3rd ECA Grand Prix results

The 3rd and final Grand Prix tournament took place at Kuswag High School (Amanzimtoti) on the weekend of 28th and 29th August 2015. There were 121 participants.

Duncan Podmore (1st u18) takes on Benjamin Seip

Top seed Naseem Essa could only draw this game (vs Chad Millard)

Under 10 players Charlotte Millard (2nd) and Jamie Evetts (1st)

The detailed results were as follows:
under 18/20 section;
under 16 section;
under 14 section;
under 12 section;
under 08/10 section.

Here are all the GPX points list after 3 events. There is a separate spreadsheet for each age group, and only the best 2 events for each player are shown. Players selected for the ECA squads have been highlighted in green. Announcements concerning board orders will be made at an awards ceremony for all selected players and their parents (see invitation) to be held on 13th September 2015 at the Open Air School in Durban.

For further information, please contact Divesh Sookdeo.

Durban Chess Club birthday

The Durban Chess Club is celebrating its 122nd birthday this week! The club was founded in August 1893 and is one of the oldest chess clubs in South Africa. I believe that the Cape Town chess club was founded earlier and is still active, but many other clubs such as those in Johannesburg and in Pietermaritzburg appear to have fallen into the abyss.

After many years at mysite.co.za, the Durban Chess Club website has recently relocated to its own domain durbanchessclub.co.za which is much easier to remember! All of the old content is still available on the new website. The move means that the previous 20Mb space restriction falls away, so I will be able to publish more images on the new club website.

Contact Desmond Rooplal (chairman) or  Keith Rust (captain of play) for more information.

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.

2nd ECA Grand Prix results

The second Ethekwini Grand Prix tournament took place at Northwood High School from 27th to 29th June 2015. A total of 177 players took part in 8 rounds of standard rated chess over the 3 days.

Archana Datharam was joint 1st in under 8 section

Her sister Aarti Datharam won all her games in the under 10's

Kiaren Naidoo tied for 2nd place in the under 12's

Naseem Essa was a convincing winner in the under 14's

Thirushan Pather (under 16)

Yadhav Noubouth (under 16)

These are the final results after 8 rounds for:
under 08 group,
under 10 group,
under 12 group,
under 14 group,
under 16 group,
under 18 group,
under 20 group.

These are the GPX standings after 2 events.

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.

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.

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.

Autumn series 21-22 March

The Autumn series organised by Glenwood Chess Club was surprisingly won by the second seed, Lulama Qobo, with 4.5 points from his 5 games. Surprising, as he almost lost his first round game against Michael Fu, going 2 pawns down in a Queen and Rook ending. However, Fu blundered into a mate in one, after which Lulama never looked back.

The top seed, Joseph Mwale, had a moment of chess blindness in his round 3 game against Naseem Essa. This was the position, after about 20 moves, with Essa defending:

Joseph Mwale vs Naseem Essa

Play continued 1.Rxd8+ Rxd8 2.Nf6+ Bxf6 3.Rxf6 Rd1+ and now the appalling 4.Kf2?? lost to the skewer 4... Bh3 5.g4 Rf1+ 6.Kg3 Rxf6 7.Kxh3 Re6 8.Nf3 Qe7 and Black soon won. Either 4.Kg2 or 4.Rf1 gave White a small edge. In the post-mortem Joseph suggested 1.Rde1 and I liked 1.Rd3, in both cases 1... Bf5 can be met by 2.Nxf7 in White's favour.

The game of the tournament was undoubtedly Mwale vs Danisa, played in the last round. The tactical mastery shown by Joseph was extremely impressive:


Here are the final results of 2015 Autumn series.

1st Loxion championship

Report by Mbongeni Sithole, Head Coach of the eThekwini Chess Association:-

We would like to thank everyone who made this tournament a success. The 1st Loxion Chess Championship 2015 was held at Maphumuzane Primary School in Umlazi's B section on the 7th of March 2015. This tournament was the first of its kind, a team event with more than 10 township Chess clubs taking part in a 5 round Swiss. There were more than 100 kids attending but most became spectators because we had reached the carrying capacity of the venue. The turn up at this tournament showed us that chess in the townships is alive and well. It just needs the community to stand up and structure it, so that the kids will have maximum opportunities to showcase their talent at district and provincial levels.

Champions - Mtoyedwa Chess Club with coach Cyril Danisa

2nd Place- Lamontville Chess Club

Best Junior Club - Mondli Mkhize's Umlazi North Chess Club

3rd Place - the Wang Hoa Stars

Best Girls Club - Chess Stars Girls

Five kids who took part in this tournament were invited to participate in the upcoming SAJCCC (South African Junior Closed Chess Championship) where they will be fighting for their right to represent the country. They are Khulekani Danisa, Anele Danisa, Nosipho Mkhize, Nobuhle Ndunakazi and Sphelele Makhanya. But all their dream could just become exactly that, a dream, if they don't come up with the sum of about R 5 000 each to cover registration as well as travelling costs to this tournament which will be held in Waterkloof, Pretoria from the 3rd to 10th of April this year.

