Chess: 37th World Chess Olympiad-Kimende returns to lead Seychelles to 133rd place |09 June 2006

The 37th World Chess Olympiad in Torino, Italy, presented local chesslers with the opportunity to shine and one of them beat all the odds to feature among the best players in the overall ranking.

Ralph Kimende made a stunning comeback after a five-year retirement to lead the Seychelles team to finishing 133rd out of 150 participating teams.

Seychelles’s score of 21 points is the highest ever amassed by a local team in the Olympiad. The team finished with a record of three wins, two draws and eight defeats in 13 rounds of matches.

In fact, six teams – Mozambique (130th), Namibia (131st), Honduras (132nd), Seychelles (133rd), Macau (134th) and Chinese Taipei (135th) - finished with 21 points.

Armenia clinched the gold medal with 36 points after 13 rounds followed by runners-up China with 34 points and third-placed United States with 33 points.

Ukraine topped the women’s division with 29.5 points followed by Russia with 28 points and China with 27.5 points.

Neighbouring Mauritius finished 137th with 20.5 points in the championship played on a 13-round Swiss system tournament.

Kimende was Seychelles’ best representative at the Olympiad with an outstanding contribution of 8.5 points.

The 29-year-old, who made a good start to the competition with his first ever win against a master chessler, Fide master Sanchez Jorge of Panama, also featured in two of the championship’s individual rankings. He was 12th out of 147 chesslers playing on board number four and 53rd among the top-100 players in the percentage ranking with a score of 70.8%.

Pakistani Amer Karim was first in the percentage ranking with a score of 93.8% followed in second place by his compatriot Gillani Tanveer Mohyuddin with 87.5%.

In the board number four ranking, Kimende was the second-best chessler, after 10th placed Fred Hamperi of Guernsey (72.2%), not to hold master titles.

First to ninth places were occupied by grandmasters, international masters and Fide masters.

Grandmaster Wang Yue of China led all scores with 10 points and an 83.3% score.
Speaking to Sports Nation, Kimende said:

“This is my best score in any international competition. I lost my first match by walk-over because we arrived late for the championship which turned out to be a good one for me and the rest of the Seychelles team. I could have scored more points, but I lost concentration at times as I was tired. This good performance could help to revive chess here but we still lag behind as we train in books while chesslers of other countries follow training on computers.”

Seychelles’ three other chesslers at the Olympiad were Peter Meier (5 points), Kurt Meier (4 points) and Michel Zialor (3.5 points).

It must be noted that the two Meiers are based in Switzerland.
Paule Domingue headed the Seychelles delegation and attended the Fédération internationale des Echecs (Fide) congress.

Meanwhile, incumbent Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was re-elected into office during the game’s general assembly.

Fide president Ilyumzhinov also appointed Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia, Nizar El Haj of Libya and Khalifa Al Hitmi of Qatar as Fide vice-presidents.

Results of Seychelles’ matches in the 13 rounds

Seychelles lost 0-4 to Albania in round 1
Seychelles lost 1-3 to Panama in round 2 (A win by Kimende)
Seychelles won 2.5-1.5 against Macau in round 3 (Wins by Kimende and Peter Meier and a draw by Kurt Meier)
Seychelles lost 1.5 -2.5 to Namibia in round 4 (A win by Kimende and a draw by Zialor)
Seychelles lost .5-3.5 to Japan in round 5 (A draw by Peter Meier)
Seychelles drew 2-2 with Honduras in round 6 (A win by Kimende and two draws by Zialor and Kurt Meier)
Seychelles lost 1-3 to South Korea in round 7 (A win by Peter Meier)
Seychelles lost 1.5-2.5 to Chinese Taipei in round 8 (Draws by Kurt Meier, Peter Meier and Kimende)
Seychelles drew 2-2 to Papua New Guinea in round 9 (A win by Zialor and draws by Kurt Meier and Peter Meier)
Seychelles won 3-1 against Bermuda in round 10 (Wins by Kimende and Kurt Meier and draws by Zialor and Peter Meier)
Seychelles won 3-1 against Netherlands Antilles in round 11(Wins by Kimende, Zialor and Kurt Meier)
Seychelles lost 1.5-2.5 to Nepal in round 12 (A win by Kimende and a draw by Peter Meier)
Seychelles lost 1.5-2.5 to Bahrain in round 13 (A win by Kimende and a draw by Peter Meier)

G. G.