South Africa's first Grand master, Solomon Kenny's GM title finally reflected on his FIDE profile

Solomon Kenny (currently playing at the Gibraltar chess Tournament) has been officially conferred withthe Grand Master title and this has been effectively reflected on his FIDE profile .at http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=14300192 his status which was written by the tournament organizers as International master in round one and two , was also changed immediately to reflect his new title  in round three so next time you you are being paired against a certain chess player from South Africa named Solomon kenny ...... yu are playing against a Grand Master, It will be recalled that Solomon Kenny earned his Grand Master title by winning the African Individual Championship 2014 in Namibia. by scoring  7.0/9 and had a better tie-break than tournament favorite GM Ahmed Adly, World Junior Champion from 2007. This tie-break win made Solomon Grandmaster. It must be noted however that Solomon Kenny had earned three Grand Master norm before the African Individuals and was already a Grandmaster - elect but required to get to the 2500 ELO mark in order to earn his GM title but the African individuals meant that he did not have to get to ELO 2500 before earning the title in question !! The Next African individual  championship is coming up in May 2015  in Egypt. The field might be twice as strong this time and it will definitely be much more competitive !!

All time peak ranking of Nigerian chess players !!

 Here is the all time ranking of Nigerian Chess players based on highest rating ever achieved by Chess players in Nigeria based on rating progress made available on the FIDE website. It was noted that as at the time of making this post the highest ever ELO rating of a Nigerian Chess player in history was achieved by International Master Aikhoje, Odion  in January 2000 when he peaked at ELO 2318 . Although i noticed that on the chess profile of Onyekwere, Chikwere     on www.chessgames.com SEE HERE   as  2358 was reflected as the highest rating achievedby Chikwere  in the website's Database while it reflected that of IM Odion as  2305  however his highest rating reflected on FIDE website is the one reflected below which should supersede that of any other website. 

        

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•         1    Akintola, Fola                       IM   2345                         1995
•         2    Aikhoje, Odion                     IM  2341                         1999
•         3  Kigigha, Bomo                        CM   2337                     Feb 2016
•         4   Unwana, Eugene Ekpoikong   CM    2321                    APR  2015
•        5. Olape, Bunmi                           IM  2306                     Jan 2013
•        6  Adu, Oladapo                           IM   2301                     Jan 2008      
•       7 Oragwu, Chukwunonso            CM   2288                     Jan 2013 
•        8  Adeyinka Adeshina                       CM  2287                 Sept 2015
•        9 Adebayo, Adegboyega              FM  2284                      Sept 2009
•         10.Sorungbe, Ademola                  CM   2243                    Dec 2013
•         11  Onyekwere, Chikwere            CM   2241                    Oct 2007