SIX-PACK IN CHESS OLYMPIAD

Informante
8080/informante/index.php?option=com_content&t ask=view&id=3201&Itemid=56
Nov 13 2008
Namibia

OTTO Nakapunda will captain a team of six Namibians to compete at the
38th World Chess Olympiad, which got underway in Germany last night.

Charles Aixeb, Max Nitzborn, Frans Denis, Goodwill Khoa and Leonardo
Muller will represent Namibia, which due to a lack of funds, does
not have a women’s team at the Olympiad.

Namibia only missed the 1996 Olympiad since its debut in 1994, when
it took home a Silver medal. The event has grown bigger since, with
152 countries represented at this year’s tournament, where Namibia
will be aiming to beat its own record of silver in 94 and 98.

Chess is not played at the Olympics although it is an Olympic sport,
mainly because it comprises the largest individual contingent of
participants. No other sport has such a huge gathering of individual
participants.

National blitz champion Nakapunda, will banner a team counting on
his experience, despite Namibia failing to impress at last year’s
African Individual Chess Championship. He and Swiss-based Muller are
the country’s most capped Olympiads.

Armenia topped the men’s event in the last Olympiad in Turin, Italy
in 2006, followed by China and USA, although much is expected from
Southern African countries Zambia and Zimbabwe, besides North Africa,
which has more than six Grandmasters including GM Slim Belkhodja,
Amin Bassem and Ahmed Adly, all veteran campaigners at the WCO.

Grandmasters Zambian Amon Simutowe (24) and Zimbabwean Robert Gwaze
(26) are currently the hottest properties on the continent, and are
tipped to make it into the world’s top ten.

The tournament is being held from November 11 – 27 at the International
Congress Centre in Dreden, the state capital of Saxony.

The Olympiad is open to all Federations affiliated to FIDE, the
world chess mother-body, each of which should have a team of four