The African Chess Clubs Championship climaxed on Monday, July 31, with the Ugandan flag among those held aloft in Cairo, Egypt thanks to International Masters Arthur Ssegwanyi and Elijah Emojong.
Playing for Equity Chess club, the duo made known of their quality. The top two seeds in East Africa made the podium, with both winning bronze at the championship.
While Equity managed only a fifth finish with six points, eight adrift of champions Alhawar, IM Ssegwanyi, on board one collected 3.5 points. Only Grandmasters Amin Bassem and Hesham Abdelrahman who each garnered six points and IM Kandil Adham who finished with 4 points bettered the Olympian.
Ssegwanyi lost to both Bassem and Abdelrahman, but his early triumphs against Libyan Fide Master Ali A Elmejbri and KCB’s Phillip Singe Mbawala plus his victory against Zayan Osama from Eastern Company in the final round won him a bronze medal.
IM Emojong was on a losing end on four occasions, but his victories against Kenyan Candidate Master Benjamin Magana [KCB], Mokhtar Almahjoub [Khaled Ben Walid] and Fauz Aborijah [Alakhadr Elbaida] were just enough to send him to the podium.
The other East African who did wonders in Egypt was KCB’s Jackson Kamau Ndegwa. The rated 1899 won silver on board three with four points. Ndegwa who trailed gold winner IM Hassan Sayed Barakat by 1.5 points registered two victories and drew four times, losing just one game.
As a team, KCB finished sixth with three points.
