After a very successful 18-player simul in April, Kenya’s fourth ranked player Mehul Gohil returned to Village Market on Saturday, 27th May for a 25-player simul at the second edition of VM Game Night, a monthly event aimed at bringing people together for a night of board games such as chess, Scrabble, Monopoly and Jenga.
This time the stakes were higher. The first 3 participants to either get a draw or win from Mehul would win vouchers from Village Market worth KES 5,000, KES 3,000 and KES 2,000 respectively. All 25 participants played at the same time in true ‘simul’ style instead of those finishing early being replaced by new players as had happened in April when only 10 boards had been set up.
The first player to manage a draw was Anchor Chess Club’s Brian Kariuki Waweru who received vouchers worth KES 5,000. Following him was Hema Shah, the only player to win against Mehul that night, who received vouchers worth KES 3,000. Sumit Deshpande of Anchor Chess Club was the third player to either win or draw against him and he received vouchers worth KES 2,000 for his draw. Joseph Omboga Makori and WCM Krishi Shah were the final two players remaining after 3.5 hours and both were the only other players to get draws.
Final results for Mehul were as follows:
- Wins – 20
- Draws – 4 (Brian Kariuki Waweru, Sumit Deshpande, Joseph Makori Omboga – Anchor Chess Club; WCM Krishi Shah – Kenya Commercial Bank)
- Losses – 1 (Hema Shah)
While chess was the biggest draw of the night, various areas of the food court had been designated as ‘Scrabble’, ‘Checkers’ and ‘Backgammon’ zones which visitors gladly took advantage of. Some chess parents were even seen trying their hands at Connect Four and Jenga too.
Though the event was meant to last till 8 pm, the chess simul went on till 9 pm and some enthusiastic visitors to Village Market played into the night till 11 pm by when all food court outlets had already closed.
(All photos courtesy of Village Market)