International Master (IM) Arthur Ssegwanyi of Uganda has attained an international rating of 2365, the highest in East Africa, thereby beating the over 20 years record set by legendary FIDE Master Andrew Naimanye of a rating of 2360 also of Uganda.
Ssegwanyi, who became Uganda's second International Master in 2015 after winning the Zone 4.2 Africa Chess Championship in Kampala has done well in recent rated tournaments including the Rwabushenyi Memorial Chess Championship and final phase of the Olympiad Qualifiers, which enabled him to garner more rating points to hit the East African summit.
Naimanye, a FIDE Master, PhD. holder in Engineering from the University of Leeds and Manager at the Uganda Road Fund, has for over 20 years enjoyed the record for the highest chess rating in the region. He played his best Chess as a teenager and put in spectacular displays at the Africa Junior and Africa Individual Chess Championships. He also featured for Uganda on board one at the 1992 World Chess Olympiad in Manila, Philippines. He owes a lot of his current success to the discipline that chess inculcated in him at an early age.
As a national team player who is due to represent the country at the Africa Individual Chess Championship in June and World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan in September 2016, IM Ssegwanyi has the world on his feet and is certainly still rising.
His consistency and discipline on the board presents him as Uganda's best prospect for a maiden Grandmaster title.
