By Lubulwa Edrine
All is set for the first edition of Kitalya Maximum Prison Chess Tournament that will take place at the Kitalya prison with participants playing in Fide rated 8 rounds.
The highly anticipated event will be on 9th January 2025 at Kitalya max prison headquarters in Buwawula on mityana road were players will be grouped according to age groups.
The championship will attract over 100 participants, transform their lives through chess.
Juicy cash prizes are on stake for the top performers in all categories with the winner walking away with certificates, Sugar, Soap and many more.
The tournament is organized by SOM Chess Academy and sponsored by Robert Katende Initiative.
SOM chess Academy launched the prisons Chess program to help rehabilitate the inmates in Ugandan prisons.
This program and vision started in 2022 but they needed to strategically go through the protocols given the fact that we need to be given the official mandate to extend psychosocial support to inmates through the wonderful game/sport of chess.
Two instructors from SOM chess Academy; Mirembe Derrick and Ssali Julius together with Coach Opio, Coach Paul and Pastor Simon from sports outreach ministry introduced Chess in Kitalya maximum prison. A total of 106 inmates and 3 officers registered to be in the program.
Now currently over 400 inmates and over 300 in Kitalya max and farm prisons, respectively. These two are serving as pilot programs before they scale out to other prisons in the country.
In the Last event that organized by SOM was the 17th edition of SOM Inter Project Championship were by Katwe’s Solomon Nambansi and Valeria Nampiima were crowned winners in open men and ladies category respectively.
