Fast Report On The Satellite Millionaire's Chess Open In Nairobi

A busy day in Nairobi!

30th April 2015 is the tax deadline and all accountants have their hair on fire today!  That includes chess lovers like us.

I could not resist the urge to go to Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) today and get some photos and updates on this amazing event in Nairobi.  Thanks to Kasparov Chess Foundation for putting Nairobi on the world stage.

Security was incredibly tight.  First check is right at the perimeter of the venue, then when you enter the building and then once again when you reach the floor where chess is taking place.

Mean looking armed policemen were everywhere.  I did not want to ask anyone for a photo!

The draw for the first round is shown here;

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr171512.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=1&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

There were some small upsets - top seeded Emojong Elijah missed his first round!  The Ethiopian squad of was missing in action which is a shame.

Elijah Emojong during the 3rd Capablanca Cup in Nairobi held in 16th & 17th February 2013

In the second round Elijah was present and went on to play Peter Gilruth and won.

View from the balcony

All chair covers have the logo

Our Father of the Nation - Late President Kenyatta

A close up view.

I bring you very few photos due to the huge security around the venue and I was scared that I would be asked too many questions.

A total of 188 players have registered for this event which has 3 groups - Prestige, Open and the Juniors.  I will be playing the Open section and hope to get my readers some more photos during the week.  It has been tough getting my mind to accept that I have to play for 3 full days.

Now to some chess photos.  Unfortunately by the time I reached only one game was going on so I did not get many photos.  Here is what you can see;

Nerve centre Moses Andiwoh (yellow) & Tony Mutua

Shirts for the arbiters

Jonah Langat from Mombasa (left)

Clear favorite Harold Wanyama (right) plays a blitz game against Nsubuga Haruna

Playing hall for the Prestige section

Vincent Limo v Sanjana Deshpande while Arbiter Duke Michieka looks on

Vincent on his way to victory

Harold Wanyama - will he be going to Las Vegas?

There you go readers - a quick and dirty review of the 2015 Satellite Millionaire's Chess Tournament taking place right here in the heart of Africa.

Watch this blog for some more news this weekend.