BY SOLOMON NWOKE
NOT less than 10 foreign players and numerous foreign based Nigerian players and their home-based counterparts have signified interest to participate in this year’s Nigerian Breweries (NB) PLC International Open Chess Championship.

The championship which has seen 38 years of unbroken sponsorship by the breweries giants will witness an upward review of the total prize money to N3.39million.

According to the organisers, the winner in the masters (ELO 2000+) receives the star prize of N1 million while the first and second runners up would cart home the sums of N500,000 and N250,000 respectively.

Other categories where prizes would be won include the Open section (ELO 1800 – 2000), amateur section (ELO 1600), Best Ladies, Weekender (No rating band), Under 14 boys and girls and invitational VIP.

Speaking yesterday ahead of the championship which runs from 9- 16th November, 2015 at the Teslim Balogun stadium, the Managing Director of NB PLC, Nicolaas Vervede who spoke through his representative, Edem Vindah reaffirmed their resolve to sponsoring the competition annually.

He said, “for us in Nigerian Breweries, this sponsorship remains a key element of several youth empowerment and talent development initiative. Our company is very proud to be associated with the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) in their match towards producing world class players. The enthusiasm shown towards the game and the discovery of budding talents over the years has no doubt, confirmed that our partnership with NCF is not in vain”.

In his remarks, President of NCF Lekan Adeyemi, through the federation’s Media Director, Femi Solaja hailed the NB PLC, saying the continued partnership of the NB PLC and NCF has contributed to the growth and popularity of the sport as evidenced in the numerous tournaments the sponsorship has given birth to.

He noted that, through their sponsorship the rating of the Nigeria Chess players have increased from mere 28 to 150. He said method for this year’s championship would be Nine Round Swiss as against last year’s seven.

He recalled that this year alone, about 18 FIDE rated tournaments had been organised and about eight more would be organised between now and the end of the year under the auspices of Nigeria Chess federation as he expressed gratitude to their sponsors for being their for them over the years.