Over sixteen contestants will today tussle it out in a seven-round Swiss system National Chess Championship to be played over two successive week-ends.

The tournament to be held at the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Technical High School, in Kagugu, is an important affair on the local chess calendar as the last one was held nearly 10 years ago.

It comes after a recent rejuvenation of the Rwanda Chess Federation (Ferwade) with new members in the leadership team. Qualifiers for this challenge were held end of last year and eight players qualified.

The Swiss-system tournament, a popular tournament structure in chess, uses a non-elimination format in considerably fewer rounds where each competitor (team or individual) does not play every other competitor.

"The main objective is to know the national champions (Open and Women) and to decide who represents Rwanda in the Zone 4.2 Chess Championship to be held in Kampala in mid April,” Ferwade Vice President, Kevin Ganza, said.

The first-ever national ladies championship is also set for March 28 to 29. Ultimately, the top male and female players will be certain of participating in the Kampala event.

Zone 4.2 comprises Rwanda, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, the Seychelles, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Ethiopia.