Kenyan Chess On Reuters

Early this year in April, Reuters started shooting a documentary about chess
in Kenya.The documentary is now ready and it features Kabete cares chess
players alongside other chess players in Kenya.Watch this exciting
documentary on KTN Africa journal programme,this Thursday 8th October
@10.15pm and a repeat of the same this Saturday 10th October @12:00pm.DO NOT
MISS IT.time is now to create creations that will take chess to another
level.No more unnecessary nocturnal & diurnal dialogues but more action!

Kenya Loses to Dutch team In Internet Match

By Mehul Gohil


What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? - Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch painter and genius)

I thought I'd use Van Gogh qoutes rather than Ngugi Wa Thiongo ones since the Kenya Simbas lost by a nightmarish Fischeresque margin of 6-0. We were simply outplayed, outmanouvered, outthought, outprepared but maybe not outorganised! Some players thought that there was probably a game going on at a 'Board 7' between NCC organisers (led by Simba Kim) and Wagenignen ones (Led by Warrior Mr. Stap) and therefore Kenya got a consolation score of 6-1...sounds much better than 6-0!!

It's great we did attempt this thing despite the humiliating loss over the board. One thing for sure, the players learnt valuable lessons and it helped us understand where Kenyan chess stands, that the 'Top Dogs' are only strong relative to weak Kenyan standards. More events like this on at least a semi-regular basis and we are on our way to getting the master norms...more on the games below.

But I do not think I am exegerrating when I say this chess event was probably one of the finest ever staged in Kenya. The venue was set up beautifully. Big demo boards lined up in front , boards + laptops arranged on both sides of the room, seating arrangement for spectators, nice lunch, blazing Safaricom banners, air conditioned room, crash of media people...they were sticking those cameras into our faces when we had losing positions...political celebrities (commisioner of sports checked in...what he saw definitely impressed him), hotel patrons, a side rapid event thrown in, refreshments, good prizes etc. Everything you could wish for in a tournament, it was pure class. (There should be pictures getting posted on the forum) This must happen again!

Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. -Vincent Van Gogh

Certainly, many small organisational components had come together to make this event a success. The standard pattern in Kenyan events is one club/federation/individual setting out to do everything themselves. This Safaricom sponsored thing was a break from tradition. Many different people and clubs put their hands together to make this thing happen and blossom in a spectucular manner. It goes to show it is possible to get big important things done without any help coming from CK (More on me taking potshots at CK in the 'Gossip & Rants' section below :P). It goes to show there is an alternative to the current chess mess we have in the country. It shows the rest of us can get the job done if CK can't.

In no particular order these are some of the people & clubs who made it happen (I might have left some out):

Philip Singe - Provided the demo boards which was critical to the ambience of the main venue. It clearly gave the event a professional touch. Singe also took some classy photographs which will be of great use pretty soon. Maybe he is the best chessplayer -photographer we have in the country?! lol!

Shiko - She was the brains behind the media operation. She's got the networking and she managed to pull in multiple media houses for this event. It's long since chess in Kenya got TV, Newspaper and Radio attention. Strangest thing...Shiko doesn't know how the pieces move!

Isaac Babu of KCB club - Great of him to take on the personal initiative of managing and arbitrating the Rapid event. Clearly, Kim was already stretched with the main event and Babu did a good job of helping out. By the way this maybe the only Kenyan event to feature two International Arbiters as TD's (other being Kim).

Surabaya & Auntie Cecilia - Where would the forum be without these two Kenyan chess legends? With their devastatingly colourful forum language they did a fantastic job of keeping everyone hooked to the KCF Soap Opera and ushered in the October 3rd event in dramatic style. No one can do it like them.

Checkmates Club, Mombasa Club and Kabete Cares - Goerge Mwangi co-organised the rapid with Babu. Johnah represented Mombasa club with his particpiation in that event and so did Moses of Kabete cares. We sometimes forget what an important component players and spectators are.

The weak players on the Kenya Simbas team - This includes me...though I had to 'sacrifice' my game to handle 'IT details' that cropped up (more below)...yes we were weak but we played for Kenya and represented Kenya to the best we could under the circumstances. Whatsmore without us there was no event!

Antony & Safaricom - Without them their wouldn't have been an event either! Thanks for the sponsorship guys. With what they gave us prizes were given as follows - 10k to each of the six main players (in addition to this Wageningen Chess Club sponsored Playchess accounts for each of them), 10k to the winner of the Rapid event, 1.5k to the subs (Johnny, Steve and Singe), and 5k each as a contribution to helping out other fellow clubs - Checkmates, Mombasa and Kabete Cares. Other details will appear when kim releases accounts at end month.

