Dolphin Coast - new club

Press Release.

The Dolphin Coast Chess Club has been launched and one of our local chess coaches, Siphamandla Nkosi, has qualified as the first chess arbiter in the Ilembe district.

Nkosi, known to his players as Coach Spa, has been involved in chess for 12 years and has been coaching the Umhlali Preparatory chess players and all Senior Primary pupils for the past 10 years. His recent qualification ensures that our local tournaments can qualify as rated tournaments. This is a huge advantage for our local players as it offers them the opportunity to play skilled players and challenges them to improve the level of their game.

The Dolphin Coast Chess Club is a new initiative to encourage chess players (beginners to masters) to participate competitively in the Ilembe district. The Dolphin Coast Chess Club will be run as a club to ensure minimum expenses to the members. An annual membership fee will ensure that the players receive three rated tournaments per year and that the club will be able to accumulate chess equipment. Two Swiss format tournaments are also planned for the year.

Our vision is to create a respected club of high calibre chess players that are passionate for the game and to encourage and develop new players of all ages.

The Chess Club will meet at Umhlali Preparatory School on Wednesday evenings during the school term. For more information, please email Kerry or phone her on 0711436466.

Three SA junior champions!!

KZN has got three new national champions!! Congratulations to Shivar Gopaulsingh, the under 16 open champion, to Ananta Reddy, the under 14 open champion, and to Karmishta Moodley, the under 12 girls champion. Shivar won his gold medal after defeating Justin Lynch 2-0 in a playoff match. In addition, Naseem Essa won the silver medal in the under 12 open division, and Aarti Datharam received the bronze in the under 10 girls competition.

Shivar, Ananta and Karmishta

The SA Junior Closed chess championships took place at Waterkloof High School in Pretoria from 4th to 10th April 2015. I hadn't been to Waterkloof High School before. It was a great venue for SA's top junior competition, easily accessible and with lots of space for everybody.

I was invited to be one of the two deputy chief arbiters. After driving from Durban to Pretoria on the 3rd, my first appointment was an arbiters meeting in the late afternoon, when we met to discuss the final tournament rules, venue set up and so on. The school hall was not big enough to accommodate all 278 players, so the top boards in all age groups, except for under 8's, played upstairs near the auditorium. We had 108 players upstairs, with about half of these games played on DGT boards, which transmitted the moves live over the internet for everybody to see.

The first round on the 4th was chaotic. Both myself and Fransie Grobbelaar, the other deputy chief arbiter, stayed upstairs with the top players, with the other arbiters downstairs in the main hall. In addition to resolving disputes between the top players, we were expected to record the results for the top players and check the results submitted by age group arbiters. It was simply unworkable! We decided that from round 2 all score keeping would be done downstairs. We also agreed that Fransie would move downstairs and supervise the majority of the games and arbiters. My KZN colleague Divesh Sookdeo moved upstairs as he was the arbiter of the under 16 boys section, and we also later enlisted Henro van der Westhuizen to our team for the top boards. Once this was done, we were able to resolve everything at the board and had no more appeals affecting the top players.

Well, that's enough background information for now. I had a ringside seat to most of the top games and will write more about the tournament in later posts. Here is a link to the official SAJCCC website and here is a link to the under 18 results page, from which you can navigate to all the other age group results.

KZN open 25-27 April

The Durban Chess Club has now sent us the entry form for their annual KZN Open championships. With over R15 000 in prize money, it is well worth entering! The championships will be split into two sections, with section B restricted to junior players rated under 1400.

For more information, here is the 2015 KZN open entry form (pdf). Alternatively, here is a link to the online entry form.

1st Uthungulu Anniversary

The Uthungulu district celebrated its first birthday in style, with a massive birthday cake!

Chairperson Lisa Griffiths with the birthday cake

The children gather around the cake

The Uthungulu Committee

Of course, there was also a chess tournament to be held, with no fewer than 168 participants competing over 2 days, at Hoerskool Richardsbaai. Here is a picture of the Uthungulu chess family:

Lastly, here are the results for each of the age groups:
under 12 results,
under 14 results,
under 16 results,
under 20 results.

Autumn series 21-22 March

The Autumn series organised by Glenwood Chess Club was surprisingly won by the second seed, Lulama Qobo, with 4.5 points from his 5 games. Surprising, as he almost lost his first round game against Michael Fu, going 2 pawns down in a Queen and Rook ending. However, Fu blundered into a mate in one, after which Lulama never looked back.

The top seed, Joseph Mwale, had a moment of chess blindness in his round 3 game against Naseem Essa. This was the position, after about 20 moves, with Essa defending:

Joseph Mwale vs Naseem Essa

Play continued 1.Rxd8+ Rxd8 2.Nf6+ Bxf6 3.Rxf6 Rd1+ and now the appalling 4.Kf2?? lost to the skewer 4... Bh3 5.g4 Rf1+ 6.Kg3 Rxf6 7.Kxh3 Re6 8.Nf3 Qe7 and Black soon won. Either 4.Kg2 or 4.Rf1 gave White a small edge. In the post-mortem Joseph suggested 1.Rde1 and I liked 1.Rd3, in both cases 1... Bf5 can be met by 2.Nxf7 in White's favour.

