Results of the Ultimate Challenge II Round 6.
GODFREY GALYA
Friday 18th – 03 – 2011
ULTIMATE CHESS CHALLENGE ENDS IN STALEMATE
The second phase of the ‘Ultimate Chess Challenge’ that started on Wednesday between Arthur Ssegwanyi Vs Emojong Elijah, two of Uganda’s current chess giants ended in a tie at Lugogo.
After two days of an intense mental battle, the match climaxed in a stalemate with each player having won two games drawn two and two loses.
The six round events, which featured very high level chess games in recent times, had the two giants playing six matches with each lasting a total of five hours.
The matches are meant to select the strongest player on Uganda’s local scene and to prepare the top players for international engagements where Uganda intends to scoop Masters Titles and improve international ratings of its players.
Each player won all their matches when playing with the white pieces except match six where they opted for a draw due to exhaustion. Emojong won game one and four, he drew match three and six, but lost match two, and five. Arthur won match two and five.
The standard of play is quite high with each player displaying Grand master moves up to move 16. This level of accuracy is perhaps attributed to intensive study and help of the computer which has become a vital tool for training in the world of chess today. The matches when fed into computer were between 75 to 78% error free, an indication that chess level standard have improved.
In the last match Ssegwanyi playing the English attack tried to out fox Emojong with the symmetrical lines, he placed his pieces strategically maneuvering the light squared bishop to b1 and queen d3 attempting to open the h file with his h pawn but Emojong neutralized the position.
The tie means that the match is ushered into a four games tie break where each player will have one hour to complete their match. The four matches are scheduled to start at 2pm today.
Emojong having the white army advantage is expected to go for a win and perhaps draw match two of the tie break. The tension will be mounting since a single blunder would lead to disastrous consequences. The tie break is likely to be advantageous to the player who is a faster thinker of duo.
The winner of this phase will take Ugx 400,000.
The next phase will feature the winner playing another top player in Uganda.
Gali L.M Godfrey
Lugogo Tennis club
0702924139 / 0755924139