New tournaments

There were several new events announced in September:

1) The 2017 Ethekwini Chess League started on 3rd September and should finish by the end of October. No fewer than 25 teams entered the league, with defending champions Umhlanga Chess Club being the top seeds. Each team has to have 6 players for each match. The league is happening once a week on Sundays at the Open Air School in Glenwood, and the tournament can be followed on chess-results.com (tnr300689).

2) The uShaka Marine World sponsored a doubles tournament on 16th September. I don't have any photos or results from this event, but here is a copy of their flyer:

3) On 23rd September, the Zululand district is hosting their annual open tournament in Vryheid. It will be a full day of 7 rounds of rapid chess, played at the NRS Primary School in Vryheid. For more information, here is the tournament brochure, which has contact details for the organisers, Nathi Masuku and Eugene Barnard.

4) Ethekwini is holding its Heritage Day Open on 23rd and 24th September. This will be a 60/60 rated Swiss held over 6 rounds, the venue being the Open Air School in Glenwood. For more information, here is the tournament brochure, which has contact details for the organisers, Ayanda Gumede and Mbongeni Sithole.

5) The Ethekwini Youth championships are to be held from 3rd to 5th October, at the Open Air School in Glenwood. This will be a 90/90 rated Swiss held over 7 rounds, for invited players only. Here is a tournament brochure which has more information.

6) An Inter District team championship is planned for the weekend 29th September to 1st October. It will be similar to that held in June 2016 at Coastlands, with teams selected by each of the 11 districts in KZN. The event is being organised by KZN Chess Association, and I will publish team lists and match results on chess-results.com.

ECA Youth Trials July

Ethekwini Chess Association has just released the entry form for its second Youth Trials of 2017. This event will be held at Gordon Road Girls School from 3rd to 5th July 2017. It will consist of a seven round Swiss for each age group, with time control of 90 minutes per player per game. For more information please contact Ayanda Gumede (076 285 0020).

SA Open 2017 brochure

The SA Open will be held in Durban this year, from the 14th to the 22nd of July 2017. The venue will be Glenwood High School. There will be three main sections, with standard time controls, as well as rapid and blitz events available for interested players. Section A is for players rated over 1500, it will be FIDE rated and 11 rounds will be played (entry fee R500). Section B is for players rated below 1500, also 11 rounds (entry fee R400). Section C will be a weekend event, with 6 rounds (entry fee R200).

For more information, please see the online brochure, and here is a link to the online entry form.

The last time the SA Open was played in Durban was in 1996, so I trust that all local players will take this opportunity to play. I played in five SA Open tournaments - in 1978, 1984, 1993, 1995 and 1996 - and have written an article about the history of the SA open in Durban for the occasion of its return to Durban.

KZN open entries

This year's KZN Open Championship is to be played from 27th to 30th April 2017, at Northlands Senior Primary School in Gleneagles Drive, Durban North. Durban Chess Club organised this event for 50 years from 1967 through to 2016, and you can find a full list of KZN champions on the club's website. This year the event will be organised for the first time by the KZN Chess Association. The A section will be FIDE rated and there is also a B section, for players rated below 1500.

For more information, see this invitation to the KZN open championship.

Pietermaritzburg Kings

The second tournament of the year in Pietermaritzburg takes place at Alexandra High School on Saturday 27th May. Details can be found in the entry form below:

You can contact the organiser, Raindree Chetty, by email at chettyraindree@gmail.com or phone her on 084 625 9610 for more details.

Here are the results of the first tournament, the Pawns tournament, which was held on Saturday 25th February 2017.

St Lucia Chess Open

The St Lucia Chess Open will take place in Saint Lucia Town Hall on Saturday 6th May 2017. This event is a first for the Umkhanyakude district! It will consist of 7 rounds of rapid chess. Further details of the tournament can be found in the invitation and entry form. The prize money is very tempting.

Sandile Xulu, past president of KZN Chess Association, will be helping the chief organiser, whose name is Sandile Ngcongo. His email address is ngcongo.ssd@gmail.com or you can phone him on 071 205 2271. This is going to be a big event for Umkhanyakude and all KZNCA members are invited to take part and support in any way possible.

Grandmaster visit

Just a few days to go before Grandmaster Ernst arrives! He will be the special guest at this years Ethekwini Open, to be held at the Open Air School from the 18th to 21st March 2017. There will be a FIDE rated section as well as a Chess SA rated section. For further information, please see the following invitation to the Ethekwini open or give Erick Takawira (073 434 8634) a call.

Ethekwini Open entry

The Ethekwini Chess Association will be holding the annual Ethekwini Open on the weekend of 3rd/4th September 2016 at the Open Air School in Durban. Further details are in the entry form.

