Zone 4.2 Africa Chess Championship:
17th-26th April 2015
Kampala, Uganda
Preparations for Uganda to host the Zone 4.2 Africa Chess Championships are in a high gear.
The tournament shall run for a week from the 17th to 26th April 2015 in Kampala.
Big Wigs Confirm:
According to the president, Uganda Chess Federation (UCF), Vianney Luggya, Egypt has already confirmed sending seasoned contenders for the championship.
Grandmaster El Gindy Essam (rated 2469) and International Master Hesham Abdelrahman (rated 2399) will participate in the Open category.
Other Egyptian players to participate in the ladies category will be Eman Elansary (rated 1865) and Ehab Tasneem (rated 1690).
Luggya further states that Uganda is in consultation with the Africa Chess Confederation President, Lewis Ncube, who recently announced an increase in the number of slots for participating countries from 3 to 5 and 5 to 7 for the hosts.
Perhaps, the Kampala meet will take place at the same timing as the World Team Chess Championships scheduled for Armenia and China, posing a conflicting scenery for some other foreign participants who would have loved to take part in the event .
Therefore; Kenya, Tanzania and hosts Uganda are the only three countries likely to field maximum number of players in the event.
Confirmations for participation are still expected from the other 6 countries in the zone.
Zone 4.2 has a total of ten countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, Seychelles, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt and Uganda.
Meanwhile, Moroccan International Arbiter Abdelfattah Akkour has been confirmed as the one to be in charge of arbitrating .
Akkour’s appointment as Chief Arbiter in the upcoming zonal has been confirmed by Africa Chess Confederation President, Lewis Ncube.
The Africa Chess Confederation recently took a stand to the effect that Chief Arbiters in international FIDE events should not hail from the host Federation and in the case of zonals they should come from countries outside of that zone.
Relatedly, Uganda’s International Arbiter, Stephen Kisuze has this weekend returned from Lome, Togo where he has successfully arbitrated in the just ended Zone 4.4 Africa Chess Championships as Chief Arbiter.
Uganda Chess Federation is proud of Kisuze’s impeccable arbitration display in Togo, which is a sign of tremendous progress made in building local capacity
Luggya stated in a statement.