Dr. Nikolai Van Beek - After the event he became 'Nikolai Van Beer' as he hosted the Kenya team and some fans to some brown bottle action at Pizza Garden. This was the father of the whole idea. I don't how he managed to pull of things like Jan Timman, IM Afek and the other strong guys. What he did was amazing. Back in the Netherlands this event was big. Can you imagine a Kenyan chess event causing a stir nationwide in Holland? Kenyan chessers owe a big thank you to Dr. Nikolai.

Kim Bhari - Possibly the hardest working man in Kenyan chess. 80-90% of all the organisational responsibility lay on his shoulders. He defused a potential 'CK sabotage bomb' with his diplomacy (see gossip and rants below)...if it was me in his place I would have shoved armed bazookas up the a$$es of those CENSORED CENSORED. This guy worked the hardest out of anyone there, player or spectator or organiser. My hat's off to him.

Steve Ouma - He won the Rapid event. That must like the 100th rapid event in a row he has won. Congrats, next time he will have to be on the Kenya Simbas team to face dutch heat. But beside that I must appreciate Steve for his genuine compliments on how the event was organised. It wasn't like the fake unfelt speech his Sec Gen colleague delivered. He may have been the 'only olololo to have manhandled Mehul' as a famous forumater put it but I respect the guy as he had the balls to come up to me privately and say what was true. And he was honest about it.

Jacaranda Hotel Management - Wonderful hotel...an ideal location to express the romance of chess. Maybe we have discovered an ideal chess venue for important events. Ambience was smashing. But they are culprits as well. At the Safari Cafe, the guys gave us this stupendously sumptous buffet lunch...the effect was to fatten the Kenya Simbas for a dutch slaughter...at least now we have an excuse for poor performance!

Spectators on the ground, on the forum and on playchess - Chessdrummer, Niels, Ateka, Wanyama, Hesbon, Wachania and others....it was great to see support on playchess, the forum and main hall from friends. We could see you online. Sorry for letting you guys down! Next time we'll do better! It was kind of embarrasing to see Strong Wanyama looking into us with our weak positons...in a way you guys put us under a little more pressure! lol! Also guys like Johnny were prowling around putting our games under the microscope. Certainly a different feeling from a normal tournament. Our opponents were thousands of miles away but the tension was clear for all spectators to see.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again. -Vincent Van Gogh

The Kenya Simbas team was clearly no match for this ultra-strong dutch side. I think something may have been possible on Boards 3-6 but it just showed that more effort will be needed to brush up key elementary skills...precise calculation of short variations and basic strategy. Plus what we thought was the main Kenyan strength - tactics - proved to be illusory. We were treated to an exhibition of high quality tactical play and precision in calculation from the dutch side. Another thing, our openings needs major reworking and study. In my game I was playing the book lines but some slight deviation from my opponent left me flummoxed and I fell victim to a brilliant tactical shot Bc7!! Gosh...that came out of nowhere. Our opponents played very well indeed, even on the lower boards, and they deservedly won.

But this does not mean the end of the road. One thing all six of us distinctly felt once games were over was the feeling of revenge. We definitely want another shot. This is not the end for sure. It's amazing how playing against strong players you quickly realise what areas of your game need improvement. In a sense some of us felt given a second chance and good preparation we have a chance. I think 3-4 such events in a year will considerably improve 'top dog' playing standards and Kenyan chess in general. Having these sort of events organised at home would easily make us better prepared for international tornas. As per the Van Gogh quote above we can get up again and keep trying. Only way we will improve. It is now great that this critical absence of strong opposition for Kenyan chess is now being remedied thanks to the efforts of local clubs.

Now for a brief outline of what happened in each individual game...I guess some players will give their own takes on this. Plus Timman said he will annotate his game against Magana.

Magana - Timman - I thought Magana should have been a little more agressive coming out of the opening..he let the situation slide into positional/endgame realms and Timman's technique was just too good. Maybe Timman didn't even need to think at all on some moves and was playing simply on reflex because he had a big time advantage over Magana. But this is scary for us other Kenyans in local events...Magana will now be stronger in postional/endgame chess!! I will throw in an interesting thing in here because Magana told me it would not be appropriate for the chessbase/chessdrum artcles I will prepare, but since this is the allmighty forum here goes: A few days before the game with Timman, Magana asked Mr. Nigel Short on facebook what was his advise for tackling the might dutch legend. I will not quote the unbelievable reply from Short exactly but he said something to the effect that Magana should go in for wild tactical position because Timman's hallucinogenic (aka 'smoke') past have probably left him unable to calculate as well as he used to!!

