Kang’aru: Africa’s youngest global chess arbiter
James Kang’aru, 26, is used to shattering the glass ceiling. On August 12 during the International Youth Day, Kang’aru was crowned the 2020 Top 35 Under-35 Sports Youth of the Year.
Although he is no stranger to winning, this is easily the young achiever’s biggest recognition.
Determined to become a chess instructor during his college days, Kang’aru would work in supermarkets to earn a little cash to enable him to train.
Two years later, his sacrifice paid off when he became the best coach of the year in 2015 after guiding, Joy Njeri Wangari and Vivian Muthoni, to emerge national champions out of 12 children with Joy becoming Kenya’s youngest ever national champion at age six.
“I am proud to have led a child aged six to win the Under-8 girls’ category national title and represented Kenya in Zambia in the 2015 Africa Youth Chess Championship.
I also guided Elimu House to emerge the best primary school by producing the two national champions.
This is the same year I participated in the Africa Trainers seminar hosted in Uganda and was awarded the National Instructor (NI) title by FIDE (World Chess Federation),” said Kang’aru.
The following year in 2016, Kang’aru once again won the best coach of the year title after leading three children to emerge national champions (Vivian, Jeff Gichuki and Milton Kihara) with Elimu House emerging best primary school again.
This is the same year the Kenyan team was set to participate in the Africa Youth Chess Championship in South Africa but a last minute lack of air tickets forced them out. “It was a low moment for us but we never gave up.”
Kang’aru bounced back strongly in 2017, breaking all records as he won seven national champions out of the 12 in the children category.
With more than half the team being his students, Kang’aru was promoted to be national coach for the juniors team.
That year, Team Kenya won the Africa Zone 4.2 Under-16 Youth Chess championship.
This achievement saw Kenya sponsored by the World Chess Federation and Africa Chess to take part in the World Youth Under-16 Chess championship in Ahmedabad, India.
In 2017 he joined chess arbitration and was awarded National Arbiter. In 2018 he decided to improve his chess knowledge and participated in the World Chess trainers seminar.
After the test given by FIDE and based on his track record, he was awarded FIDE Instructor, becoming the youngest Africa FIDE Instructor and one of only five FIDE Instructors in Kenya.
