Equity players scoop MVP awards in chess league

Equity Bank’s Peter Gilruth and Daphne Mwikali are this year’s most valuable players in the just concluded Chess National Premier League.

Kenya No.1 rated player Peter Gilruth emerged with a perfect score of 10/10 in his games taking the title from team mate Steve Ouma who won the Most Valuable Player title last year.

KCB’s Ben Magana was first runner up in the male category on board 1 which features the strongest players of any given team.

“You can imagine that this has not been an easy league because most players came very well prepared. Of course, despite my experience there are times the results didn’t favour me but overall I am elated with the outcome,” said Gilruth who is a veteran with 56 years of actively playing chess.

Chess Olympian Daphne Mwilali of Equity topped the female category to win the most valuable player. Daphne won 89% of her games, followed closely by WFM Sasha Mongeli of Technical University of Kenya won 88% of her games. In an affirmative active bid to encourage female chess players, the Chess League features 1 board that is exclusively reserved for women. The all-women Lighthouse Chess Club team however did not take the board price as widely expected.

“This has been a good year for me. I’m honored to have emerged ahead of my peers because it was not easy. Some of my opponent had higher Elo ratings but fate was on my side so my hard work paid off,” said Daphne.

Equity Captain Bernard Wanjala celebrated the achievement saying: “We are excited that two of our team members have shown exemplary performance in the league despite still competition from very strong players.”

Other winners are Timothy Mwabu of NACHA Kings as best junior boy with  7 wins out of 9 while Women Fide Master (WFM)  Krishi Shah of KCB Chess Club was crowned best junior boy  having won all her games and drawn only one out of 7.