Kenya's Sasha Mongeli attains WCM status at Olympiad
National team player Sasha Mongeli, who is competing in 2018 World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia. PHOTO | COURTESY |
What you need to know:
- Mongeli, who is playing in her maiden Olympiad, is a Mathematics student at the Technical University of Kenya.
- In another match of the day, it was a double queens pawn opening for KCB Jumba Gloria. She chose the Catalan set up and by move 19, won a free knight and went on to check mate her opponent on move 30.
Kenya’s Sasha Mongeli on Tuesday attained the Woman Candidate Master (WCM) status at the ongoing World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.
Mongeli needed 31/2 wins out of a possible 7 to attain the feat, but she recorded four wins out of five with two games to spare after beating Tanzania’s Navini Alaphati in Tuesday’s seventh round of action.
WCM title is one of the several performance-based titles awarded to players by the World Chess Federation, FIDE, based on ratings and performance benchmarks. The highest award is that of a Grand Master.
Mongeli was black and played defence in a double kings pawn opening.
She obtained rapid piece development and won a free bishop on move 20. The advantage being too great for the moment to withstand, Navini respectively resigned on move 30.
“I thank God for this great chance of making it to my first Olympiad in Georgia. Everything is working out well and to achieve this status is a dream come true” said Mongeli.
The 22-year old now joins the ranks of Gloria Jumba, Joyce Nyaruai and Sanjana Deshpande who are the other WCMs in the country.
Mongeli, who is playing in her maiden Olympiad, is a Mathematics student at the Technical University of Kenya.
In another match of the day, it was a double queens pawn opening for KCB Jumba Gloria. She chose the Catalan set up and by move 19, won a free knight and went on to check mate her opponent on move 30.
Kenya’s Lucy Wanjiru had a tough pairing playing black against Samson Bertha. She chose the French defence, her opponent chose the exchange variation, but then had to relinquish two pawns on moves 12 and 14.
Lucy confidently converted in a better end resulting in making of anew queen and checkmating her opponent in 48 moves.
Daphne Mwikali was white against Ebrahim Zahabiyah. She opted for the English opening to which the opening responded E5 the reverse Sicilian.
By move 11 black had to contend with fractured pawns on the king’s side.
White slowly squeezed the space against the back king and by move 25 white had to give up an exchange.
The resulting end game was much better for black and Daphne duly converted with check mate on move 41.
It was also a good day for the Kenyan men squad comprising of Dr Victor Ng'ani and CM Ben Magana, who stunned higher rated Malta to win 2-1.5.
The week-long biennial competition has attracted 180 nations and will run till October 7.
