Kireka Chess Club, champions of the National Chess League

The National Chess League got underway on Sunday 25th June at Hotel Africana, with (38) teams on board in the newly formed rated league that had two divisions of the previous year 2016 merged into one pool and use of the Swiss pairing system of 14 rounds.

During this year’s league, UCF invited professional guest speakers from different organizations for inspirational (15-30 min) talks to the participants. This was one way to inspire chess players to aim higher on top of playing the Royal Game.

The league registered a 26.7% increase in club participation from (30) clubs combined from the two divisions in 2016, to (38) clubs competing in the same pool. This is an illustration of the growth and popularity of the game amongst the youth and adults Uganda hence for the UCF to seek out to potential sponsors to enable them facilitate the growing numbers.

Among the clubs that competed this year, were the debuting sides of Royal Knights Chess Club and Stands Chess Club (youngsters under the age of 12). SOM Chess clubs also registered (4) new clubs and Kireka Chess club registered Kireka B to play alongside Kireka A. The league also lost one team – City chess club from the previous league.

There are new clubs i.e. West Nile Chess Club and Mbale Chess club which expressed interest to play in the 2018 National League. This comes as an important element in regional representation of clubs in the league and UCF has to make necessary arrangements to absorb such clubs and ensure they participate comfortably alongside the city clubs. They will join Jinja Warriors Chess club which is the only consistent upcountry representative of chess club participating in the League.

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