2nd Ethekwini trials

These are scheduled to take place from the 6th to 8th August 2016. There will be 7 rounds played at 90 minutes per player per game. Further details are contained in the entry form.

Ethekwini youth trials

These are scheduled to take place from the 27th to 29th June 2016. There will be 7 rounds played at 90 minutes per player per game. Further details are contained in the entry form.

KZN open turns 50

The Durban Chess Club started organising the annual Natal Open swiss in 1967. The event was renamed as the KZN Open from 1994 onwards. A history of the competition and its winners can be found on the Durban Chess Club website. Over the years it has been won by five South African champions - David Walker, Frank Korostenski, Mark Rubery, Charles de Villiers and Daniel Cawdery - as well as GM Amon Simutowe and IM's Craig Pritchett, George Michelakis and Johannes Mabusela. My name first appears on the list of winners in 1977, a long time ago - nowadays I am the chief arbiter! This year the event will be hosted at Northlands Senior Primary School in Durban North, from the 30th April to the 2nd May. To enter the tournament, here is a link to the online entry form, or you can download an entry form (pdf).

Mayoral Cup announced

The inaugural Ethekwini Mayoral Chess Cup takes place this coming weekend on 3rd October 2015 at Durban's City Hall. The Mayor of Ethekwini, Councillor James Nxumalo will hand over the main prizes. There will be some entertainment lined up to make the day even sweeter and tastier.

The overall winner will lift the main cup and receive a gold medal accompanied by R2 000 cash! Further information can be found in the entry form for the tournament. Due to the logistics around the venue, only the first 120 players will be accepted.

Entries are to be emailed to Keith Rust by no later than Friday 2nd October. For more information, please contact the organizer Sandile Xulu.

3rd ECA Grand Prix entry

The Ethekwini Chess Association will be holding their 3rd and final Youth Grand Prix tournament from 29th to 30th August 2015 at Kuswag High School in Amanzimtoti. There will be 7 rounds played at 60/60 time control 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 3rd Grand Prix entry form which must be completed and sent to Divesh Sookdeo by 24th August 2015 to qualify for the discounted entry fee of R100.

Mandela 67 Min Chess Challenge

The second "Mandela 67 Minutes Chess Challenge" will take place on the weekend of 25th/26th July 2015 at Addington Primary School in Durban. The time control is of course 67 minutes per player for each game. Here is the Mandela 67 flyer and entry form.

uShaka Marine World has agreed to sponsor us with seven Platinum passes, which will entitle the lucky winners to FREE entry into Sea World and  Wet 'n Wild for one year.

For more information, contact Sandile Xulu (cell number 082 455 4730).

Youth Day chess events

We are delighted to announce that Zululand district will be holding a tournament in Vryheid on 16th June 2015. It will be a 7-round rapid event. Here is a copy of the entry form. For more details contact Nathi Masuku (073 134 1821) or Eugene Barnard (078 453 4923).

Update: Umzinyathi district is also holding a tournament on Youth Day.

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.

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.

KZN open 25-27 April

The Durban Chess Club has now sent us the entry form for their annual KZN Open championships. With over R15 000 in prize money, it is well worth entering! The championships will be split into two sections, with section B restricted to junior players rated under 1400.

For more information, here is the 2015 KZN open entry form (pdf). Alternatively, here is a link to the online entry form.

Tournaments in March

We have received entry forms for the following events:

1) Ethekwini district: Glenwood CC  Autumn series on 21-22 March

2) Ilembe district: Crawford North Coast  Rapid event on 28 March

3) Uthungulu district: Richards Bay  Anniversary tournament on 28-29 March

All of these events will be rated by Chess SA. Further details can be found in the entry forms.

JZ Open is going BIG

Sandile Xulu reports: Arguably the most popular tournament in South Africa – the JZ CHESS OPEN - is going to be BIG in 2014! There are sufficient reasons to claim that this tournament has been key to the development of chess in the rural areas of the country. Children from rural areas today have got an opportunity to play and reap the benefits of chess equally to those of the elite. Thanks to President Jacob Zuma’s vision and continued support, his love for this wonderful game will have a great impact in many children’s lives and so to the future of our beloved country.

The 6th edition of the JZ CHESS OPEN will take place in the President’s home village of Nkandla on Friday 19th December 2014. The tournament will be played in two sections. The first section is the JZ Junior Chess Teams Championship. Entries for this team event are restricted to teams from the 11 districts of Kwa-Zulu Natal. These teams (each of 10 juniors) have been selected by their federation officials.

29th November 2014 - more than 100 players turned up at Newcastle High School,
 for a chance to represent Amajuba District in Nkandla

Then there is the JZ OPEN SECTION, the section where everyone can enter – free of charge!

The JZ open flyer and JZ open entry form are available here. Remember - the closing date for entries is 17th December 2014.

For more information, contact Sandile Xulu.