"My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant". - Henry Blackburne | SINCE 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

ALL AFRICAN GAMES; The scores, the results and the drama


As Ben magana blazes the trail Steve Ouma is proving why his inclusion in the team was a mistake from the word go. But the drama does not end there, larry kagambi has come out of retirement to play chess for kenya!


With 9 rounds already played, Kenyan players have gone through their ups and downs in Algiers. All medal hopes have virtually disappeared with Egypt, Nigeria and Zambia most likely to pull of with the medals. Kenyan players have given a good account of themselves with nguku and Magana playing to good scores. Debutant Joseph atwoli has won one game in board 1. but Steve ouma is proving to be the disaster of the tournament with no win so far from 8 games but the real deal is that larry kagambi has come out of retirement to play chess for Kenya!

Round 1
KENYA 1 ZAMBIA 3 (12/07/07)

ATWOLI JOSEPH ½ ½ CHUMWA
MAGANA BEN 0 1 LUNGU
STEVE OUMA 0 1 DANIEL
NGUKU BEN 1/2 1/2 PHIRI

Poor start by Kenya but great performance by Awoli on board 1 and Nguku who just cant loose.

Round 2
SAO TOME 2.5 KENYA 1.5 (13/07/07)

ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 RIOPO
STEVE OUMA ½ ½ ERI
NGUKU BEN 1 0 DOS SAN TOS
MAGANA BEN 1 1 PHIRI

The demolition squad of nguku and Magana at their best.


Round 3
MOZAMBIQUE 2 KENYA2 (13/07/07)

ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 SILVA
NGUKU BEN 0 1 MIQUEL
MAGANA BEN 1 0 ALICE
NGUKU BEN 1 0 MAJA

All square

Round 4
ETHIOPIA 2 KENYA 2 (14/07/07)

SISAY 0 1 ATWOLI JOSEPH
BELLOW 1 0 STEVE OUMA
TEFERA 0 1 BEN NGUKU
GEPRA 1 0 BEN MAGANA

After Kenyan Ethiopian duels on the athletic track the war was taken to the chessboard and our chessmen were not about to disappoint us.

Round 5
KENYA 1.5 LIBYA 2.5 (15/7/07)

STEVE OUMA 0 1 ALI
BEN NGUKU ½ ½ MUSTAPHA
BEN MAGANA 1 0 HUSSEIN
KAGAMBI 0 1 ELRABI

The Libyans were a bit stronger as kagambi comes out of retirement.

Round 6
KENYA 0 NIGERIA 4 (17/7/07)

ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 ADIO
STEVE OUMA 0 1 ADEBAYO
BEN NGUKU 0 1 OLAPE
KAGAMBI 0 1 KOLADE

Oga! Dis nigerians

Round 7
KENYA 1.5 NAMIBIA 2.5 (17/07/07)

ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 BICHAB
STEVE OUMA ½ ½ TUPEJA
BEN MAGANA 1 0 OTTO
KAGAMBI 0 1 JOSEPH


Round 8
ANGOLA 2.5 KENYA 1.5

CAMPOS 1 0 ATWOLI
PETERO 1 0 OUMA
PASCAL ½ ½ NGUKU
ARMDO 0 1 MAGANA


Round 9
KENYA 0 ZIMBABWE 4

ATWOLI JOSEPH 0 1 OWAZ
NGUKU 0 1 FARAU
BEN MAGANA 0 1 MASANGO
KAGAMBI 0 1 MAKOTO

This Zimsmust be so good

THE SCORE CARD
So after 9 rounds the Kenyan players results are in. how did they perform

Ben Magana 5/8 (62.5%)
Ben nguku 3.5/8 (43.7%)
Kagambi 1/5 (20%)
Joseph atwoli 1.5/8 (18%)
Steve ouma 1/7 (14%)

The two bens are still reliable to lift Kenya up. Kudos to joseph atwoli on his international debut for such a performance in board 1. steve ouma is still the only player without a win (suprising?) and larry well I did not know he was in the Kenyan team.