We would like to appeal to anyone who is willing and able to assist with any amount towards covering their costs for the SAJCCC tournament. It is every junior's dream to take part in this tournament as it's the last step towards representing South Africa.

For more information, contact Mbongeni Sithole.

Update (31st March). Thanks to Analog-SA for their pledge of R5 000, and all the individual sponsors who have chosen to remain anonymous, the 5 players will be leaving for Pretoria on Thursday night.

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.

Fischer memorial rapid 2015

Durban Chess Club hosted a one day Open rapid tournament on Saturday, 7th March 2015 in memory of the late Robert James Fischer, whose birthday was on 9th March. The event was held at Northlands Senior Primary School in Durban North.

As defending champion, I felt obliged to participate, but was completely off form, finishing with 4 wins, 2 draws and a patzer loss to top seed Joseph Mwale. My only consolation was a particularly nice combination in round 2 against Chad Blomeyer, who went on to share the prize for the best under 16 player. This was the position with Black to move:

Rust vs Blomeyer, after White's 26th move

With time running low, Chad pinned the Knight with 26... Rd8 threatening 27... e5. However, White can ignore the threat, and play continued 27. c6! Rbc8 28.c7 Rd7 and now 29.Nf5!! leaves 2 of my 3 pieces en prise, but wins the game after 29... Rxd3 30.Ne7+ Kf8 31.Nxc8 e5 32.Nb6 Be6 33.c8=Q+ Bxc8 34.Rxc8+ Ke7 35.Nxa4 etc. My subsequent home analysis showed that 26... e5 27.Nf5 Rc7 28.c6 Rbc8 29.Rdc3 Kf8 was about equal.

The winner was 3-time Durban champion Bongani Mgaga, who scored 6½ points from his 7 games. Along the way, Bongani had a very lucky escape against Paul Curry in round 3.

Mgaga vs Curry with Black to move

With about 90 seconds left on the clock, Paul reached for his Rook and the audience held their breath, expecting him to play 1... Rxh3+ 2.gxh3 Qg1 mate, but Paul placed the Rook on e7 and Bongani somehow managed to draw the game. Bongani's other key game was his round 6 win against 2nd placed Joseph Mwale, with castling on opposite sides of the board followed by a crushing attack on the black King. Also on 6 points, but placed 3rd on tie-break, was Petros Ntombela.

Here are the detailed results of the Fischer memorial rapid.

Max Euwe memorial 2015

The 2015 Max Euwe memorial took place on the weekend of 21st/22nd February at Berea Primary School in Durban. The playing schedule was a grueling 7 rounds of 60/60 over 2 days, so I opted to watch some games instead of playing. There were 61 players, headed by the hot favourite, visiting master Rodwell Makoto of Zimbabwe.

Listening to introductory remarks from the organisers

As early as round 2 the second seed, Erick Takawira, found himself in big trouble. You can see from my photo that he had only a minute left compared to his opponents 16 minutes, in what looked like a lost Bishop ending.

Mkhwanazi (1417) vs Takawira (2052)

From the diagram play continued 1.Bb1+ Kxf4 2.Bxg6 Be8 3.Bb1 Ke5 4.e7 Ke6 5.Kd4 Kxe7 6.Kc3 Ke6 7.Kxb2 and a draw was soon agreed. Afterwards I asked Erick how he would meet 4.Ba2 and he gave 4...Kf4 to which I replied 5.Kd6 Kg4 6.Ke7 Bg6 7.Kf6 Be8 8.g6 and White wins. After reflecting on this, Erick then found 4...b1=Q! 5.Bxb1 Kxe6 and Black draws because he can sacrifice his Bishop for the g-pawn and the h-pawn is the wrong colour to win.

Not so lucky was Bongani Mgaga in his last round encounter with Shivar Gopaulsingh. After catching his opponent out in the opening, he allowed Shivar back into the game, despite having a 20 minute time advantage. From the diagram play continued 1...Qb6+ 2.Kh1 Rd3 3.Qc2?? Rxg3 and Bongani played a few more moves before resigning. My computer gives 3.Qb2 as equal, whilst I was expecting 3.Qc5 from Bongani.

Mgaga (1701) vs Gopaulsingh (1776)

Pictured below is KZN veteran Cyril Thanda Danisa (right) and his student Nobuhle Ndunakazi, followed by a photo of the tournament winner, Rodwell Makoto.

Here are the final results of the tournament.

