Morocco succeeded in excluding the Polisario from the African Chess Confederation at a CAE meeting held on the sidelines of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) congress, held from September 20 to 22 in Budapest, Hungary, the president of the Royal Moroccan Chess Federation, Kadiri Bouchra, told Yabiladi. Efforts have been made to convince African countries to exclude Polisario, a former member of the CAF, since 2019. The headquarters of this continental organization are based in Algiers. Its president, Lakhdar Mazouz, is Algerian. On the strength of this support, the Polisario is always invited to take part in competitions organized in Algeria. A case in point is its participation in the tournament hosted by the town of Jijel from January 25 to 30, 2024. The Polisario's exclusion from this body was followed by another setback. Before the start of the congress, Algeria had prepared the ground for the Polisario's admission to the International Chess Federation. After almost 24 hours of behind-the-scenes negotiations, the Algerian application was rejected on Sunday. While the Polisario media had celebrated membership of the African Chess Confederation, they turned their backs on news from the FIDE congress in Hungary.
