Ethekwini AGM announced

Ethekwini Chess Association has announced that their 2015 AGM will take place at 10 am on 27th June 2015 at Northwood Boys High School. The 2nd Ethekwini Youth Grand Prix is being held on the same day at the same venue.

Here is the notice and agenda for the ECA meeting.

1st ECA Grand Prix results

The first Ethekwini Grand Prix tournament took place at Berea Primary School on 23rd and 24th May 2015. A total of 144 players took part in 7 rounds of 60/60 chess. Sorry, no photos!

Here are the final results for each age group:
under 08 group,
under 10 group,
under 12 group,
under 14 group,
under 16 group,
under 18 group,
under 20 group.

Here is a copy of the ECA Selection Policy which explains the grand prix points system. For more information contact Divesh Sookdeo.

Lastly, here is the 2nd Grand Prix entry form. This event is to be held from 27th to 29th June at Northwood High School.

Uthungulu Youth Trials

The Uthungulu Youth Trials attracted 156 players and took place on 16th and 17th May 2015. All the players fitted quite comfortably in the main hall at Hoerskool Richardsbaai.

The playing hall at Hoerskool Richardsbaai (arbiter in the corner)

The ages of the players varied from 7 years old to 19 years old. The largest number of competitors was in the under 14 group, which had 54 players. The selections committee decided to send 2 teams to Nationals from this age group. Here is a photo of two of the under 14 competitors:

Stacey Stewart vs Bayanda Ndlovu (under 14 section)

Lisa Griffiths showing one of the magnificent floating trophies

Chairperson Lisa Griffiths was delighted with the new floating trophies, which were sponsored by some of the parents. The top 3 received a miniature, places 4 to 10 received medals, and the winners will have their names placed onto the floating trophies.

Top under 20 players Siyanda Khumalo (trophy winner) and Lungelo Mthembu

Here are the final results after round 7 for each age group:
under 12 results,
under 14 results,
under 16 results,
under 20 results.

For more information, please contact Lisa Griffiths.

Ethekwini Youth Grand Prix

The Ethekwini Chess Association will be holding their 1st Youth Grand Prix tournament on 23rd to 24th May 2015 at Berea Primary School. It will be contested over 7 rounds played at 60/60 time control and is for the following age groups: under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20.

Grand Prix points will be awarded to the top 20 players per age group per tournament, starting with 20 points for 1st place, 19 points for 2nd place, down to 1 point for 20th place. GPX points for each player's best 2 tournaments will be added together to get a GPX ranking list for selection purposes.

Here is the 1st Grand Prix entry form which must be completed and sent to Divesh Sookdeo no later than 21st May 2015.

There will be three Grand Prix events this year. A minimum of 2 of the 3 tournaments must be played to be eligible for selection. The 2nd Grand Prix tournament will take place at Northwood High School from 27th to 29th June 2015.

Mwale wins KZN Open

The Durban Chess Club once again organised the annual KZN Open Championship, from 25th to 27th April 2015. Joseph Mwale was a convincing winner of this year's event, starting with a blistering 7 wins before easing off with a draw in the last round. Along the way he defeated top seed Erick Takawira (a 4-times KZN champion) and 2nd seed Nashlen Govindasamy. Joseph played all his games at a fast pace, leaving his opponents struggling both with the clock and with the position on the board.

With over R15 000 in prize money, the organisers expected lots of entries, but the usual visitors from Johannesburg decided at the last minute to stay at home and play in the Orion series. The championships were contested in two sections, with section A open to all players, and section B restricted to junior players rated below 1400. The first three rounds were played at 60/60, and the remaining five rounds were at 90/90, with no increments, so there were a number of exciting time scrambles.

Joseph Mwale, winner of the A section

Shivar Gopaulsingh, SA under 16 champion, took a draw from Mwale

The only time that Mwale was in serious trouble was on the first day of the competition, especially in his round 2 game against Mndeni Njapha:


In round 5 Joseph and Nashlen had a very interesting game, with Nashlen down to his last 5 minutes by move 35. They reached this position after Black's 47th move, with Nashlen down to his last 30 seconds:

Joseph thought for a while, I was expecting 48.Kd1 or Kd2 winning, but then he played the unexpected 48.Qxf4. I'm not sure how to annotate the move, it killed the attack and gained some seconds, but a Queen sacrifice? Joseph won on time on move 56.

The critical game between Mwale and Erick Takawira took place in round 7:


Top seed Erick Takawira seemed to be out of practice. He was fortunate to survive in his round 5 game against young Duncan Podmore:


There were lots of interesting games played, here is a PGN file of all the games played on the top boards of the A section (62 games).


The B section was restricted to junior players (under 18) rated below 1400. Michael Fu was the winner, with 7 points from his 8 games. In second place was Anele Danisa, the son of leading KZN player Cyril Danisa.

Michael Fu, winner of the B section

Santham Moodley and Charlotte Millard

These are the final results of the A section and the final results of the B section.

Dolphin Coast April Swiss

Coach Spa reports from Ilembe: Dolphin Coast Chess Club was proud to host a tournament on 18th April 2015 that attracted higher rated players from Durban to participate in our tournament. We are promoting rated tournaments in our area. In the past we hardly had rated tournaments. The forming of the Dolphin Chess Club will allow many local kids an opportunity to play rated tournaments with a chance to gain rating points and hopefully improve the standard of play.

We had 51 participants competing for the first prize of R1 000. The tournament was played over 5 rounds in a 60/60 format. In the adult section Joseph Mwale tied for first with Lulama Qobo on 5/5, followed by Cyril Danisa and Phiwe Phakathi who tied for 3rd place.

Organisers Natalie Smith and Kerry Evetts, Lulama Qobo, Joseph Mwale, arbiter Spa Nkosi

The High school section was won by Richard Paterson, 2nd place Demmer Brown, 3rd place Luthuli Lungelo. In the Primary School section 1st place went to Kiaren Naidoo, 2nd place Tashiv Govender, 3rd place Jamie Evetts.

Here are the final results after round 5, for all the sections.