Chess Heights Monthly

CH: Good evening, Mr. Bassey Esua. 

BE: Good evening Mr.Tolulope.

CH: You won the Chess Heights Kaduna Monthly of March 2024. What do you have to say about that?

BE: That has been my second Chess Heights. The reason why the experience is so lovely is because there were a lot of promising players, a lot of chess players. Those days in Kaduna, we hardly have tournaments so the moment I heard about Chess Heights coming to Kaduna I was so excited. When I went there, it was very stiff competition. We had a lovely time. But, actually, I was on my toes because the tournament, even from the first game, the round 1, round 2, round 3, were all tight. Two of us were tied. Then, I think, round 3, I lost. Then, round 4, the guy who was leading that round…, then later on we had three people, three persons that tied. So, for the final round, I won my game, and my two other rivals lost their games. It was really an experience, but the feeling of winning the Chess Heights is giving me more confidence that I can do anything, generally. Even if I go to Lagos or anywhere in the world, it gives me the feeling that I can do anything.

CH: What was your biggest challenge to winning the event? 

BE: My biggest challenge I would call my round three game. My round three and four game, but especially my first three rounds. The first game that I played, I came in that morning, I had this stress due to the journey so I wasn’t very settled. My first game, in a position, my opponent actually had an advantage. He was an exchange up but I just had to complicate the position. So at the end, he fell in. Same thing with the third game. The third game actually was even a piece down, not even an exchange. I was a full knight down for a pawn. But later on the game got to a point where my opponent blundered and I had a drawn position. I don’t know why he did not take the draw. He was trying to force a win and that’s how he lost. In the fourth game, I lost. So it was from that fourth game that I could think. I got my strength back from the, the stress of the  journey, so I was more focused. Anyway, I wasn’t expecting that I would win the tournament because after losing the fourth game. I was just thinking I would … But basically, my most challenging round, I would say is round one, round three and round four.

CH: Was that your first time of being an outright winner of a chess event?

BE: I’ve won other tournaments but not Fide rated tournament. This is the first Fide rated tournament I’ve won.

CH: Do you think you can win it again? 

BE: Of course.I now have that belief that any player that comes, let them bring in their best, I am ready.

CH: Can you give us a brief history of your chess journey? 

BE: My chess journey, I started playing chess 1998. I was introduced to chess by, uh, one of my family friends that stayed with us, Ifeanyi Ikedulu, he is married now. He introduced me to chess then, he taught me how the pieces move. From there, we started from openings. He gave me a book which was Batsford Chess Openings, so I started with that. Then there was a particular journal he gave to me. I think a printed journal by Alexander Alekhine and Igor Buku, the Queen’s Gambit game. So those materials were my starting point, then I started playing chess there. Then from there, in my secondary school, we had an inter house sports game. Initially I was on the bench. What happened was that the major player that always plays for my house was sick and unavailable so, they now said there’s one guy in SS1. They picked me up, and I went to the contest. So I went there, I played, then I got to semi final where I lost to one Ibiye Robert. Then I played for the third place, but the third place, I also got a lost position, where my opponent wanted to just mock me, so he wanted to get a lot of queens. He got like the first queen, got the second queen, so by the third queen, I checkmated him. So, from there, I now believed that I could play chess and after that, I started going further. Then I lived in a neighbourhood in Port Hacourt that is Borokiri. So, I came across players like Cole, Michael, I came across Alalibo Krama. There were some other players I came across. Those were all more experienced players. They do play top tournaments like NBL. So, I came across those players, then through those players I was inspired. I then went to the University, ABU where I met Lawal, and Jolly Itodo. Those were national players who used to participate in sports festival. So these chess players moulded me, the way I think in chess, and my chess game improved. Then we played NUGA, we represented ABU. So I was in the team. So we got an individual gold. Then we went again to NUGA 2009. This time around we got team gold, two individual medals and one bronze. After that period, I left chess for a while. I became focused on sorting out the challenges I had. I then played WAUG Games  and Festival. So again I left chess for a period. I just left anything competitive chess. Most of my chess was just basically, uh, friendly chess. So it was a friend of mine in ABU, Mustapha Othman, he was the one that told me that I could still play tournaments, that he knows me and I’m still quite good. I should come and play tournaments, I shouldn’t allow my chess to die. So I decided to give it a shot. So that last year, that was the North Central Tournament, I think so, in August in Abuja. So I went for the tournament. I think I finished 20th after roughly about 10 years of not playing competitive chess. So my first three rounds were challenging, but later on I still came up. So after I played that tournament and I finished 20th, because I didn’t even have a FIDE rating, I just came to the tournament to try. So I beat 1800 players. Then  I beat two 1900 players. Then I now met Idara. That was towards the end of the tournament on the top board, he beat me. So when I was able to achieve that, I now said to myself that, ah, this means I can, if I can do this, this means I can still do more in chess. So after then, I started going for every chess tournament that we had. So, we had a tournament in November, I think in, in Kaduna, I went there. I think that was, uh, Chess Heights. So, I finished top, uh, joint top with, uh, with, uh, Joshua Adejoh. We had another tournament this year. That was January in Kaduna. And the participants were more than 40. So I also finished joint top. With Adejoh Joshua also. That tournament was very competitive because we were about five that finished top. So after that, I continued. I had this courage that I can do more. So then I played the Chess Heights in February. I finished second behind Mustapha Othman. Finally, in March. I found myself as the winner. So, one thing I learnt through this journey is that persistency pays off. So, never give up on your dreams.

