Despite being organized at short notice , the 2022 World Chess Olympiad that was hosted in Chennai , India went down in history as one of the best Olympiads ever. Particularly, it was a greater win for the African continent.

AFRICAN MEDALS
While Egypt, which was the best placed African nation on position 36 couldn’t secure a medal in group B, a few African countries clinged medals in their respective groups.
Group C
Tunisia won gold
Zimbabwe won Silver
Group D
Libya won gold
Botswana – Bronze
GROUP E
Sierra Leone – Silver
Eretria –Bronze
AFRICAN PARTICIPATION
A total of 47 African federations took part in the Olympiad, which was an improvement from the 2018 Olympiad in Batumi , Georgia which registered 44 Federations .
CONDITIONAL TITLES
The African continent celebrated when IM FY Rakotomahoro of Madagascar achieved the GM norm after scoring 6 out of 9. Zimbabwean Zhemba Jemusse also achieved an IM norm after scoring a scintillating 7.5/ 10.
Furthermore , there were a total of 12 conditional Fide Master titles from our beloved continent in the Open Section .
And to the deluge , there were a total of 48 conditional Candidate Master titles in the Open Section .
While none of the African ladies achieved Woman Grandmaster or Woman International Master norms, there were 13 conditional Woman Fide Master titles for Africa and 42 Woman Candidate Master titles.
Notably , Lubuuto Bwaltya (Zambia), Marochna Nedezhda (Senegal), Hazel Mudodo( Zimbabwe) , Peninah Nakabo (Uganda), Jemima Paulo (Angola) achieved conditional WFM titles .
On the overall performance, the top performing African federations in the Open Section were :
- EGYPT 36 which started at rank 38
- TUN 51, which started at rank 77
- RSA 55 from rank 68
- ZIM 58 from rank 94
- Liberia 81 from rank 122
- UGANDA 82 from rank 90
- ZAM 83 from rank 73
- South Sudan 92 from 109
- Nigeria 94 from 78
- Botswana 100 from 113
- Ethiopia 101 from 110
LADIES
Top performing African federations in the Ladies section were :
- Egypt 52 from 44
- Algeria 70 from 62
- Kenya 73 from 99
- Angola 74 from 69
- Zimbabwe 76 from 94
- Zambia 85 from 87

SPARKS OF BRILLIANCE
There were jovial faces across Africa when Angolan IM David Silva (2315) held the mighty GM Levon Aronian (2775) to a draw in round one of the Olympiad.

Another great performance that was much talked about was Zambian Nase Lungu’s (2216) win over GM Martin Haubro (2411) in their triumph over Denmark . Lungu also went on to beat GM Emmanuel Berg of Sweden (2533) in a subsequent round . Namibian Dante Beuke’s win over Tunisia’s Zaibi Amir 2398 was also a talking point.
https://chess-results.com/PartieSuche.aspx?art=36&id=4377991(FM Nase Lungu vs GM Martin Haubro)
However, teamwise , Zambias 2.5 to 1.5 win over an all grandmaster Denmark is considered Africas greatest achievement of the event.

AFRICAN DERBIES
In mouthwatering Open Section African derbies
EGYPT BEAT ANGOLA 4-0
EGYPT 3 VS 1 RSA
ZAMBIA 2.5 VS 1.5 EGYPT
RSA 2 VS 2 ZIMBABWE
TUNISIA 3 VS 1 NAMIBIA
MADAGASCAR 2.5 vs 1.5 TUNISIA
JUNIOR PARICIPATION
It was encouraging to see some African teams fielding young players in the Olympiad.
Quite a number of African Federations included junior players. For instance, Botswana fielded an all junior ladies team of the likes of : Naredi Marape, Natali Banda, and FM Besa Masaiti .Nigeria had Joy Onoja , and Algeria has Rania Nassr.
In the Open section, South Africa had 19 year old Banele Mhango , Algeria had 20 year old Lamine Brahimi . Ethiopia has Badene Hayu, Morocco had 20 year old Hadj Kholti, Yasser – just to mention a few.
ELECTIONS
Another great event that was activity that took place was the
A least Africa is represented at Fide by Nigerian Adeyami . At the helm of the Africa Chess Confederation is Tshepiso Lopang of Botswana who won with 29 votes.

For the Zones , the following won.
Zone 4.1 Marouane Tabti (Algeria)
Zone 4.2 Philip Ameku (Ghana)
Zone 4.3 Barthelemy Bongo (Gabon)
Zone 4.4 Yassin Souleyman (Djibouti)
Zone 4.5 Susan Namangale (Malawi)
Overall in the Womens Section
Ukraine won gold
Georgia won Silver
India won Bronze
While in the Open Section
Uzbekistan won gold
Armenia won Silver
India Bronze