Africa juniors to battle at Online Rising Stars Rapid Chess Series

Over 100 African youths will face off on Saturday when the second edition of the Rising Stars Rapid Chess Series kick-off over the weekend.

The chess event is organised by a collaboration of three chess academies in the country namely; Black Knights, Mombasa Chess Academy and Nairobi Chess Academy & Club (NACHA).

The event attracts players from all parts of Africa with players from Uganda, Bostwana, Malawi and Kenya being among the players already registered for the event.

“We expect more people to register for the event on the deadline day. The aim of the event is to expose young players to a competitive environment to foster the highest level of achievement among them as well as expose their weaknesses to better improve on our trainings.”

“We have leveraged on technology to keep our events going using Tornelo Chess Platform + Zoom to run our events,” Tournament Director Anthony Kionga told The Standard Sport.

Since the suspension of physical contact sports due to Covid-19 last year in March, the chess community in Kenya as well as across the globe moved to online platforms to play.

Rising Stars Rapid Series is a monthly tournament held every 1st Saturday of the month. This event is open to players born on or after 2003.

Elizabeth Cassidy during a past match. [Washington Onyango, The Standard Sport]

It is played in different categories according to their age brackets (under 18, under 14 and under 10).

Winners in each category both boys and girls receive medals while all players receive a certificate of participation.

The tournament is Swiss System of 6 rounds with a time control of 20 minutes per player to finish.

Meanwhile, 12-year-old Kenyan Rishit Ravat is among the players that have already registered for the event looking to defend the under 12 title he won during the first edition of the tournament.

African individual Schools Chess champion Elizabeth Cassidy who is 10-year-old will also battle it out at the second editon event after registering to play in the under 18 category.