KCB's Methu crowned national chess champion

KCB Chess Club man Joseph Methu is Kenya’s new finest chess player. 

Methu, 36, achieved the feat by winning the Open Section of the 2023 Kenya National Chess Championship (KNCC) that concluded on Saturday at Charter Hall in Nairobi. 

Yet despite a brand new Nissan Note car worth Sh1.3 million being the prize for winning the Open Section, he said that it was not the motivation behind his success. 

“To be honest, I was not thinking about the car,” said Methu. “Last year I played so badly that I wanted to prove to myself that I can still play well, better and that I am still the same guy that I used to be. For me I value being rated number one in Kenya more than being a champion.”

The battle for the brand new Nissan Note car went down to the wire after eight of the nine rounds that had been played by Friday evening failed to produce an outright winner.

Then, Methu topped with 7.5 points followed by Elvis Likoko (Equity Chess Club), Kimani Kimingi (Anchor Chess Club) and defending champion Mehul Gohil (Gorilla Chess Academy) who were all on seven points each. To be crowned Kenya’s new champion, Methu floored teammate and 2021 winner Martin Njoroge in round nine.

He topped with 8.5 points while Likoko and Gohil followed closely with eight points each after winning their respective round nine matches. 

Candidate Master Ben Magana was fourth with 7.5 points.

Likoko and Gohil were awarded Sh100,000 and Sh50,000 respectively.

“This year has been quite good for me because I trained hard and competed in several tournaments than I should have,” said Methu, who singled out the match against Gohil on Friday evening as his toughest test of this year’s championship. 

“All the other games were easy. It was either I’m winning or drawing but against the former champion, I was completely losing,” he said. 

Woman Fide Master Sasha Mongeli was confirmed the Ladies Section winner Friday evening after she topped with eight points. 

On Saturday, Mongeli outwitted Esther Karanja to take her points tally at the top to nine. 

Defending champion and Woman Candidate Master Joyce Nyaruai finished second with eight points after outsmarting Veronicah Matei. Mongeli pocketed Sh100, 000 while Nyaruai received Sh50,000.

Chess Kenya President Bernard Wanjala congratulated the two winners.

“It's great to have a new champion this year, I know Methu is a hard-working player who rose to be the highest rated player in 2019. Our goal is to impact the lives of our champions.”

Reckoning that the victory was a surprise to him, Methu had by Saturday afternoon not made up his mind over what he would do with the car.

While he got his driving license 10 years ago, he has never driven a car. 

But he expected to learn how to drive the brand new Nissan Note car in “a few hours.”

“I was not thinking about the car, I just wanted to play well but now reality has dawned on me that I have the car. Some questions I cannot answer at the moment because I just do not have an answer,” said the champion. 

Scrabble was his cup of tea until sometime in 2018 when he found a chess game in a flash drive that he had borrowed from a friend. 

“Chess found me, I just found it on my laptop and started playing,” said Methu who studied Actuarial Science at Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology.

He said that he has never had a coach for the time he has been into chess. But how come he does not have any chess title despite being one of the top talents in the country. 

“You have to travel abroad to get it and it is a bit expensive,” he lamented. “At some point I wanted to be an International Master but I gave up on it. I have beaten IM before but no matter how strong I am, how will I get to Europe to play these IMs, Where will the money come from and you also have to train for eight hours away?” 

Being a good coach, he said is his ultimate goal in the sport.

Gohil, who won the title in 2014, 2019 and 2022 said he is satisfied with his performance in this year's championship. 

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