Eighteen chess players are battling it out on the chessboard in the annual open rapid and blitz chess tournament, now underway in Kigali.

According to Kevin Ganza, the Rwanda chess federation president, both the rapid and blitz (eight rounds in each) contests will be played this weekend.

In Rapid chess tournaments, all moves must be completed in a fixed time of more than 10 minutes but less that 60 minutes for each player. In the ongoing rapid tournament, each player has 25 minutes with a 10 second increment per move.

Blitz is where all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of 10 minutes or less, for each player.

The games are the local chess federation’s first contests on the 2018-19 Calendar.

Ganza said: "We are happy to have players from five different countries: Rwanda, Lesotho, Uganda, Burundi and Kenya.”

"It is also a good thing that we keep seeing the youth participating. We have four under 18 players in the tournament.

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