Uganda Chess Open returns after four year hiatus

For the next three days, the Uganda Open Chess Championship will be the talk of chess fans across the region.

Revived by the Uganda Chess Federation (UCF), the event that was last held in 2013 by the local body gets underway on Thursday at Forest Cottages in Bukoto with the region's top players lined up for the contest.

Seven countries including Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Namibia, South Sudan, Zambia and hosts Uganda are represented at the event.

Uganda has all its elite players ready to lock horns save for Dmark's Walter Okas and Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Grace Kigeni who chose to skip the tourney for different reasons.

International Master (IM) Arthur Ssegwanyi leads an array of players that include IM Elijah Emojong, FIDE Master (FM) Patrick Kawuma, FM Harold Wanyama, FM Haruna Nsubuga, WFM Ivy Clare Amoko, WFM Goretti Angolikin and WFM Christine Namaganda among others.

The 2017 Uganda Chess Open Championship is sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) Africa.

According to the UCF treasurer, Isaac Munanira, KCF Africa boosted the tournament with sh9m.

"This year's event was sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation Africa. We were given a contribution that amounted to over sh9m," said Munanira.

The winner expected to walk home with sh1.5m.

The national championship is a mandatory FIDE requirement for every FIDE member state. Uganda is one of the many other countries complying with the world chess body.

The Kasparov Chess foundation Africa is under the leadership of the Russian legendary chess player, Grand Master (GM) Garry Kasparov.