Chess SA junior selection 2015

Each year Chess SA publishes its junior selection policy, which doesn't change much from one year to the next. The policy explains how juniors get selected for international events, such as the African Youth championships or the World Youth championships.

Here is the Chess SA junior selection policy for 2015 (10 pages, pdf format).

Inter regional teams Kimberley

After the junior team championships was completed, the organisers hosted an inter regional teams event alongside the junior wild card championships. The Ethekwini region entered a team consisting of Mwale, Qobo, Beekrum, Gopaulsingh and Botha. We had many of the best players in South Africa competing in this event, to name just a few - Cawdery, Kobese, Gluckman, Mabusela, Toma, both Bhawoodiens, Bouah, Klaasen and Solomons.

The event was dominated from start to finish by the teams from Tshwane, Western Province A and Western Province B who finished in that order after an exciting final round, with only a single game point separating the three teams. The Ethekwini team finished in 5th place after a disappointing last round match against the back markers from Ehlanzeni. As some consolation, Shivar Gopaulsingh received a gold medal for his 4/4 score on the 4th board.

The organisers supplied PGN game files for each round, which needed a lot of editing. Here are the games of the 2015 Inter Regional in PGN after correction of player names, event details etc. Some game scores are incomplete and others are missing. For missing scores, I have inserted player names and the published result in the PGN file.

Uthungulu wins a gold medal

Uthungulu entered the South African Junior Team Championships as a region for the first time this year. The teams event, which was held in Kimberley from 3rd to 7th January 2015, saw 208 teams competing for the medals in 19 different sections, split into different age categories. The Uthungulu under 18 A team was placed 1st in section C of the under 18 teams event, winning 6 of their matches and drawing one. They received gold medals and promotion to the B section next year. A great success!

Uthungulu's other teams finished as follows:

under 12 A team - 16th in C section

under 12 B team - 23rd in C section

under 14 A team - 8th in C section

under 14 B team - 17th in C section

under 16 A team - 8th in B section

under 20 A team - 7th in B section

Ilembe also entered the Junior Team Championships for the first time this year. Their teams finished as follows:

under 10 A team - 7th in B section

under 12 A team - 8th in B section

under 14 A team - 7th in B section

under 18 A team - 7th in B section