By Ikenna Nwokedi
The third edition of the Titans Open Chess Championship has kicked off in the state with 43 participants featuring in the board games event.
The Chess championship which holds from Thursday, 9th January to Saturday, 11th January, 2025 is currently taking place at the Faculty of Social Sciences Multipurpose Hall, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
The FIDE rated competition which offers a total prize money of 600 thousand naira will feature four categories comprising of the open category, female category, Under-20 and Under-14 categories with a total of 8 rounds not lasting more than an hour and 30 seconds for each round.
The open category which is free for all irrespective of age different will see the winner take home the sum of N100,000 while the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh placed finishers will go home with the sum of N75,000, N50,000, N40,000, N30,000, N15,000 and N10,000 respectively.
In the Under-20 category, the winner, first runners up and the second runners up are expected to win the sum of N40,000, N30,000 and N20,000 respectively, the Under-14 category will see the winner and runners up go home with N20,000 and N10,000 respectively while for the female category, the winner will take home N30,000, second and third placed participants will get N20,000 and N10,000 respectively.
Speaking to the media, the Titans Club CEO, Mr. Odinaka Joshua Udochukwu stated that the competition is a platform to bring the game to limelight and an opportunity to assemble the best of Chess players across the state and the South East zone to compete in a battle of strategy and weight.
Mr. Udochukwu disclosed that it is called on an open championship meaning that players of different age grades can participate and play against each other. The Chess promoter also informed that the championship is FIDE RATED meaning that it is internationally recognized.
The erstwhile President of UNIZIK Chess club and Computer Science graduate of the institution thanked the UNIZIK Alumni; the institution’s Directorate of Sports; the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof. Frankcollins Okafor;The Head Department of Music, UNIZIK and Chairman UNIZIK Chess Association, Dr. Ikedimma Okeke; Chess Grand Master, Mr. Thomas John Iweozor one-time President of UNIZIK Chess club, Uche Okeke and others for their support towards the success of the championship.
He advised the participants to put in their best performance in the course of the competition.
