This is my 3rd and final story on the 2015 Bungoma Open Chess Tournament.
You might wonder why 3 reports for one event. Well it is very simple. This event is one of the 4 premier events in Kenya which excludes Nairobi events. The other events are the Kisumu Open, Mombasa Open and the Kiambu Open.
The other point about this event is that it attracts a big number of Ugandans due to the close proximity of Bungoma town to the Ugandan border
It was the great IM Elijah Emojong of Uganda who took top honours in this event. The amazing thing is that a week later he went on to win the 2015 Tanzania Open. See the story on this page;
http://www.kenyachessmasala.com/2015/12/im-elijah-emojong-wins-2015-tanzania.html
| IM Elijah Emojong receives his prize from Joseph Kubende. (photo credit Githinji Hinga) |
Ben Magana went on to win the Open section of the 2015 Bungoma Open.
It is my sincere hope that other counties will start to generate chess activity in their region. We cannot expect Chess Kenya to do that without adequate funding. We should not even wait for the counties it should really be ordinary chess players on the ground just doing a little bit extra to organise an event.
In early 2015 Kiambu County hosted its first chess tournament “Kiambu Open” and that event shattered all attendance records when a total of over 300 players registered! This became a massive nightmare for the organisers and proved once again that chess has huge potential which is just waiting to be exploited. See that story on http://www.kenyachessmasala.com/2015/03/kiambu-open-breaks-all-time-record-with.html
| Prize winners pose with their prizes. (photo credit Githinji Hinga) |
| Ben Magana the winner of the Open section receives his prize from Joseph Kubende. (photo credit Githinji Hinga) |
With our current internet capabilities one does not even need a laptop to run the draw. The draw can be done in Nairobi and the pairing sent by Whatsapp or email.
Players can bring their own chess sets for the tournament. The only challenge might be the chess clocks. Here a bit of Kenyan ingenuity is required. We could use our smart phones to download the chess clock app. There are many apps available and many are free.
The prize fund can be pegged to the entry fee – say 70% of entry is given out in cash prizes which leaves 30% for the venue. You can start small and there is no need to overextend yourself. In the past many organisers have tried to have massive cash prizes (include myself) and this can cause a huge problem if you sudden face a shortfall due to the number of entries or unexpected problems.
Anyway let us get back to Bungoma.
| Sights of Bungoma town (photo credit Githinji Hinga) |
| Sights of Bungoma town (photo credit Githinji Hinga) |
| Sights of Bungoma town (photo credit Githinji Hinga) |
| Proud winner 2015 Bungoma Open |
I have brought you some more photos of the closing ceremony and a few games. Enjoy.