Afek - Gilruth - This was the dutch showpiece. I think Afek played even better then Timman. Gilruth was completely torn apart after one small mistake. It was a massacre. Gilruth just did not see the ball. It's scary to see Kenya No.1 dismantled like this.

Nguku - Van Eijk - This game was Kenya's only hope. It was a massively complicated Sicilian Najdorf. Nguku was playing the game of his life...he is real good in these attacking positions...he missed the killer Rf6! but even then the fight was raging. Unfortunately he completely forgot about his clock and lost on time!! The final positon with unsual material balance on both sides is arguably drawable for Nguku. Analysis will show. This was clearly the best Kenyan effort.

Fred Jonker - Gohil - Unfortunately, I was unable to do justice to my game. I had prepared the opening well but 40 minutes into our match some boards started having technical problem with the internet connections. Apparently three laptops had the firewall on and this was making them log off Playchess. The arbiter in holland was gracious enough to restart the games, the players blitz to the current position and then continue. That was real cool of them. I thought a guy like Timman would get pissed off but he gingerly obliged. This incdent happened twice and eventually we managed to sort it all out but it completely messed my concentration in the game and by the time I got back to my board I was down to my last 15 minutes or so. I made mistakes like a premature b5 and Rd8 allowing Bc7!!. What I learnt was that you cannot mix organising and playing! Next time I will stick to only playing. But that said, my opponent was deadly precise in converting his advatage. His style is real neat.

Githinji - Ooerbeek - Like Magana, Githinji did not play according to his flamboyant style. He went in for an insipid exchange french. Things got boring. Githinji mistakenly thought he had a draw and in the end had no clue why he lost!! This was definitely a lesson for Githinji on the art of strategic chess. He did not guess the final black plan of swinging the king over to the q-side. At least the game had the positive effect of making him realise he has to change his attitude to how he looks at some positions.

Hotze-Akello - Akello did some strange things in the opening and white made the position explode with e6!! This was a wild game. Very strange things happened in it. I think Akello in the endgame that resulted may have had the better chances but lost the thread somewhere down the line.

GOSSIP & RANTS

This section deals mainly with a psuedo CK attempt to 'sabotage bomb' the event 48 hrs before it was to start. Now we all know that CK is generally unresponsive to mails sent to them. They never reply. So on Thursday afternoon one of the members of the NCC organising comitee (Kim) gets a call asking him 'for a meeting' on Friday 12 noon. At the meeting NCC is asked question like "How comes we were not invited and this is a big event?", "How was this Kenya team selected and on what basis", "Why is a government official invited to the event and we have not been?" "Why are you criticising us on the forum?" "Do you have plans to set up a parrallel chess organisation?" etc etc Basically some kind of interrogation headed by one Congambit. Probably wanting kick backs or afraid that NCC is somehow working in cahoots with some government officials to bring them down. Like we are interested. It is ok for them to never respond but anybody else must respond to them. Plus, how is it that a private event organised by a private club needs to have the approval of a national body before it as much as moves a piece? Furthermore, why contact Kim when Nikolai and Myself were the real creators of this event? Clearly, it's easier to deal with Kim then Mehul. Easier to bully? And why wait until the eleventh hour before CK reacts to all this? What were they doing a week before? Two weeks before? A month before?

Furthermore a whole bevy of CK officials turned up for this meeting...more than the number which came to see the event. Were they this scared of getting their thunder stolen? Who is stopping CK from organising their own big events? I just goes to show that if more CK officials turn up for a meeting that is basically an interogattion of a well meaning chess organiser than the number of who turned up to spectate the event....you then know where CK priorities lie.

It is also notable that the CK chairmam failed to turn up even as a spectator (he was invited for lunch with the team, sponsors other dignitaries) to one of the biggest chess events in Kenyan history. That is telling.

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Kenya To Play Dutch Team In Internet Chess Match

Kenya is set to play Wageningien Chess Club in the first ever internet match
Chess lovers in Kenya will on 3rd October 2009 be able to follow the first ever internet match on Kenyan soil.

