(Press release courtesy of Nairobi Chess Club)
The second leg of the Nairobi Chess Club Grand Prix on Sunday 20th promises to offer the casual kibitzer plenty of thrills and spills. Besides the confirmed entries of the top 2 on the Grand Prix leader board (Mehul Gohil and Mathew Kanegeni), Kenya’s number one Peter Gilruth alongside Olympian Ben Nguku will also be in action.
Experienced players and relative newcomers find out what they're up against
The university crowd has grown with Daystar crashing the party. Rising stars like Joseph Methu and Collins Young will be looking to subdue the Kenyan international mentioned above. The two ladies who provided the sensation of the All Africa Games in Maputo, Gwen Jumba and Isabelle Asiema, by holding two Egyptian WGMs to a draw, will ignite the battle for Top Queen. Last but not least, some of Kenya’s best juniors will be taking part and testing their skills against the psychologically hardened senior players.
Leg 1 of the NCC Grand Prix series in full swing at Goan Gymkhana
And to show respect for the fantastic mix of players, Nairobi Chess Club will be rolling out some of its finest chess inventory – classic Cold War era clocks made in the former Yugoslavia and East Germany, the kind that were popular with Soviet legends like Efim Geller, Igor Bondarevsky and Mark Taimanov, will be in use alongside ultra-modern American DGT clocks. Some of the boards themselves will be the very ones that were played on by Kenyan legends Humphrey Andolo, Juma Arogo and Rodgers Adai in the 90s. Nairobi Chess Club will be dusting off the history sitting in its chess garage and put it up for display on Sunday 20th.
Aslam Adam and Mehul Gohil are once again the main sponsors of the event which has a total prize fund of KES 21,500/-.
The player and kibitzer response to the 1st leg was positive and this has motivated Nairobi Chess Club to offer the same lucrative prizes for the 2nd leg. Furthermore, the club plans to expand the matchplay stage to include the 4 top ‘challengers’ (players who finish positions 5-8 in the final Grand Prix list) and 4 top ladies.
Further information on this will be revealed at the closing ceremony of the 2nd leg.