Candidate Master (CM), and top seed Ben Magana on Thursday crashed out of the title race in the 2022 Kenya National Chess Championship (KNCC), Open Section after losing to teenage sensation Robert Mcligeyo.
This as Equity Bank Chess Club’s Glenda Madelta kept alive her dream to triumph in the Ladies Section with a win over Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Lucy Wanjiru.
The competition, which has attracted 200 participants, ends on Friday at Charter Hall in Nairobi.
A brand new Mazda Demio car is the prize in the Open Section, while the top player in the Ladies Section will pocket Sh100,000.
Magana, a Mechanical Engineer, was the tournament’s open favourite, owing to his decorated chess career.
Apart from being a CM, and Kenya’s finest chess player at the moment with a Fide rating of 2132, he is also a three-time KNCC champion and a six-time Olympiad. But he has not had a good campaign in this year’s KNCC.
The national team captain-cum-coach was held by Timothy Mwabu (1656) and Glen Kingoina (1672) in round two and four respectively, before he fell to 17-year-old Mcligeyo (1854) in round seven on Thursday.
Fredrick Omosa, Tom Amwai, Kelvin Ithagi and Gabriel Njuki are the players the former champion defeated in the other rounds of the competition.
Heading into the eighth round Thursday evening, the KCB Chess Club man was placed 26th with five points. His hopes of reclaiming the Open Section title were dimmed by the fact that Dr Victor Ng'ani, the 2018 champion was leading with 6.5 points followed by two-time champion Mehul Gohil on six points.
Ngani, the founding chairman of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) was to face Gohil (2012) in a titanic round eight clash.
The furthest Magana can take his points tally should he win the two remaining rounds is seven but with an inferior tie-breaker compared to several other players above him.
To go top of the log, Ngani (1925) handed the impressive Hugh Misiko (1785) his first defeat of the competition.
Martin Njoroge (1973) revived his hopes to retain the title with victory over Steve Austin (1803) in round seven. Misko had handed the defending champions his first defeat in round six Wednesday evening.
Gohil, Misiko, Njoroge and Brian Kadenge were all tied on six points ahead of the eighth round.
In the Ladies Section, while Madelta (1565) continued with her match towards the title with victory over 2019 champion Wanjiru (1454) in the seventh round, defending champion and Woman Fide Master Sasha Mongeli (1726) was defeated by 2017 winner and WCM Joyce Nyaruai (1699).
Mongeli was paired against Mercy Cherono (1196) while Wanjiru was to face Kimani Wanjiru (1181). Leading with 6.5 points, a win over Nyaruai is all Madelta needs to clinch her first KNCC Ladies Section title.
While Nyaruai is second with six points, Mongeli and Wanjiru are placed third and fourth respectively with five points each.