6 top Kenyan players christened “Kenyan Simbas” will take on players from Wageningen Chess Club and who will have former World Champion contender Grandmaster Jan Tinman. Another key personality expected to play is Dutch Member of Parliament Eric Smaling who once lived in Kenya in the 1980s.

Event is being coordinated by Nairobi Chess Club

Kenyan Team To Play Dutch Team Named

The event is a first for Kenya - A chess match between one of the famous Dutch chess clubs and a select Kenyan side consisting of the best six players in the country to be held over the internet. The aim of the event is to uplift Kenyan chess standards via exposure to strong opposition in the form of International Grandmasters and Masters.

The event sponsors are Safaricom and Wageningen Chess Club (of Netherlands). The Safaricom 3G mobile internet connection will be used and will highlight the capabilities of the newly landed fibre-optic cable that will enable fast relay of chess moves over the internet. The playing portal is the Playchess site which is managed by Chessbase, the world's premier chess software distributor.

The organiser for the event is Nairobi Chess Club which is the oldest registered chess institution in the country having been active since 1958.

The Kenyan team, known as the 'Kenyan Simbas', are represented by the the six best players in the country on current form. They are:

1. Ben Magana - The most dominant Kenyan player of the 21st century. He is currently ranked 2nd in the country. Has represented Kenya internationally in 3 Olympiads (World Team Championships), the 2007 All Africa Games where he narrowly missed on a bronze medal, and in the 2007 African Chess Championships where he created one of the biggest upsets in African chess by beating Grandmaster Ahmed Adly of Egypt who is also the reigning World Junior Champion.

2. Peter Gilruth - A naturalised Kenyan he is also the country's most experienced international player. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the country and is the reigning National Champion. He is also the captain of the Kenya Simbas team.

3. Ben Nguku - Is currently ranked No. 3 in the country. His high quality of play has attracted the analytical interest of some of the foremost chess specialists in the world. One of his games from the 2004 Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy was of such class that Grandmaster Nigel Short (who challaged Gary Kasparov for the World Championship in 1993) analysed it in depth for the Daily Telegraph's famous chess column.

4. Mehul Gohil - He is probably the strongest player to have never represented the country internationally. Locally, he has a reputation for being among the fastest thinkers of the game.

5. Githinji Hinga - He is the fastest rising talent inn Kenya at the moment. A welcome addition ot the Kenyan elite his electrifying style of play is eye-catching.

6. Akello Atwoli - Over the last 2 years Akello has established himself as one of the most succesful local tournament players. He has also improved very fast and was the best Kenyan performer at the All Africa Games of 2007.

The team Kenya Simbas will be facing are the Wageningen Chess Club who have on their team none other than Grandmaster Jan Timman and International Master Afek. Jan Timman is one of the acknowledged legends of the game. He has won the tough Dutch chess championships a record nine times. In 1979, a string of impressive international tournament victories propelled him to the World No.2 spot behind then World Champion Anatoly Karpov. Later on he even challenged for top honours against Karpov in their 1993 World Championship match. Jan Timman is also considered one of the best opening theoreticians of the chess world and has authored several classic chess books.

Wageningen chess club will constitute the strongest challenge Kenyan players have ever face

Dutch Club Wageningen Announces Team To Play Kenya

Wageningen Chess Club have announced a strong line up against the Kenya Simbas in this historic event that is scheduled for 3rd October 2009.

The players are:

Board 1:

Grand Master Jan Timman - He is the former world number 2 and played a match with Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE World Title. Timman won the Dutch Championship nine times. He has for the past two years he played for Wageningen in the National League.

Board 2:

International Master Yochanan Afek – Mr Afek is from Israel and has lived in Holland for a number of years. Afek is a famous endgame composer. He trains a number of chess clubs in Holland and for Wageningen he is both trainer and player.

Board 3:

Chess Master Sander van Eijk - A young and attacking player. Last year he scored his first IM norm. After being a chess professional for one year, he now restarted his studies in Law.

Board 4:

Fred Jonker - A very tactical player. Six years ago he became regional champion and thus played in the semi-final of the Dutch Championships. Jonker works at Wageningen University.

Board 5:

Erwin Oorebeek - A player with a good knowledge of the opening. Oorebeek is a strong correspondence chess player.

Board 6:

To be announced later. There is a high possibility that this place will be taken by Eric Smaling who lived in Kenya in the 1990s and is now a member of Parliament.

