The SA Junior Closed is scheduled to take place at Kopanong Hotel & Conference Centre in Benoni from 5th to 12th April this year. The organisers have just released the following documents:
For more information, please contact Erick Takawira.
Friday, 10 February 2017
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
ECA 1st rapid GP
The first event in the Ethekwini rapid series took place on 4th February 2017 at the Durban Jewish club. Top seed Joseph Mwale secured 1st place by defeating his closest rivals, Wanda Khanyile and Lindo Xulu, in rounds 4 and 5, before coasting to an early draw against Cyril Danisa in the last round. He was followed home by a group of 5 players on 5 points out of 6. Here are the detailed results.
The last game to finish on one of the top boards showed how nervy rapid chess can be:
With less than a minute left on the clock, Black started thinking and I expected 1...Rxf4+ 2.Rxf4 Bxf4 3.Kxf4 hxg5+ 4.Kxg5 with a draw. However, Black played 1...Bxf4 and was so surprised by 2.g6! in reply that he resigned! The funny thing is that 2...Rf6 3.Rxf4 Rxf4+ 4.Kxf4 is only a draw, despite what your chess engine might tell you, as the black King gets stalemated in the corner.
The last game to finish on one of the top boards showed how nervy rapid chess can be:
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| Black to move and draw |
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.
Saturday, 31 December 2016
Seasons greetings
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| Penny Dlamini, Lisa Griffiths and Nishi Baboolal |
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| King Cetshwayo players (at fun tournament in December) |
King Cetshwayo (formerly Uthungulu) Chess Association hosted its last
tournament for 2016 on the 4th of December. The lovely ladies on the committee persuaded me to wear a silly hat for the group photo and want to thank the King Cetshwayo community, including parents, schools and
players, for their support and dedication throughout 2016.
Wishing everybody a blessed Festive Season and a Happy New Year!
SAJCC 2016
The annual chess extravaganza known as the SAJCC took place this year from the 15th to the 23rd of December, at Birchwood Conference Centre in Boksburg. If I'm not mistaken, 260 teams took part, which is apparently a new record, with close to 2,300 participants ranging from the under 8's to the under 20's. The numbers were so large that two playing halls had to be used, with about 800 players aged 16 to 20 in OR Tambo hall and 1,500 youngsters in the larger Terminal hall. The arbiting team worked from early on the 15th until 1 am on the morning of the 16th so that everything was ready for the opening ceremony a few hours later.
Here is a summary of all the team results (docx format, 13 pages long) which was prepared by the arbiting team. It can be seen that gold medals in the Championship (A section) went to:
under 08 Western Province (Ethekwini 3rd),
under 10 Tshwane (Ethekwini 5th),
under 12 Western Province (Ethekwini 3rd),
under 14 Western Province (Ethekwini 2nd),
under 16 Ethekwini (WP 2nd, Joburg Metro 3rd, Tshwane 4th)
under 18 Western Province (Ethekwini 4th),
under 20 Tshwane (Ethekwini 5th).
The gold to Ethekwini in the under 16 division was the only blot on the Western Province and Tshwane clean sweep! This was an incredibly close division - 3 of the top 4 teams were equal on match points (they won 5 matches each) and, if this section had been decided on match points, then Johannesburg Metro would have been the winners, as they won all their matches. It all goes to show how important it is to have strength in depth, when game points are the key number.
The team event was followed by the Wild Card tournaments, for those players who had not already qualified for the Junior Closed in 2017. Notable KZN successes were:
under 12 1st Mayaskar Nair
under 14 2nd Abhay Prithipal
under 16 =3rd/14th Chad Millard, Lance Leslie-Smith, Cayden Pather
under 18 4th Shivar Gopaulsingh
under 20 1st Jivorn Reddy, 2nd Truwen Reddy
An Inter Regional team championship was held at the same time as the Wild Card event. It was won quite convincingly by the "A-team" from Tshwane. Sadly the Ethekwini team failed to perform, after being seeded 4th they ended up in a disappointing 15th place. I was an arbiter for this event and have now captured all 308 games (PGN) - there are some great games.