The game of the tournament was undoubtedly Mwale vs Danisa, played in the last round. The tactical mastery shown by Joseph was extremely impressive:


Here are the final results of 2015 Autumn series.

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.

Coaching workshops in KZN

Sandile Xulu reports that, for the very first time, KZN will have a database of Chess Coaches in all 11 districts.

KZN Chess Association has just completed launching the CHESS COACHES ASSOCIATION in all 11 districts. A move to train coaches was warmly welcomed by district associations as this will help improve their competitiveness when it comes to provincial tournaments.

UTHUKELA Coaches showing off their garden chess set in the city of LADYSMITH

LISA GRIFFITHS (in red) with her enthusiastic team of UTHUNGULU Coaches

LULAMA QOBO training from the podium at LUTHULI Museum in ILEMBE District

Previously, chess coaches would come from Durban only but this will soon change as coaches from all over the province will receive continued training. While most of the coaches are ‘Development Coaches’ others have very good potential to soon coach at a higher level.

AMAJUBA Coaches embraced the KZNCA Vision 2015 of ’50 clubs’

CHESS moves into the council chamber in LADYSMITH

Chess is making inroads at the heart of the ZULU KINGDOM 

Coaches Associations will act as a supporting structure to the district structures. This move will see more clubs being formed.

At Shisanyama in Bhekuzulu township, VRYHEID, chess is played while listening to some good music...

UMZINYATHI Coaches learning a new way to teach chess

LULAMA QOBO demonstrating a few coaching lessons in DUNDEE

February was an extremely busy month for the facilitators. Altogether, a total of 130 coaches were trained throughout 11 districts and this training took place every weekend from 14th February to 1st March 2015.

SANDILE XULU ‘teaching’ LULAMA QOBO a few blitz lessons over breakfast in VRYHEID

OXFORD GUEST HOUSE hosted the facilitators with warm hands in VRYHEID

Thanks to Mbongeni Sithole, Mondli Mkhize, Lulama Qobo and Erick Takawira for facilitating these workshops and making a success of them. I (Sandile Xulu) was also one of the facilitators. Thanks to all the district officials and others who helped make sure that these workshops ran smoothly.

KZNCA AGM announced

Announcement from Sandile Xulu, the President of KZN Chess Association, concerning their Annual General Meeting for 2015:

"On behalf of KZNCA, I hereby inform all member Districts of KZNCA to attend the provincial AGM to be held on 18-19 April 2015 in Durban, the venue is Coastlands (corner of Pixley Ka Seme & Mahatma Gandhi Roads).

District Chairpersons or Secretaries are required to submit two names of their District Executive Members (District Officials) who will attend the AGM on behalf of their District Association. Names must be submitted to me by NO LATER than Wednesday 18 March 2015.

The AGM will run an extended program which begins on Saturday 18 April and continues on Sunday 19 April. A timetable/program will be sent in due course with the Agenda of the AGM."

For more information, contact Sandile Xulu.

Tournaments in March

We have received entry forms for the following events:

1) Ethekwini district: Glenwood CC  Autumn series on 21-22 March

2) Ilembe district: Crawford North Coast  Rapid event on 28 March

3) Uthungulu district: Richards Bay  Anniversary tournament on 28-29 March

All of these events will be rated by Chess SA. Further details can be found in the entry forms.

Fischer memorial rapid 2015

Durban Chess Club hosted a one day Open rapid tournament on Saturday, 7th March 2015 in memory of the late Robert James Fischer, whose birthday was on 9th March. The event was held at Northlands Senior Primary School in Durban North.

As defending champion, I felt obliged to participate, but was completely off form, finishing with 4 wins, 2 draws and a patzer loss to top seed Joseph Mwale. My only consolation was a particularly nice combination in round 2 against Chad Blomeyer, who went on to share the prize for the best under 16 player. This was the position with Black to move:

Rust vs Blomeyer, after White's 26th move

With time running low, Chad pinned the Knight with 26... Rd8 threatening 27... e5. However, White can ignore the threat, and play continued 27. c6! Rbc8 28.c7 Rd7 and now 29.Nf5!! leaves 2 of my 3 pieces en prise, but wins the game after 29... Rxd3 30.Ne7+ Kf8 31.Nxc8 e5 32.Nb6 Be6 33.c8=Q+ Bxc8 34.Rxc8+ Ke7 35.Nxa4 etc. My subsequent home analysis showed that 26... e5 27.Nf5 Rc7 28.c6 Rbc8 29.Rdc3 Kf8 was about equal.

The winner was 3-time Durban champion Bongani Mgaga, who scored 6½ points from his 7 games. Along the way, Bongani had a very lucky escape against Paul Curry in round 3.

