A New Ugandan Queen of Chess, 17-year-old Gloria Nansubuga Attains World Title

Uganda has produced yet another larger than life chess prodigy and the new girl on the block is none other than 17-year-old, Gloria Nansubuga. She attained the world title at the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia, where she played against the best brains, the feat propelling her to the third highest ranking in world chess. Some will remember that Gloria Nansubuga's character appeared in Disney's The Queen of Katwe, a movie about Phiona Mutesi, another Ugandan champion who has changed the face of the game the world over. In fact, Gloria taught Phiona how to play chess and the rest is history.

Nansubuga's story began at the age of four when she started playing chess. Under the tutelage of Robert Kakande a chess teacher at St. Mbuga Vocational School, she developed her game and ended up being Best Female at the Rwabushenyi Memorial Chess tournament. She represented her country at the World Youth Chess competitions in Durban, South Africa in 2014. She said of the Durban experience, "Travelling to Durban on my first ever flight exposed me to lots of challenges but my confidence continued to grow immensely." 

Four years later, she has leapfrogged the Woman Candidate Master rank straight to Woman FIDE Master (the third highest rank). While Phiona Mutesi and Ivy Amoko became Uganda's first titled chess players, attaining the Woman Candidate Master ranking, Gloria has pushed the envelope even further with her recent exploits. The future is certainly bright for the 17-year-old. Katwe has produced yet another Queen.