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| Chess SA president Eldo Smart opens the 2016 SAJCC in Terminal hall |
under 08 Western Province (Ethekwini 3rd),
under 10 Tshwane (Ethekwini 5th),
under 12 Western Province (Ethekwini 3rd),
under 14 Western Province (Ethekwini 2nd),
under 16 Ethekwini (WP 2nd, Joburg Metro 3rd, Tshwane 4th)
under 18 Western Province (Ethekwini 4th),
under 20 Tshwane (Ethekwini 5th).
The gold to Ethekwini in the under 16 division was the only blot on the Western Province and Tshwane clean sweep! This was an incredibly close division - 3 of the top 4 teams were equal on match points (they won 5 matches each) and, if this section had been decided on match points, then Johannesburg Metro would have been the winners, as they won all their matches. It all goes to show how important it is to have strength in depth, when game points are the key number.
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| Our gold medal team, from left: Anele Danisa, Mayilan Chetty, Kiashen Maharaj, Cayden Pather, Dayaan Parthiephal, Sachin Reddy, Zahra Kara, Cailin Chetty, Joseph Mwale (coach), Chad Millard, Ayanda Gumede (manager), absent - Ananta Reddy. |
under 12 1st Mayaskar Nair
under 14 2nd Abhay Prithipal
under 16 =3rd/14th Chad Millard, Lance Leslie-Smith, Cayden Pather
under 18 4th Shivar Gopaulsingh
under 20 1st Jivorn Reddy, 2nd Truwen Reddy
An Inter Regional team championship was held at the same time as the Wild Card event. It was won quite convincingly by the "A-team" from Tshwane. Sadly the Ethekwini team failed to perform, after being seeded 4th they ended up in a disappointing 15th place. I was an arbiter for this event and have now captured all 308 games (PGN) - there are some great games.
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.
Ethekwini League
The Ethekwini League took place in the last quarter of the year and was divided into two sections. The top 8 teams played a round robin in the A section, which was a success for the top seeds, Umhlanga Chess Club (rated 1878 on average), who won 6 and drew 1 of their matches. In second place was Durban Chess Club (1701 average), who beat the second seeds from Glenwood Chess Club (1876 average) in round 3, by the smallest of margins. Glenwood took 3rd and 4th places in the A section.
Teams consisted of 6 players and the board prizes were won by Joseph Mwale (Umhlanga), Cailin Chetty (Durban), Henry Oliver (Durban), Desmond Rooplal (Durban), Sayen Naidu (Glenwood) and Sizwe Ndlovu (Beier). I was playing board 1 for Durban and came within an inch of the gold medal, losing on time when a piece up against Joseph Mwale.
Umhlanga Chess Club went on to represent Ethekwini at the SA Club Championships team event, held near Bloemfontein in early December. They had a disastrous start, defaulting their first round match because of a car accident, but recovered well to find themselves playing the eventual winners, Chess Excellence A, in the last round. They beat Chess Excellence over the board, but then found themselves defaulted on 3 boards, because they were in the wrong board order!!
The B section of the League was played as a Team Swiss event. Initially 13 teams entered, which meant there had to be a bye. Surprisingly, this was given to the second seeds in the first round! The B section was marred by an excessive number of defaults, particularly by the student teams - either they were involved in the "fees must fall" protest or they were writing exams. In the end, Glenwood Chess Club C team were convincing winners, followed by Durban Chess Club B team.
Thanks go to the Open Air School for use of their hall as the playing venue, and to Divesh Sookdeo who was the arbiter. Here are the A section results and the B section results. Further details can be found on the chess-results website.
Teams consisted of 6 players and the board prizes were won by Joseph Mwale (Umhlanga), Cailin Chetty (Durban), Henry Oliver (Durban), Desmond Rooplal (Durban), Sayen Naidu (Glenwood) and Sizwe Ndlovu (Beier). I was playing board 1 for Durban and came within an inch of the gold medal, losing on time when a piece up against Joseph Mwale.
Umhlanga Chess Club went on to represent Ethekwini at the SA Club Championships team event, held near Bloemfontein in early December. They had a disastrous start, defaulting their first round match because of a car accident, but recovered well to find themselves playing the eventual winners, Chess Excellence A, in the last round. They beat Chess Excellence over the board, but then found themselves defaulted on 3 boards, because they were in the wrong board order!!
