When Caxton Kalule and Fide Master Haruna Nsubuga confirmed their participation at the Nairobi Chess Club Championship, majority tipped the FM to return home with the top prize and very few envisaged Kalule winning the event.
One of the top players in the country said ‘Caxton [Kalule] is a very talented player but he doesn’t have the ingredients of a champion’ when asked to weigh the duo’s chances. Fast forward to now, and Kalule is a champion.
Kalule competed in the U1800 section where he garnered 4.5 points which were just enough for him to bag the top prize in the category. The unrated player was on song throughout the tourney, winning all but one round that he drew against Simons Willy.
He approached the final round needing to beat the table leader Brian Kariuki Waweru to win the event and that’s exactly what happened.
In the Open category, it didn’t go as planned for Nsubuga. The FM suffered a painful defeat in the penultimate round against Moses Andiwoh the eventual winner and settled for a second finish in what was his third attempt to win the event.
Andiwoh won the four-round event with 3.5 points while Nsubuga collected 3 points. Ugandans are known for out-competing Kenyans at the latter’s backyard, but it is becoming hard for them to unsettle the Kenyans in the NCCC.
The last time a Ugandan triumphed at the event in the Open section was in 2013 when FM Patrick Kawuma won the event. Since then, the closest they came to winning before this edition was in 2014 when Allan Mathias Ssonko (4.5points) tied second with two other Kenyans including Mowlid Ahmed and Brian Kidula, and last year when Solomon Lubega finished second with 5.5 points below Peter Gilruth with 6 points.
Nsubuga finished third in the 2015 edition.
