Kenya bags nine medals in Africa Chess Championship

Team Kenya has bagged nine medals in the just concluded 2021 edition of the African Schools Individual Chess Championship.

The Kenyan youngsters managed to clinch two gold medals, three silver medals, and four bronze medals in the championship that took place in Nairobi, Kenya on 12 December to 20 December 2021.

Kenya’s Elizabeth Cassidy dominated the under 11 girls’ category by annihilating all her opponents to score a whopping 9 points after nine rounds.

Cassidy cruised through the rounds easily, edging off opposition from South Africa, Malawi, Uganda and her compatriots to clinch gold medal.

“It feels really nice to win. I have been training really hard and my training has finally paid off,” said an ecstatic Cassidy.

“My goal now is to make it to the national team in the near future but it is not going to be easy because I have the likes of Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Joyce Nyaruai, Woman Fide Master (WFM) Mongeli Sasha and WCM Wanjiru Lucy to beat.” She added.

Cassidy is the only Kenyan player with maximum points in the tournament.​

Kenay’s Wambui Bernice secured third spot by scoring 6.5 points, 2.5 points behind category leader Cassidy. South Africa’s Naidoo Kajol took second place with 7 points.

In the open section, Kenya’s Muiruri Don scored 7 points, winning silver, just half a point behind top seed Mungal Ethan of South Africa who scored 7.5 points.

Ingado Mercy gave Kenya gold after garnering 7.5 points by taking out Uganda’s Namirimu Britney in the final round of the under 17 girls’ category.

After losing to Botswana’s WCM Refilwe Tsutsu in round seven, Mercy put up a fighting spirit to beat Zimbabwe’s Mawire Rumbidzai and Uganda’s Namirimu Britney in the following two rounds respectively that propelled her to the top of the podium.

Jamie Obora from Kenya managed to take the third spot, winning silver in the under 13 open category despite being humbled by his compatriot Olando Paul in the last round.

Kenya’s Candidate Master (CM) Lwanga Aguda bagged silver medal with 7.5 points in the under 15 open category after drawing with Goliath Brimarion of South Africa in the last round.

Harry Kags of Kenya beat Zimbabwe’s Aidan Magudhu in the final round to secure bronze in the under nine open category. He trails behind Uganda’s Mibiru Jayden who is in second place with 8 points, and Ghana’s Acheampong Dave in first place with 9 points.

In the under seven open, Manyeki Nathaniel narrowly missed the podium after attaining 6 points to secure fourth position. Ghana and South Africa clinched the top three spots.

The championship attracted 166 players from Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe with Kenya and South Africa fielding the largest number of players at 67 and 41 respectively.

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