Rwanda’s Eugene Mugema Kagabo won the 2016 Rwanda Open chess championship which was held on Monday at the Classic Hotel in Kigali.

The Eagles Chess Club (ECC) player surprised everyone after he outwitted top players from Rwanda, Kenya, DR Congo and Burundi to win the four-day seven rounds affair.

"I am so happy. It was a tough competition. I never expected this but I came into the tournament ready to give my all,” Kagabo said.

Number two and three were Kenya’s dominant players, Candidate Master (CM) Ben Magana and CM Godfrey Kabera, another ECC player.

Ezra Paul Chambers, 15, from Burundi who was sixth overall, was named best junior player, while Odile Kalisa, a senior ECC player, was best female player of the tournament.

This was the third time for the Rwanda Chess Federation (FERWADE) to organize a rated chess tournament.

The first such event was held in February 2015 as an invitational contest. Magana and his Kenya Commercial Bank (KCC) Chess Club team participated as the only foreign team. There was a total 44 players in the tournament.

In the latest event, Burundi had six players with Kenya and the DR Congo fielding one each.

The Congolese participant, Daniel Sangi, who finished 10th, also earned a crucial win against a rated opponent, that will see him become the first rated player in the history of his country, when the next FIDE rating list is published in March.

The event, which was sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation-Africa (KCF-A), saw EEC youngster, Ronjin Munyurangabo, 16, and Rwanda’s 2015 woman national champion Faustine Shimwa, snatch wins that will eventually earn them FIDE rating.

Rwanda will have a total of 23 rated players once the latest results are recognized by FIDE. In January, the country moved up seven places to 155th in the global rankings.

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