The Nigeria National Chess Championship (NCC) is the biggest chess event in Nigeria and the determinant of the country’s National Chess Champion and the National Women’s Chess Champion. Apart from the open section of the event which allows all comers to participate and compete, the elite section (called the Invitational Section) is the main section where some of the best players in the country compete for the prestigious national titles, ratings/rankings, money and the right to represent Nigeria at international chess events. For three editions running now, Orchid-Lekki Chess Club (OLCC) on behalf of the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) has been organising and hosting the championship that has developed into being one of the leading chess events on the African continent in terms of attendance, budget, prize fund, corporate support and national publicity.
According to former world chess champion, Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov, ‘Chess is Everything: art, science and sport’. To understand this statement, is to understand what guides the hosts of the Nigeria National Chess Championships, Orchid-Lekki Chess Club (OLCC). OLCC was founded in 2019, by a team of like-minds seeking to change the landscape of the Nigeria Chess Industry. Chaired by the extremely devout and supportive Engineer Jonathan Odega, the Orchid-Lekki Chess Club made a bid to host the National Chess Championships in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Perpetual Ogbiyoyo is Nigeria’s National Women Chess Champion. That’s a title she has won back-to-back in the last two years after brilliant performances at the 2021 and 2022 National Chess Championships of Nigeria. In this interview with Kunle Kasumu, President of Orchid-Lekki Chess Club (OLCC), the usually private FIDE Master, offers glimpses into her personal life, her love for chess, her journey to becoming Nigeria’s best female player, her thoughts on the development of chess in Nigeria and the impact of the National Chess Championship of Nigeria.
The 2021 National Chess Championship of Nigeria (NCC) which was hosted by Orchid-Lekki Chess Club (OLCC) on behalf of the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF), came to an end on November 14 with many players, participants, journalists and stakeholders describing it as the biggest and best chess event ever organised in Nigeria. Seven billboards across Lagos; back to back interviews on multiple television and radio stations; and reports on online platforms and social media handles, gave the event unprecedented publicity. No other chess championship in Nigeria has ever had a prize fund of N12.1 million and none has ever given the top winner as much as N1.5m as was the case in this NCC. The 20 invited players in the elite category all received honorarium with the least in the male category being N300,000. That is the entire prize fund of many chess tournaments in Nigeria. The 20 elite players were also lodged with food provided at Orchid Hotel, a Lekki based four star hotel and home of Orchid-Lekki Chess Club.