44th Chess Olympiad (Round Six):
Women:
- Uganda 4-0 Trindad & Tobago
Men:
- Uganda 0-4 Latvia
Uganda’s women side condemned Trinidad and Tobago 4-0 at the on-going 44th Chess Olympiad in India during round six on Wednesday, August 3, 2022.
WCM Shakira Ampaire (1666) beat La Fleur Zara (1513) 1-0.
WFM Gloria Nansubuga (1538) overcame WCM James Shemilah, Patricia Kawuma (1653) smiled past Celine Angelina Mohammed (1100) and Martin Kayla (1138) lost 1-0 to Milly Takali (1482).
Meanwhile, the men side lost 0-4 to Latvia in round six action.
FM Harold Wanyama lost to Grand Master Toms Kantans.
IM Ritvars Reimanis defeated Walter Okas, FM Maksims Golubovskis edged Haruna Nsubuga and Emmanuel Egesa fell 0-1 to Edgars Ungurs.
Uganda opened up the open category with a 4-0 win over Equatorial Guinea, lost 0-4 to Canada in round two, condemned Sao Tome and Principe 4-0 during round three, lost to Portugal 3.5 to 1.5 and defeated Oman 3-1 in round five before the latest slip to Lativa (0-4).
Women:
During the opening round, Uganda lost 0-4 to Cuba in the ladies section.
Uganda ladies recovered to overcome Eswatini 4-0, gallantly fell
To Malaysia (2.5 to 1.5), overcame Cyprus 2.5 to 1.5 in ground four
Algeria defeated Uganda 4-0 during round five and Uganda edged Trinidad and Tobago 4-0 in round six.
Up-next:
During round 7 on 5th August 2022, Uganda will play horn of Africa nation Somalia.
During round seven, Uganda ladies will take on Albania.
A total of 11 rounds will be played in all.
For starters, the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India attracted 350 teams from 187 countries.
United States of America (USA) leads the ranking in the open section.
India leads the pack in the women section.
Interestingly, China are the defending champions in both sections.
Initially, this event was supposed to take place in Khanty-Mansiysk, which hosted the Chess Olympiad 2010, along with the Chess World Cup 2019 but later FIDE decided to move it to Moscow.
In February 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIDE decided to move the event from Moscow.
Khanty-Mansiysk was to host the opening ceremony and the inaugural Chess Paralympics specifically designed for people with disabilities, who were allowed to participate as members of the teams representing blind, deaf and physically disabled players in the past.
Uganda also has the IA, FM Stephen Kisuze Ssemango who was selected by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as a sector Arbiter.
Kisuze is one of the top and most respected chess arbiters globally and in the continent of Africa and has also officiated at the world chess Olympiad several times.