Africa Junior champion Elizabeth Cassidy and five-time national junior champion Laurencia Minange will lead other top players at the national individual schools' chess championships at the Moi Girls High School in Eldoret this morning.
Host trainer Caroline Omollo said she is confident her team of 23 students will shine at the four-day championships, which serves as a qualifier for the Africa Individual Schools Championships (AISCC) to be held between December 8 and 19 in Monrovia, Liberia.
“These are national championships and as the hosts, we want to take home-ground advantage and dominate the championships. I have some of the best and average players in my team,” said Omollo.
She expects Minange, an experienced junior player who has been to the Africa Junior Chess Championships (Africa U-15, 2021), World Cup (2021) and Africa Schools Championships 2021, to lead her teammates from the front.
Omollo, a Physics and Chemistry teacher, is also expecting a lot from Cassidy, who rose to the limelight when she won the 2021 Africa Inter-Schools Chess Championships.
Other notable players include top seed Adongo Lwanga and Aguda Lwanga from Consolata School, Joel Odhiambo from St Patrick’s Iten, and who featured at last year's Africa Schools Championships as well as Nehemiah Kahuho from Thika Road Christian School.
Chess Kenya will be using the Eldoret event to select a team to represent the country at the AISCC in Monrovia, Liberia.
