On form Ugandan Fide Master (F.M) Arthur Ssegwanyi won his seventh round tie against Ethiopia’s Tadese Estube Haileselasie in the on going Africa Zone 4.2 Chess Championship that climax on Saturday to attain the International Master (IM) title.
With a round to spare, he is now on 7 points out of 8 with the closest challengers glued on 5.5 points implying that a win for them in the last round can only get them to 6.5 points.
As a result of his exploits, Ssegwanyi will be awarded the International Master title and also represent Africa at the 2015 World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Ssegwanyi’s sweet victory was aided by fellow country man CM Haruna Nsubuga who beat closest challenger, Egyptian IM Hesham Abdelraman in the eighth round to ensure that the calm and collected Egyptian remains on 5.5 points, which extended the lead from half a point to 1.5 points.
Egyptian GM El Gindy Essam came good in the eigth round and made up for his earlier loss to Raphael Buti by beating Ugandan IM Elijah Emojong as he proved that he was still a major force to reckon with.
Uganda Chess Federation (UCF) is thus grateful to the world chess body (FIDE) and all the sponsors as they acknowledge in a statement
Many thanks to Sponsors, City Tyres and FIDE the world chess governing body for making the event happen in Uganda and thereby aiding Ssegwanyi’s IM title exploits.
In the ninth and final round, Ssegwanyi will be up against Ethiopia’s Mesfin Leykun who has 5 points.
With first place a foregone conclusion now the battle for second and third places as well as the five hefty cash prizes in the Open category is bound to rage on in the last round with four players all tied at 5.5 points including GM El Gindy Essam, CM Patrick Kawuma, CM Haruna Nsubuga and IM Hesham Abdelrahman while Tadese Estube and Emojong both have 4.5 points and could sneak in.
In the ladies category, Egypt’s Ehab Tasneem is leading with 7 put of 8 after beating Kenya’s Daphne Mwikali in the eigth round.
She is closely followed by Uganda’s WFM Ivy Amoko with 6.5 points.
Amoko will be hoping that fellow Ugandan Joan Nakimuli who plays Tasneem in the last round pulls off a surprise result against the leader as she herself deals with Ethiopia’s Leykun Ruth Eshete.
7 countries are participating in this year’s zonal, which has been highly exciting, competitive and followed by thousands of fans in and out of Uganda.
After the early morning round, the closing ceremony shall be held on Saturday at 3 p.m.
