Nairobi Over the Board chess tourney receives financial boost

An online betting firm in the country has committed to sponsor this year’s Nairobi Over the Board (OTB) chess tournament for seniors to be held on September 5 at Sarit Center.

The firm Thursday pumped Sh.100,000 to help the organisers-Chess Kenya-put up a successful event.

According to the firm’s Country marketing manager Aggrey Sayi, they are delighted to partner with Chess Kenya in ahead of the tournament and promised to do more in future.

“This is part of our effort to promote sports at the grassroots level and we are excited about supporting this unique sport,” he said.

Chess Kenya chairman Bernard Wanjala said the donations and the cash award is a massive boost to the tournament as Over the Board events resume after more than one year following disruptions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have not played physical chess for close to two years following the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a big boost to the sport and we are massively thankful to Odibets for partnering with us,” he said.

Wanjala said the association will host three other physical events between now and the end of the year with this year’s national championships in December expected to be big once again.

“We started with Nakuru Open after the government lifted restrictions on sports. After the Nairobi OTB, we will go to Mombasa in October for Mombasa Open and end the year with the national championships.

“We would have loved to do more but Covid has really affected us. Hopefully next year we can have more events to help our players earn higher ratings,” he said.