For Dr Victor Ng'ani, chess mirrors life

Dr Victor Ng'ani.

Dr Victor Ng’ani, the 2018 Kenya National Chess champion, surprised many chess players when he represented the country at the World Chess Olympiad in Georgia. See, being a doctor is a demanding job and playing chess requires endless hours to perfect one’s game.

And it all began at Alliance High School and continued later when his friend, Dr Kevin Omondi, taught him how to ‘pull the ropes’ in chess.

“He asked me to play with him and he would give me a good amount of money if I won or we drew,” recalls Dr Ng’ani. “I thought that was quite exciting, but he beat me in every step which left me curious as to how he did it.”

Dr Omondi introduced him to the concept of opening play, chess preparation, tactics and then professional chess, reaffirming his passion for the game which saw him beat Philip Singe on board three to amass 7.5 points out of a possible nine to dethrone Benjamin Magana in 2018.

Besides pocketing Sh75,000, a glittering trophy, a dinner voucher for two from Ole Sereni, there was also an air ticket to any destination in Kenya.

That was also the year he represented Kenya at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Betumi, Georgia alongside Ben Magana (Captain), Joseph Methu, Philip Singe and Ricky Sang.

The Women’s Team had Joyce Nyaruai ,
Sasha Mongeli, Gwen Jumba, Daphne Mwikali and Lucy Wanjiru.

Away from chess, Dr Ng’ani is the founding chair of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists Dentist Union (KMPDU) commonly called the Doctors’ Union. He has been so passionate about critical care, rights of patients and doctors.  

He is currently the head of critical services at RFH Healthcare and also the chair of the Chess Kenya Disciplinary Committee.

Besides watching videos to perfect his chess, Dr Ng’ani says he puts in many hours reading huge volumes of books on chess, which are more than those he read during his student days at the University of Nairobi- School of Medicine.

“Do you know that in one chess game, the number of possible moves are more than the atoms in the universe?” he pauses.

According to Dr Ng’ani, many African chess players have been disadvantaged over those from the developed countries because they identify and begin nurturing the talent late, making them uncompetitive against world masters who dedicate almost eight to 14 hours a day for 10 years or more to learn chess.

This is why he began exposing his daughters to chess at an early age.

The game of chess also teaches a person many things as there are synergies between chess and life which are useful in judgment, decision making and understanding that every move has a consequence.

“People think that the pawn is just a pawn, but when you play chess seriously you understand that pawns are the soul of chess,” says the champ. “As small as they are, they can become queens and this teaches you not to despise anything, always making use of every single resource.”

Some of the valuable lessons from chess includes; thinking methodically, planning, understand every move has consequences besides making decisions that delay gratification.

 These are lessons he has passed to his daughter as he believes learning chess at an early age allows one to perform better in school, cope better with life and the competition is a healthy way of passing time.

Besides playing chess, Dr Ng’ani finds time to balance his career and family, as “the greatest gift a parent can give to a child is not inheritance alone, but to empower them to be the best they can be.’

Dr Ngani finds joy in spending time with his family, lessons he learnt from his grandfather, the role model who took great pride raising his family and serving God. He even donated a piece of his land for construction of a church.

Dr Ngani believes in a Passion, Integrity, Vision and Ability (PIVA) kind of leadership, virtues he employed during his tenure as the chair of the doctors’ Union, which he says was founded out of circumstances.

Back in the day, the Ministry of Health had stopped post-graduate studies for doctors in the public sector, offering to train those who had not specialised, and many of them patiently waited for that, surviving on very low salaries.

However, in 2010, the government declared that there was no money for the promised training.

Dr Ngani recalls how “we organised for press briefings and demonstrations to protests against poor pay and the bad living conditions that the doctors were going through at that time,” with the first demonstration only attracting six doctors who increased to almost 20 in the second demo.

It was during the second demo when they met COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli who advised them to form the union.

They had no money at the time, but about 120 doctors who were willing to join contributed Sh1,000 each and which saw them begin what he terms the ‘consequential union of all times.’

The formation of the union has since seen an increase in the number of doctors working in the public sector from over 2,000 to more than 6,000, with less leaving the country in search of greener pastures.