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| Ken Omolo - with 3C's - Cool, Calm & Collected. |
Ken Omolo’s efforts almost got derailed in Round 7 against
Mehul when he had only 2 minutes 10 seconds left to Mehul’s 22 minutes in a
tough encounter. In one of the most
nail biting finishes Ken held his nerve and cool to defeat Mehul with a less
than half a minute left on his clock.
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| Black to play..1...Ra5, 2 e4+ Kg5 |
In the 8th and final round Mehul seemed deflated
and was defeated by fellow team mate from Nairobi Chess Club Peter
Gilurth. Just a day earlier Mehul was
cruising with 6 clear wins and now he ended up 4th with 18 points. An extremely painful day for the former 2014 Kenya
National Champion.
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| Mehul holds his head. |
The great thing about this event that the last round saw
bitter fighting chess as the winner could have been any one of the following;
Ken Omolo, Mehul Gohil, Kevins Omondi or Brian Kidula.
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| Wachira Wachania v Peter Gilruth in green cap. |
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| Terrian Chess Academy - Brian Kidula. |
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| Dr Kevins Omondi - one of the potential Kenya champions in round 8 |
Peter Gilurth was 2nd with 20 points and in 3rd
place was Brian Kidula the CEO of Terrain Chess Academy.
In the ladies section 15 year old student from Aga Khan
Academy Riya Shah demolished the opposition to win with a comfortable 22 points
(with Bilbao scoring over 8 rounds). Her
closest rivals were Gloria Jumba & Isabella Asiema who both had 16 points.
 |
| Riya Shah attempts to out stare her opponent. |
For Riya Shah this was sweet victory as she was the 2013
National Champion and lost the title in 2014 to WFM Sanjana Deshpande. Riya was also a member of the 2012 Team Kenya
to the Istanbul Olympiad.
This year’s event was notable in the number of new faces
rising to the top. These included James
Madol Panchol & James Muchai who came out 5th & 6th
respectively with 18 points. Peter Diing
and Terence Chazima ended up 7th and 8th respectively
with 17 points.
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| Peter Diing - can be proud of a fine performance. |
The good news is that the top Junior Boy and Junior Lady
will travel to Seychelles for the African Junior Chess Championship which is
set for later in December 2015. This is
one of Africa’s toughest tournaments and will be great for us to have upcoming
players taking part.
We at Kenya Chess Masala congratulate Ken Omolo & Riya
Shah for their fine performances on winning the 2015 Kenya National
Championship.
I guess with hindsight Ken Omolo winning the title might
have come as a blessing in disguise. You
will recall that the 2014 Kenya National Championship raised a huge storm when
the 2014 winner Mehul Gohil renounced his title in protest. This was after Chess Kenya informed the 2014
Ladies winner Sanjana Deshpande that she cannot be the called the Kenya
National Champion even though she won the event due to the fact that she is not
a citizen of Kenya. This was in
accordance with the Chess Kenya constitution.
I will not go into details of this story. You can read the following posts http://www.kenyachessmasala.com/2015/03/chess-kenya-embroilled-in-scandal.html which
covered part of this extraordinary drama.
I guess you will now understand why I call this blog – “Kenya Chess
Masala”. There is always something
cooking with some nice flavours!
Two interesting scenario would have been possible;
1 Mehul wins the National Championship. Chess Kenya refuses to give him the title due
to the fact that he renounced his earlier title. This was in the pipeline
according to my sources. More drama!
2
Peter Gilruth wins the National Champion and
Mehul comes out 2nd. Chess Kenya refuse to give Peter the title as
he is not a citizen. Would Mehul accept
such a title? I highly doubt it. More drama!
Is there a list of Kenyan chess champions available somewhere?
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