Chess Kenya announces new system for national team selection

Chess Kenya has announced a new selection system for its senior national teams.

The new system comes into place next year, replacing the three-phase one that has been in use for more than a decade.

Under the new system, players wishing to be selected for national duties will collect points in several Grand Prix events, with the top 20 taking part in a single tournament at the end of the year to select 10 of them to make the cut..

There are 11 Grand Prix events to be held next year starting with the East Africa Junior Chess Championship scheduled to run from January 10-12 in Mombasa.

According to Chess Kenya Secretary General John Mukabi, a player needs to take part in at least four Grand Prix events to be eligible for selection into the national team.

“A player will collect 20 points if they win an event, 15 points if they finish runners-under, and 10 points if they finish third.

At the end, the players with the highest number of points will play in a round-robin tournament where the top 10 in both the men's and women's categories will automatically be selected into the national team,” he said.

Mukabi thanked organisers for agreeing to host the Grand Prix events pointing out that, this has made it possible to implement the new system.

“The new system was passed at our last Annual General Meeting (AGM) and received overwhelming support from our branches who have agreed to host the Grand Prix events and this is commendable,” he said.

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There will be two such events next month with Eldoret hosting the second one on January 25-26.

The fourth one will be held in March-the Waridi Chess Festival with the Kenya Open Championship during the Easter Holidays acting as the fourth event such event.

Other Grand Prix events include the Nairobi Open, Nakuru Open, Mombasa Open, Nyeri Open, Kisumu Open, and Bungoma Open.

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The old system being replaced involved players taking part in an intensive three-phase system that always locked out the best players.

“In this system, our national champions never made it to the team since it came almost immediately after they had been declared winners after an intense battle and they always lacked the stamina to fight again for selection.

By introducing a new system we are giving everyone a chance to be selected because they will be judged over a longer period and not just one tournament,” explained Mukabi.