Lifestyle
Uganda produces another Chess World Title holder in Gloria Nansubuga
Gloria Nansubuga, a 17-year-old Ugandan, has won a World Title at World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia, making her the third highest-ranked Woman Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation master.
Published
6 years agoon

Another Katwe-born chess master has made her mark. Gloria Nansubuga started playing chess at the tender age of 4, under the guidance of her personal coach and school chess teacher, Richard Kakande.
The 43rd FIDE World Chess Olympiad took place from 24 September to 5 October 2018 in Batumi, Georgia. The biennial tournament is an 11-round Swiss open featuring 185 teams from 183 countries, with 919 players in total. The women’s section features 151 teams from 149 countries, with 749 players, including almost all of the women’s world chess elite.
FIDE has four levels of mastery: Grandmaster (GM) 2500+, International master (IM) 2400+, FIDE master (FM) 2300+, Candidate master (CM) 2200+.
Read: South Africa scores first chess grandmaster
The women-specific titles in descending order are: Woman grandmaster (WGM) 2300+, Woman international master (WIM) 2200+, Woman FIDE master (WFM) 2100+, Woman candidate master (WCM) 2000+.
17 year-old Ugandan chessplayer Gloria Nansubuga has attained the world title at World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia becoming a Woman FIDE master, the third highest rank in the game of chess. Here's her story: https://t.co/ODj3srB2FQ #KawowoUpdates pic.twitter.com/mWqvlqsmPc
— Kawowo Sports (@kawowosports) October 7, 2018
Nansubuga bypassed Woman candidate master (WCM) to become Woman FIDE master (WFM), becoming the first Ugandan to make such a leap in the tournament. So far the teenager has impressive rankings:
= In Uganda, as a 13-year-old, she dominated as the top Under 14 player and 6th overall of the total female chess players, who total up to 42 (30 of them in active chess)
= Among the Under 14 girls on the continent she ranked 4th out of 25 active players and 142nd out of 2 649 total chess female players (1 743 are active) in Africa
= Worldwide Nansubuga was then ranked at 6 205 out of the total 168 055 female chess players (of which 90 059 are active at the moment) by FIDE
Interestingly, Gloria’s character in the highly acclaimed 2016 film Queen of Katwe was Phiona Mutesi’s underling. Now, in real life, she is emerging as a player to be reckoned with in her own right. She has a way to go to attain Mutesi’s grandmaster status, but she is surely on her way.
You may like
Africa at the Women’s World Cup football: Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco and Zambia could cause upsets
Africa at the Netball World Cup: four teams are set to inspire the continent
South African Tourism wants to sponsor football club Tottenham Hotspur – is it a good idea?
Wait continues for Proteas’ first ethnic black South African coach
6 moments in African football in 2022 that will be talked about for years to come
Nigeria failed to qualify for the World Cup 2022 – blame their disdain for football school structures and development