I improved rapidly as a result and even qualified for the 2nd phase of the National Team Qualifiers in 1995!īy 1996, I managed to finish in 9th position overall (joint 4th with 5.5 points out of 8) in the 1996 National Championships when I had just turned 16 years old. Every day after school, I just dived into this or that chess book I had borrowed from Kim’s home chess library. He gave me access to that library, and I took to it like a duck to water. But Kim Bhari had a big chess library of over a hundred books.
I met Kim Bhari for the first time at the 1993 Pan Paper Open, and he was instrumental in my growth as a chess player. Yes I did play quite a lot after that event. UoN Chess Club: What was your training routine then? Did you practice regularly? Mehul Gohil (left) with orange and white markings on shirt waiting for the start of the next round. In those days juniors played with the seniors. My parents thought I should enter the tournament. There was a photo from the previous year’s event showing Philip Singe playing William Juma (then the best player in Kenya). Just a couple of weeks before Easter 1993, there was a feature in the column highlighting the upcoming Panpaper Easter Open. The Standard newspaper in their Sunday edition had a chess column written by THE AQUARIAN ( John Mukabi). The following year was my entry into Kenyan chess. I immediately knew I would be playing this game forever. Here was another, very radical way of winning at chess - a Bishop sacrifice, double Rook sacrifice, then a Queen sacrifice. I played through it, and it came as a complete shock to me. The first legendary player int he book was Adolf Anderssen. I flipped to the final chapters where there was this breakdown of the great players of the past with one representative game. The first chapters were on the basic mates which I knew.
#I having problems with my dinosaur chess software cracked#
That same afternoon, back at home, I cracked it open. I saw a chess book titled ‘THE GAME OF CHESS’ by Harry Golombek. So one weekend we went into town (CBD) where next to Stanley Hotel there was the Westlands Sundries Bookshop. I grew up in a house filled with all kinds of books. My parents have always been bibliophiles. The next revolution in my chess thinking again came from another book. UoN Chess Club: How did you proceed from there? I became the school champion which did have a club of sorts. In school, I started beating everyone by using my formula. I learnt the basic mates and endgames from that book-mating with Rook and King vs lone King, two Bishop vs lone King etc. Just win material, exchange down, and mate. I went through the rest of that book and came up with a formula for winning. I was hooked as I found out the game had so much to it.ĭid you join any club or even play in school? There I saw pins, forks, skewers, double-check etc. At random, I picked up the book again and flipped to the second chapter, which was on tactics. Then a few weeks later, over a weekend, I got bored at home.
I learnt the moves then forgot about that book.
I spent the 1992 Christmas holidays learning the moves from the book. That book was BEGIN CHESS by David Pritchard. On reaching home, we realised the cashier made a mistake. I was transitioning to Standard 5, and my dad took me to buy the textbooks for the new school year at Text Book Center. I learnt chess by mistake way back in December 1992. How were you introduced to the game of chess? The Whatsapp interview which took place on July 17, 2020, covered a wide range of topics. Mehul Gohil the 2019 Kenya National Championwas interviewed by University of Nairobi Chess Club members. Interview with Kenya Chess Champion Mehul Gohil
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