The Kitale Junior Open Chess Tournament
The Kitale Junior Open Chess Tournament was held on 29th September 2018 at the Kitale Museum. This event was probably the first ever chess tournament to be held in Kitale.
It featured 175 players from 12 schools from around the region. Mr Aggrey Chemonges who is a CEC with Trans Nzoia County pledged to support the game.
The event was organized by MAT CHESS Academy in partnership with Trans Nzoia Chess Association.
MAT CHESS Academy has been active in the recent proliferation of chess activities in Trans Nzoia. This has included capacity building for chess trainers which was held in July.
MAT Academy also organized the 2018 Regional Youth Qualifiers held in March 2018. Six players youths from the region qualified to represent Kenya in the 2018 Africa Youth Chess Championship.
See story on 2018 AYCC.
The following schools participated in the Kitale Junior Chess Open Tournament of 29th September 2018.
1.Kitale School.
2.Rayzon School.
3.Legacy School.
4.Lamplighter School.
5.FPFK School Kitale.
6.Kimberly Hills Academy Kisumu.
7.Greenfields School.
8.Jack & Jill School.
9.Chetoto Primary School.
10.St.Phillip’s Serungai Secondary.
11.St.Joseph’s Boys.
12.Milimani Primary School.
Prize Winners
Here are the winners of the respective age categories:
UNDER 8 GIRLS
1.Wambui Pillyan, Rayzon School. – 4/5
2.Faith Favor, Kitale School. – 3/5
3.Joyliz Wairimu, Kitale School. – 3/5
UNDER 8 BOYS
1.Vansh Manish, Rayzon School. – 5/5
2.Gavril Awori, Rayzon School. – 4/5
3.Romeo Fernandez, Rayzon School. – 4/5
UNDER 10 GIRLS
1.Tracy Njoki, Chetoto Primary. – 5/5
2.Precious Amani, Legacy School. – 4.5/5
3.Tumaini Abuga, Rayzon School. – 4/5
UNDER 10 BOYS
1.Lucas Kinywa, Kitale Sch, 5/5
2.Dean Fernandez, Rayzon Sch, 4/5
3.Jeet Dedhiya, Jack & Jill Sch, 4/5
UNDER 12 GIRLS
1.Shannel Wambi, Legacy Sch, 4/5
2.Purity Orero, Legacy Sch, 3/5
3.Brandy Wanjiru, Rayzon Sch, 3/5
UNDER 12 BOYS
1.Philip Chege, Lamplighter School. – 5/5
2.Teddy Maihanyu, Kitale School. – 4/5
3.Bradley Wanambuko, Kitale School. – 4/5
UNDER 14 GIRLS
1.Michelle Cheptoo, Lamplighter School.
UNDER 14 BOYS
1.Shem Mungai, St.Joseph Boys. – 3.5/5
2.Matthew Meja, St.Joseph Boys. – 2/5
3.Fred Kiprop, St.Joseph Boys. – 2/5
UNDER 16 BOYS
1.Kelvin Rono, St.Joseph Boys. – 5/5
2.Eric Kinyua, St.Joseph Boys. – 4/5
3.Philip Ogina, St Joseph Boys. – 4/5
UNDER 18 GIRLS
1.Mary Thuo, St.Philip’s Serungai. – 2/5
2.Akinyi Merceline, St.Philips. – 1/5
UNDER 18 BOYS
1.Isaac Mwangi, St.Joseph Boys. – 3/5
2.Larry Bowen, St.Joseph Boys. 3/5
3.Lewis Masiaga, St.Joseph Boys. – 3/5
Kitale Town
Kitale is the capital town of Trans Nzoia County with a population of about 200,000 inhabitants.
It is approximately 60 kms from Eldoret and at an elevation of 1896 meters above sea level.
Mt Elgon National Park, and Saiwa Swamp National Park are some of the tourist attracts which are close by.
According to folklore Kitale was originally called ‘Quitale’. It was founded by the white settlers and started off as a relay station on the slave route between Uganda and Tanzania.
