Kireka chess consortium defends titles

Kireka Chess Clubs has continued to dominate chess as they defended the 2023 Premier Bet National Chess League.

In the final outing that attracted 48 clubs at Nob View Hotel in Ntinda on Sunday, Kireka A Chess Club won the classic event as Kireka Panthers CC and Kireka Salty CC won the rapid and blitz versions of the game respectively.

“We are under the same management but with three teams competing in the national league. We are unstoppable after winning the eighth edition of the league now known as the Premier Bet League,” noted the team’s overall captain Paul Kafuko.

In addition to the trophies, the teams also bagged cash prizes courtesy of Premier Bet.

Kireka A bagged sh3m for winning the classic event as Kireka Salty walked away with sh200,000 for winning the blitz event as Kireka Panthers bagged sh250,000 for winning the rapid category.

The prize awards by Uganda Chess Federation (UCF) were highly welcomed by the teams and players as all the first winners in the blitz and rapid versions bagged cash with the first three getting gold, silver and a bronze medal.

Soroti Chess Club emerged second in the rapid version and got sh200,000/= and Mulago Kings got sh150,000, while Mulago Kings walked away with sh150,000 and the second position as Soroti Chess Club got sh125,000 for finishing third in the blitz.

In the classic competition, all the 48 clubs that competed in the league got a share of the Premier Bet cash prize money depending on their performances.

As Kireka A bagged sh3m for the gold medal, Soroti CC won a silver and SOM Katwe were the bronze winners getting sh1.85m and sh1.3m respectively, the five bottom clubs each walked away with sh115,000/= each.

The teams have been competing in the three categories in the league that rolled off on June 11 2023 and have been traversing different venues in three categories through the year.

The 2024 league is scheduled to roll off in May, according to the vice president of UCF, Jonathan Otim.