2015 Bungoma Open Chess Tournament - Excitement builds up

All roads lead to Bungoma this weekend when the 3^rd edition of the “Bungoma Open” will be held.

With a cash prize fund of over KES 100,000 the event is sponsored by Bungoma County Governor Kenneth Lusaka, Oriolec Africa Limited, Club G II and Newsroom.

The cool looking poster

The organiser of the event is Bungoma Chess Club led by chess enthusiast Robert Nyongesa.

Bungoma town is the capital of Bungoma county which borders Uganda and one can expect a huge influx of strong Ugandan players to come hunting for the loot.  According to latest reports Harold Wanyama and Arthur Ssegwanyi are expected to lead the Ugandans to glory and win a top prize of KES 30,000. 

Harold Wanyama winner 2012 edition

Harold Wanyama winner 2014 edition

Harold Wanyama is the two time defending champion and has vowed to come for his 3^rd title.

Kenya’s hope as usual lies with veteran Ben Magana, Ken Omolo and Githinji Hinga.  Rant loving Mehul Gohil is a notable absentee for this year’s editions.

The main hope for for Kenya's pride - Ben Magana - (caricature by Morvin Were)

There is normally great excitement whenever there is an event held in a small town.  90% of chess action is centered around Nairobi which does not augur well for the country.  We at Kenya Chess Masala are delighted that there are “true sons of the soil” in Bungoma who move heaven and earth to host an event.  

Robert Nyongesa’s first outing as a chess organiser during the 2012 edition caused him a major headache when he was let down by the sponsors at the last minute.  Robert had to face severe cyber complaints on Facebook and in the end he managed to extract himself from the mess by paying all the winners.  The 2013 edition was missed out and he returned with a bang with the 2014 edition which was sponsored by the Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka.

A happy Robert Nyongesa at a past event.

We hope to bring you live updates via our twitter account as the action unfolds.

From left Governor Kenneth Lusaka,  David Makali and Evans Kakai

I was hoping to provide more information on Bungoma but this is what I found on the county website!

Oops!

Bungoma unfortunately was in the news recently with the story of the purchase of 10 wheelbarrows at a total cost of KES 1 million with each unit going for over KES 109,000 (USD 1,000).

I guess it is only natural that I poke some fun before you leave the story!

My investigation revealed the following details on the wheelbarrow!