The 9th All Africa Games is about to start, and like the recent All Asian Games, chess is one of the medal sports. I've spotted a couple of interesting stories in the lead up to the Games, and hopefully there will be some coverage of the chess in international news.
One early story covered the difficulty that the Ugandan Chess Team has had in getting to Algeria (the host country). The problem is that the Ugandan Olympiad Committee hadn't budgeted the funds for the chess team, and they are desperately trying to raise money to cover the travel costs.
The other story involved a plan by the Kenyan Chess team to reverse their board order (weakest top, strongest bottom) to improve their chances. As someone who has been involved with such a strategy (PNG team at the 2000 Olympiad), my advice is "Don't do it". While it may benefit a couple of the top players (at most), it has a negative impact on the team overall. Better to do your best, with your best, than to try and "game" the system.
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