Ethekwini Open results

We must congratulate IM Johannes Mabusela on another success in KZN. This time he won the Ethekwini Open, held over the weekend of 3rd/4th September 2016.

Mabusela is congratulated by Mbongeni Sithole

Mabusela started off with a draw in round 1! Mlungisi Mbanjwa from Richards Bay proved a tough nut to crack, so Mabusela offered a draw with time running short. Thereafter, he followed up with 5 wins in a row. The only time that he was perhaps in trouble was in his 5th round game against 2nd seed Joseph Mwale. Here is the score of his 1st round game:


Thanks to Khetha Mngadi for posting this game and photo on Facebook.

Here are the results of section A and the results of section B.

African Youth congrats

The 2016 African Youth championships took place from 22nd to 28th August 2016 in Port Elizabeth. Congratulations to the KZN medal winners at the tournament!






Yanti Nunnan    - 1st girls under 8
Aarti Datharam - 1st girls under 10

                                     Charlotte Millard
                                     - 3rd girls under 10

Here is a link to the full results of the under 10 girls section and from there you can browse to the other age group results.

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.

ECA trials 2 results

The second Ethekwini Youth Trials took place at the Open Air School from 6th to 8th August 2016. Here are the final results after 7 rounds for each section:

under 18 & 20 combined,
under 16 age group,
under 14 age group,
under 12 age group,
under 8 & 10 combined.

The selectors met on 9th August to agree on the squads for this years National team championship. The Ethekwini squad will consist of 2 under 8 teams, 1 under 10 team, 1 under 12 team, 2 under 14 teams, 2 under 16 teams, 2 under 18 teams, 1 under 20 team and 1 girls only team.

I append the names of those in the squad as per the Ethekwini Chess Association website, together with a copy of the ECA selection policy.

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.

ECA June youth trials

The first Ethekwini Youth Trials tournament took place at St Anthony's in Greyville from the 27th to 29th June 2016. There were 225 players and 7 rounds of 90/90 chess were played over the 3 days.

Here are some photos from the event:

View of the tournament from the stage

Kaedan Govender won all his games and a large trophy

The under 14 section was closely contested, with 57 competitors. In the end, 3 players tied for 1st on 6 points out of 7. Seen below are Jaedon Naidu and Sachen Pather receiving their trophies from Dinesh Nair.

Sizwe Ndlovu did very well in the u18 section

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

KZN District championship

It was perhaps no surprise that Ethekwini won the inaugural KZN District championships, held over the weekend of 24th to 26th June 2016. Much more interesting was the battle for the silver medals, which was won by the Uthungulu district after narrow wins over their chief rivals from Amajuba, who took the bronze medals, and the Ilembe district, which finished in 4th place.

The full results have been published on the chess-results.com website, here is a link to the team results summary.

Here is a game with a very nice finish, sent to me by coach Spha from Ilembe:

Some photos from the prizegiving (more photos in a separate post):

Team Amajuba with their bronze medals, Gugu Mkhize centre front.
KZNCA chair Erick Takawira centre back. 

The top players on each board, most of them had blue Ethekwini shirts!

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 schools trials

A 5 round rated tournament was held on the weekend of 4th to 5th June 2016 to select players for the upcoming National Top Schools tournament (due to be held in Durban in July). A total of 388 boys and girls took part in this event which was held at the KZN Badminton Hall. The organisers have sent me the results which were as follows: under 13 boys, under 13 girls, under 15 boys, under 15 girls, under 18 boys, under 18 girls.

Mabusela wins KZN open

DCC chairman Desmond Rooplal congratulates Mabusela on his victory

The 2016 KZN open was won by visiting IM Johannes Mabusela from Tshwane, with the fine score of 7½ points out of 8. In 2nd place was Wandumuzi Khanyile from Richards Bay, with 7 points. Here are the final results of the 2016 KZN open.

A more detailed report, including photos and some annotated games, can be found on the Durban Chess Club website. I have now captured the games played on the top 10 boards for viewers to download.

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).

Junior Closed, Bloemfontein

The annual SA Junior Closed Chess Championships took place at Eunice Girls High School in Bloemfontein this year. Their main hall was used for the older players, from under 14 to under 20, with an adjacent hall used for the younger players. I was present as the deputy chief arbiter and was responsible for the main hall, where the players behaved so well that the arbiters had little to do!

I even had time to watch some of the games ...

The event was well organised by Chess Free State, who found accommodation for their numerous visitors at the Wag n Bietjie hostel on the UVS campus. I traveled there with fellow arbiter Divesh Sookdeo and KZN coach Sayen Naidu on the 19th March and we returned to Durban on the 27th.

