CHESS: 3,000 students to take part in National Youth Championships

More than 3,000 school children will feature in this year’s Kenya National Youth Chess Championships to be held at Kisii School from April 23-27.

The national championships come one month after the end of the regional qualifiers which took place in 17 venues across the country and all players with two points and above proceed to the finals.

According to Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala, they have experienced a massive interest during the regional qualifiers which stretch the available facilities.

“In Kiambu region forexample, we had more than 1,200 players taking part in their regional qualifiers. We got to a point where we did not have enough boards and we seek to invest in this next year,” he said.

On the decision to host the nationals in Kisii, Wanjala said it was done as a way to decentralize hosting the event.

“The competition was originally a Nairobi affair but we made the decision to take it to other regions as a way of reaching out to the grassroots talents. The move is aimed at promoting regional integration and appreciation of our national diversity through sports,” he said.

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He said all plans to host the event in Kisii are in top gear after an inspection of facilities was completed last week.

“We have confirmed that the venue is ready to host us on those days. They have everything we need and we look forward to a successful tournament. We expect more than 5,000 people to visit Kisii during that time as some players will be accompanied by their parents and guardians,” said the official.

The four day tournament will be used to select a team that will represent Kenya in this year’s Africa Youth Chess Championships to be held in Egypt from May 11-17.

The Africa Youth Championships is a qualifier tournament for the World Youth Chess Championships.