Kenyans struggle at African Junior Championships in Egypt
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Reading Time: 2min | Sun. 17.11.24. | 12:51
The one week tournament is bringing together top players from the continent who are under the age of 20
Kenyan players had a bad start at the African Junior chess championships which started in Egypt on Saturday.
Christian Mugambi lost to Egyptian Candidate Master (CM) Wael Sabry Mina in the first round.
The other Kenyan representative Bradley Wathimba also went down to another Egyptian Abdin Mahmoud.
The one week tournament is bringing together top players from the continent who are under the age of 20.
Kenya failed to send two of its top players to the event after Barry Hawi and Zuri Kaloki pulled out at the last minute.
The two failed to honor the tournament due to a busy schedule as they returned home just days to the event from the World Youth chess championships in Brazil.
Elsewhere, African under-12 champion Jadon Simiyu lost his second game at the World Cadets chess championships in Italy after going down to Armenian Stephanyan Davit.
The loss came after Simiyu had beaten one the tournament’s highly rated players Guo Ethan from the United States of America (USA) in the first round.
David who was rated 2011 proved a hard nut to crack for the Kenyan who has a rating of 1784.
It was a bad day for the majority of the Kenyan players featuring in the under-12 open category as Jibril Gichugu also went down to Park Onyoo from South Korea.
Andreieve from Ukraine with a 1710 rating proved too good for another Kenyan Hareld Kagwe.
Then Zan Zihan from Canada stopped Kyle Njiru while Luke Nganga went down to Lithuania’s Kraucenka Justus.
All the three Kenyan girls Olive Wanjiru, Elsie Wangechi and Jasmine Malala taking part in the under-12 category lost their matches.
Dylan Wema, the only Kenyan representative in the boys under-10 category got a bye in the first round but lost his second game.
In the under-10 category Zawadi Mugo and Ella Kendi are still waiting for their first win in the competition.
Kenya also has three players in the boys under-8 category. All the three Yadiel Baraka, Kingsley Nzioki and Ethan Nderitu have lost all their two opening matches.
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