Ahead of the last three rounds of the 2018 National Chess Championships this weekend, Anna Ngarambe, 16, will be hoping for her hard work to pay off as he sets sight on a top-three finish in the ladies section.

Captain of the Lycée Notre Dame de Cîteaux (LNDC) chess club, Ngarambe who rues the fact that she is the only LNDC student competing at this annual tournament taking place at IPRC-Kigali, in Kicukiro, told Saturday Sport that she trained hard throughout this week.

Last weekend, the youngster won three consecutive matches until she met and lost to reigning national woman champion, Sandrine Uwase, 16, in round four.

The ladies are competing in a seven-round single Round Robin system, with their Round 7 games scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

Ngarambe said: "I felt sad [after the round 4 loss] but on the other hand I realized that I had to learn a lot in chess and stay focused for upcoming games.”

"I resorted to work harder, review my mistakes and highlight my strengths. I did the best I could in training. The target is to make it to top three, at least.”

Last December, Dr Ben Karenzi, former commandant of Rwanda Military Hospital, and Uwase were crowned 2017 male and female National Chess Champions, respectively.

Uwase has already crossed some hurdles and looks likely to, again, lift the champion’s trophy on Sunday.

In the eight-round open section, however, Karenzi must wait for the outcome of round 5 and 6, on Saturday, to know where he stands.

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