SNVM (Shree Navnat Vanik Mahajan), one of Kenya’s many South Asian community organisations actively promoting sporting excellence amongst their members, successfully held their first ever chess tournament on Sunday, 27th March at their community centre in Nairobi.
Poster for the SNVM Sports and Cultural Festival 2016 chess tournament
Organised as part of the community’s sports and cultural festival held over the long Easter weekend, the tournament saw a total of 45 players split into 4 sections: Under 12, Under 20, Under 36 and Under 65. To help the community run an event in which their members had no prior organisational experience, Motochess Ventures (run by yours truly) was contracted to provide logistical and technical support.
The playing hall at Navnat Bhavan / Photo by Paras Gudka
As it was the community’s first chess event, the format chosen was an easy 4 rounds (Swiss system) played at a rapid time control of 25 minutes per player so that it could be finished in the first half of the day.
Officiating in the tournament were: FA Paras Gudka (Tournament Director and Chief Arbiter), Easter Judith (Assistant Arbiter) and Maureen Njeri (Assistant Arbiter).
The tournament had some very keen spectators in the Under 12 section / Photo by Paras Gudka
After some initial chaos due to late entries and some withdrawals, Round 1 finally got underway at 9.40 am. Many players had never played with a clock before and had to be shown how to.
Sachin Desai, playing in the Under 65 section, ponders his next move / Photo by Paras Gudka
Ravi Shah, SNVM’s chess coordinator records the event on his phone / Photo by Paras Gudka
In the Under 20 section, Vihaan Sheth (in white t-shirt) thinks of his next move while his opponent poses for a photo / Photo by Paras Gudka
After 4 rounds, much to our surprise, we had clear winners in all 4 sections while the second prize winners were decided through tie-breaker scores.
Under 12 Section
- Nikita Parikh – 4 points
- Dhrumit Mehta – 2.5 points
Under 20 Section
- Pranjal Parikh – 4 points
- Bhaumik Patel – 3 points
Under 36 Section
- Ravi B. Shah – 4 points
- Meera B. Shah – 3 points
Under 65 Section
- Mayank Shah – 4 points
- Mitesh Shah – 3 points
Related links:
- U12 section pairings and results (chess-results)
- U20 section pairings and results (chess-results)
- U36 section pairings and results (chess-results)
- U65 section pairings and results (chess-results)
