FIDE Title Requirements at the African Zonal Individual Chess Championships

 Today i will like to discuss the issue of FIDE Requirement for the award of titles like the International Master, FIDE Master and the Candidate Master titles at the Zonal using Africa as a case study before going into the FIDE regulation i will like to give examples of the most recent Zonal competitions and the titles awarded. it is always easier to understand by using REAL EXAMPLES FROM CONCLUDED TOURNAMENTS to illustrate this issue as the requirements as written on the FIDE website may be somehow difficult to comprehend for some reasons.

EXAMPLE ONE
   The Zone 4.3 Individual Chess Championships Open Section was held between 2014/06/23 to 2014/06/30   FM Van Den Heever Donovan Came first with 7/9 points , CM Chumfwa Kelvin of Zambia  and Oliveira Luciano of  Angola   both on 6/9 points but ranked second and third based on Tie break
  Titles awarded after the event 
 FM Van den Heever, Donovan (7/9 points ) was awarded the International master title
 CM Chumfwa, Kelvin    (6/9 points) was awarded the International master title
Oliveira, Luciano           (6/9) was awarded the international master title
  Cambando, Jose (5.5/9)  who came  4th and Dimba, James  (5/9) who came 7th  were both awarded the Candidate master title  Note- The players who came 5th and 6th were already titled CM and IM . respectively. To assess the FIDE Profile of the players mentioned above please click on their names for confirmation. below is the Table of Final ranking at the

Zone 4.3 Individual Chess Championships Open Section 2014 (Namibia)

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo			Name	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1		FM	Van Den Heever Donovan		RSA	2277	7.0	5	0.0	45.5	9	7	6.18	0.82	15	12.3
2	2		CM	Chumfwa Kelvin		ZAM	2218	6.0	4	0.0	47.0	9	6	5.14	0.86	15	12.9
3	7			Oliveira Luciano		ANG	2181	6.0	3	0.0	45.5	8	5	4.29	0.71	15	10.6
4	14			Cambando Jose		ANG	2077	5.5	5	0.0	41.0	9	5.5	4.07	1.43	15	21.5
5	9		CM	Olebile Thato		BOT	2173	5.0	5	0.0	41.0	8	4	4.62	-0.62	15	-9.3
6	5		IM	Agnelo Amorim		ANG	2198	5.0	4	0.0	46.5	9	5	5.02	-0.02	15	-0.3
7	15			Dimba James		ZAM	2061	5.0	4	0.0	43.5	9	5	3.61	1.39	30	41.7
8	12			Do Santos Julio Joao Manuel		ANG	2091	5.0	4	0.0	38.0	8	4	3.66	0.34	15	5.1
9	18		FM	Aguiar Cristiano		ANG	1930	5.0	4	0.0	35.0	8	4	2.39	1.61	15	24.1
10	3		CM	Gaealafshwe Barileng		BOT	2210	5.0	3	0.0	42.5	8	4.5	4.62	-0.12	15	-1.8
11	10		FM	Solomons Deon		RSA	2144	5.0	3	0.0	38.5	8	4.5	4.46	0.04	15	0.6
12	17		CM	Gumpo Thabo		BOT	2015	4.5	4	1.0	42.5	8	4.5	3.28	1.22	15	18.3
13	21		CM	Chipanga Chiletso		MAW	2048	4.5	4	0.0	39.5	6	3.5	2.67	0.83	15	12.4
14	11		FM	Alice Mateus Felizardo Viagei		MOZ	2124	4.5	2	0.5	41.0	7	3	3.17	-0.17	15	-2.5
15	20			Handjaba Mclean		NAM	0	4.5	2	0.5	38.0	9	4.5
16	6		FM	Mueller Leonhard		NAM	2191	3.5	2	0.0	45.5	6	3	3.54	-0.54	15	-8.1
17	16		CM	Eichab Charles		NAM	2060	3.5	2	0.0	37.0	9	3.5	4.32	-0.82	15	-12.3
18	8			Oberholzer Rex		NAM	2177	2.5	2	0.0	35.0	8	2.5	5.12	-2.62	15	-39.3
19	13			Khoa Goodwill		NAM	2089	1.5	1	0.0	37.0	8	1	4.20	-3.20	30	-96.0
20	19			Shidolo Simon Hatwiikulipi		NAM	1856	0.5	0	0.0	30.0	7	0.5	1.64	-1.14	30	-34.2
21	4		CM	Simoes Joao		ANG	2209	0.0	0	0.0	27.0	0	0	0.00	0.00	15	0.0

  EXAMPLE TWO

ZONE 4.4 INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP   - YAOUNDE CAMEROUN 2014.

