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Kenya: World Chess Chief Tips Kenya to Shine in Olympiad

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4 years ago

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Nairobi — Kenya will send a team of 10 players to the Chess Olympiad in Moscow, Russia to be held from July 26 to August 8, federation Bernard Wanjala announced.

The team will comprise of five male and five female players to the world’s major Chess event where Kenya will be seeking to show their almighty with the best in the globe.

This comes after the International Chess Federation (FIDE) boss Arkady Dvorkovich concluded his two-day visit in Kenya where he vowed to co-fund chess projects in Kenya and the continent of Africa, specifically projects that touch on the promotion of the game among prisoners, refugees, underprivileged children and women

“There is potential to get chess to all places in Kenya and with the support of the government we can create Centers of excellence where young players will be able to improve their skills, qualify into national teams and can compete internationally and become role models to others,” Dvorkovich said.

Dvorkovich ended his Kenyan visit with the assessment of Chess programs in prisons and slums before paying a courtesy call to Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed.

FIDE will co-fund these projects with the government having already allocated space for a Chess Park at the Kasarani stadium.

“We want to encourage the growth of the sport in the country, they have hosted some championships (chess), they will host other events and we (ministry of sports) will partner with them,” CS Amina said.

She added, “We will provide the necessary facilitation for them. And you know Kasarani is supposed to house most sports that we have in the country and yes we will be able to accommodate them and I hope that we can quickly come up with an MOU between ourselves, the federation, the international and African body to see how we can move that.”

Dvorkovich also checked the priorities of the national federation Chess Kenya, the goals and road map to achieving the goals set by the federation and also looked into programs that build players towards international competitions especially with the coming of the Chess Olympiad, the most prestigious global Chess tournament.

Dvorkovich also toured the Kakuma refugee camp on his visit to Kenya, with 900 children, mostly girls, having already been included in the Chess development program that has been ongoing at the refugee camp for a period of one year.

“We were in Kakuma camp and we saw how many kids love playing chess and teachers are enthusiastic about it. We helped them improve their knowledge and now they help kids and this program is growing and we are sure soon we will have thousands of kids being trained,” Dvorkovich underscored