Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federation of African University Sports (FASU) made the event virtual, and it was held in cooperation with the International Draughts Federation which supported the draughts and bridge competitions.

These were contested on the PlayElephant platform, with separate competitions for men and women.

Chess was hosted on the Lichess platform, and also separated into men's and women's competitions.

In total, there were 183 participants from 23 universities in 10 countries.

A maximum of six men's and six women's players could compete from each university, and they were allowed to play in trial tournaments for five days before the main event to acclimatise to the format.

Botswana International University of Science and Technology teams were dominant in the men's bridge, finishing first and second, while Uganda's Makerere University placed third.

Uganda had a clean sweep in the women's competition, with Busitema University finishing first and third, while Makerere came second.

Whereas bridge was a team event, there were individual results in the draughts competition.

Enock Makoka Banda and Bondo Humble of Malawi University won gold and silver in the men's competition, ahead of Mahande Xavier of Busitema University in third.

Phiri Glory, also of Malawi University, won the women's competition and was joined by the Busitema University pair of Keirungi Dorothy and Nabadda Joan on the podium.

Busitema won the team prize, with Makerere University in second and Malawi University in third.

Busitema University also prevailed in women's chess, while the University of Zimbabwe finished second and the Technical University of Kenya was third.

The University of Zimbabwe won the men's chess, while Nigeria's University of Lagos and the University of Zambia were second and third respectively.

Mind Sports Association of Uganda games director and President Dan Isabirye, stated hopes that the inaugural event will be the first of many.

"I think that the turn out will be quite big with appropriate planning for the second event," Isabirye said, in comments reported on the International University Sports Federation website.

"Most university sporting championships have been characterised with mostly physical sport.

"In many instances, only chess and on rare occasions bridge and scrabble make it to the list."