SA Schools Winter Games

Chess was one of the 9 sporting codes that took part in the "South African Schools National Winter Games Championships 2016" in Durban in July 2016. The other sporting codes were football, hockey, jukskei, kho-kho, netball, rugby, tennis and volleyball.

Chess was played from the 10th to 14th July at Glenwood High School. There were 9 provincial teams of 7 players in each of 6 age group sections i.e. a total of 378 chess players for all these groups. There were even larger numbers in other sporting codes. I have seen reports of 7 500 competitors, so this was a massive sporting event!

I thought that Ronald King did a great job as chief arbiter. The organising committee asked that the event be played as a combined team and individual event. For the first 5 rounds, the tournament was paired as a normal Swiss. Then for the last 4 rounds, players were not allowed to play against their team mates, as the organisers wanted to establish which province had the best team. They also wanted to know who were the best individual players. I didn't know that Swiss Manager could do this, but Ronald somehow managed the task after spending many hours on his computer!

For those interested in the results, here is a link to the final results of the under 13 boys section. From there you can browse to all the other age group results.

I was present at the chess as a talent scout, for the under 13 boys and girls. Originally there were supposed to have been 2 talent scouts, and it would have been a lot easier to pick 3 boys and 3 girls, rather than 5 of each, on my own. I was given until Wednesday afternoon to finalise my reports, which meant that I only had games from the first 6 rounds to consider. Talent identification is as much about future potential as it is about present ability, so I must now wait 3 years to see if I was any good at talent spotting!

The following tactical episode deserves its own diagram:

Fihla vs Mazibuko, round 3, under 13 boys

In this position Black could try 27... Rc8 28.Re1 Qc2 keeping everything under control, instead he played the tempting 27... Nc3 forking Queen and Rook. Imagine his shock when White replied with 28.Rxd6! Both major piece are untouchable because of the back row mate, so play continued 28... Ra8 29.Qc1 and now the incredible 29... Qxe3!! really impressed me. Since 30.Qxe3 Ra1+ results in mate, the game went 30.fxe3 Ne2+ 31.Kf2 Nxc1 and Black has regained the piece, as well as keeping his extra pawn. Unfortunately he blundered on move 40 and eventually lost the game.

PS. Here is my annotated games file (PGN, 87 games) from rounds 1 to 6 of the under 13 boys and girls sections, which has the games that were considered in talent identification.

KZN District photos

Thanks to Sifiso Xulu, here is a selection of 30 photos from the KZN District team championships held at Coastlands Conference Centre in Durban:

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 chess elections

A new committee was elected on 24th June 2016 to take KZN chess forwards over the next 2 years. I hereby list their names and contact details:

President: Erick Takawira
Cell: 073 434 8634
Email: takawirachess@gmail.com

Vice President: Mbongeni Sithole
Cell: 076 763 2328
Email: mcsithole@hotmail.com

Secretary: Londiwe Khumalo
Cell: 079 0438 286 / 0765130382
Email: londiwe102@gmail.com

Additional Member: Sbu Mkhize
Cell: 073 181 8465
Email: Sbukhabzo@hotmail.com

Treasurer: Zandile Gwamanda
{I do not have her contact details}

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.

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.

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.