Here was an extreme case, there was no titled player featured at the event , but at the end all the titles were awarded.....

Anquandah, Francis Eric  (7.5/9)  Ranked first on tie break   got the International master title

Amba, Oyon Marius Claude  (7.5/9) ranked second on tie break got the International master title

Agbor, Ebot John           (7/9)  ranked third   got the FIDE Master title

Ebosse, Kingue Victor Patrick (6.5/9) Ranked fourth  got the FIDE master title

Fumey, Enyonam Sewa (5/7/9) ranked fifth got the Candidate master title

 Though this seems to be an extreme case  as Anquandah, Francis Eric and Amba, Oyon Marius Claude  are rated !956 and 1933 respectively  which is not the main issue here  but it happened as a matter of fact.

ZONE 4.4 INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP YAOUNDE CAMEROUN  November 2014.

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	9		Anquandah Francis Eric	GHA	1970	7.5	1.0	29.00	6
2	1		Amba Marius Claude Oyon	CMR	0	7.5	0.0	26.50	7
3	3		Agbor Ebot John	CMR	1960	7.0	0.0	24.00	6
4	7		Ebosse Victor Patrick Kingue	CMR	2009	6.5	0.0	22.25	6
5	2		Fumey Enyonam Sewa	TOG	1780	5.0	0.0	14.50	5
6	4		Ebongue Emile	CMR	0	3.5	0.5	11.75	2
7	10		Ikouti Elie	CMR	0	3.5	0.5	6.25	3
8	5		Mbusnoum Henri Celestin	CMR	0	3.0	0.0	5.00	3
9	8		Kouevi Mawuvi Koue	TOG	1749	1.0	0.0	0.50	1
10	6		Mevi Herve Stephane	BUR	0	0.5	0.0	1.75	0

EXAMPLE THREE

African Zone 4.2 (Open Section ) held in Egypt  Between  2014/11/22 to 2014/11/29

The zone 4.2 is arguably the toughest zone in Africa and as such it is always difficult for untitled players to meet the Title requirements coupled with the fact that tournaments held in Egypt are always  a very tough one  because of the presence and ready availability of Egyptian Grand masters and Highly rated international masters.

 Here an Egyptian Grand master and four Egyptian international masters took the first to fifth positions respectively .Nsubuga, Haruna of Uganda who came sixth had only 4.5 /9 because of the very strong field hence was only awarded the Candidate master title. This is where the fIDE requirement comes in, If he had up to 6/9 points  then he would have been awarded the international master title even if he had placed sixth just after the already IM titled Egyptians!!

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo			Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1		GM	Amin Bassem	EGY	2626	8.5	0.0	42.5	8	5	8	7.5	6.75	0.75	10	7.5
2	2		IM	Ezat Mohamed	EGY	2465	7.5	0.0	42.5	6	4	8	6.5	5.45	1.05	10	10.5
3	5		IM	Sarwat Walaa	EGY	2324	6.5	0.0	41.0	6	4	7	4.5	3.30	1.20	10	12.0
4	3		IM	Abdel Razik Khaled	EGY	2443	6.0	1.0	41.5	5	4	7	4	4.37	-0.37	10	-3.7
5	4		IM	Hesham Abdelrahman	EGY	2358	6.0	0.0	42.0	6	5	8	5	4.72	0.28	10	2.8
6	8			Nsubuga Haruna	UGA	2125	4.5	0.0	37.0	4	5	7	3.5	2.82	0.68	20	13.6
7	7			Amin Ashraf	EGY	2257	4.0	0.0	45.0	3	4	8	3	3.88	-0.88	20	-17.6
8	6			Eldesoky Hatem	EGY	2297	4.0	0.0	40.0	4	5	7	2	3.73	-1.73	20	-34.6
9	10			Ruteremara Thetime	RWA	1717	2.0	1.0	39.5	2	5	7	1	0.93	0.07	40	2.8
10	11			Andiwoh Moses	KEN	0	2.0	1.0	38.5	2	4	8	2
11	9			Mlawa Hemed	TAN	1751	2.0	1.0	36.0	2	5	7	0	1.05	-1.05	40	-42.0
12	12			Ntamatungiro Wilfried	BDI	0	1.0	0.0	40.5	1	4	8	0

 FIDE regulations according to FIDE handbook gives the following requirements for the award of titles  for minimum percentage of points 

 Zonals,         1st IM, 65% (6/9 )  FM, 50%   CM

The award could however be influenced by the position of the players and the number of players  that got those points.

find below a link to the FIDE regulations on this issue on the OFFICIAL WEBSITE 

https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=173&view=article  CLICK HERE