The Triumph of Lapite and Other Stories

In some sense, the start of a chess tournament is a very childlike thing. There are many hopes and many whose hopes will be dashed. This is a report of Chess Heights Lagos Monthly of November 5 and something quite like this went down. Shout out is in order to Multigrace College. Thirteen of its student registered for this one tourney, we hope they keep it up.

The only titled player in attendance FM Olamide Ajibowo was also the number one seed. He was closely followed by two of the best Chess Heights results in history Udeme Edet and Rotimi Lapite. Also very noteworthy was the participation of the 9^th seed, Oluwole Oladele, who is the only repeat champion we have had this year. Others who had potentials to make big marks included Kaduna sensation Joshua Adejoh, Karebo Okubuarere, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, Obioma Onuoha, Olaonipekun Agusto, the rising Teniola Abiola, John Onabote and Efosa Evbuomwan.

The deputy chief arbiter, Ogochukwu Ejim, started of round 1 and the struggle became earnest. FM Olamide Ajibowo was given a draw but that was no upset, he asked for bye in round one. It was Rotimi Lapite that got shocked, He couldn’t beat the Ibadan based Lanre Adeshina who was 505 points lower rated than him. Often, ratings lie.

Round 2 did not have many shocks. Udeme Edet won a tough fight on board 1 against John Onabote to retain his seat on board 1 while Joshua Adejoh drew Efosa Evbuomwan rated 249 points below him. Playing to catch up, Rotimi Lapite, FM Olamide Ajibowo and Vice President of NCF, Yinka Adewole, all won their game,

The third round saw Udeme Edet retain his position on board 1 by beating ageing legend Olaonipekun Agusto. Teniola Abiola reached beyond rating to beat Karebo Okubuarere whilst the trio of Rotimi Lapite, FM Olamide Ajibowo and Yinka Adewole all won their games to stay in contention.

The fourt round saw prize winners shaping up. Men were being separated from boys. Teniola Abiola shocked the world by defeating perennial board 1 Udeme Edet,, while among those playing catch up there was a clash between FM Ajibowo and Rotimi Lapite, which was won by the later. Yinka Adewole, a Yoruba prince, also won his game to remain in striking distance.

Somehow this write up has been silent on the exploits of Obioma Onuoha who by dint of self effort forced his way into board 1 in the fifth and penultimate round against new tournament leader Teniola Abiola, and even won the game. The catch uppers clashes continued with a battle between Rotimi Lapite and Yinka Adewole, which Rotimi won. Notable was the bad form of Oluwole Oladele who lost this time to Joshua Adejoh. Notable also was a poor game by FM Ajibowo in this round losing to John Onabote. The stage is now set for the final round.

Who will triumph? What prize will be won by whom? Rather than continue telling plenty stories, I will show the results of round 6 complete in tabular manner.

Pairings/Results

Round 6 on 2022/11/05 at 5:30PM

Bo.	No.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	7	Onuoha Obioma	2041	4½	0 – 1	4½		Lapite Oluwadurotimi	2132	3
2	4	Adejoh Joshua	2091	4	0 – 1	4		Edet Udeme Dominic	2146	2
3	10	Abiola Teniola	1945	4	1 – 0	4		Orogun Samuel	1647	17
4	13	Onabote Olasubomi John	1857	4	0 – 1	3½		Adewole Adeyinka Samuel	1938	11
5	15	Evbuomwan Efosa	1842	3½	1 – 0	3½		Ejale Emmanuel Osobase	0	30
6	18	Oyelese Iyiola Ayodeji	1646	3	0 – 1	3		Okubuarere Karebo	2083	5
7	6	Okonkwo Ifeanyi	2072	3	1 – 0	3		Oladele Oluwole	1959	9
8	8	Agusto Olaonikpekun	2014	3	1 – 0	3		UCHE EMMANUEL	0	42
9	16	FALUYI DAMOLA	1757	3	0 – 1	3		ADEBAYO OLADAYO	0	21
10	20	Chukura Adanwakaego Ololade	1576	2½	0 – 1	2½	FM	Ajibowo Olamide Patrick	2148	1
11	26	Anyanwu Ikechukwu	0	2½	0 – 1	2½		Adefila Hammed	1845	14
12	19	Lanre Adeshina	1627	2½	1 – 0	2½		OWOLABI ONAMADE	0	41
13	22	ADEIGA DAVID	0	2	½ – ½	2½		OKULAJA SHERIFF	0	37
14	31	EZEH ANTHONY	0	2	1 – 0	2		ADEPOJU ANUOLUWA	0	23
15	43	UGHEIGHELE EMMANUEL	0	2	1 – 0	2		ADEPOJU AYOMIDE	0	24
16	39	ONYEDIKACHI AZOLIBE	0	2	0 – 1	2		CLEMENT GOD	0	28
17	34	IBEKWE DAVID	0	1½	0 – 1	2		IBEKWE DANIEL	0	33
18	25	AMIRIZE DANIEL	0	1	0 – 1	1½		CORNELIUS JOSEPH	0	29
19	36	OGUNDELE JAMIU	0	1	1 – 0	1		AYOTOLA TEMI	0	27
20	38	OMOBOWALE ISRAEL O.	0	1	1 – 0	1		EZENWA EMMANUEL	0	32
21	40	OMOROWA Osas	0	0	1			bye
22	12	Esho Olumide Daniel	1891	1½	0			not paired
23	35	MADU PASCAL	0	1	0			not paired

That was how Rotimi Lapite became the champion of Chess Heights Lagos Monthly, November 2022.

There were seven prizes in Open Category. The list of winners is given below:

1	3	Lapite Oluwadurotimi	NGR	2132	5,5	0	5	21,5
2	10	Abiola Teniola	NGR	1945	5	1	5	22
3	2	Edet Udeme Dominic	NGR	2146	5	0	5	22
4	7	Onuoha Obioma	NGR	2041	4,5	0	4	24,5
5	11	Adewole Adeyinka Samuel	NGR	1938	4,5	0	4	23,5
6	15	Evbuomwan Efosa	NGR	1842	4,5	0	4	19,5
7	6	Okonkwo Ifeanyi	NGR	2072	4	0	4	23
8	17	Orogun Samuel	NGR	1647	4	0	4	21,5
9	5	Okubuarere Karebo	NGR	2083	4	0	4	21,5
10	13	Onabote Olasubomi John	NGR	1857	4	0	4	19,5
11	8	Agusto Olaonikpekun	NGR	2014	4	0	4	18,5
12	21	ADEBAYO OLADAYO	NGR	0	4	0	4	18
13	4	Adejoh Joshua	NGR	2091	4	0	3	20,5
1