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Grandmaster Simutowe braces for ‘challenging’ Libya tourney

Grandmaster Simutowe braces for ‘challenging’ Libya tourney
Written by Namatama Mundia
Saturday, July 04, 2009 3:06:15 PM

GRANDMASTER Amon Simutowe has said the African individual chess tournament set for July 20 to 31 in Tripoli, Libya will be challenging.

In an interview, Simutowe said he is training hard for the Libya tournament even if he has cancelled his participation in the Spain chess championship which he was supposed to use for preparations in the Libya event.

"I have cancelled my participation in a preparatory tournament in Spain. The tournament will be held from 3rd to 13th July in Barcelona. It's a good tournament... but if I decided I might lose a lot of energy... and I might not recover before the African Championship," he said.

Simutowe, however, said he would find another tournament to participate in before the African Individual tournament.

He added that the African Championship in Libya will be tough.

"For instance, it’s rumoured Libya-hired GM Sveshnikov or GM Rausis... Sveshnikov has made significant contribution to the development of chess theory and he is one of the most creative grandmasters. Rausis is also very talented having trained many current grandmasters including Shirov... Shirov has reached the finals or semi-finals of the World Championships several times," Simutowe said.

He added that GM Sveshnikov and GM Rausis are good enough to read his game plan.

Simutowe said his competitors will be playing at a very high level.

"They are very motivated to qualify for the World Cup and in competition the biggest mistake you can make is to be comfortable when playing a motivated opponent in a world championship qualifying match. The World Cup will be held in Russia this November," he said.

Other countries expected to take part are Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa.

Labels: AMON SIMUTOWE, CHESS

posted by MrK @ 2:07 PM