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

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.