The 12th-seeded Armenia held the top-seeded U.S. to a 2-2 draw in a dramatic conclusion to a tense match involving a touched-piece blunder by GM Sam Shankland. Armenia retained the lead with 13 match points after the seventh round of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad as GM Gabriel Sargissian defeated GM Fabiano.
The 2021 African Continental Championships were held on May 17-28 at the Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. The top players from the continent fought to get one of the fours spots granted to participate in the upcoming World Cup. Egyptian grandmasters Ahmed Adly, Amin Bassem, Fawzy Adham and Hesham Abdelrahman finished atop the standings. Diana Mihajlova reports from the ‘warm heart of Africa’