Oluwafemi Daniel Balogun (born 1987) is a Nigerian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player.

Chess career

In 2016, Balogun won the Africa Zone 4.4 Individual Championship, and as a result he was awarded the title

FIDE Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating an ...

. The following year, Balogun won this event for the second time and qualified to play in the

Chess World Cup The FIDE World Cup refers to three different events over the years. Since 2000, it has been a major chess event organized by FIDE, the International Chess Federation. Since 2005, it has been a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, formi ...

, held later in the same year in

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

, Georgia. He was also granted the title

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

for this victory. In the

Chess World Cup 2017 The Chess World Cup 2017 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, held in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 2 to 27 September 2017. It was won by Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian. This was the second time he had won the Chess World Cup, 12 ye ...

, Balogun was defeated by World Champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

in the first round, becoming the first African to play against a reigning world champion in a competitive match. In 2021 he won the Nigerian chess championships. In the

Chess World Cup 2023 The Chess World Cup 2023 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus ...

, he was defeated by

Alexandr Predke Alexandr Aleksandrovich Predke (russian: Александр Александрович Предке, ; born 5 January 1994) is a Russian-born Serbian chess grandmaster (2016). Biography Predke started playing chess at the age of seven. He is ...

in the first round.

References

External links

* * 1987 births Living people Chess International Masters Nigerian chess players Date of birth missing (living people) Sportspeople from Owerri {{Chess-bio-stub