Somali's Warsame wins Africa Zone 4.4 Chess Championship
Reading Time: 2min | Fri. 14.02.25. | 14:10
He finished the tournament on seven points after losing his last game to Joyce Nyaruai of Kenya
Somali national chess champion Abdulkadir Warsame is the winner of the Zone 4.4 Chess Championship which came to an end on Thursday.
Warsame, rated 1979, finished the tournament on seven points after losing his last game to Joyce Nyaruai of Kenya.
It was still not catastrophic for the Somali national champion losing his last game, as Kenyan champion Robert Macligeyo also lost to Zuri Kaloki to finish in second place on six points.
“I blundered and after that I could not recover. I continued to play but it was difficult for me to recover,” said Macligeyo after his loss.
On Wednesday, the Somali champion had maintained his sole lead on seven points after edging out Kenya woman champion WFM Sasha Mongeli (Elo 1871) of Equity Bank.
For his triumph, the Somali champion received Ksh.86,000.
Nyaruai from KCB defended the ladies category which she won for the first time in Madagascar last year.
Nyaruai finished the tournament on 6.5 points after her last round win.
She was awarded Ksh.65,000 for her triumph.
The unrated Deng Mabior of South Sudan finally scored a win after accounting for rising schoolgirl Kaloki (Elo 1784) of Mavens Chess Club, and will appear in the world rating list for the first time in March.
The match between Hugh Misiko (Elo 1922) of KCB Chess Club against Lenny Mataiga (Elo 1905) of Equity Bank was ended in favour - difficult and balanced not affecting top six positions.
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. Zone 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.
Elsewhere, the first edition of the Private Schools Chess Championships has attracted 300 players.
The one day tournament will be held at Makini School.
At stake will be trophies and medals for the winners with the winning team earning the right to represent Kenya at next year’s Interlect Academy tournament to be held in Russia.
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