Big field register for second edition of Inter-Universities Chess Championships

More than 100 players have registered for the second edition of the Inter-Universities Chess Championships scheduled for Friday at Kenyatta University.

The three-day event has a prize fund of Sh.67,000 to be distributed among three categories; Open, Ladies, and PWDs.

Among the big names who will take part in the tournament is Timothy Mwabu from the University of Nairobi (UON).

The civil engineering student is a board one player for his campus and has had an impressive run in the past.

Defending champion Rocky Muchiri from Maseno University has also registered and will be hoping to win the title for the second year in a row.

Muchiri represented the country at the Abu Dhabi Masters last year in Dubai after winning the University title.

The women's defending champion Madelta Glenda from the University of Nairobi is also expected to fight for her title.

Due to a heavy study schedule, Glenda took part in just two major tournaments last year.

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She finished runners-up at the national chess championships ahead of more experienced players.

“Since this is my last year in school, I will have more time to play in tournaments and hope to do even better,” she said.

The winner of the Open category will pocket Sh.15,00 while the runners-up will get Sh.10,000 with the third-placed player pocketing Sh.5,000.

The ladies’ category winner takes home Sh.10,000, Sh.6,000 for the runners-up, and Sh.4,000 for the third-placed player.

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Another Sh.17,000 is on offer for those taking part in the People With Disability (PWD) category.

According to the Tournament Director Dennis Wambugu, they intend to make the event even bigger next year.

“We just started last year and yet the interest remains high. This is a big motivation for us and next year we are looking at having more than 200 players take part,” he said.