Malaria checkmates chess player

2003-10-29 18:00

Cairo - Egypt's champion chess player and the president of the country's national team have died of cerebral malaria they contracted at the African Games in Nigeria, the state news agency Mena reported on Wednesday.

Essam Ahmed Ali, 26, the country's top player, died on Monday and team boss Mohammed Labib, 60, the following day after returning from Abuja, where they participated in the games, which ran from October 4 to 17.

Mohammed al-Tuni, who headed the Egyptian delegation to the games, said the two men had been hospitalised in Cairo with high temperatures and chills.

Meanwhile, government daily Al-Ahram said chess player Ahmed Adli and his trainer, Hassan Khaled, who had also participated in the games, had been hospitalised in Greece, where they were playing in another competition.

The Egyptian authorities have asked all 600 people - athletes, administrative personnel and journalists - who had traveled to Nigeria for the games to be checked for symptoms of the disease.

Cerebral malaria is a disease of the brain that is accompanied by fever. The mortality ratio is between 25 and 50 percent, and if a sufferer is not treated, the diseas is fatal in 24 to 72 hours.

- AFP