After a gruelling four rounds played over 7 hours and 30 minutes, today saw the end of the ChessPAK Cup open tournament with the re-emergence of Candidate Master (CM) Wachira Wachania as the final winner with 5.5 points out of a possible 7.
George Mwangi (left) gives first prize to tournament winner Wachira Wachania (in yellow shirt) as Collins Young looks on
The highlights of the day and tournament though, were Austin Okeyo’s upset wins over Kenyan ‘top dog’ Wang’ombe Mugo and tournament favourite Peter Gilruth in consecutive rounds. He ended the competition in joint 2nd place with Wango’mbe.
Austin Okeyo (in orange jumper) preparing to defeat second-placed Wang'ombe Mugo in their Round 5 encounter
A special prize for the juniors category was awarded to Sathya Iyer, an enthusiastic junior high student from Oshwal Academy Nairobi Junior High, to encourage participation from more juniors like him. Sathya, incidentally, was also the fastest player of the day finishing most of his games in under 30 of the allocated 120 minutes per game.
Sathya Iyer receiving his special prize in the juniors category from George Mwangi while Collins Young looks on
The final standings were as follows:
- William Wachania – 5.5 points
- Wang’ombe Mugo – 5 points
- Austin Okeyo – 5 points
- Peter Gilruth – 4.5 points
- Joseph Maigua – 4.5 points
- Jules Daproza – 4.5 points
- Bryan Taboso – 4 points
- Brian Adorwa – 4 points
- Rizwan Mehar – 4 points
- Ricky Sang – 4 points
- Joseph Methu – 3.5 points
- George Nderitu – 3 points
- Kiri Gilruth – 3 points
- Collins Young – 3 points
- Paras Gudka – 3 points
- Kartik Shah – 2 points
- Sathya Iyer – 2 points
- Moses Andiwon – 1.5 points
- Njuru Mwangi – 1 point
- Lydia Jamyoung – 0 points
The next ChessPAK tournament is scheduled to be held on 3rd July 2011 and will be a one-day rapid chess affair.