Uganda’s Ivy Amoko, has been elevated from a Woman Candidate Master to a Woman Fide Master at the end of the 41st World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway.
Amoko, was the most consistent female chess player for team Uganda winning six out of her nine games thus enabling her land her new status in the game of chess.
She becomes the first Woman Fide Master in East Africa and in this country. In the final game at the Olympiad the Uganda ladies lost to United Arab Emirates 3-1 with Amoko, the only winner consoling the Ugandans.
The Men ended on a high beating Africa’s second highest ranked team Morocco 2.5-1.5
Arthur Ssegwanyi and IM Elijah Emojong orchestrated the spectacular win by beating IMs Onkoud Abdelaziz and Ali Sebar as FM Harold Wanyama put the icing on the cake with a calculated draw against Choukri Ader. IM Tissir Mohamed pulled one back for Morocco against Patrick Kawuma.
It has been a fine and decent performance from team Uganda capped with 5 match wins, 5 losses and 1 draw.
The other individual accolade was by Arthur Ssegwanyi who acquired 8 rating points from the Olympiad that enabled him cross the 2300 minimum rating requirement for the FIDE Master title. Prior to the Olympiad Ssegwanyi had a rating of 2299.