Kenya bags 2 bronze medals in the 2015 African Youth Chess Championship

The biggest news coming from the 2015 African Youth Chess Championship which ended today in Lusaka, Zambia is that Kenya has bagged 2 bronze medals.  Sanjana Deshpande won her bronze medal in the Ladies U18 and Aravind Vengarai in the Boys U14.

Sanjana Deshpande in a recent tournament photo

Aravind Vengarai in action

This is indeed fantastic news bearing in mind that powerful nations like Egypt, Algeria and South Africa were present.

The event which is a FIDE event brought a total of 223 players from 12 African federations.  Kenya sent a strong delegation of 25 players made up of 12 official and 13 additional players.  This is indeed great news for Kenya and has come on the day that we celebrate our 53^rd Independence Day.

We at Kenya Chess Masala wish to extend our congratulations to both WFM Sanjana Deshpande & CM Aravind Vengarai for their fine performance.

Other notable results include Anish Sukumar who ended up 4th with 5.5 points in the Boys U10 and Timothy Mwabu who ended up with 6 points as joint 3rd in the Boys U12.. 

To the rest of the Team Kenya – Keep up the good work and continue to study.  A gold medal is now in our sights and this is what we will get in 2016 or perhaps by 2017 at the latest.

We congratulate both Moses Andiwoh and Larry Kagambi for all the hard work that has gone into producing two bronze medal winners.

Coach Larry Kagambi during the 2015 Capablanca Cup

Coach Moses Andiwoh during the 2015 Daystar Open

To the parents.  Your hard work and sacrifice is truly appreciated.  Each parent who accompanied their kids had to pay approximately KES 175,000 or (USD 1,750).  Additional players (ie those not selected by Chess Kenya) had to pay approximately KES 190,000 (USD 1,900) to take part.  Approximately USD 400 was fees paid to Chess Kenya. This is a massive sacrifice in terms of finance and time.  We salute you.

To Chess Kenya – thanks for organising to send the team and facilitating the trip.

Both Sanjana and Aravind are active players who have taken part in a number of Kenyan events and in my opinion truly deserve these medals.

The winners.

Team Kenya