ALL AFRICAN GAMES CHESS IN GENERAL
Adopted from THE CHESS DRUM

As the chess competition heads toward its last stages, medals are still in the balance at the 9th All-Africa Games. Currently, the Egyptian men's team holds a comfortable three-point lead after 10 rounds. Zambia is second on 28 while Nigeria is third on 25. In the last three rounds, Zambia gets a 0-point bye, São Tome & Principé (weakest) and Egypt (strongest). Their chances are very good, but Nigeria will have a slightly easier schedule with 0-point bye, Namibia, Angola. The South Africa men stand a chance to leap into medal contention since they are only 1½ points back and play Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia, all struggling teams. They could get all 12 points here, so I'm picking Egypt, South Africa and Zambia for the medals.

In the women's competition, the three medallists are already decided. Algeria, who has held the lead the entire tournament, plays Nigeria in a big match while the South Africa-Nigeria finale will decide the other two medals. Algeria will most likely clinch the gold since they will probably score full marks against Libya while both Nigeria and South Africa will battle medal contenders. Botswana is 5½ points back from medal contention and again has had a disappointing performance. Only a medal would have softened the pain from their 0/36 debacle in Russia.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

ELDORET CHESS SCENE

After going out so long from Eldoret iam curently on leave and the chess scene in this town is vibrant


Edwin korir on chess duty



For the last few months, my military duties have taken me as far as moyale,lamu,larisoro,somalia upto lokichogio. With security at high alert on the kenya somalia border, a constant military presence has been kept on this border forcing us to spend most of our time on this harsh terrain. With this call for duty, chess sometimes takes a back seat but i have been able to post quite a number of articles in this blog. After such a tiring 6 months i was looking foward to relax during my leave. So i came home to eldoret and as i was relaxing one afternoon at the klique hotel the ugly head of chess reared its head back.

Klique hotel in the centre of Eldoret is a famous meeting ground for chess players in this town. With dedicated and passionate chess players games can go on till early in the morning. Recently an American on holiday in kenya called Mark just passed by the hotel for a drink. On seeing us play he immediately raced to our table and played on the next turn. His wife who was sitting next to him looked sad and when he finally introduced us to her he said"meet my chess widow".

So iam hearing rumours of a chess tournament this sartuday. It seems some Moi university medical student recently demolished a Klique veteran and went on to give him a lesson on why he was a chess professional. So with no loove lost am waiting for this touna with bathed breath.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Profile of Kenyan Team To All African Games

With the All African Games kicking off today here is a profile of our men in Algiers


The national team before leaving for algiers

BEN MAGANA


With a FIDE rating of 2151 and a local rating of 2308, ben magana is the strongest kenyan player currently. The reigning kenya national chess champion, magana has participated in many olympiads. He is the Kenya Open 2000 chess champion. This seemingly timid player has the precision and cold ruthlessness of a machine while on attacking mode. He has played in a number of countries namely Egypt, Turkey and Slovenia. In the chess Olympiad held in Istanbul Turkey he achieved an ELO Rating of 2200.All kenyan hopes will be resting on his shoulders. Although he will play very strong players in board 1 including GM and IM, there was a rumour that the kenyan team may play their strongest players(Magana and Nguku) in lower boards to increase medal prospects.

BEN NGUKU


Nguku and magana

His best moment was in the 2004 olympiad in spain where he managed the best score by any kenyan player in the tournament. A versatile and attacking player, Nguku has been kenya number one a number of times. "He has a sharp style despite his sometimes conservative choice of openings" is what nigel short had to say about him.

AKELLO ATWOLI
What can be more diffrent, his father is the most talkative man around while akello is so silent and shy. This being his first time representing kenya his perfomance will really be a gauge of things to come.

