He had performed 4 rounds earlier than being caught. (Representational)

Nairobi, Kenya:

A younger man sporting a niqab and glasses performed 4 rounds of the Nairobi Women’s Chess Open earlier than being uncovered.

“I don’t think anything like it has ever happened anywhere in the world,” mentioned John Mukabi, secretary normal of the Kenyan Chess Federation.

Mukabi mentioned that after the imposter was unmasked he defined that he had achieved it as a result of he had a greater likelihood of profitable the ladies’s competitors prizemoney.

The thirty first Kenya Open, a world chess competitors in Nairobi from April 6-10, attracted 445 contributors, with 84 entries within the ladies’s match.

One veiled participant, silent and elusive, attracted growing suspicion because the rounds progressed.

“The first hint that there was something wrong was when I went around with a photographer to take pictures of the competition,” Mukabi instructed AFP on Sunday.

“When we went back to the computer to put in the names, the name was Milicent Awour. We were expecting a Muslim name. It was a bit odd but it is possible that there are people with Christian names who are Muslims.”

He mentioned match officers had been additionally growing doubts.

“The arbiters also noticed something: after games, this person disappears and only comes back with a few minutes to the start of the next round,” mentioned Mukabi.

“Somebody also noticed that the shoulders looked more male than female… Even the rubber shoes he was wearing, they were mostly associated with men.”

The thriller competitor was additionally scoring good outcomes.

“The other thing is he had defeated a very experienced lady, who participated six times in the World Chess Olympiad for Kenya,” mentioned Mukabi.

After spherical 4, the officers made their transfer. It was checkmate in a single.

“After that game, the arbiters took him aside and one female arbiter went with him to the washrooms where he was asked to remove the hijab. On reaching there, he immediately just admitted that he was a male. He was withdrawn and the scores reversed.”

“He said financial problems led him to do that,” mentioned Mukabi. “In the men’s section, he had no chance at all, we had Grand Masters, International Masters…”

The younger man, who’s a scholar on the University of Nairobi, is because of seem earlier than the Kenyan chess federation’s disciplinary committee subsequent week. He faces a suspension of a number of years.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)