African champion Jadon Simiyu posts positive start at World Cadets Championships
.jpg)
Reading Time: 2min | Sat. 16.11.24. | 16:12
Despite being rated 1784, Simiyu showed no respect to the 2157-rated opponent as he picked a crucial first-round win
Africa Under-12 champion Jadon Simiyu from Kenya beat his highly rated opponent Guo Ethan from the USA as the World Cadets Chess Championships started in Italy on Friday.
Despite being rated 1784, Simiyu showed no respect to the 2157-rated opponent as he picked a crucial first-round win.
The Nakuru-based player will now play Armenian Stephanyan Davit who is equally rated highly at 2011 in the second round.
Other Kenyans featured in the same category failed to pick positive results.
Fidel Kingsley went down to Mamikinyan Artem from Armenia while Liam Valambia could not match Hallumundarson Birkir from Iceland.
Slovakia’s Matejka Simon beat another Kenyan Jibril Gichugu also in the first round.
In the girls' Under-12 category, Olive Wanjiru from Kenya picked her first point without playing as she was awarded a bye.
Jasmine Kigaya also from Kenya went down to Korea’s Xia Miaoyan.
Ethan Nderitu also started slowly going down to Korea’s Nguyen Phuc Danh in a boys Under-8 match.
Prior to the 13-day event, half of the Kenyan team members were denied visas by the Italian embassy.
The decision has since been appealed and at least one member Kelly Sosi got a reversal and has since travelled to Italy on Friday.
The fate of the rest will be known next week when the embassy makes a decision on the rest of the delegation.
Chess Kenya President Bernard Wanjala has termed the visa rejections a major blow to the team especially given the effort and preparation invested by the young players.
“However, the Kenyan delegation has demonstrated admirable perseverance in the face of adversity and for that we are very proud of them,” he said.
