IM Eugenio Campos of Angola made Africa proud when he scored 5 points and ended in 5th place in the 2022 International Physically Disabled Chess Association Championship that ended in Israel last week.
The event saw a total of twenty-four participants from ten federations taking part. Angola was the only representative from Africa.
IM Andrei Obodchuk playing under the FIDE flag, was the winner with 7.5 points from nine rounds, while IM MIkheev Stanislave of Serbia was second with 7 points. GM Yaacov Zilberman and IM Andrew Burbano of Israel were joint third with 6.5 points each.
However, GM Yaacov Zilberman received the bronze medal as he had a better tie-break.
IM Andrei Obodchuk went home with the top cash prize of EUR 1,000 out of the total prize fund of EUR 4,500.
While IM Eugenio Campos’s 5 points out of nine rounds seem modest, he faced what appears to be the Labours of Hercules by being paired against the four top placed players in the event! In round three, he lost to silver medalist IM Mikheev Stanislav; in round six, he lost to event winner IM Andrei Obodchuk after a titanic 90 move game.
In round seven, he fell to joint third-placed winner IM Andrei Gurbanov while in the 9th and final round, IM Eugenio Campos suffered a bitter loss to bronze medal winner GM Yaacov Zilberman of Israel.
IM Eugenio Campos on Nairobi
It is interesting to note that IM Eugenio Campos visited Kenya when he participated in the 9th African Junior Chess Championship held in Nairobi from 11th to 26th December 1998. In that event, IM Eugenio scored 7 points out of 14 rounds. The 1998 edition winner was the late IM Aderito Pedro, who passed away in October 2021.
The Israeli Chess Federation, Sports Authority of Ashdod Municipality, Ashdod Municipal Chess Club, and the IPCA (International Physically Disabled Chess Association).
The IPCA (International Physically Disabled Chess Association) founded in 1992 in Czech Republic, is the world organization that unites the physically disabled chess players, currently from over 20 countries. Its first president was Czech Jiri Ulmann, one of its founders.
The IPCA is affiliated to FIDE from 1996 and its man and women teams participate regularly in Fide Chess Olympiads starting in Bled 2002 and ever since.
12 countries are currently members of the IPCA: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
The current president of the federation is Mrs. Svetlana Gerasimova while her 1st Vice President is IM Andrei Gurbanov (Israel) who is a regular participant in both International major events and the winner of IPCA championship in 2015.
The main task of the IPCA is to organize for its members the official individual World and European championships for man, women and youth and to participate in Fide Olympiads for men and women.
Most IPCA championships so far have been held in East European countries. The current event is the first to take place in Israel.
Reflection on the late IM Aderito Pedro by Dr Lyndon Bouah.
Standings & Results of the 2022 IPCA Chess Championship on chess-results.com.
PGNs from the 21st IPCA Championship.