STEVE OUMA
The question in everbodys mind is, "are you fit to wear that kenyan shirt". Oumas inclusion in the team was so controversial it clouded other aspects of the team. In my own opinion ouma should not be anywhere near algiers. At the expense of Obut, ouma was chosen because he had "better medal prospects". If we are talking about medal prospects then why not choose Ateka or Kanegeni who are a million times stronger than ouma? I think his strength of play will be clearly exposed in algiers

Friday, July 6, 2007

Mukabi tips Egypt for gold


By Samson Ateka


The national chess team technical bench hopes to improve its medal prospects by fielding stronger players on lower boards.

Chess is usually played in four boards with the top seed fielded on board one. Olympian and coach John Mukabi said they intend to field their players in a descending order because "our top players will face weak opposition at lower boards."

Reigning champion Ben Magana could be fielded on the lowest board with Ben Ngungu on the third last board.

Mukabi said Steve Ouma and Akello Atwoli might be taken on to the top boards. The chess team has brought to camp at Kasarani two computers for sparring matches with Fritz nine programmes, which coach Mukabi said is able to play various intricate lines against a human being.

"The management Committee has hired two computers that players are using to test their might on the chess board and it has really done a lot of good to the players. The programme looks at up to 20 different and strong moves and this will help improve the players’ flair in the long run," Mukabi said.

Mukabi said the advantage of the programme is that you can tune it to the level of a player or higher above the standards if one so wishes.

Mukabi said they would decide on the order of the boards tomorrow. Mukabi has tipped Egypt as the possible champions.

"They have International Masters and grandmasters in their team and their standards should be way above the continental level. But we will fight to be in the medal brackets by virtue of having played at various Fide World Chess Olympiads," Mukabi said.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

CONTROVERSY IN KENYAN CHESS TEAM SELECTION





By paul maloba

Is there anything that can be done here??

Preamble

This decision was reached by the executive of Chess Kenya after Kenya sports
council only allotted 5 slots to chess instead of the earlier anticipated
number which was to include; men's team (6 – Ben Magana, Ben Nguku, Akello
Atwoli, Wycliffe Obutu, Steve Ouma and Martin Gateri), women's team, two
coaches (Atwoli Lukoye – Men and Isaac Babu- Women) and a team manager
(Lawrence Kagambi). The teams were selected after a round robin tournament
late last year

The cut number saw a reduced number of both officials and team to 5; Ben
Magana, Ben Nguku, Steve Ouma, Akello Atwoli and Lawrence Kagambi- official.

The criterion that was used to select the team of four was based on, in
order;

1. Order of qualification
2. Medal prospects
3. Attendance
4. Discipline and commitment to team

The final line up of the team was selected with Obutu and Gateri being left
out.

The Questions

I am basically questioning, limiting the comparison to Obutu and Ouma. I
have raised some of these questions with the team elect (including Steve
Ouma in a long phone conversation), Larry Kagambi (in along phone
conversation, unfortunately severally my efforts to meet him and further
discuss this bore no fruit – I'm to wait for two more weeks to meet him.
That is what lead me to do this mail), and several chess players.

1. Appropriateness of the criterion

A good friend of mine told me that *'we are unable to see the forest because
of the trees', *we lose focus of the big picture because of technicalities.
Processes are there to support the objective and should never supercede it.
Good performance and future of chess in my opinion should've been the
objective.

The four point criteria was quite innovative of Chess Kenya, when a decision
had to be made and I acknowledge that

a. Order of qualification

This being listed as the first criteria I presumed it carried more weight
(in my opinion, justifiably so). the order of qualification is as their name
appears in the first paragraph above

b. Medal prospects

Shock unto you, Steve scored highly than Obutu on this, because he has more
international exposure. Anyone who has been following recent tournament
results would bet that Obutu plays superior chess than Steve (It can be
proved further by playoffs) plus this is an upcoming player a learning curve
chances are that his tomorrow's chess will be better than his today's. How I
see it is that (for medal prospects) if your chess strengths are equal then
the alternative of 'international exposure' can be looked at. Debutants,
Nguku and Wachania registered impressive performances in their first outings
if this is anything to go by.

c. Attendance

This was attendance to training sessions, Here Steve scored the highest
13/13! and this must have greatly tilted the weight to his favor. Obutu had
8/13. Attendance was vital since KNSC (Kenya National Sports Council) could
do an impromptu visit to check on the player's seriousness in practice to
determine their chances of retaining their slot in teams to Algeria.

