Team Rwanda for the upcoming Chess Olympiad, a biennial chess tournament where teams from all over the world compete, has increased tempo in training as players look to make the country proud.

Rwanda hopes to field two teams – the open and women section teams – at the 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan in September. Players are meeting twice every week at selected locations in Kigali to train and improve their game.

Fidele Mutabazi, the captain of the Open section, said this week that during the ongoing training programme, the plan by the Rwanda Chess Federation (FERWADE) is to ensure players understand that Baku event will be "a matter of national pride.”

Mutabazi said: "Apart from the technical approaches that we examine together, we are preparing our players psychologically. This is very important in chess.”

Teams’ registration for the 42nd Chess Olympiad ended on July 15, according to the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

Rwanda’s team at the 42nd Chess Olympiad will include 14-year-old debutante, Joselyne Uwase (Eagles Chess Club), a senior one student at Groupe Scolaire Kimisange in the Gikondo, a suburb of the City of Kigali.

Unfortunately, another highly-rated Eagles teenager, Sandrine Uwase, 14, will not travel with the team after she failed to get her passport before the registration deadline.

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