9th JZ Open

The annual Presidential chess tournament was held at the Sibusisiwe Hall in Mandeni on 22nd December 2017. This was the 9th such event. The hall comfortably accommodated almost 300 players, who pitched up from all over KZN. The A section was open to all players, many of whom entered on the day, which delayed the start of play. Another reason for the delayed start was that we could not access the hall until it had been cleared by the sniffer dogs. The B section was for teams of 10 juniors (5 boys and 5 girls) with the hosts Mandeni being the top seeds. Play started in both sections at about 11 am. We could have started play earlier in the B section, but the conditions were far too noisy, with the DJ blasting non-stop music at full volume.

Each round took about an hour to complete. Most of the games in the A section finished quite quickly, as there were lots of easy points on offer for the top players. Things were different in the B section, where the top teams started meeting each other from the second round. Pairings for round 5 in the A section were ready when we heard the presidential chopper fly over the hall, so this round went ahead as usual. The last few games from round 4 in the B section were still being finished as this happened, so we stopped play in this section, pending the imminent arrival of President Zuma.

Prizewinners with President Zuma, with Mabusela holding the cup

Mandeni were clear winners in the team event, with Ethekwini in 2nd place, and Ugu surprised us with 3rd place. I have published all the details on chess-results.com. The open section was still undecided after 5 rounds, as there were 6 players tied with 5 wins each, namely Cyril Danisa, Wanda Khanyile, Johannes Mabusela, Bheki Mgobhozi, Tshediso Mpya and Musa Nyathi.

Whilst the president visited the junior players from the team event and played a few games against them, a round robin blitz play-off was held for the A section. This was won convincingly by the new South African champion, IM Johannes Mabusela, with 4 wins and a draw, so he took home yet another trophy!

JZ chess photos

I have recently received some photos from the annual JZ chess tournament, which was held on 20th December 2016 in Mandeni. The event was organised by Sandile Xulu on behalf of the Jacob G Zuma Foundation. Detailed results are not available, but I can tell you that the winner of the main prize was IM Johannes Mabusela.

Chess on TV

Chess was recently featured in an SABC TV news broadcast - here is a YouTube video of the broadcast. The occasion was the 8th JZ Chess Open, which was held this year in Mandeni, on the 20th December 2016. The event was organised by the Jacob Zuma Foundation. Thanks to Sandile Xulu, who provided this link. Sorry, no results were supplied to me.

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).

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.

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

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.