All set for Kajiado Regional Youth Chess qualifiers at Laiser Hill

The final round of the qualifiers for Nationals Youth Chess Championships set to be held in April will be hosted at Laiser Hill Academy.

Chess Kenya Chief Arbiter Anthony Kionga confirmed to Standard Sports that all preparations for the Kajiado Regional Qualifiers are done and the junior championships will kick off on Saturday.

These will be the final qualifiers with other regions having held theirs already.

Nairobi, Kiambu, Central, Trans Nzoia, Kisumu, Kiambu, Coast, Bungoma and Kisii have all carried out their qualifiers and selected their top players ahead of the national championships.

So far over 3000 students have taken part in the Regional Qualifiers with almost 2000 having qualified for the finals to be held at Khadija Secondary School in Mombasa. The finals will be held on April 2.

All players who did not take part in the previous qualifiers are welcomed to take part in this event and book their place in the finals.

The champions in the National Finals will represent Kenya in the upcoming international chess tournaments.

"We have witnessed chess in schools grow rapidly. They say there's an opportunity in every crisis and true to this, chess witnessed a lot of growth both in terms of quality and uptake as it was the only sport that could leverage on online learning.”

“We are happy with the growth we are witnessing countrywide and we encourage more schools to take up the sports as it helps learners improve their memory and critical and analytical thinking," said Kionga.