Hichem Hamdouchi
Hicham Hamdouchi (Arabic هشام الحمدوشی; born October 8, 1972 in Tangier ) is the strongest Moroccan chess player and one of the leading grandmasters Africa.
The eleven- Moroccan single master learned chess at an early stage, but he could for the first time as a 15 -year-old to participate in more significant tournaments. When he in 1988 in Casablanca in a national tournament made a good success, he was a few months later represented Morocco at the Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki. A year later he was accepted into the Africa selection that played at the World Team Cup in Lucerne. The 17 -year-old succeeded in this tournament, a victory over the U.S. Grandmaster John Fedorowicz.
In the early 1990s he moved to Montpellier and played successfully in European tournaments: he won in 1992 in Sitges and Ceuta, where he won his first grandmaster norm. With a victory at the Grand Master tournament of Montpellier in 1993, he secured the title he FIDE still gave the same year. Hamdouchi was after the Tunisian Slim Bouaziz the second African to be awarded this item. In 1994 he won in Casablanca, 1995, he won the championship in Dubai in the Arab countries. In 1996 he won another strong grandmaster tournament in Montpellier, where he now studied economics. In 1998 he won in Málaga, Bolzano and Djerba.
After graduating, he moved to the vicinity of Barcelona. In 2000 he won again in Montpellier, in 2001 he won first in the championship Rabat of Morocco, then in Cairo, the continental championship of Africa ahead of South African Watu Kobese. In 2002 he won the Open in Nice and Coria del Rio, as well as a strongly occupied grandmaster tournament in Belfort. In the same year he won at the Arab Championship in Casablanca before the Grand Master Muhammad al- Mudiyahki from Qatar.
In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 in Tripoli Hamdouchi reached the third round, where he was eliminated by eventual runner-up Michael Adams with 0.5:1.5. In the same year he won in Dubai again the Arab Championship. In 2005 he won in Castelldefels and was at Rapid Chess Grand Prix in Bordeaux behind former world champion Anatoly Karpov, to whom he lost the final 2-3, second place. Hamdouchi qualified by winning ( after Tie with the Tunisian Grand Master Slim Belkhodja ) over the zone of Taza tournament for the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2005, in which, however, he was eliminated in the first round against the Israeli Emil Sutovsky. In 2006 he won ( shared with Kevin Spraggett others), in 2007 in Saint- Affrique, 2008 in Geneva, Salou. At the European Club Cup in October 2007, he played for the Spanish team Gros Xake Taldea.
Hamdouchis Elo rating is 2613 (as of August 2013). Last among the top 80 of the FIDE world ranking list, he was in January 2003. Since March 2009, he plays for the French Chess Federation. In 2013 he won the national championship in Nancy by tag fight against Jean -Marc Degraeve. Hamdouchi is married to the Romanian woman Large Master Adina- Maria Bogza since 2007.