Phiona playing hard for the win!

Phiona Mutesi has again taken the championship of the Uganda Rwabushenyi Chess Championship 2015 which just concluded this week in Kampala.  Phiona only lost to fellow Olympian Gorretti Angolikin to finish with seven points out of possible eight.

In second place was Gloria Nansubuga who managed to challenge all the Olympian ladies and won her match against Christine Namaganda in the final round of the championship to get to second place and Namaganda finished in fourth place.

The top 12 ladies have been advanced to the last round of the Olympiad 2016 qualifiers to be played next month.  The SOM Chess Academy qualified five girls in the super 12; that is Phiona, Gloria, Stella, Vanessa and Joan.  Five players are to be selected eventually to represent Uganda for the World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan in August 2016.

In the men category, three boys from the Academy have advanced to the next phase of the Olympiad qualifiers of 30 players. They are Benjamin, Brian and Samuel.  In total, Robert Katende, Sports Outreach Kampala Director and chess coach, was able to select and register 25 children from the ministry’s chess centers.

Phiona and Gloria accept their trophies