Rwanda's global chess rating has suffered continuously in the past few months. The country is now ranked 163rd, down from 162nd in August and 160th in June. Countries are ranked according to the average rating of their top 10 rated active players.
Rwanda's global chess rating has suffered continuously in the past few months. The country is now ranked 163rd, down from 162nd in August and 160th in June. Countries are ranked according to the average rating of their top 10 rated active players.
Rwanda’s apparent stagnation is because it has not organized any rated tournaments in the past two months and no local unrated players competed in rated tournaments out of the country in the same period.
Rwanda has 15 rated players. It however, remains two places better than Burundi on the World Chess Federation (FIDE) ratings for September.
In June, Rwanda had benefitted from a reasonably impressive performance by Alexis Ruzigura, Rwanda’s only participant in African Individual Chess Championship in Egypt in May, to move a place up in world ranking.
Tanzania which sat on 165th in June is no longer anywhere in the world’s top 171 countries. Regional powerhouses Uganda and Kenya moved up to 98th and 120th respectively. Uganda moved one place up and Kenya’s ranking remained unchanged from last month.
In the continental Zone 4.2 chess grouping, where Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania belong, Egypt still leads at number 47 and is the leading African country followed by Algeria (70) and Morocco (76).
The September FIDE ratings were released after notable movements including Egypt (46), Morocco (27), Madagascar (24), Nigeria (17), Tunisia (9) and Zimbabwe (7) all added significant new rated players to their ranks after holding major events.
editorial@newtimes.co.rw