St. Monica win first game in World chess event

St. Monica Girls from Kenya beat Phan Chu Trinh School from Vietnam 4-0 in the first match of the World Schools Team Championships currently going on in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

The Kenyan girls got a bye in the first round as the tournament started on Friday evening.

All the four Kenyan girls on board won their matches against their opponents to show strong intention of doing well.

Purity Cherotich playing on board one beat Lau Truong Phi while Faith Chemutai beat Nguyen Phuc Khang.

The two other Kenyans Mary Wothaya and Maysie Andia also won their matches against Nguyen Phuc Khang and Hoang Tan Thuan respectively.

Kenyan coach Hugh Misikho termed the victory a big step for the side and said it will motivate them to do better in the rest of the matches.

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“The competition is very tough in this event and I am glad we got our first win. This will be a big motivation going forward,” he said.

In other matches played on the first day, St.Joseph School from Algeria went down 4-0 to Turkey’s Istanbul Eka School while hosts Republican School beat NIS PM of Almaty 4-0 while South African side Lebone College lost 3-1 to Osnovna Skola from Romania.

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After the second round, Istanbul Enka High School leads in the standings, followed by Republican School of Physics and Valemmal Vidyalaya completes the top three.

The Kenyans are placed in 32nd position out of the 73 teams that are taking part in the event. This is the first World Schools Team event and is part of the world chess governing body FIDE’s attempt to promote chess as a tool for education.