KZN was quite successful at the event. Prizes were given to:

Kaedan Govender - tied 2nd in under 8 boys with 8/11 (no photo).

Archana Datharam (on left) tied 2nd in under 8 girls with 8/11.

Her sister Aarti Datharam dominated the u10 girls, with 10 wins and a draw.

Charlotte Millard (on left) was 3rd in the under 10 girls.

Jaedon Naidu - tied 3rd in under 12 boys with 7/11 (no photo).

Our most successful age group was the under 14 boys, where Cailin Chetty won gold with 9/11, just half-a-point ahead of his rival Naseem Essa.

Naseem was leading until disaster struck on Thursday

The final KZN medallist came in the under 20 boys section, where Nashlen Govindasamy tied 1st with Roland Bezuidenhout on 9.5 points. Bezuidenhout won the gold on tiebreak.

Our top u20 player Nashlen Govindasamy

Games played on the top 10 boards for all the different age groups were captured and published on the chess-results.com website. However, the capturers gave up very quickly when they couldn't read the score sheets eg. Nashlen's score sheets seemed to give them a lot of trouble! I visited the games capturing room and was able to capture all the moves of every game played in the under 20 boys section for the first 10 rounds. I was not able to check the last round as I was busy with the play-offs. Anyway, here is a PGN file of all the games from the u20 boys section.

SA Inter Region champs

The South African Inter Regional team championships were held at the Sports Hall on the upper campus of the University of Cape Town, from 8th to 10th January 2016. This was at the same time and the same venue as the Junior Wild Card championships. A strong field of 21 teams of 4 players (plus optional reserve) entered the event. Among those playing were new SA champion, IM Daniel Cawdery, 3-times SA champions FM Nicholas van der Nat and IM Watu Kobese, FM Donovan van den Heever and IM Johannes Mabusela.

We travelled to the upper campus of UCT many times from the student residences
on the lower campus. Devils Peak and Rhodes memorial are in the background.

The championships turned into a two-horse race between Tshwane A and Western Province A. With both teams scoring 22 game points, the title went to Tshwane on match points.

Sadly, KZN could only find 3 players willing to take part in this event, namely Joseph Mwale, Lulama Qobo and Sachen Pather. They borrowed 2 Cape Town based players to make up an "Ethekwini" team. Joseph defeated the formidable Watu Kobese in 80 moves in a sensational first round upset, and he went on to win the board prize with his score of 5 out of 5 on board 1.

The top boards were broadcast live on the Tshwane Chess website and I found some other games on Facebook. After adding in the board numbers and ratings, here is a PGN file of all the games from this event (results given where game scores could not be found).

SA Junior Team champs

The annual SA Junior team championships took place in Cape Town at the UCT Sports Hall from 4th to 7th January 2016. KZN was well represented by teams from the Ethekwini, Ilembe and Uthungulu districts. The first 2 days were extremely uncomfortable in the playing hall, thanks to a heat wave, and thousands of litres of water were consumed by the players. Western Province (the hosts) took most of the gold medals in the A division after 7 rounds of gruelling competition, winning gold in 5 of the 7 age categories. The exceptions were the under 8 category, won by Tshwane, and the under 14 category, won by Ethekwini. Here is a link to the under 14 team results; the same page also lets you select other age group results that you may be interested in. The successful Ethekwini under 14 team was anchored by FIDE Masters Naseem Essa (left) and Cailin Chetty (right) on the top boards:

The writer was present as an arbiter for the team event. We all wore a high visibility red arbiters shirt and were kept very busy, mostly with illegal moves! I handled 63 illegal moves during the 7 rounds, as well as a variety of other incidents. In the photo, I'm listening to the Buffalo City team manager:

(photos selected from the Chess SA Facebook page)

December events

My apologies for not posting any chess news in December. I was taking a break for medical reasons and will now try and catch up with recent events. In the week ending 15th December 2015, KZN sent four teams to the SA Top Schools championships held in Pretoria. Our under 15 girls team from Khayalemfundo Primary school in the Ilembe district won a gold medal:

In the same week, the SALGA games for KZN were being held in  KwaDukuza (Stanger). Chess formed part of the SALGA games for the first time. Ethekwini were declared the best performing district after all the completed under 14 and under 20 results were combined (only 7 rounds of the round-robin sections were played). Unfortunately, I have not received any photos or the detailed results from this event.

