World Youth - first day impressions

Round 1 got under way a few minutes late but nobody seemed to mind too much after the rousing dancing exhibition. I was present as an arbiter for the under 14 boys division, with boards 11 to 18 being my responsibility. Boards 1 to 10 were played on DGT boards in a separate section of the hall, so I didn't see much of those games. The top seed was rated 2434 and the ratings of the 11th to 18th seeds ranged from 2312 to 2215 on my boards.

Table 11: Burri (France) versus van der Lingen (South Africa)

I watched the board 11 game with great interest. On move 14 Burri sacrificed a Bishop for a strong attack. It seemed to be an intuitive sacrifice, as he played his next 2 moves quickly before starting to think on his 17th move. My computer says both players missed some chances in what followed. Here is the game with light notes:

World Youth opens with dance

Opening ceremonies can be quite boring with all the obligatory speeches, but the organisers livened up their ceremony with a Zulu dancing exhibition. As an arbiter for the under 14 boys group, I was lucky enough to have a front row seat for the dance!

The dancers arrive on stage, creating a buzz

Were they doing the locomotion?

A challenge is laid down as Winston and Gunther look on

I'm not sure how to interpret this look

Dignatories on stage, from left: Lewis Ncube (FIDE Africa), Ravi Govender (Master of Ceremonies),
Emelia Ellapen (FIDE Board), Winston Dalpat (Chessa), Gunther van den Bergh (Chief Arbiter)

Uthungulu Youth champs

After holding a successful trials tournament in August to pick the Uthungulu youth teams, it was decided to hold another rated tournament in September, to sort out the board orders. With only 66 players, a smaller venue at Brackenham Primary was used for the championships. The time control was also increased (to 60/60) so that players could record all their moves, something that was new to a lot of the players. The most common queries were on how to record a promotion. Thanks once again to Lisa Griffiths and her team for inviting me back to Richards Bay for this pleasant event.

Lisa Griffiths gives the "start play" command, the under 14 players are in the foreground

Kabelo Mthethwa vs Lindelwa Nxumalo, behind them is Luyanda Mbambo vs Mxolisi Ncanana,
you can also see Kelvin Aidan and Sandile Mdunge in the picture

u12's Gabriel Gounden, Siyabonga Mqaise and Keane Reddy concentrating on their notation

 u12 players Uvash Harrilall on board 26, Tlhoni Tsotetsi on board 25

Top u14 players, Nikash Baboolal vs Sandile Mdunge, Sandile won yet again

Best under 16, Siyanda Khumalo, deep in thought

The final results were as follows:
under 12 championship
under 14 championship
under 16 championship
under 20 championship

For more information, contact Lisa Griffiths

World Youth - Beach Launch

World Youth starts in 2 weeks

Congratulations to the following KZN players who will be participating in the 2014 World Youth Chess Championships, which starts in Durban in two weeks time.

BOYS
under 08: none
under 10: Joshua Bezuidenhout, Jaedon Naidu
under 12: Cailin Chetty, Mayilan Chetty, Naseem Ahmed Essa, Eli-Jordan Govender,
                Chad Millard, Aaron Jude Naidu, Sachin Reddy, Rahul Heeralall
under 14: Ananta Reddy, Shivar Gopaulsingh, Liam Moodley, Tarendra Moodley
under 16: Kyran Appanna, Yashkar Balmakhun, Duncan Podmore
under 18: Kenyon Padayachee, Randall Varden

GIRLS
under 08: Aarti Datharam, Charlotte Millard
under 10: Priyasha Naidoo
under 12: Santham Moodley, Dayaan Parthiephal
under 14: none
under 16: Keyana Padayachee, Caitlin Chetty, Saiyuri Naidoo, Genevieve Pillay
under 18: none

For more information on the players, go to the Chess-results server (RSA).

Giant chess sets for KZN schools

Sandile Xulu reports: 

On Tuesday 2nd September 2014 the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Education, Ms Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni expressed a wish that, in each and every new school to be built in the Province of KwaZulu Natal, there will be a garden chess set.

Speaking to students, educators and business persons at Stanger South High School in Ilembe District, the MEC announced that she wants chess to be rolled out to all schools in KZN. She was talking in the school assembly before walking into a classroom where grade 10 students had their first chess lesson. It was a first-hand experience of ‘classroom chess’ for the MEC as well. As part of her visit to the school, the MEC donated scientific calculators to further enhance mathematics and motivate students to take science subjects.

President Jacob Zuma has repeatedly made a call in support of chess being introduced to all schools in South Africa. Through his own initiative, the Jacob G. Zuma Foundation, President Zuma has launched a program called ‘Chess-in-Schools’ which will see many schools benefit from having a school chess program.

KZN Chess Association President Sandile Xulu together with Ilembe Chess Association chairperson Welcome Gwamanda conducted the chess lessons. Problem was, students were so interested in chess that they did not want the session to end!

The MEC donated some chess sets to help the school start their own chess program. Business people also pledged-in their support to make sure that chess becomes a success story in Stanger South High School.

For more information, contact Sandile Xulu.

1st Durban Open GM tournament announced

CHESS SA has announced that the 1st Durban Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament will be held in Durban, from 20th to 29th September 2014, at the International Convention Centre. The event will take place at the same time as the FIDE World Youth Chess Championships at the same venue.

Details of the event can be found on the World Youth Chess Championship website or you can download the Durban open information brochure. Players should enter online before 15th September, here is the link to register to play in the tournament. All South Africans who register and pay before 5th September qualify for a 25% discount on their entry fees.

Here is a link to the tournament website on Chess-Results.com.
For more information, contact Bridgette Burger.

Historic win by Steel vs Kamsky

It's not very often that a South African beats a super Grandmaster! I remember the game Watu Kobese won against Peter Leko in the 2001 FIDE knockout championship. Before that, there was the win by Wolfgang Heidenfeld versus former world champion Max Euwe at the 1955 Johannesburg international. Now Henry Steel has joined this elite club at the Tromso Olympiad earlier this month. In all fairness, Kamsky was completely winning after his 23rd move, but made things difficult for himself with his poor 28th and 33rd moves. The ending reached after Black's 40th move looks about equal to me, but Steel outplayed his super-strong opponent for an historic win. Here is the game, with light notes:

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.