Unfortunately players used to show up to play blitz. The coach made a
program that was to start with a rapid round robin tournament, this
happened, but there after players used to just show up to sign in, its
apparent that at times Obutu could show up and end up reading his class
work, further more UoN students had exams and CATs coming up thus they had
limited time.

THERE WAS NO TRAINING TAKING PLACE. CK had frequent meetings with the player
emphasizing on the importance of attendance and warning/threatening that
this could jeopardize their future (in my opinion this is why CK wants to
show their iron fist, for being ignored after repeated warnings). Well it
almost appears that CK have a case here but look at it this way, CK take
time to hold meetings and discuss the importance of attendance but are not
taking steps to ensure activity during these sessions, infact the players
were complaining that its becoming more and more senseless. Considering the
neglect on CK to their duty, they should have exempted players from these
criteria. You do not warn against doing a wrong while your self you do
wrongs with impunity and expect utter obedience.

d. Discipline and commitment to team

Here Steve outdid Obutu, more or less due to the attendance, and perhaps
because of some antagonistic characteristics and utterances that the
upcoming players (Obutu and Atwoli) have been showing.

Well considering their level of maturity some of this is expected, the mode
of punishment has to be weighed. You don't use a shot gun on your
indisciplined son. More so the approach CK was taking in tackling issues
left a lot to be desired, even to the older players. Use of threats is not
so apt while leading/dealing people/team.

1. Discontent in chess fraternity.

Interestingly enough all the chess players I have talked to so far (with the
exception of Mr. Kagambi and Mr.Ouma) feel the same, this includes the
current elected team members! Who were also very bitter about this

*Why isn't any one saying anything?* Well, while replying to this mail, you
will be saying something (your honest opinion, you don't have to share my
sentiments).

For the future of chess most players saw it fit not to air our dirty linen
in public lest chess loses an opportunity of all African games
representation.

The elect team (excluding Steve) see the unity of the team as key to
performance (they are eyeing for medals) and wouldn't want to raise any
antagonism which could leave Steve feeling unwanted (I must apologize to the
team, for this mail goes against their wishes. But I feel that laying low on
this would be a bigger crime) this came out after I suggested to them that
if they strongly feel the decision was wrong as they are saying, why not act
and write a letter to Chess Kenya expressing the same? One of the players
told me that CK stated that if the men's team wasn't up to it, then they
could replace it with the women's team – perhaps CK can clarify this
(threats).

If Chess was to be a democracy, this decision would definitely be thrown out
the window, but with the status quo, unfortunate conclusions are being drawn
(some of which may be inaccurate) e.g. Chess Kenya is a one man show,
dictatorship, favoritism, personal interest, corrupt, sleeping… (I beg to
clarify that am neither insinuating nor accusing, much as this comments have
been mentioned in my presence, I don't intend to digress from the issues am
raising, like I said before I don't entirely agree with all of them) my
point is that ivory towers and iron fists explains why some members jump to
conclusion. While managing people, if some fundamental requirements aren't
met then such behaviour is inevitable.

*Points trying to explain this decision for instance include;*

• * 'perhaps you need to look at it from chess Kenya's side and
you'll see it makes sense'* as Steve mentioned to me: I have been trying a
lot to do this but from what I have gathered so far over the phone it still
doesn't add up, setting up a meeting wasn't fruitful either.

• '*The criteria'* as CK indicate in their letter to Obutu. In my
opinion this still favors Obutu over steve, otherwise perhaps they could
have agreed of the criteria with the team (since it was a novelty-
consultation seems apt) and ensure its just before executing it.

