2015 African Youth Chess Championship, Lusaka, Zambia

A 35 strong Kenyan squad made up of players, parents and supporters have landed in Lusaka for the 2015 African Youth Chess Championship that runs from 6^th to 13^th December 2015.  The team left in 3 batches  and looking forward to doing battle with some of Africa’s best players.

Poster for the event

The event is for both boys and girls in the following age groups; U8, U10, U12, U14, U16, & U18.  The event has attracted a total of 223 chess players from 12 African countries.  The country with the biggest team is Zimbabwe with 54, then Zambia with 48 and then Kenya with 25.  Missing in action from the East African Community is Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.  Burundi managed to send 1 player for the event.

The opening ceremony of African Youth Chess Championship 2015 took place in Golden Peacock hotel, Lusaka, Zambia in the presence of various dignitaries which included Lewis Ncube from Zambia and who is the FIDE Continental President for Africa. 

The opening ceremony (photo credit Satish Deshpande)

Dignitaries at the opening ceremony - Mr Lewis Ncube (third from right). (photo credit Satish Deshpande)

Entertainment during the opening ceremony (photo credit Nagasridevi Srungarapu)

The 1^st round started on 6^th December 2015 at 6pm local.

The sad thing about Team Kenya is that bulk of the players travelled on 6^th December 2015 and their flight was scheduled for 8.30am.  This meant that the kids had to probably wake up at around 4am.  They landed around lunchtime and then proceeded straight to the venue.  The start of Round 1 was delayed by a few hours to 5pm local time.  Part of the team that landed on 6^th December 2015 were then taken to their hotel which meant that the kids got to bed at around midnight.  These kids also missed the grand opening ceremony.

Part of Team Kenya that was kitted by Nairobi Gymkhana with coach Larry Kagambi (photo credit L. Kagambi)

Happy to be Lusaka Trevor Ouma & Jia Hiranandani - Team Kenya. (photo credit Steve Ouma)

That just reminds me of the recent debacle of the Kenyan football team that flew to Cape Verde for their World Cup qualifying match.  After a long torturous wait at the airport for the flight to be paid for, the team only got to Cape Verde about 3 hours before kick-off.

My suspicion is that Chess Kenya got the funding from the GoK very late and hence did not have much flexibility in terms of travel arrangements.

Action - (photo credit Enyonam S Fumey)

Action - (photo credit Enyonam S Fumey)

Action - (photo credit Enyonam S Fumey)

 What are Kenya’s chances in this event.  I think we have some prospects for a medal in the Boys U8.  In the Boys U8 we have Abinesh Lakshwin who is rated 1408 and the second highest rated player after Khaled Yousef of Egypt who is rated at 1511. 

We at Kenya Chess Masala wish Team Kenya the best.  More photos from this event are shown below. 

Arbiters at work (photo credit Nagasridevi Srungarapu)

Action. (photo credit Nagasridevi Srungarapu)

Team Kenya waiting for the games to start. (photo credit Nagasridevi Srungarapu)