Hichem Hamdouchi
Encyclopedia
Hichem Hamdouchi is currently the strongest Moroccan
chess
player and one of the leading African grandmasters.
Hamdouchi has won the Moroccan Chess Championship
eleven times, first in 1988 at 15 years old, when he was first allowed to play in important tournaments. In the same year, in the tournament of Casablanca, he was noticed for his talent and qualified for the national team of Morocco to participate in the Chess Olympiad
of 1988 in Thessaloniki
. At the age of 17 he managed to qualify in the African selection for the world championship for teams in Lucerne
. Here he made remarkable victories over Jeroen Piket
, John Fedorowicz
and Ye Jiangchuan
.
In 1990 at the 29th Chess Olympiad
in Novi Sad
he scored 8/11, after which he took a break from chess for his studies. At the age of 20, in 1992 he played successfully in several European tournaments. In the same year he played at the 30th Chess Olympiad
with a performance of 7.5/11. He won in Sitges
and Ceuta
in 1992, where he picked up his first grandmaster norm. In 1993 he starting studying economy at the university of Montpellier
. In December 1993 he won the masters in Montpellier with 7/9, picking up his second norm. A few months later he was awarded the grandmaster title. At that time he was one of the three African grandmasters, the other two being the Tunisian players Slim Bouaziz and Slim Belkhodja
.
In 1994 he won the Masters in Casablanca
and in 1995 he became Arab Chess Champion
in Dubai
, a performance which he would repeat in 2002 and 2004. In 1996 he won again the strong grandmaster tournament in Montpellier, where he studied business now. After finishing his studies in 1998, he settled down in Spain
and won tournaments in Dos Hermanas
, Bolzano and Djerba
.
He won once again in Montpellier in 2001 and in the same year became African Chess Champion
before the South African Watu Kobese. In 2002 he won the open in Nice
, Belfort
and Coria del Rio
. In January 2003 he was ranked 75th in the world with a rating of 2615.
In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
in Tripoli
he progressed to the third round, where he was eliminated 0.5-1.5 in favour of vice world champion Michael Adams. In 2005 he won in Castelldefels
, in 2006 in Salou
and in 2007 in Saint-Affrique
. At the European Club Cup in October 2007, he played for the Basque team Gros Xake Taldea.
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player and one of the leading African grandmasters.
Hamdouchi has won the Moroccan Chess Championship
Moroccan Chess Championship
-Winners :-Winners :-References:* List of winners from maroc-echecs.com: * Details of the 2006 edition:...
eleven times, first in 1988 at 15 years old, when he was first allowed to play in important tournaments. In the same year, in the tournament of Casablanca, he was noticed for his talent and qualified for the national team of Morocco to participate in the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
of 1988 in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
. At the age of 17 he managed to qualify in the African selection for the world championship for teams in Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
. Here he made remarkable victories over Jeroen Piket
Jeroen Piket
Jeroen Piket is a retired Dutch chess player who earned the Grandmaster title in 1989. He won the Dutch Chess Championship in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1994. Other notable results include a second place at the Hoogovens tournament 1997...
, John Fedorowicz
John Fedorowicz
John Peter Fedorowicz from the Bronx area of New York is an American International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer....
and Ye Jiangchuan
Ye Jiangchuan
Ye Jiangchuan is a veteran Chinese chess player and has been one of China's leading players in modern history.In 1993, Ye became China's third Grandmaster, after Ye Rongguang and Xie Jun. On 1 January 2000, he became the first ever Chinese player to cross the 2600 elo rating mark...
.
In 1990 at the 29th Chess Olympiad
29th Chess Olympiad
The 29th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 16 and December 4, 1990, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.-References:...
in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
he scored 8/11, after which he took a break from chess for his studies. At the age of 20, in 1992 he played successfully in several European tournaments. In the same year he played at the 30th Chess Olympiad
30th Chess Olympiad
The 30th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between June 7 and June 25, 1992, at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Philippines.-Individual...
with a performance of 7.5/11. He won in Sitges
Sitges
*Church of Sant Bartolomeu i Santa Tecla . It houses two Gothic sepulchres , belonging to the an older church located on the same site...
and Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
in 1992, where he picked up his first grandmaster norm. In 1993 he starting studying economy at the university of Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
. In December 1993 he won the masters in Montpellier with 7/9, picking up his second norm. A few months later he was awarded the grandmaster title. At that time he was one of the three African grandmasters, the other two being the Tunisian players Slim Bouaziz and Slim Belkhodja
Slim Belkhodja
Slim Belkhodja is a Tunisian chess Grandmaster .In 1985 he won the 58th Paris City Chess Championship. In 2001, came first in the Arab Chess Championship. He took part in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002, but was knocked out in the first round by Rafael Vaganian...
.
In 1994 he won the Masters in Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...
and in 1995 he became Arab Chess Champion
Arab Chess Championship
-Winners:-References:* Winners of the 1984 edition * Results 1999 from arabicnews.com * Results 2001 from tunishebdo.com * Homepage of the 2002 edition: * Results from TWIC: , , , , * Results 2006 from chess-results.com * Hichem Hamdouchi biography...
in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, a performance which he would repeat in 2002 and 2004. In 1996 he won again the strong grandmaster tournament in Montpellier, where he studied business now. After finishing his studies in 1998, he settled down in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and won tournaments in Dos Hermanas
Dos Hermanas
Dos Hermanas is a Spanish city south of Seville in Andalusia, with a population of 125,086 as of 2010.The city's name, which means "two sisters", dates from its founding in 1248 by King Ferdinand III of Castile and honours the sisters of Gonzalo Nazareno, one of the king's principal military...
, Bolzano and Djerba
Djerba
Djerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...
.
He won once again in Montpellier in 2001 and in the same year became African Chess Champion
African Chess Championship
The first African Chess Championship was played in 1998. Ibrahim Hasan Labib and Mohamed Tissir both shared first place with 7/10, but the former took the title....
before the South African Watu Kobese. In 2002 he won the open in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, Belfort
Belfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
and Coria del Rio
Coria del Río
Coria del Río is a small town near Seville, on the shores of Guadalquivir river.It is popularly known because there are some descendants of the first-ever Japanese official envoy to Spain. In early 17th century, Daimyo Date Masamune of Sendai sent a delegation led by Hasekura Tsunenaga to Europe....
. In January 2003 he was ranked 75th in the world with a rating of 2615.
In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
The FIDE World Chess Championship, 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13.It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½-3½...
in Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
he progressed to the third round, where he was eliminated 0.5-1.5 in favour of vice world champion Michael Adams. In 2005 he won in Castelldefels
Castelldefels
Castelldefels is a town in the Baix Llobregat comarca, in the province of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain and part of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. Its population is 63.151 .-Geography and location:...
, in 2006 in Salou
Salou
Salou is a municipality of the comarca of Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The city is approximately 10km from Tarragona and Reus on the Costa Daurada and 112km from Barcelona...
and in 2007 in Saint-Affrique
Saint-Affrique
Saint-Affrique is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.-History:Saint-Affrique grew in the 6th century around the tomb of St. Africain, bishop of Comminges. In the 12th century a fortress was built on the neighboring rock of Caylus. The possession of Saint-Affrique was vigorously...
. At the European Club Cup in October 2007, he played for the Basque team Gros Xake Taldea.
External links
- Rating history at chess.vrsac.com
- Biography at maroc-echecs.com (in French)
- Selected tournament results at cgueneau.club.fr
- Saint-Affrique 2007 at chessbase.com