Little Munanira proves man of the chess boards

By Douglas Mazune THE 2000 chess season saw league champions URA, Olympian Grace Nsubuga and youngsters Stephen Kawuma and Isaac Munanira, emerge victorious. The most exciting moment was early in the year. Little Isaac Munanira, 19, beat a strong field to The New Vision International open championship title, the biggest event on the calendar, to earn the $350 top prize and became the national champion as well.In the highly contested competition, Munanira grabbed a crucial seventh point in the last round against Kawuma Mutumba to draw level with Shadrack Kantinti then edged him (Kantinti) on tie break. Olympians Kenneth Kakooza and Nsubuga were among Munanira's victims as the youngster strode to glory. Defending champion Nsubuga, who got off to a poor start, made a remarkable recovery from 10th position to finish third after edging Ignatius Wanderema on tiebreak. Earlier in the opening event of the year, the NRM/Pepsi International championship, Ugandans dominated their Kenyan counterparts when they swept the top four positions of the competition that had eight top Kenyan players. Nsubuga won the four-day event sponsored by Crown Beverages while Godfrey Luberenga, Stephen Kawuma and Joseph Kiiza were second, third and fourth. Kawuma was also a big winner - he won the national Junior championship, Independence tournament, came top in qualifiers for 34th chess Olympiad and finished 6th at the Africa Junior championship in Pretoria, South Africa this month. He (Kawuma) gathered six points to become best player on the Ugandan team that had Bob Bibasa, Stephen Opio, Kakooza, Kantinti, Nsubuga and non-playing captain Joachim Okoth. At the 34th Olympiad Uganda improved from 98th position in the previous edition to 76th out of 128 countries. Uganda Chess Federation publicity secretary Vianney Luggya is a happy man. "It has been a successful year, much as we did not win a medal at the Olympiad we improved greatly. "URA led the league almost throughout but the competition was tight among other teams," Luggya said. "The level of competition is high, the individual performance is good, several top players have fallen to youngsters in the league, it has been a good year and I believe the future is bright." URA are just a half point away from the league title, out of a possible eight in the remaining two rounds. They are waiting for league to resume to collect their second successive league title. It has been another good year for the most organised sports association in the country. Ends.