CH: Do you think you can be a grandmaster?

BE: Of course. It has been my dream from when I started playing chess because I was challenged that Nigeria doesn’t have a grandmaster. So it has always been my dream to be a grandmaster. I even put that in my confession that I will be Nigeria’s first grandmaster even though now I am about 40, I still don’t give up on that dream. It always pains me when I see Egypt come to carry Africa Chess Championship, they will just be dealing with everybody. I believe Nigeria has a lot of potentials, it is just that we need to harness our potentials and we have a right structure. I believe strongly that I will be a grandmaster, quote me.

CH: What challenges have you faced in your chess journey?

BE: One of the major challenges I faced, because I actually had to start on my own. My parents never encouraged me to play chess. I remember that my family friend that gave me a board apart from the Batsford Chess Opening. I had one small board that was made up of asbestos. The first board I had was pocket chess then later on they seized that board. My parents were the kind of people, they only believe in schooling. They don’t believe in anything else. So when they seized that board, now they put fear in me so I was always learning chess under the shadows. If I hear a footstep coming to the house, my mom is coming, I would just put the board under the bed, slide it under the bed.But later on, I think, uh, in my chess career, uh, when I got to the university, I had that little freedom, so I could, uh, do that. But later on, but the only thing that made her happy was when I won a gold in NUGA, my mom was so excited, she was always bragging, saying, uh, my son, my son, my son. She was so proud that I won gold as a chess player. So, it was so challenging for me. But, at the end, I think it was worth it. 

CH: What are your plans for the future?

BE: My plans for the future? I am actually planning to go to Lagos I don’t want my chess to end in Kaduna. So I want to go to Lagos and play with the top guys. People like Bomo Kigigha, Femi Balogun, the best of the best, Callistus. Because, I believe that, one of the things that helped me in my chess career, I had this drive that, anyone who is better than me, I always want to play you because I believe that I will learn from you and it will push me to the limit. That’s my dream. So when I go to Lagos, then from there I will move into Africa and take the world.

CH: What do you think of chess in Nigeria as a whole?

BE: Chess in Nigeria for now, I can say there is a rising awareness for chess. I remember that in 1998 when I started learning chess the main tournament I hear about in Nigeria was NBL. NBL which was in Lagos then. There were very few tournaments. So now if I consider going through the work done by the founders of Friends of Chess, and now Chess Heights. What inspired me about Chess Heights is that it started from Lagos and now spread to other states. So people are becoming more aware. I could see now in, uh, Nigeria chess is becoming more, more, more. But I believe we can still do more to take it to the grassroots. Like the school initiative you spoke about  chess in schools. It’s really, really an inspiring initiative. It’s something I think that if we can take it to our grassroots, so not just in Lagos, but in Kaduna, in Enugu, various states, we have those kind of programs in different schools at the end of the day, we are going to get very, very good. Because the young minds are the future.  Because when you catch them young, it’s much more easier. They can easily focus. So, people can catch them at the age of five, let’s say five, six, seven. Because when I was reading an article, and I was reading about most of the past, world champions in chess, and I realized that most of them started playing chess at early age. Kasparov started playing chess at 7, Anatoly started playing chess at 5. Most of them were at that very young age. And you know, a child at that young age, their mind is open to learn very fast. So, uh, uh, there’s a lot of development, but we still have more work to do to penetrate to the grassroots. I, I meant programs also to educate parents on the importance of chess. Because chess can build the child’s IQ. So for Nigeria, I can say, we are on the right track.

CH: What do you think of chess in Kaduna in particular?

BE: Yes, for chess in Kaduna, of recent we have been having some programs. The Chess Heights which we had in March, we went into some secondary schools. The coach of the Kaduna team brought some secondary school students into the program. They were introduced into chess, and chess boards were given out to them, and they were so excited. So, when I saw that initiative, I was really, really pleased that chess in Kaduna is also going in the right direction because now young minds are becoming more enlightened unlike those days that it used to be mostly old people, people that are more advanced, more than age 20. But now we are having people like under 14 in the game. We’re having people like age 10, 11, people like that. So it’s a really good signal that Kaduna is getting awakened into chess. 

CH: When do you expect Nigeria to produce a grandmaster? 

