The world of competitive chess has quite a scandal on its hands as a male competitor posed as a female to enter a women’s tournament in Kenya this week.
Stanley Omondi, who is a Kenyan competitive chess player, dressed as a female and wore a hijab in order to compete in the women’s tournament. He made his way deep into the tournament but arose suspicions when he beat Gloria Jumba and Ampaira Shakira – a former national champion and a top player from Uganda.
“We didn’t have any suspicion at first, because wearing a hijab is normal,” Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala told BBC Sport. “But along the way, we noticed he won against very strong players… and it will be unlikely to have a new person who has never played a tournament [being very strong].”
He was good at it & fooled staff but his cover was blown when he beat former national champion Gloria Jumba and Ugandan top player Ampaira Shakira, arousing suspicion from other players and the arbiters.
His explanation was he did it to raise his school fees.
— Kenya West (@KinyanBoy) April 13, 2023
“One of the red flags we also noticed [was] the shoes, he was wearing more masculine shoes, than feminine,” Wanjala said to BBC Sport. “We also noticed he was not talking, even when he came to collect his tag, he couldn’t speak, ordinarily, when you are playing, you speak to your opponent… because playing a chess game is not war its friendship.”
Officials eventually questioned Omondi about it, and he came clean, revealing that he had “financial needs” and was “ready to accept all consequences.”
[BBC]
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