Rwanda has moved up three places to 162 in the latest world ranking published by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) on Saturday. A country is ranked according to the average rating of its top 10 active rated players.

The improvement comes after six new players got the coveted FIDE rating to put the tally of rated Rwandans at 14 at the end of the recent three-day Rwanda Open Chess competition which was dominated by Kenya’s KCB Chess Club.

Meanwhile, the performance of the six during the recent tournament altered local players’ classification as some in the group of six toppled those in the previous list of first eight rated players.

Apart from securing his FIDE rating, Rugema Ngarambe (Vision Chess Club), rated 1873, becomes Rwanda’s new number one after toppling Godfrey Kabera (Eagles Chess Club) who is rated 1859.

Fidele Mutabazi, with the highest rating of 2089 is not active and thus not considered in the classification.

#  The newly rated players              Name Rating

1 Rugema Ngarambe                          18733 Ben Tom Zimurinda                          17865 Eugene Kagabo                               17328 Jean Baptiste Hakizimana                16808 Gabriel Ntabonsanganywe              168011 Fernand Mugisha                          1551

Rated players before the recent tourney

1 Fidèle Mutabazi                                20892 Godfrey Kabera (CM)                       18593 Joseph Ngendo                                 18354 Alexis Ruzigura (CM)                         17545 Maxence Murara (CM)                       17326 Théotime Rutaremara                       17177 Kevin Ganza                                      17098 Alain Patience Niyibizi                        1554

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