Nigerian players taking part at the ongoing the 9th World University Chess Championships in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, began their campaign poorly on Tuesday as they lost their five opening games in the first round.

Femi Solaja, an official of the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF), told reporters that the results showed the level of the game in the country.

"This is a reflection of the level of chess development in Nigeria.Apart from playing in Africa, where we play against Egypt and South Africa, the standard in Europe is different," he said.

"It is interesting to note that all the players at this tournament are students, but we have among them Grandmasters and several rated players but we only have two rated players in Nigeria," he added.

Solaja attributed the failure to the fact that the Nigerian players were not familiar with the electronic chess board. "In the next round we expect them to have outgrown the initial stage fright," he said.

However, he was optimistic, saying that hope was not lost. "This is just the first round. We have nine round Swiss events, which means Nigeria can still make an impact," he said.

Source: Xinhua