Tears, trophies and a record turnout: inside Uganda's biggest ever school chess tournament
Some of the learners participating in the KCB Schools Chess Tournament
By mid afternoon at Kampala Parents School, the tears had already started, not from injury but from the particular heartbreak of a six year old losing a chess match. Somewhere nearby, another child was being crowned a champion. Both scenes played out over and over across a single day that organisers are now calling the largest one day chess event in Uganda's history.
More than 830 learners from 77 schools across the country descended on the school for the inaugural KCB Schools Chess Tournament, a rapid format competition with games capped at ten minutes and a three second increment per move. Children as young as six and as old as 20 filled eight age categories, from Under 6 to Under 20, hunched over boards in a hall that organisers admitted could have held even more players had transport not been disrupted by minister ordered trip cancellations in the lead up to the event.
"Your registration as of today was 830. It would have been maybe a thousand, but many feared to travel because of the trips being cancelled by the minister, but we are grateful that you honoured," said Mukalazi John Vianney, the tournament's chief organiser, addressing the crowd at the close of play.
The tournament was organised by KCB Bank Uganda alongside the Uganda Chess Federation, Duya Discoveries, SchoolPay, ICEA Lion, Rupharelia Foundation and Brand Chess Life Academy, drawing players from schools including Delhi Public School International, Rainbow International School, Wanyange Girls Secondary School, Gayaza Junior School, Namiryango High School and dozens of others.
For Daphne Kato, principal of host school Kampala Parents School, the turnout was a surprise in itself. "When I saw the turnout, I said people love chess. In fact, I want to assure you, I am also going to try and learn chess, how to play chess," she told the gathering, before turning to the day's inevitable losers. "Any competition, there is losing and there is winning. I saw people were shedding tears. I said, no, this is not the end of everything. You have lost, another time you will make it. But what is important is participating."
Edgar Byamah, Managing Director of KCB Bank Uganda, framed the tournament as part of a wider push by the bank into youth focused initiatives, pointing to products like the KCB Cub Account aimed at getting families saving for their children early. But at the closing ceremony his remarks stayed closer to the board than the balance sheet. "This is a game that encourages both critical thinking but also strategic thinking, and it's a great way to start your lives," he said, promising the bank would return for a second edition next year.
That commitment to continuity mattered to David Muwanguzi, Treasurer of the Uganda Chess Federation, who has watched the federation bank with KCB for more than two decades. "KCB Bank is the banker for Uganda Chess Federation for over 20 years," he told players, before reminding the hundreds gathered that a trophy was not the only measure of success. "All of the players here are winners at different levels."
When the boards were finally cleared, Wanyange Girls Secondary School and Gayaza Junior School emerged as overall champions, each taking home a solar panel system as the tournament's top prize. Every one of the 830 participants left with a certificate, every participating school received a set of chess boards, and individual category winners collected trophies for what organisers repeatedly described as displays of composure well beyond their years.
Organisers say the tournament will now become an annual fixture on Uganda's school sporting calendar, with an explicit goal of growing next year's turnout several times over. As Mukalazi put it to the players heading home: "I wish you a journey back home, and to grow the numbers of chess, times 5, the number we had today."
