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.

Uthungulu Winter rapids

The Uthungulu Winter Rapid tournament took place in Richards Bay on the weekend of 15th and 16th August 2015, with 121 competitors divided into 3 sections based on their age. I was kept very busy on the first day, with 5 rounds of rapid chess. Sunday was more relaxed, with 4 rounds played at 45 minutes for each player. Everybody was playing quickly, so we finished play an hour ahead of schedule. Thanks go to Lisa Griffiths and her committee for organising this event so well.

The Open section was won convincingly by the top seed, Wandumuzi Khayile, who is currently staying in the Richards Bay area. In second place was Mlungisi Mbanjwa, a student at the University of Zululand.

Wandumuzi Khanyile conceded just 2 draws

Lungisani Nyawo drew with Wanda in the last round

Lungelo Mthembu (3rd)

Xola Mpungose (6th)

There were not enough ladies to have a separate Womens open as originally planned, so the ladies had to try their chances in the Open section. Amongst them was Lisa Griffiths, who finished with 4 out of 9, the 2nd best score amongst the ladies. So now everybody knows that Lisa can play chess as well as organising tournaments!

Lisa won this game

Committee members getting assistance from young V

Many people travelled long distances to be at the event. My assistant arbiter, Pieter De Wit, travelled from Vryheid with his family to be at the tournament, and we also had a strong group of players from Nkandla. The under 12 section was won by Tlhoni Tsotetsi (Nkandla) with Petrie de Wit in 2nd place. The under 16 section was won by Stephan de Wit with Nikash Baboolal (R/Bay) in 2nd place.

Here are the final results files for each of the sections:
under 12 section;
under 16 section;
open section.

For more information, contact Lisa Griffiths.

Mandela 67 results

Congratulations to Kela Kaulule Siame on winning the second Mandela 67 minutes chess tournament. He scored 6.5 points from his 7 games, with 6 wins and a draw against the defending champion, Joseph Mwale, in the 6th round. Mwale was part of a group of 4 players who tied for 2nd place with 6 points.

Top seed Johannes Mabusela drew in round 4 and blundered away a win in round 6 to end on only 5.5 points. Mabu was fortunate to survive his round 4 encounter with Durban's Lulama Qobo. In what was the most exciting game of the tournament, Lulama sacrificed a piece in the opening and Mabu was hard pressed to defend. At the end, Lulama decided to take a perpetual check, in a position where he had a forced win! Here is the game:


Here are the final results of the 2nd Mandela 67 chess tournament.

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.

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.

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.

Chess at Albert Luthuli Museum

Coach Spa reports from Ilembe: The Albert Luthuli museum in Groutville hosted a rapid chess tournament on 11 April 2015. We had 64 participants consisting of junior and adult players from Kwadukuza and surrounding areas.

Proud winners of the Albert Luthulu rapid tournament

The Adult section was won by Phiwe Phakathi, 2nd was Siphelele Mbambo and 3rd Siyabonga Gumede .

The High School section was won by Lungelo Luthuli on a full score 7/7, 2nd was Banele Mboka and 3rd Sandile Hadebe.

The Senior Primary section was won by Zion Sewraj, 2nd was Minenhle Zikalala and 3rd Sandiso Zulu.

Here are the detailed results of the Luthuli rapid chess tournament.

Three SA junior champions!!

KZN has got three new national champions!! Congratulations to Shivar Gopaulsingh, the under 16 open champion, to Ananta Reddy, the under 14 open champion, and to Karmishta Moodley, the under 12 girls champion. Shivar won his gold medal after defeating Justin Lynch 2-0 in a playoff match. In addition, Naseem Essa won the silver medal in the under 12 open division, and Aarti Datharam received the bronze in the under 10 girls competition.

Shivar, Ananta and Karmishta

The SA Junior Closed chess championships took place at Waterkloof High School in Pretoria from 4th to 10th April 2015. I hadn't been to Waterkloof High School before. It was a great venue for SA's top junior competition, easily accessible and with lots of space for everybody.

I was invited to be one of the two deputy chief arbiters. After driving from Durban to Pretoria on the 3rd, my first appointment was an arbiters meeting in the late afternoon, when we met to discuss the final tournament rules, venue set up and so on. The school hall was not big enough to accommodate all 278 players, so the top boards in all age groups, except for under 8's, played upstairs near the auditorium. We had 108 players upstairs, with about half of these games played on DGT boards, which transmitted the moves live over the internet for everybody to see.