Trainee arbiters workshop

A workshop for trainee arbiters and organisers took place from 6th to 8th February at Coastlands Durban. It was organised by KZNCA president Sandile Xulu who invited 2 representatives from each of the 11 districts within KZN province. The chief trainer was Rudolf Willemse, who was assisted by Keith Rust. An intensive course in the Laws of Chess started on Friday afternoon, with the basic laws and a discussion on the conduct of the players and the role of the arbiter. On Saturday we completed the competition rules and looked at how the rules differed for rapid play and blitz. After which it was time to install the Swiss Arbiter pairings software and try out some Swiss pairings for a small tournament. Then we learnt how to do round-robin pairings and how to calculate rating changes. Phew! it was a long day. Then on Sunday, it was the dreaded exam, which lasted for 3 hours.

The chief trainer was Rudolf Willemse (from Johannesburg),
pictured here next to one of the new KZN Chess Association banners

Listening to Rudolf on the Laws of Chess

Keith Rust explains increments using his DGT digital clock

How does this Swiss Arbiter program work?

Bongani Mkhunya shows the pairings software on his computer

A team photo, showing off the new KZNCA golf shirts

Taking notes on how to do round robin pairings

Rudolf Willemse, Sandile Xulu and Keith Rust

Taking the final exam on Sunday morning

Sandile Xulu after a successful workshop is completed

Congratulations to Mbongeni Sithole who qualified as a Tournament Supervisor and to the following people who qualified as School Supervisors - Lulama Qobo, Lulama Nqubuka, Nkosinathi Masuku, Eugene Bernard, Cyril Thanda Danisa and Welcome Gwamanda.

Excellent Ethekwini team results

The South African Junior Team Championships were held in Kimberley from 3rd to 7th January 2015. About 1950 players (208 teams) competed for the medals in 19 different sections, split into different age categories. Western Province dominated the A section of the teams event, winning gold medals in under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14, and a shared gold in under 18. The under 18 gold medals were shared as the teams had identical tie-breaks on match points, game points, direct encounter and Sonneborn-Berger (although I think the latter should have been calculated on game points rather than match points, in which case WP would have finished 2nd). Western Province also got silver medals in under 16 and under 20. The only teams that dented their golden record were Nelson Mandela Bay in under 18, Johannesburg Metro in under 20, and Ethekwini in under 16!

The Ethekwini under 16 A team won gold in the under 16 teams event, winning 6 of their matches and losing one. Western Province and Tshwane also won 6 and lost 1, so first place was decided on game points. Here Ethekwini was declared the winner, thanks largely to a controversial 10-0 sweep of Joburg Metro in the last round. This was because a cellphone rang in the Joburg Metro team manager's bag as the match was drawing to a close, resulting in them losing 10-0 instead of by 6-4. Both WP and Tshwane appealed the result, but this default rule was agreed to at the team manager's meeting before the tournament and applied to several other teams during the event.

Detailed results for all of Ethekwini's teams were as follows:

under 8 A team - 3rd in A section - BRONZE medals

under 10 A team - 3rd in A section - BRONZE medals

under 12 A team - 2nd in A section - SILVER medals

under 12 B team - 3rd in C section - BRONZE medals

under 14 A team - 2nd in A section - SILVER medals

under 14 B team - 1st in C section - GOLD medals and promotion

under 16 A team - 1st in A section - GOLD medals

under 16 B team - 1st in C section - GOLD medals and promotion

under 18 A team - 5th in A section

under 20 A team - 6th in A section

The official website for the event has a good selection of photos. Here are a couple of the Ethekwini players, from round 3 of the teams event:

I would like to publish more photos, but have not received any from the Ethekwini team managers!

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.

Chess moves to Abalindi

Chess featured recently in the Daily News when a garden chess set was installed at the Abalindi Welfare Society in Inanda. The delighted orphans also received a gift of chess sets to promote the royal game.

Mbongeni Sithole, Kales Chetty (from the main sponsors, LDM Consulting), unknown, unknown,
Sandile Xulu (president of KZN Chess), unknown, Erick Takawira (head coach KZN Chess)

Ethekwini youth championship 2014

The 2014 Ethekwini youth chess championships took place at Northwood High school from 8th to 11th October 2014. All the players who had excelled at the earlier trials event were invited, but many of our top players were notable absentees. Here are some photos that I managed to snap in round 3:

Aaron Jude Naidu gets the look from Dayaan Parthiephal

Tremaine Naidoo vs Viashna Hansraj, behind them is Kevaalin Rapeti

Shayur Hansraj won the u18 trophy, behind him is Jivorn Reddy

Congratulations to the following champions:
under 20 - Sphelele Makhanya
under 18 - Shayur Hansraj
under 16 - Shivar Gopaulsingh
under 14 - Sachin Ramgoon
under 12 - Karmishta Moodley
under 10 - Aarti Datharam
under 08 - Kamran Naidoo

Here are the final results after round 7:
under 8/10
under 12
under 14
under 16
under 18/20

For more information, contact Divesh Sookdeo