Ugandans CM Bob Bibasa and Mike Akabo emerged first and second, respectively, in the eight-round rapid chess tournament that ended Sunday afternoon in Kigali. Rwanda’s Eugene Kagabo finished third, with five points. The Ugandans finished with seven points each, with Bibasa better on tiebreak advantage especially after having trounced his compatriot in round five. Bibasa had earlier suffered a shock defeat in round two against Rwandan Valentin Rukimbira but managed to pull himself back into contention to win all his other matches. Eighteen chess players over weekend battled it out on the chessboard in the annual open rapid and blitz chess tournament. According to Kevin Ganza, the Rwanda chess federation president, both the rapid and blitz (eight rounds in each) contests were played. In rapid chess tournaments, all moves must be completed in a fixed time of more than 10 minutes but less that 60 minutes for each player. In the ongoing rapid tournament, each player has 25 minutes with a 10 second increment per move. Blitz is where all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of 10 minutes or less, for each player. By press time, Sunday, the blitz contests were still underway. The games are the local chess federation’s first contests on the 2018-19 calendar. The contests had players from Rwanda, Lesotho, Uganda, Burundi and Kenya. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
