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.

Uthungulu May swiss

Uthungulu Chess Association held their third tournament of the year from 28th to 29th May 2016, with 159 players vying for places in the Uthungulu team. The guest of honour at the prizegiving was Mr Thami Mchunu from the Uthungulu Sports Confederation who presented the trophies and gave some encouraging words to the players. A big thank you also goes to the Parents committee who designed and sold bright red T-shirts as part of their fund raising efforts.

Lisa Griffiths and Thami Mchunu present best junior female player trophy to Tiara Peters

Youngest player Kirthan Naidoo in his Uthungulu T-shirt

Under 18 prize winners Lundi Shoba, Siyabonga Sithole and Sibongakoke Mazibuko

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

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.

Uthungulu Anniversary photos

They say that pictures speak louder than words, so here is a selection of photos from the celebration of the 2nd Uthungulu anniversary, held on 12th March 2016. My thanks to the parents committee who put together all the decorations and organised treats for everyone, and to Sue Dee Vorster for all the photos:

 

Lastly, here are the results of the Anniversary tournament:
under 10 & 12 results;
under 14 results;
under 16 results;
under 18, 20 & open results.

Uthungulu Summer open

The Uthungulu Summer open took place over the weekend of 27th/28th February at Hoerskool Richardsbaai, whose hall provided an excellent playing venue. Seven rounds of 60/60 standard chess were played, and a total of 169 chess enthusiasts took part in 4 sections, split by age. My thanks to Lisa Griffiths for supplying the following photos:

A view of the playing hall at Hoerskool Richardsbaai

Thandukwazi Mthethwa vs Aneliswa Mpungose 

Liam Deonarain vs Penny Dlamini

Gabriel Gounden defeated Tlhoni Tsotetsi to win the under 14 section

Hannah Gounden vs Mackenzie Gouws

Keane Reddy (winner of under 12) plays Ayanda Sibisi

These are the detailed results for each of the four sections:
open, u20 & u18; under 16; under 14; u12 & u10.

Congratulations go to all of the age group winners:
Open - Nhlakanipho Makhanya, 7 points.
Under 20 - Qiniso Dlamini, 4 points.
Under 18 - Siyabonga Sithole, 5 points.
Under 16 - Nhlakanipho Ndlovu, 6 points.
Under 14 - Gabriel Gounden, 7 points.
Under 12 - Keane Reddy, 7 points.
Under 10 - Arav Surujhlal, 5 points.

Junior Closed information

The organisers of the SA Junior Closed in Bloemfontein at the end of March have just published their 1st circular for the 2016 SAJCCC. More details on the tournament rules and a list of invited players can be found on the SAJCCC 2016 website which is now live.

All KZN players going to the Junior Closed are asked to contact Divesh Sookdeo who is our regional representative. He is responsible for player registration and needs to know if players are staying at the hostel, and if any player has a disability. The deadline to register is 20th February, so players need to contact Divesh by the 19th February.

Games from Cape Town

The SA Junior national team championships and wild card events took place from 4th to 10th January 2016. The organisers published PGN files of games for 21 selected events (7 team, 14 wild card) on the Chess-Results.com website.

Most of the games from the A section of the teams event were in the 7 PGN files that I collected. Where a game was missing, I have added in a blank game header with the published result. Note that the under 20 A section was played on DGT boards and these games were broadcast live on the Tshwane chess website and can be downloaded from there. My file contains the scores from the DGT file where these differed from those on the Chess-Results website.

Here is my PGN file for A sections of team event (1736 games/results).

For the wild card events, the organisers published 14 PGN files, basically the top 10 boards of each age group. There were numerous missing or unreadable scores. Where a game was missing, I have added in a blank game header with the published result. I have also added in all results for the top players who were selected for the forthcoming Junior Closed in March.

Here is my edited PGN file for all 14 wild card events (1136 games/results).

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).

Uthungulu championships

This event was held from 24th to 25th October 2015 in Richards Bay.

Sorry, no photos, but here are the results of the
under 16, 18 and 20 age groups,
under 14 age group, and
under 10 and 12 age groups.

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.

KZN Top Schools results

The 2015 KZN Top Schools Team Championship was held at the Old Mutual Sports Centre (UKZN) in Durban, from Saturday 12th to Sunday 13th September 2015. Thank you to the Department of Sport & Recreation for sponsoring such a successful event.

Some photos from the team championships follow:

Here are the results and the winners for the following sections:
under 13 girls - Ilembe;
under 13 open - Ilembe;
under 15 girls - Ilembe;
under 15 open - Pinetown;
under 18 girls - Ilembe;
under 18 open - Umlazi.

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.

Ilembe Youth trials

The Ilembe youth trials were held over the weekend of 1st/2nd August 2015 in Ballito. A total of 125 players entered the trials and the following players were selected for the 2015 Ilembe youth squads. These players will represent Ilembe at the SA Junior Chess Championships, to be held in Cape Town at the beginning of January 2016.

All players that have qualified for selection are requested to submit their contact details to Welcome Gwamanda.

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.

Zuma Foundation in Ilembe

PRESS RELEASE

JACOB G ZUMA FOUNDATION – CHESS IN SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP 2015

On Saturday 27 June 2015, the Foundation will be hosting its very first annual schools chess tournament, the ‘JACOB G ZUMA FOUNDATION - CHESS IN SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP 2015’. The tournament takes place at Umhlali Preparatory School in the area of KwaDukuza (Stanger) from 09h00-16h30.

The Jacob G Zuma Foundation, under the stewardship of its Patron - the President of the Republic of South Africa, continues to make a difference where it matters most - in the field of education and training of our future leaders from the ranks of underprivileged children. Encouraged by the JZ CHESS OPEN success which takes place in December that dates back to 2009, the Foundation has formalized the program called ‘CHESS IN SCHOOLS’ launched in May 2014 and endorsed by the KZN Department of Education. The program is piloted in 20 schools in the district of Ilembe.

Since the program began we have trained more than 100 educators. The Foundation has not only trained educators but it has also dedicated a full-time chess coach who visits the schools and trains pupils as well. The President, in his capacity as patron, has been involved in promoting the game of chess encouraging government and private sector to invest in chess as an intervention to education. “The benefits of chess are well documented around the world, we are proud to be at the forefront of introducing and popularizing chess not only as a sport code but as the tool to unblock the potential of the young intellectuals and shaping the future of South Africa” said Mr Sandile Xulu who is the Foundation’s chess coach.

200 pupils from previously disadvantaged communities will have the opportunity to represent their schools in the championship tournament; each school will be represented by 10 players, 5 girls and 5 boys, while more than 50 educators do battle for a gold medal of the best chess educator. The event is expected to host about 300 players. High ranking officials from Provincial government, MEC of Education and HOD as well as district officials are expected to attend the event.

The details of the event are as follows:

Date: 27 June 2015           Time: 09h00-16h30

Venue: Umhlali Preparatory School - KwaDukuza

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

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.

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.