Rwanda has moved up seven places to number 155 in the latest global country ranking published by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) last month.

The new rankings published earlier than expected, comes about two weeks after the country hosted its second ever rated chess tournament where five local players managed to snatch wins that enabled them to join the cream of the crop as well as advance the country’s global standing.

Regional power house, Uganda again improved – this time by two slots to 97th – while Kenya remained at number 122. Tanzania (159) and Burundi (161) also improved as they were 164th, and 163rd, respectively a month ago.

Rwanda first held a rated chess tournament in February when six locals got the FIDE rating to then put the tally of rated Rwandans at 14. Rwanda now has 20 rated players. Meanwhile, FIDE also published the official ratings of the country’s top 16 active players.