The first round on the 4th was chaotic. Both myself and Fransie Grobbelaar, the other deputy chief arbiter, stayed upstairs with the top players, with the other arbiters downstairs in the main hall. In addition to resolving disputes between the top players, we were expected to record the results for the top players and check the results submitted by age group arbiters. It was simply unworkable! We decided that from round 2 all score keeping would be done downstairs. We also agreed that Fransie would move downstairs and supervise the majority of the games and arbiters. My KZN colleague Divesh Sookdeo moved upstairs as he was the arbiter of the under 16 boys section, and we also later enlisted Henro van der Westhuizen to our team for the top boards. Once this was done, we were able to resolve everything at the board and had no more appeals affecting the top players.

Well, that's enough background information for now. I had a ringside seat to most of the top games and will write more about the tournament in later posts. Here is a link to the official SAJCCC website and here is a link to the under 18 results page, from which you can navigate to all the other age group results.

1st Uthungulu Anniversary

The Uthungulu district celebrated its first birthday in style, with a massive birthday cake!

Chairperson Lisa Griffiths with the birthday cake

The children gather around the cake

The Uthungulu Committee

Of course, there was also a chess tournament to be held, with no fewer than 168 participants competing over 2 days, at Hoerskool Richardsbaai. Here is a picture of the Uthungulu chess family:

Lastly, here are the results for each of the age groups:
under 12 results,
under 14 results,
under 16 results,
under 20 results.

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.

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.

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.

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

African Youth medallists

Naseem Essa, Aarti Datharam and Cailin Chetty, with their medals

News from the African Youth chess championships held recently in Monastir (Tunisia) is that Aarti Datharam won the gold medal in the under 08 girls, and that Cailin Chetty and Naseem Essa won silver and bronze medals repectively in the under 12 open section.

Congratulations to them on their success!

JZ Chess 2014 results

The 2014 JZ Chess event took place in Nkandla on 19th December 2014 on a blazing hot day. I was quite interested to see that the presidential security team were at the venue before the arbiters! About 9 am everybody had to leave the venue so that the bomb sniffer dogs could check the marquee. We then re-entered through a SAPS security checkpoint, everybody went through a metal detector and bags were X-rayed. The playing venue was a large marquee on the sports field, where all the chess boards were set up. It took a while to get power sorted out from a mobile generator and get all the players names entered onto the pairings computer. Lots of players entered the open section on the day and extra boards had to be set up in the marquee. We had about 140 players in the open section and another 120 players in the junior teams event, which filled the marquee to capacity.

We played 4 rounds at a leisurely pace in the junior teams event, and it quickly became apparent that the hosts from Nkandla had fielded a very strong team. They won all their matches, scoring 34.5 points out of a possible 40, a full 10 game points ahead of everybody else!

The open section was running a little bit behind schedule, and we had to play round 5 at blitz speed in view of the imminent arrival of President Zuma. At about 4 pm a massive storm hit Nkandla and I don't know how the players managed to play their round 5 games, as it was so dark in the marquee. The arbiters table was near the door and got flooded, so we had to add up the top placed finishers on a manual basis! The organisers then provided some flood lights so that we could see the prize giving and the presidential speech, which took place around 5 pm. I believe it was shown on TV by the SABC later that evening.

After successfully drying off all the equipment, I have compiled the results, which were as follows:

JZ Chess Open 2014 results
JZ Junior Team Challenge results

ILembe Youth Trials, 16th-17th August 2014

This weekend saw the last of this year's youth trials, held over 2 days at Umhlali Preparatory School in the ILembe district. Close to a hundred players took part and enjoyed 6 rounds of rated chess. The surprising winner of the under 20 section (and best under 16 player) was Yasheel Maharaj, who scored 5 out of 6. He drew with top seed Miguel Murugan in the last round, and defeated number 2 seed Gregory Hall with a very nice piece sacrifice in round 3 - unfortunately his game score was not legible so I cannot show you this game. Best under 18 player was Llewellyn Iyer and best under 20 player was Miguel Murugan. Here are some photos I took of the under 20 section:

Llewelyn Iyer vs Yasheel Maharaj on board 1

Gregory Hall, Richard Paterson and Yasheel Maharaj

Top seed Miguel Murugan vs Gregory Hall, James Hulett on next board

Not surprisingly the under 14 section was won by top seed Sachin Reddy, with a perfect score. Sachin has been chosen to represent South Africa in this age category. Some photos of the under 14's:

Kayler Hulett and Frederick Paynter in u14 section

Dylan Atherstone went on to win this game vs Paynter

The other section winners were Cameron Evetts (under 12), Jamie Evetts (under 10) and Kiegan Padayachee (under 8).

Here are the final results for each age group:

under 8/10 results

under 12 results

under 14 results

under 16/18/20 results

For more information, contact Welcome Gwamanda.