The Gambia Chess national team is currently participating in the 2021 International Chess Federation (FIDE) online Chess Olympiad, which began on Friday 20th August. The Gambia team is participating from the American Corner on Kairaba Avenue.
This is the second time the Gambian team is taking part in the online tournament, after successfully participating in the first edition held in 2020, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The world Chess governing body FIDE confirmed that 155 teams divided into four divisions are taken part in the tournament, with squads of Russia, USA, China, India, Ukraine at the top of the list. The Gambia is placed in one of the groups with 11 other countries.
Last year, The Gambia Chess Federation registered both a male and female team for the online championship, and this year they included a junior category in tournament.
Top Gambian Chess players Ebrima Bah known as ‘KRU BOY’ and Demba Jobe are in the senior male category while Sira Jallow and Fatou Jabbie are in the female category.
Mathew Aziz and Christina Aziz are are the junior category players.
Speaking ahead of the tournament, Amadou Jallow president of The Gambia Chess Federation expressed delight with Gambia’s participation in the second edition of the FIDE online Olympiad.
He said this will avail the players the opportunity to widen their experience in competing in the global state against bigger nations.
“Despite the challenges brought about by the global coronavirus global, GCF endeavored to register in three categories to boost the moralof the players and promote the sport,” Mr Jallow said.
Sasuna Mbaye, first vice president of the federation and Habib Mboob, the team captain, coordinated the logistic arrangement to enable the teams to a respectable performance.
The Gambian team is expected to play 11 rounds with different countries during the competition, with the first game against Democratic Republic of Congo played on Friday.
The American Embassy and Netpage provided a significant part of the logistics support to the Gambia Chess Federation (GCF).
Federation President Jallow commended the US Embassy and Netpage for supporting the Gambia’s successful participation in the 2021 FIDE online Olympiad.