The Kenya Simbas line is expected to be announced tomorrow

Safaricom are the main sponsors and are proud to be associated with this historic event that comes a few weeks after the landing of the fibre optic cable in Mombasa. The central technological platform of this event will be Safaricom's 3G mobile internet connection.

The interface is the popular site www.playchess.com which will enable chess enthusiasts to follow the game wherever they are in the world! It is also most likely that there will be a live commentary, which can be read online as the games are being played.

My First Tournament

My first tournament

In January 2004, I played my first tournament. Today, I read my diary and it was de ja vu, back then Atwolli<> could not play in any event, I used to crash him like a cat. Here now is the non-edited version of the events at my first chess tournament.

2^nd veteran pharmaceutical open chess championships 22 to 23, 2004 Jan, Aga khan sports club.

I first heard about the veteran pharmaceutical open championships when I read the Monday standard on a report where Nigel short played blitz games against local players. The excitement of playing in full strong tournament was so high that I could not believe it. The idea of meeting Mathew kanegeni and the likes and giving them a run for their money was unbelievable.

My initial preparation was not that good; I downloaded a few games and planning material and made a 4-day crash course that I did not fulfill. When I left for Nairobi as Burnt Forest chess king on 21^st I was sure I was going to walk way with 6-0.

21^st.

I spent most of the day traveling and looking for the Aga khan sports centre. After getting lost, I finally found it and knew the registration was going to happen the next day. So after many years of playing chess I was about to play in my first ever tournament.

22^nd

I arrived at the Aga khan sports centre before 8, not knowing the chess Kenya protocol, I had had to wait for some minutes before the officials arrived. As guys started arriving, I caught my first glimpse on john Mukabi. The “guys” started playing blitz and analysis; the deep understanding they had of the game amazed me. As the draw was made, I was given a dream pairing just like Man u playing Exeter in the FA cup fourth round, it wad Mathew Kanegeni vs. Edwin Korir in Board.

EVENT: Veteran pharmaceutical open chess championships

SITE: Aga Khan Sports Centre

DATE: 22^nd to 23 Jan 2005

WHITE: Mathew Kanegeni

BLACK: Edwin Korir

OPENING: Siccilian Najdorf with f4.

1. e4 ( after months of preparing for the Sicilian , here was my chance to play my best aganaist the best) 1…c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 a6
6. Be2 ( the first variation and instead of replying to the moves he plays, my heart is beating, I am so excited and u have used less than a minute so far. May lack of tournament experience is surely showing) 6…e5
7. Nb3 Be7 (I always initially play Be6 before this move, whether it was fear or not I could not tell but it proved to be a novelty.)
8. 0-0 0-0 run away from trouble if you can
9. f4? The move I have always detested, apart from Qc7 I don’t know how to handle it. It was going to be a long day. …Be6

starting off from here are the losing moves, apart from wasdting time this move does nothing at all. My plan was to accelerate thr f5 move so I could play Bd7 but that was not to be. The best plan here is 9…Bd7 10. a4 exf4 11. Bxf Ne5 getting an outpost which white will gladly exchange removing my isolsted pawn and leading to a pretty drawn position.

10. Be3 Qc7
11. a4 Bxb3? Bad move no doubt, it opens up the c file for white to usr.
12. cxb3 Nbd7
13. Rc1 Qa5
14. Qd1 Rac8 the losing move. Failure to analyse, plan and adrenalin combines to bring this disastrous ending.
15. Nd5 Qxd1
16. Nxe7 Kh8
17. Rxd1 Nxe5
18. Rc7 Nc5
19. fxe5 Nxb3
20. Bf3 Nbd2
21. Bxd2 Nxd2
22. exd5 h6
23. d7 Rd
24. Rc8 Nxf3
25. gxf3 Rxc8
26. dxc8 >Q Kg7

1-0

Michael Jackson: A Tribute

By Edwin Korir

A genius? No doubt.

From a young boy born in Gary Indiana; singing Ben for his rat pet in 1972 to teaming with Quincy Jones to produce Thriller the best selling album of all time then trying to find his childhood in Neverland but eventually his facial surgeries, a skin ailment, serious weight loss, and god knows what else made him look like both a vampire and a mummy.

That was MJ, the musical genius who eventually turned to be a freak just like Bertrand Russell or Leo Tolstoy. I did not at first enjoy MJ’s songs but when I was in F1 back some time, I heard just bit it witch made me enjoy his songs. Eventually I started listening to his songs and billle jean and the way you make me feel made me feel like I was a teenager in the 80’s. His musical genius is unquestionable but like all other geniuses his social life was not exemplary.

