The world of competitive chess had a controversial 2022, and another scandal rose last week at a female tournament in Kenya.
Stanley Omondi participated in the Kenya Open Chess Championship dressed as a female in a full niqab and made his way through the tournament until he competed against Gloria Jumba and Ampaira Shakira, according to news.au.com. Omondi was able to beat both Jumba, a former national champion, and Shakira, a top player from Uganda, which raised suspicions.
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A general view of the atmosphere at the World Chess Championship at Somerset House on Sept. 20, 2012 in London. (Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)
Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala told BBC Sport that a person wearing the full-length outfit with their face covered was normal, but an unknown player defeating two of the best chess players in the world was wildly unusual.
“We didn’t have any suspicion at first, because wearing a hijab is normal,” Wanjala said. “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].”
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Wanjala added that Omondi was wearing “masculine” footwear and didn’t speak during the tournament.
“One of the red flags we also noticed [was] the shoes, he was wearing more masculine shoes, than feminine,” he added 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 reportedly were afraid to call out Omondi at first in fear of accusations of profiling, but when they did call him out, he came clean.
Omondi registered as Millicent Awour. He admitted to his transgression in a letter, saying he had “financial needs.”
Pieces stand on a chess board at the Werner Ott Open of the Kreuzberg Summer at the Berlin Kreuzberg Chess Club. (Andreas Gora/picture alliance via Getty Images)
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He added that he was “ready to accept all consequences.”
