Strathmore University is getting ready to host the 2015 Kenya National Championship during the weekend of 11th to 13th December 2015. This 8 round event will be held at their Madaraka Campus and has attracted over 60 entries to date.
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| Poster for the event |
This event will be the 4th event which is part of
the Grand Prix series to select the 2016 Olympiad team to Baku, Azerbaijan. The prize fund is KES 70,000 with the winner
taking home a total of a cool KES 20,000.
I am an alumni of Strathmore College of Accountancy which
then grew into Strathmore University.
During that time the Strathmore College of Accountancy was based along
Riverside Drive, Nairobi where the Strathmore Secondary School is based. The "Akamba Bus" would pick us from town at
around 5pm and then drop us back at around 7.30pm. Almost 80% of the accountants working in
Nairobi would have gone through this college while doing their exams.
There was no chess activity when I was in college which was
a great pity. I do remember the library
had a number of chess books which is very unusual for a school.
Strathmore University has over the years become a great supporter
of chess by hosting many events and taking part in the National League. We currently have over 40 universities in
Kenya and only a handful of them are active in chess. The active ones are Kenyatta University,
Technical University of Kenya and Daystar University. I have in the past visited inter-universities
chess tournament where you will find a huge pool of very strong players. The sad thing is that there does not seem to
be more inter-university events to generate the publicity that chess so
desperately needs. The last major event
was the Kenya Universities Sports Association chess event held at Barclays
Bank, Ruaraka, Nairobi on 18th December 2011.
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| Kenya Universities Sports Association event held on 20th December 2009 at Nairobi University |
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| East African Universities Open held on 19th December 2010 with teams from Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda |
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| Kenya Universities Sports Association event held on 18th December 2011 |
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| Kenya Universities Sports Association event held on 20th December 2009 at Nairobi University |
One of Strathmore’s recent CSR initiatives held on 19th
July 2013 was to teach chess to the inmates of Langata Prison. I bring you some photos of this event. The photos have been blurred to protect the
identity of the inmates.
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| Paul Maloba of Strathmore University hands over chess sets to the inmates with Ben Magana |
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| Teaching chess to inmates. |
This year Ben Magana who has been in dazzling form this year
will be the notable absentee. Ben has
opted to play in the tough Rwabushenyi Memorial Chess Championship which is running
over two weekends 5th/6th December and 12th/13th
December 2015 in Kampala. He is the only
Kenyan playing in this event. The
Rwabushenyi event is the first phase where the top 30 Ugandans will then
proceed to select a team for the 2016 Olympiad.
Uganda still follow the torturous route of 3 phases to select their
team.
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| Ben Magana (left) who seems surprised will be missing in action during this event. |
Other big names who are expected to grace this event include
Githinji Hinga, John Mukabi, Wachira Wachania, Ken Omollo,
Peter Gilruth & Akello Atwoli.
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| Githinji Hinga (left) v Akello Atwoli both who will be fighting for top honours seen here during their 14th August 2011 encounter during the AAG qualifiers |
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| Peter Gilruth (left) & Wachira Wachania during the 2011 AAG Qualifiers at Kasarani |
In the Ladies section Isabel Asiema is expected to lift the
crown. Other contenders are expected to
be Riya Shah & Rose Wabuti.
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| Isabella Asiema in contention for Woman Champion of Kenya 2015 |
I have presented a list of past Kenya Champions which has been
reconstructed by our “historian” John Mukabi.
You can see that there is a terrible gap between 2007 and 2012 when the
event did not take place. The last I
heard from Lothar Nicolaiczuk is when he was in Indonesia, Humphrey Andolo is
now based in the UK, PN Odhiambo has not been active in Kenya.
1991
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1st?
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1992
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2nd?
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1993
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3rd Humphrey Andolo (KEN)
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1994
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Lothar Nicolaiczuk (GER) IM
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1995
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Humphrey Andolo (KEN)
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1996
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Philip Nicholas Odhiambo (KEN)
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1997
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Humphrey Andolo (KEN)
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1998
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Humphrey Andolo (KEN)
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1999
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Humphrey Andolo (KEN)
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2000
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NO EVENT
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2001
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Kenneth Ajode Omolo (KEN)
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2002
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?
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2003
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Matthew Kamau Kanegeni (KEN)
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2004
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?
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2005
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Nathan Mukaka Ateka (KEN)
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2006
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Benjamin (KEN)? Now CM
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2007
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NO EVENT
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2008
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NO EVENT
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2009
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NO EVENT
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2010
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NO EVENT
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2011
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NO EVENT
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2012
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NO EVENT
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2013
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Ben Magana- 30th Mar to 3rd April 13, KU
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2014
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Mehul Gohil
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