals Chess Championship

The 2025 Super Zonals Chess Championship from 10th to 16th April 2025 at the Citiheight Luxury Hotel in Ikeja, Nigeria, saw ten players from six African federations participating.

Tennyson Ewomazino Olisa of Nigeria was the winner with 7.5 points out of nine rounds. WIM Lina Nassr of Algeria was second with 6.5 points out of nine rounds.

The event was to feature the winners from the different African zonal championships, with the winners of the Open & Ladies Section getting the right to participate in certain FIDE events. However, the event failed to meet its expectations for several reasons. The organisers had no choice but to allow other players to participate and combine both the Open and the Ladies Section due to the low number of entries.

The Zone 4.4 Chess Championship winners from the event held in Nairobi in February 2025 faced several challenges in trying to attend the event.

Abdulkadir Mohamed Warsame of Somalia, the winner of Zone 4.4 (which includes Kenya), failed to attend after being denied entry into Nigeria. On the other hand, WCM Joyce Nyaruai of Kenya, the Zone 4.4 Ladies Section winner, could not travel to the event due to other commitments.

WFM Sana Omprakash Kayyar from Uganda was the only East African representative. She scored 3.5 points to end up 7th in the ranking out of ten players.

Despite the challenges, the players’ spirits remained high, and the audience was treated to some thrilling chess matches, thanks to the live game broadcasts.

The victorious Tennyson Ewomazino Olisa and WIM Lina Nassr will represent Africa in the 2025 FIDE World Cup and the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Event.