Championship Moves

In January, we introduced a new club to our repertoire - a Chess Club. A group of children signed up to club which is led by Joseph Kabiru of the Ascending Pawn Chess Club. It runs on a Wednesday at lunch break, although we hope to soon extend it to include an after-school session as well. The children quickly learnt a huge amount and very soon there were mutterings and murmurings from various households as reports were heard of children soundly beating their parents! It was therefore, with great delight that the children received an invite from Joseph to the Laikipia Region Qualifiers of the Kenya Chess Federation competition, to be held at St Christopher’s School Nanyuki.

On Saturday 11th March, eight BNIS children arrived, full of nerves, at St Christopher’s followed by a team of parents, siblings, and even a grandparent, to support them through the day. There were children there from St Christopher’s, Brickwoods, Mt Kenya Academy and Holy Angels Schools. No one was sure what to expect as this tournament was a first for everyone; all hands were on deck to help set up more chess boards than anyone had ever seen in one place, on a sea of tables in a lovely open air venue next to a playing field.

Children each competed in their respective age categories - U8, U10 and U12. They played six games each using swiss-pairing which is where no one is eliminated, they instead all play each other. The children loved being able to use their newly-acquired skills against new opponents and, as the day progressed, they (and their parents) started to feel more comfortable with the whole concept and adjusted to the rigorous competition rules and clock-timers. Some of the games were nail-bitingly close!!

New friendships were formed between competitors and extra games were played for fun in between official rounds. What an experience for everyone! To top it all off, the BNIS team showed excellent skills, focus and resilience and proudly came home with a gold and a silver medal in the U12 category and two bronze medals for the U10 and U8 categories. It is also incredibly excitind that many members of the team have qualified to go to the National Qualifiers at Kisii High School in April!

Thank you so very much to Joseph and the team for their passion and inspiration and all that they have done for the BNIS Chess club so far. Watch this space for more news of success and fun with this great game!