The B section of the League was played as a Team Swiss event. Initially 13 teams entered, which meant there had to be a bye. Surprisingly, this was given to the second seeds in the first round! The B section was marred by an excessive number of defaults, particularly by the student teams - either they were involved in the "fees must fall" protest or they were writing exams. In the end, Glenwood Chess Club C team were convincing winners, followed by Durban Chess Club B team.
Thanks go to the Open Air School for use of their hall as the playing venue, and to Divesh Sookdeo who was the arbiter. Here are the A section results and the B section results. Further details can be found on the chess-results website.
Sunday, 6 November 2016
Pawn Sacrifice
I watched the movie "Pawn Sacrifice" on DSTV this morning. This movie chronicles the life of Robert James (Bobby) Fischer, up to the point where the American chess genius became world chess champion in 1972. The blurb says it is "based on a true story" but the number of glaring historical errors really annoyed me. I know a lot of the incidents really did happen - just not when or where they were depicted in the movie!
Much of the plot centres around Bobby's rivalry with Russian champion Boris Spassky. One large chunk of the movie was set in Santa Monica, California, where the Piatorgorsky Cup took place in 1966. Boris is described as "world champion" in the movie, but we all know that Boris didn't become world champion until 1969. Another example of an historical boo-boo was the supposed first round incident, where Bobby beat a strong Russian master, after arriving extremely late at the board. That never happened - he actually played against fellow American, Sammy Reshevsky, and drew his first game. Almost a year later, Bobby famously arrived 50 minutes late for his game against the same Reshevsky, then proceeded to beat him. That was at the Sousse Interzonal of 1967, so they got the date wrong, the country wrong, the opponent wrong, and even his nationality wrong. Does artistic licence have no limits?
Having said all that, Tobey McGuire did a good job of portraying Bobby Fischer, and the movie is well worth watching if you are a chess addict. There is little doubt that Fischer was psychologically troubled from early childhood, and that his behaviour got worse over time, but was he really as crazy as portrayed in this movie? Fischer did a lot to revitalise interest in chess in the West. The amount of coverage of the 1972 match was absolutely staggering. I remember seeing chess on the front page of our daily newspaper for the first time, and membership of chess clubs rocketed in the early 1970's because of the Fischer effect. RIP, Bobby Fischer.
Much of the plot centres around Bobby's rivalry with Russian champion Boris Spassky. One large chunk of the movie was set in Santa Monica, California, where the Piatorgorsky Cup took place in 1966. Boris is described as "world champion" in the movie, but we all know that Boris didn't become world champion until 1969. Another example of an historical boo-boo was the supposed first round incident, where Bobby beat a strong Russian master, after arriving extremely late at the board. That never happened - he actually played against fellow American, Sammy Reshevsky, and drew his first game. Almost a year later, Bobby famously arrived 50 minutes late for his game against the same Reshevsky, then proceeded to beat him. That was at the Sousse Interzonal of 1967, so they got the date wrong, the country wrong, the opponent wrong, and even his nationality wrong. Does artistic licence have no limits?
Having said all that, Tobey McGuire did a good job of portraying Bobby Fischer, and the movie is well worth watching if you are a chess addict. There is little doubt that Fischer was psychologically troubled from early childhood, and that his behaviour got worse over time, but was he really as crazy as portrayed in this movie? Fischer did a lot to revitalise interest in chess in the West. The amount of coverage of the 1972 match was absolutely staggering. I remember seeing chess on the front page of our daily newspaper for the first time, and membership of chess clubs rocketed in the early 1970's because of the Fischer effect. RIP, Bobby Fischer.
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
SALGA Amajuba
Mashumi Nhlapo reports from Newcastle: Amajuba Chess held a district selection tournament for SALGA games at Arbor Park Recreation Centre on Saturday 22nd October 2016. There was a large turnout of over 150 players from all over Amajuba District. The tournament was played over 5 rounds and the Tournament Director was Mr Siphamandla Nkosi sent by KZN Chess Association.
Pictures of the age group winners follow:
Pictures of the age group winners follow:
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| Makhubu Simphiwe (u14 girls) |
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| Khuzwayo Kwanele (u14 boys) |
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| Mthembu Anele (u20 girls) |
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| Methula Kwanda (u20 boys) |
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