From Dzunguni to Nairobi!

About a year ago, we received our first chess boards. None of us imagined that a year later we would have students competing at the National Chess Championship in Nairobi.

But before Nairobi came Kilifi.

Earlier this year, four students represented Eco Moyo at their very first chess tournament. We honestly didn't know what to expect. The students had never competed before, and for us it was mostly about giving them the opportunity to try something new and see how they measured up against students from other schools.

To our surprise, all four qualified for the next round in Mombasa!!

Practising chess at school before the big tournaments!

In early March, we travelled to Mombasa with our chess masters to compete at regional level. Three out of four students qualified directly for the National Chess Championship in Nairobi, which already felt like a huge achievement.

The fourth player, had been placed in a category with much older students and did not make the cut at first. We felt that was unfair, so we raised it with the organisers and, after some back and forth, they agreed to let him compete in Nairobi as well.

To compete, all players need a birth certificate, which is not always straightforward to get here. It can mean travel, cost and navigating systems that are not easily accessible.

So when the last player's birth certificate arrived just in time, we all celebrated.

At home, he had been talking so much about Nairobi that his older brother, a former Eco Moyo student, came to the school just to check if it was actually true. His little brother going to Nairobi? It was!!

A few weeks later, the team left Eco Moyo at 4am and headed for Mombasa to catch the train. The journey to Nairobi passes through Tsavo National Park and is one of the most scenic train routes in Kenya. For some of the students, it was their very first time on a train.

The championship itself lasted five days and brought together an incredible 11,000 players from across the country. Our head teacher Dominic joined for part of the event and later said he had never seen so many people gathered in one place before.

To prepare for the cooler temperatures in Nairobi, we bought socks, jumpers, trousers and shoes for the students who needed them. It also reminded us that this trip was about much more than chess. It was about travelling, meeting new people and experiencing a completely different part of Kenya.

One of our chess masters, even qualified for the African Youth Chess Championship in Kampala, Uganda!!

Unfortunately, we were not able to send him to Uganda to compete. Still, we are incredibly proud of Winner and all of our chess masters.

Our chess masters in Nairobi - in total 11.000 players. How crazy!!

Looking back, it is hard to believe that we only started playing chess last year. Since then, our students have gone from learning the basics to competing at the National Chess Championship in Nairobi.

Maybe that helps explain why the chess club has grown from just four players to seventeen almost overnight. 😉 😃