Chess World Cup: Giri is clear favourite against Ssegwanyi
Sep 09, 2015
Uganda’s International Master (IM) Arthur Ssegwanyi, will need to strategise extremely hard to reach his dream of winning the Chess World Cup title in Baku, Azerbaijan.
By David Namunyala
Chess World Cup, Azerbaijan
Thursday,
Round One
Ssegwanyi (UGA) v Giri (NED)
Uganda’s International Master (IM) Arthur Ssegwanyi, will need to strategise extremely hard to reach his dream of winning the Chess World Cup title in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The 27-year old, Ssegwanyi is scheduled to start his campaign at the world stage with a game against a more experienced and better positioned player, Grandmaster (GM) Anish Giri from Netherland in round One on Thursday.
Both players are making their maiden appearance at the world show starting September 10 to October 4 but the dutch player, Giri is a clear favourite against Ssegwanyi.
The 21-year old, Giri has a strong chess background. His first club was a local youth sport club 'DYUSH-2' in St. Petersburg, Russia. He also became a member of the Japan Chess Association and the Sapporo Chess Club during his stay in Japan.
Giri developed quickly as a junior and his rating also increased rapidly between April 2006 and July 2010 from 2114 to 2672.
He at one time shared first place in the Russian Higher League Under-14 Boys Championship scoring 6.5/9 and also won the St Petersburg U-16 boys contest and came third in the U-18 event in 2007.
He is a four-time Dutch Chess Champion (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015) and also won the Corus Chess B Group in 2010.
He has so far represented the Netherlands at three Chess Olympiads (2010, 2012 and 2014). Giri also achieved a Grand Master title at the age of 14 years.
Meanwhile, Ssegwanyi who started his chess career at the age of 15 years, has only won the national title once in 2012 and early this year he attained an IM title status in April when Uganda hosted Africa Zone 4.2 Chess Championship.
Giri is the fourth highest rated player at the Chess World Cup with a rating of 2793 while Ssegwanyi (rated 2357) is seeded 125 out of 128 participants.
This means Ssegwanyi will have to double his performance if he is to offset his opponent in both encounters in the first round to advance to the next round of the tournament.
They are grouped in Pool Four at the six rounds tournament and whoever wins will take on either Alexander Motylev or Boris Grachev both from Russia in the second round.
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