• '*Where is the justice in throwing out the man who has been there
for the team? – Steve had a 100% attendance*' as Steve mentioned to me. I
must confess that this is the point I started seeing it a bit differently
and noting that perhaps CK didn't just act for favoritism's sake, that maybe
they had an argument… but for the sake of seeing the '*forest*' this stint
dint last for long. Steve did great, unfortunately the slots for chess were
cut down to five, the proper criteria 'the forest' - Good performance and
future of chess, leaves him out. If the disciplinary case against Obutu
would have been major then e.g. fight (disrespectful heated argument) with
CK, absconding training/showups in total or misbehavior in camp then his
exclusion would have been warranted.

• '*Don't say I didn't warn you*…' this is (my opinion) what makes
sense to me, otherwise, favoritism. But like I said, the slap is not
warranted, the punishment does not commensurate the indiscipline, CK's
neglect in training schedule wasn't a morale booster as such.

• '*Obutu is young and still has future chances'* as Obutu's regret
letter after his appeal read, in fact it acknowledged the fact that he is an
upcoming player. This is absurd.

1. what the future holds

In a recent tournament 'Uganda Open' in Kampala, more than 60% of
participants were young upcoming competitors from primary, high school and
colleges, it was magnificent, on this, Kenya has a lot to work on to attain.

Again in a recent interuniversity sports tournament of East Africa in Uganda,
University of Nairobi (Ben Nguku, Obutu, Atwoli and George Mwangi) took the
title. This tells you that despite our poor development of young chess we
have a crop of young, strong chess players (it in fact they made 50% of the
Kenya team). My question to CK is, are we reading from the same scripts?
It's a rather an unfortunate reward for work well done.

1. Conflict of interest

It happens to be that Steve is a member of CK executive committee (but Larry
assured me that he didn't sit in the meeting that deliberated on this
decision), eye brows get raised when a contentious decision which raises so
many questions involves/favors one of the executive members.

Conclusion – walk the talk

CK has the authority to make decisions (whether good or bad) we mandated
them to do so, but when injustices of such magnitude happen (especially to
those who lack tact of stand for them selves), how do we address them?

UGANDAN CHESS TEAM TO ALL AFRICAN GAMES STRANDED


The 9th All-Africa Games will take place in July 11-23 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. CHESS is a medal sport for the second time after Abuja in 2003. drama has already started with Ugandan team getting stranded.



With the first batch of the Ugandan contingent leaves on Wednesday, the national chess team is until now not sure of its participation in the 9th All Africa Games set for July 11 to 23 in Algiers, Algeria

Uganda Chess Federation (UCF) had handed in a team of six players to Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) but was told the sport had not been included in the Games' budget.

UOC president Francis Nyangweso had disclosed last week that chess had been dropped due to several technicalities.

The chess team cannot comprise of less than six players at the continental showpiece and it's not clear whether government will raise enough funds to cater for all of them.

"Every player plays for six hours, so it's technically impossible for us to send less than six people," UCF general secretary Godfrey Gali, who also intends to play in Algeria, was quoted by Daily Monitor on Tuesday as saying.

Other members of the team are Shadrack Kantinti, Moses Kawuma, Harold Wanyama, Bob Bibasa and John Kikonyogo.

UCF officials opted to look for private sponsorship, a move that had also hit a dead end.

"We tried our best to look for sponsorship but it was too late.It's very hard to approach a sponsor on short notice and expect positive results," said Gali.

UCF then appealed to the sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi, whom they met Monday evening but little success was registered.

"We've just been in a meeting with the sports minister but he told us to come back tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. But since he is the minister, we are very confident something good will come out,"Gali said.

"I am meeting them again tomorrow (Tuesday) and hope a solutioncan be reached. At the moment I am doing my best to make sure theytravel," said Bakkabulindi, who will be heading Uganda's delegation to the Games.

Uganda is sending its biggest ever contingent of 70 to the biennial games with government paying allowances and accommodationfor 32 athletes and 22 air tickets.