Miss Ayoyemi Adeyemi, the 21-year-old winner of the recently concluded 2024 National Friends of Chess Tournament, has described her winning game against an African Games medalist as uneasy.
Adeyemi, while speaking in a telephone interview in Ibadan on Friday, said her middle game against Peace Samson was particularly tight.
Adeyemi caused an upset in the tournament held at Chevron Facility, Lagos, by defeating Samson, winner of two bronze medals at the 2024 African Games in Ghana.
“She kept pressuring my king’s side and sacked a lot of her pieces. Honestly, at some point, I wanted to resign.
“I could see the mate coming but sadly she blundered.
“We both didn’t even see it as a blunder, as she was planning on sacrificing her rook to mate me but the square she put the rook was really bad.
“I didn’t even see it on time. I literally had to put my head down and said, ‘Holy Spirit, help me.’ As I raised my head back up, I saw the blunder.
“I was able to take her rook and her bishop. And because she had sacked a lot of her pieces while I still had three minor pieces on board, she resigned.
“My heart literally did a backflip. We were not allowed to shout in the playing hall, but I was so excited. This is a proof that God is actually involved in chess,” she said.
Adeyemi, a 200-level Human Kinetics and Health Education student at the University of Ilorin, says she is on her way to clinching the National Female’s Champion title.
She, however, said to achieve this, she would have to increase her ratings and play more classical games.
“It’s very important that I work on getting invited for playoffs and winning them,” she said.
She said she developed an interest in chess because she grew up watching her parents play it.
“That was the only sport I saw my parents get involved in. I grew up in a chess home,” she said.
NAN reports that her younger sister, Ayomiposi Adeyemi, 15, also defeated one of the top coaches in Nigeria, Paula Kehinde, in the open tournament.
The brilliance of the two sisters, daughters of Lekan Adeyemi, the Vice-President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), earned them increased rating points. (NAN)