Wacko Jacko as the British tabloids called him changed the music world, he transcended race before tiger woods, Oprahy Winfrey, and finally Barrack Obama. My friend Samuel Chebii must have been devastated for apart from his chess has lost his two favorite musicians in a year; Lucky Dube and now MJ.

For a while he was “king of pop” no two hours in classic 100 would go with out a MJ song playing. No soul night at the Simba Saloon in Carnivore would be complete with out one of his songs. Before MJ came James Brown and The Beatles after him, there is none. Changing from a handsome black man to an old white woman one has to ask which was more imaginative his music or his persona.

This young black kid who made his name with the Jackson Five eventually married Elvis Presley daughter and bought the Beatles song catalogue which meant every time one of their tunes was played he received half the royalty.

He made trademarks of the music industry; his dances especially his moonwalk, his jeweled glove and his record setting sales made him Mwenyewe. He acquired a 2,700acre ranch with funfair and zoo attached just like the Masai Mara, which he named Neverland after the fictional Nirvana of peter pan.

He sold more than 100 million albums in his solo career; Jua Cali has only sold 200,000. His tours were the biggest on the planet they averaged over 200 million per tour. However, whatever he did MJ just reenacted his dance as a central figure of long racial horror show. To the uplifting view, enunciated after his death by the likes of Rev. Al Sharptorn, he was a Tran racial icon, a black person whom whites took to their hearts and blackness came to seem incidental.

Then his darker phase began. Constantly he was confronted with charges of child molestation. He was energetic, charismatic, and supremely gifted, but sexually unassertive unlike swaggeringly black male performers from Joe to Jay Z. In 1993 MJ settled a child molestation charge for 22 million dollars and retreated to Neverland only venturing forth it seemed, for more cosmetic surgery or skin whitening treatments.

With the money he had made, he blew away more than 1 billion dollars in 20 years. Where the money went is not clear, though the 6 million dollars binge in a single store. Recorded by Martin Bashir in his 2003 documentary , suggested retail therapy on an imperial scale, even Moi wasn’t that extravagant.

This ultimately led to his financial problems, but MJ was in complete denial of the financial reality until he was shown an affidavit. In 2005, he decamped from Neverland and went to the Gulf of Aden at the invitation of the heir apparent. In 2007, the prince joined a long queue of litigants after MJ. The prince had proposed MJ to write an autobiography and compose a song for the hurricane Katrina victims to enhance MJ’s finances without him having to do anything much in public.

Everyone agrees that MJ was anything but a basket case by now. He then moved to Ireland where he prepared new tracks for the 25’Th anniversary of Thriller. He then relocated to Las Vegas where the only option of him solving his financial problems was a come back tour.

Randy Philips the CEO of AEG then set up the London tour, witch incidentally Mehul had tickets to. After what Randy called a “bony Hug” Jackson and his entourage which now consisted of one bodyguard had managed to hold on to Neverland and the Beatles song catalogue.

The come back was scheduled for London in the O2 arena where he was scheduled to perform in 50 shows. MJ’s health was now a concern his sin cancer and being pushed around in a wheel chair clutching a parasol like a mad geriatric.

MJ’s hope of a come back and that of 800’000 fans including Mehul, must have been that their thrust in pops most charismatic but accidental prone peter pan wouldn’t turn out to be a grand illusion after all.

Before that, MJ had remaked himself as American dream of innocence and belovednesss. His constant face surgeries and skin bleaches made him confusing. Just like the skeletal, pale faced zombies he danced with in thriller, when you watch it today, it appears to be a whole stage full of Michael Jackson’s, the real one now the least familiar looking, the most unreal. When he died, he was eulogized like an angel with Kobe Brayant, Al Sharptorn, Mariah Carey e.t.c.

But as an artist he was a genius, Jackson and his legendary producer Quincy Jones fused disco, soul, and pop in a manner that can be heard everyday in a station in Kenya or all across the globe. His best hits “billie jean” and “don’t stop ‘til you get enough” never sound outdated.

Then night before he died he was rehearsing for the O2 tour, people around him were wondering if he was really up to it. He was 50 years old and past his puer aeternus, he had health problems and his peak was 15 years ago.

Whatever his life felt like from the inside, it was manifestly the work of a genius, whether you want to call it a triumph or a freak show.

MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON

1958 to 2009

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