BE: Now for Nigeria producing a grandmaster, it is very easy. I think the first thing we need to focus on is let us focus on developing a structure. Because one of the thing I discovered not only in chess but in any sports, if you check those countries that consistently win whether in football they win the world cup, or whatever, in basketball, where the US wins. You realize that they have a structure and what is that structure. They have a structure where young minds are consistently recruited, and that structure has to be a permanent structure whereby it is steadily funded. Not just by private individuals, but both government and private individuals. People will take it up upon themselves that this particular sport we want to fund it. That’s one of the major problems in Nigerian sports, not just chess, football, and the rest of them.We don’t have that structure. We can have a certain structure. I think I was talking to a friend and he’s in the U. S. now, but he was in the U. K. and he was saying that when he went to the U. K that the chess is so organized to the point that every street, they have a league. They have a league. So let me give an instance, I don’t know the streets in Lagos. The only place I know, Oregun, for instance, it a has a league ,  Oshodi has a chess league, like that, like that.So then the way he now said it, it is a weekly thing. So every week they have a league then from there, they now go regional or zonal level whereby they will now say the best in all the leagues in say Ikeja. They now have another higher league again. Whereby, those from all over Lagos like Apapa, will come again. Then from there, it goes to the state level. It goes to the national level. So, if we can develop our structure in that way, we will discover a lot of talents. Nigeria has a population of over 250 million, that is a lot of human resources, we have a lot of talents.The major thing is that we need to put structures and people need to be enlightened and aware.And I believe that the NCF can do that.

CH:When do  you expect Kaduna to produce a grandmaster? 

BE: Let me be objective, 15 years. 

CH: What developments would you like to see in Kaduna chess?

BE: The basic development I will like to see in Kaduna chess is a point whereby not just we reaching the various schools, but to the point whereby by the time you are walking on the streets, just like when you are walking on the streets you see people playing draughts at any corner. When you are walking on the streets you see people play chess like you see people play whot or football. That is the point I want to see chess in Kaduna.

CH: What developments would you like to see in Nigerian chess as a whole? 

BE: Yes, one of the major, erm, something I was reading about India. There are some things we need to do as NCF apart from even  organizing those grassroots developmental programs. Once in a while, we could still bring in some experienced grandmasters. But like I said, for a while, that’s one of the things that they’ve been doing, India chess. India used to be a country that their chess was not very strong like that. Before the rising of the likes of Pragg, it used to be only Vishy Anand. But they had programs whereby, even in the past years, they brought in grandmasters, like Vladimir Kramnik, and other grandmasters. So we can bring some of those grandmasters in, I know that yes, we are at a different level. We might, yes, NCF might not have the money to bring Magnus Carlsen in, or they might not have the money to bring in Hikaru Nakamura, or Fabiano Caruana, but we can start from our level. Maybe somehow we could bring in a 2600 grandmaster, let me say Nigel Short or Pavel Eljanov, just bring somebody. We can even start with, let me not even go too far. Even in Africa here, we have Baseem Amin. So we could bring people like that. They have wealth of knowledge. And when they come, you know, when they come, they will pass those knowledge down to our players. Then our players will now improve. Because they would raise the mind of our players to the point whereby they will start, uh, playing the way grandmasters play. That means they will start thinking in the level and mentality of grandmasters. So we need to organize programs like that. And for the women, they need WGMs too. So they inspire them. If we can do that, then funding of tournaments, let me say for our level, from a starting point, let’s see more tournaments. I want to talk about monthly tournaments in every state. Not just Lagos or Abuja. Then we could trickle down to twice a month if we can do that. I believe that we go very far.

CH: Who is your favorite Nigerian chess player and why?

BE: For a long while when I was coming up, one of the chess players that inspired me most was Odion known as Odirovsky. When I started playing chess I realised that they said that he beat a grandmaster.  It wasn’t they said, he actually beat two grandmasters. That feat really inspired me, that if a Nigerian player can beat a grandmaster that means we can do a lot. Odion was one of my first contact even though I never met him I was really inspired by his feat. He is one of my chess icon in Nigeria, Odion.

CH: Who is your favorite Kaduna based chess player and why? 

BE: Okay, so far among all the players my favorite player is Joshua Adejoh. One of my reasons is that he is someone  that is bloody. His game is very, very bloody and he is someone that has understanding of positional chess. He’s someone that makes a lot of research. So such players like that would pull you to the limit. He will not just only stick to an opening. When you are preparing you try to broaden your opening repertoire based on the weakness of your opponent. So he’s one player that is very very inspiring.He’s very very inspiring.

CH: Who is your favourite chess player anywhere , any era?

BE: My favorite chess player, even though my perception has changed, my favourite player, frankly speaking, is one of the chess players I love so much. I don’t know whether it is because I really understand his games,  I love Vladimir Kramnik. He is a very, very inspiring chess player. Though recently Magnus Carlsen is another player because of his endgame strength, he has the understanding of endgame. But my favorite player used to be Kramnik. But for now, I would say Carlsen should be one of my best players because he’s one of the person I study his games a lot. 

CH: What last words will you like to leave with our readers?

BE: Never give up on your dreams. You might start very rough or things might not be easy for you. But when you set a goal on a thing, you put your heart and you do it. The thing is when you put your heart to do it, no force of nature will be able to stop you. The thing is you are the only one that can prevent yourself from achieving your dreams, your goals, and your vision. So I’m saying to our young chess players in respect of that. They should aim high because as far as you can see with your eyes, or when  you lift up your eyes and see where you can go, that is where you can actually be. So my words to them is you aim high and dream big and keep inspired, don’t let anything distract you from achieving your dreams, or your goals in life.

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