Kenya Open Chess Championship
The Kenya Open Chess Championship is an annual open chess tournament played in most editions in Nairobi, Kenya. The inaugural event was played in 1979 and was won by Richard Polaczek. The event is usually organized by the Chess Kenya federation.
The event is the largest and most lucrative international tournament in Africa. The tournament was originally known as the Panpaper Open sponsored by Panafrican Paper Mills (EA) Limited until the early 90s. The tournament is usually played over the Easter Holiday weekend in April.
The 2023 edition had a prize fund of USD 43,000 (approximately KES 5.5 million) and had 445 players from 20 federations participating, including seven grandmasters.[1] It was at this edition that Stanley Omondi dressed in a burqa and entered the women's tournament under the name Millicent Awour. Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala called this type of fraud the first of its kind.[2]
Winners
[edit | edit source]All players finishing equal first are listed; the winners after tie-breaks are boldfaced.
# Year Open Category Ladies Category 1 1979 File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Richard Polaczek (Belgium) 2 1980 File:Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Saifudin Kanani (Canada) 3 1981 File:Flag of Kenya.svg Aslam Adam (Kenya) 27 2016 File:Flag of Kenya.svg Ben Nguku (Kenya)[3]
File:Flag of Kenya.svg Mehul Gohil (Kenya)File:Flag of Kenya.svg Triza Mwendwa (Kenya) 28 2018 File:Flag of Uganda.svg Harold Wanyama (Uganda)[4] File:Flag of Kenya.svg Joyce Nyaruai (Kenya) 29 2019 File:Flag of Kenya.svg Joseph Methu (Kenya) File:Flag of Kenya.svg Joyce Nyaruai (Kenya) 30 2022 File:Flag of Uganda.svg Harold Wanyama (Uganda)
File:Flag of South Sudan.svg James Panchol (South Sudan)
File:Flag of Uganda.svg Haruna Nsubuga (Uganda)
File:Flag of Uganda.svg Emmanuel Egesa (Uganda)File:Flag of Kenya.svg Triza Mwendwa (Kenya) 31 2023 Error creating thumbnail: Timur Gareyev (USA) File:Flag of Germany.svg Josefine Heinemann (Germany)
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References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Timur Gareyev and Josefine Heinemann win Kenya Open Championship
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Winners of the 2016 Kenya Open
- ^ Ugandan Harold Wanyama wins KCB Kenya Open chess crown