FIDE Vice President to grace chess qualifiers

By Samuel Sanya

The second phase of Qualifiers for the World Chess Olympiad is on starting this weekend 15-16 at Pope Paul Memorial Hotel in Kampala.

The event features male players with international ratings and the top 20 unrated who qualified from the previous phase.

Eight rounds will be played in the male category which the following weekend 22-23 March 2014. The top 12 will be picked to proceed to the next and last phase due in May.

The ladies will over this weekend be battling in their final phase featuring the top 12 in a round robin to determine the top 5 to feature on the National team.

The event will be graced with the attendance of FIDE Vice President, Ali Nihat Yazici and Africa Chess Union President, Lakhdar Mazoouz.

“This visit means a lot to the development of chess in Uganda. We have already had one meeting with them and we have received a lot of ideas on how to improve chess in Uganda,” Vianney Luggya said about the visit of Yazici and Mazoouz.

The last time a high-ranking FIDE official visited Uganda was in 1990.