This was followed on 20th December by the 7th JZ Chess Open, which took place in President Zuma's home town of Nkandla. The winners of the junior Team event (after 5 rounds) were Amajuba district. The winner of the Open section was Wanda Khanyile, on tie-break ahead of Khetha Mngadi and David Khondowe:

Thato Moremi, David Khondowe, Wanda Khanyile and Keith Khumalo

Last but not least, the African Youth chess championships took place in Lusaka, Zambia, from 6th to 12th December. Durban's Divesh Sookdeo was there as the SA team manager and his report can be found in article 448 on the Chess SA website. Five players from KZN were selected to play for South Africa, namely Karmishta Moodley, Naseem Essa, Keyana Padayachee, Kenyon Padayachee and Shivar Gopaulsingh. Congratulations go to Naseem Essa for his gold medal in the open under 12 division, which brings with it the title of FIDE Master. (At the time of writing, this event had not been rated by FIDE and so his title has not yet been updated). Also successful were Karmishta Moodley (silver medal, girls under 12) and Keyana Padayachee (silver medal, girls under 16).

SA Club Teams results/games

No report was received from the organisers.

Here are the results of the A section and the results of the B section.

PS. I received a box of score sheets from the organisers and have captured all available games. PGN files are available here for all 168 games played in the A section, which was FIDE rated, and for 151 games played in the B section (many score sheets were missing).

Mayoral Cup report

Report by Sandile Xulu and Keith Rust, photos by Sifiso Xulu: The inaugural Ethekwini Mayoral Chess Cup took place at the City Hall on Saturday 3rd October 2015. Players came from all over the province of KZN and even from Gauteng to play. We also had a group of orphans from the Abalindi Welfare Society in Matikwe who participated in the tournament. Our youngest player of the tournament – Kaedan Govender, just 6 years old – won the Mayor’s Cup in the under 8 years category.  The other age category winners who went home with a Mayor’s Cup were Naseem Essa, Keith Khumalo and Thato Moremi.

Trophy winners with the Mayor, Cllr. James Nxumalo

Prize winners in the 9 to 12 years category

Surprisingly, the winner of the main prize in the Open Category, where everybody was competing for glory, was 16 year old Thato Moremi, all the way from Johannesburg, who won the tournament with a score of 6.5 out of 7. Thato defeated top KZN players Erick Takawira, Joseph Mwale and Lulama Qobo, keeping his nerve in some tough positions. Here is the finish of his game against Qobo:

Moremi vs Qobo

Play continued with 1...Kg4 and now Thato produced the winning variation 2.Qf4+ Qxf4 3.gxf4 Kxf4 4.a4 Ke3 5.Ke1 g5 6.a5 g4 7.a6 h4 8.a7 g3 9.hxg3 hxg3 10.a8=Q and Black had to resign. Mbongeni Sithole was the only player who managed to get a draw against Thato.

Thato walked away with the main Trophy, a gold medal and a cash prize of R2 000. Lulama Qobo, Joseph Mwale and Ntando Zwakala shared the runner-up prize of R1 000 as they tied on 6 points each.

Most importantly, and on behalf of the organizing team of Sakhisizwe Legacy Society, we would like to pass our gratitude to the Mayor, Cllr. James Nxumalo for his presence. Both players and spectators alike were excited to witness the Mayor playing chess and interacting with the children. The Mayor’s speech was encouraging and carried a message of wisdom. We also thank the Ethekwini Municipality for opening doors for chess at the City Hall. After the tournament, the Natal Trial Singers – Iscathamiya group – entertained us with their moves on stage and sweet African sounds.

The organising team Andisiwe Silangwe, Dumile Mbuthuma and Sandile Xulu with the Mayor

Our appreciation must also go to SAB as one of our sponsors, their contribution and campaign message which says “No to Under Age Drinking” was indeed well projected. Thanks to Sakhisizwe Legacy Society and all our other sponsors – KZN Chess Association, SmartMoves Project and Caring for the Earth Org for their contributions to this event.

Here are the final results.

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.

ECA teams selected

Players selected to represent the Ethekwini Chess Association at the SA Junior Team Championships were announced in a previous post, about the 3rd Grand Prix tournament. Since then, a number of players have withdrawn from the squads and have been replaced. Announcements concerning board orders were made at an awards ceremony for all selected players and their parents held on 13th September 2015 at the Open Air School in Durban.

Here are the team selections as announced at the awards ceremony.

For further information, please contact Divesh Sookdeo.

SA Club Team Champs

The 2015 SA Club Chess Championship will be held at Glenwood Preparatory School in Durban, from 7th to 11th October 2015. The event is being organised by Glenwood Chess Club and is for teams of 4 players (plus 1 reserve), representing any chess club in South Africa. The A section will be FIDE rated and the B section will be Chessa rated. All that you need to know is contained in the 1st circular from the organisers.