Robert Macligeyo assumes leadership of Zone 4.4 chess championships
Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 12.02.25. | 11:14
Macligeyo, who plays for KCB, beat national ladies champion Sasha Mongeli as the tournament entered the sixth round
The on-going Zone 4.4 Africa Zonal championships resumed on Monday after a one-day break, with national champion Robert Macligeyo assuming leadership on five points.
Macligeyo, who plays for KCB, beat national ladies champion Sasha Mongeli as the tournament entered the sixth round.
He displaced Somali national champion Abdulkadir Warsame, rated 1979, who also has five points but trails on tiebreak.
Warsame failed to maintain his position at the top after being held by Equity Bank’s Hugh Misiko in a tense match.
“I was really under pressure today, and this destroyed all the plans I had to beat my opponent. It was a tough game, and I want to praise my opponent for making it so,” said Warsame after the game.
Equity Bank’s Julie Mutisya, who finished fourth at the national championships in December, also won her match, stopping Mabior Deng Mabior to move into four points and staying in touch to finish in the medal bracket.
Former national champion Joyce Nyaruai, who is seeking to defend her zonal title, made light work of Zuri Kaloki, forcing the teenager to resign in less than one hour.
Kaloki Hawi, who started the year as the country’s highest-rated player at 2040, beat Lenny Mataiga, putting to an end a bad run of results.
After six rounds of matches, Sasha Mongeli leads in the ladies category with 4.5 points, followed by Julie Mutisya, who has collected four points, and Joyce Nyaruai remains third with 3.5 points.
The winner in the men category will collect Sh. 85,000, with the runners up walking away with Sh. 65,000. The women's winner will pocket Sh. 65,000 and the runners-up Sh. 35,000.
Africa has five zones, namely Zones 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5, of which only two are World Cup qualifiers, i.e., Zones 4.1 and 4.5, which yield a total of three players each, men and women, to play in the World Cup that will consist of 206 players from all continents.
