UGANDA’S NAKABO PENINAH ASCENDS TO TABLE ONE WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEIZE OVERALL LEAD AT THE 2024 AFRICA INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP AICC.
In the ongoing 2024 Africa Individual Chess Championship (AICC), Nakabo Peninah of Uganda is making a strong bid for the top position. After the fourth round of the championship, Peninah Nakabo currently holds the second position overall with three points. In the upcoming fifth round, she will face Nikki Jessy February of South Africa, who is the current undefeated table leader with four points. The 16th March 2024 was a rest day and rounds five and six shall be played on the 17th March 2024 10:00hrs & 17:00hrs respectively
The team Uganda at the AICC consists of four players, including FM Wanyama Harold in the open category and Nakabo Peninah, who were the official players in both the 2023 African Games and the ongoing 2024 AICC. Additionally, Naisanga Valentine and Mugide Safinah are playing in the women’s category as additional players.
Mugide Safinah has 2 points after round four and will play against Benson Maud in round five, while Naisanga Sheba Valentine has 1.5 points after four rounds and will meet Aina Mahasambrata from Madagascar.
Round four was so far the best for all the Ugandan ladies as all won their games.
In the open category, the sole representative for Uganda is FM Harold Wanyama, with 2 points out of four rounds played so far.
The fifth-round pairing for the open category is as below Wanyama plays on board eleven against Egbe Kossi Thierry and he is expected to bounce back.
The tournament, which started on the 12th of March and will continue until the 21st of March 2024, has seen Chess Team Uganda transition from the 2023 African Games to this prestigious event.
Team Uganda is hoping to recover from the disappointment of narrowly missing medals in the 2023 African Games.
On another note, there is a widespread internet outage in West Africa, including Ghana and several other countries. This outage, which is suspected to be a result of a cyber-attack on the submarine optic-fiber cable, may last for weeks. Consequently, the live broadcast of the games has been severely affected, much to the inconvenience of our online viewers, and most painful is chess results cannot be updated as well. The organizers have no control over these circumstances. Communication has been primarily reliant on WhatsApp, but it is also significantly slow.
A very high-level meeting to exploit available opportunities and create partnerships for Uganda was held with The FIDE president, Arkady Dvorkovich, Hon. Minister of State for Sports Hon. Peter Ogwang, Government Chief Whip. Hon. Hamson Obua, Chairman National Council of Sports(NCS) Ambrose Tashobya, General Secretary NCS r. Patrick Bernard Ogwel and Eng. Mwaka Emmanuel President UCF. Other members in attendance were Chief e Mission Ivan Mugowa and Konstantin Kiselev FIDE Presidential assistant. The Uganda Chess community shall be updated about the developments later and should be ecstatic.
We extend our gratitude to all chess fans in Uganda, as well as the media, for their continuous support and coverage of the chess games in Accra, Ghana.
The writer is
Eng. Mwaka Emmanuel
President: Uganda Chess Federation
WhatsApp: +256782083657
