The past 6 months have been pretty chaotic within the small and vibrant Kenyan chess community. This is due to the leadership wrangles with 2 sides claiming to be the true representatives of Chess Kenya.
My biggest fear was that the team for the Baku Olympiad would be the first casualty from this infighting which has now gone on for almost 5 months.
I was 100% sure that there would be no funding for the team from the Government of Kenya due to this stalemate.
Well the good news is that Team Kenya is all set to go as funding of Euro 7,320 has been obtained from FIDE. My estimate is that there might still be a small shortfall but believe that that is manageable.
116 countries out of 187 countries will be entitled to a travel subsidy ranging from Euro 3,000 to Euro 9,300. A full list of the travel subsidy can be found here – Baku Travel Subsidy.
Out of the 46 African members only Nigeria and South Africa will not receive a subsidy.
I remember that when I was in school that Africa had 52 countries and according to Google we now have 54 countries. It is sad to see that 8 countries in Africa are missing from the FIDE family.
However the good news is that South Sudan, Eriteria, Liberia, and Cabo-Verde have all made an application to join FIDE which will see Africa gain a further 4 members.
I guess this cartoon is appropriate for Ricky Sang who will be making his debut appearance at an Olympiad.
