by Zoheir Slami

The championship took place from May 23 to June 5, 1993. The team of Morocco and was composed of the following men: Zakaria Bennis, Khalid Chorfi, Abdelaziz Mounib, Zoheir Slami and Samir Benaino as players, and Mohamed El Youssfi as Head of Delegation.

The players were accomodated in a military hotel located in Nasr City, a few meters from the convention center where former president of Egypt Anwar El Sadat was murdered in 1981.

The championship was held at the Heliopolis club, one of many chess clubs in Egypt. These are private clubs and each of them has thousands of members. The Heliopolis Club is located in front of the presidential palace.

The food at the hotel was the only weak points - we had to eat chicken way past its sell-by date from time to time....

Our first meeting was against the team of Tunisia. The result was a draw. Bennis and Chorfi had drawn, Mounib lost and I won.

On the next day we were to meet Algeria. In the evening we met head of our delegation, Mr El-Youssfi and surprisingly (especially forme) he told us that I would not play on the following day, and Benaino would substitute me. Of course I objected, as it made no sense to me. The logic was that it should be the player who lost to be replaced and not the one who won, unless he would be unable or not willing to play.

The result against Algeria was disastrous: we lost ½-3½! Only Chorfi drew. I mention this unfortunate incident only to point out the consequences of appointment of incompetent ignorants as heads of delegation! The role they should play is to support the team and protect its morale. Interestingly, Mr El Youssof, set up the squad so that I had to play the following four games with black! I was wondering if he was harbouring a grudge against me...

During our visit to the MAP agency (which I took care of before we left Morocco) we were able to meet its then director, Mr Benstitou, who welcomed us with open arms and was sending news to Morocco every day, with complete results that I was sending him from the hotel where we stayed. The tone telephone were only available at that time and he had to wait one to two hours every day to send the news to Morocco!