Mgaga vs Curry with Black to move

With about 90 seconds left on the clock, Paul reached for his Rook and the audience held their breath, expecting him to play 1... Rxh3+ 2.gxh3 Qg1 mate, but Paul placed the Rook on e7 and Bongani somehow managed to draw the game. Bongani's other key game was his round 6 win against 2nd placed Joseph Mwale, with castling on opposite sides of the board followed by a crushing attack on the black King. Also on 6 points, but placed 3rd on tie-break, was Petros Ntombela.

Here are the detailed results of the Fischer memorial rapid.

Max Euwe memorial 2015

The 2015 Max Euwe memorial took place on the weekend of 21st/22nd February at Berea Primary School in Durban. The playing schedule was a grueling 7 rounds of 60/60 over 2 days, so I opted to watch some games instead of playing. There were 61 players, headed by the hot favourite, visiting master Rodwell Makoto of Zimbabwe.

Listening to introductory remarks from the organisers

As early as round 2 the second seed, Erick Takawira, found himself in big trouble. You can see from my photo that he had only a minute left compared to his opponents 16 minutes, in what looked like a lost Bishop ending.

Mkhwanazi (1417) vs Takawira (2052)

From the diagram play continued 1.Bb1+ Kxf4 2.Bxg6 Be8 3.Bb1 Ke5 4.e7 Ke6 5.Kd4 Kxe7 6.Kc3 Ke6 7.Kxb2 and a draw was soon agreed. Afterwards I asked Erick how he would meet 4.Ba2 and he gave 4...Kf4 to which I replied 5.Kd6 Kg4 6.Ke7 Bg6 7.Kf6 Be8 8.g6 and White wins. After reflecting on this, Erick then found 4...b1=Q! 5.Bxb1 Kxe6 and Black draws because he can sacrifice his Bishop for the g-pawn and the h-pawn is the wrong colour to win.

Not so lucky was Bongani Mgaga in his last round encounter with Shivar Gopaulsingh. After catching his opponent out in the opening, he allowed Shivar back into the game, despite having a 20 minute time advantage. From the diagram play continued 1...Qb6+ 2.Kh1 Rd3 3.Qc2?? Rxg3 and Bongani played a few more moves before resigning. My computer gives 3.Qb2 as equal, whilst I was expecting 3.Qc5 from Bongani.

Mgaga (1701) vs Gopaulsingh (1776)

Pictured below is KZN veteran Cyril Thanda Danisa (right) and his student Nobuhle Ndunakazi, followed by a photo of the tournament winner, Rodwell Makoto.

Here are the final results of the tournament.

Chess SA seeks managers and coaches

We have just received the following documents from Marcelle Agulhas, the General Secretary of Chess South Africa. The closing date for all applications is Sunday 15th March.

1.  2015 Team Managers Application Form for International Tournaments.

2.  2015 Team Coaches Application Form for International Tournaments.

The documents contain a list of ten international events in 2015 where South African chess players can be expected to participate. This is an astonishing number of events when you consider that Chess SA is currently in arrears with FIDE. Some amounts have allegedly been outstanding since 2011.

In early December 2014, FIDE published a notice that Federations more than 6 months in arrears would have services suspended and players from those Federations would not be able to take part in any FIDE rated events. FIDE then published the names of the Federations affected on its website:

Federations in Arrears

Wednesday, 31 December 2014 09:36

In accordance with decisions of Presidential Board in Sochi, FIDE publishes the list of Federation in Arrears. Until the arrears have been paid off, players from these Federations cannot participate in any FIDE events that are under the aegis of a) the World Championship & Olympiad Commission or Events Commission, b) Continental competitions that provide qualifiers to any of the aforesaid competitions. The list will be regularly updated. (South Africa was one of the countries listed.)

Trainee arbiters workshop

A workshop for trainee arbiters and organisers took place from 6th to 8th February at Coastlands Durban. It was organised by KZNCA president Sandile Xulu who invited 2 representatives from each of the 11 districts within KZN province. The chief trainer was Rudolf Willemse, who was assisted by Keith Rust. An intensive course in the Laws of Chess started on Friday afternoon, with the basic laws and a discussion on the conduct of the players and the role of the arbiter. On Saturday we completed the competition rules and looked at how the rules differed for rapid play and blitz. After which it was time to install the Swiss Arbiter pairings software and try out some Swiss pairings for a small tournament. Then we learnt how to do round-robin pairings and how to calculate rating changes. Phew! it was a long day. Then on Sunday, it was the dreaded exam, which lasted for 3 hours.

The chief trainer was Rudolf Willemse (from Johannesburg),
pictured here next to one of the new KZN Chess Association banners

Listening to Rudolf on the Laws of Chess

Keith Rust explains increments using his DGT digital clock

How does this Swiss Arbiter program work?

Bongani Mkhunya shows the pairings software on his computer

A team photo, showing off the new KZNCA golf shirts

Taking notes on how to do round robin pairings

Rudolf Willemse, Sandile Xulu and Keith Rust

Taking the final exam on Sunday morning

Sandile Xulu after a successful workshop is completed

Congratulations to Mbongeni Sithole who qualified as a Tournament Supervisor and to the following people who qualified as School Supervisors - Lulama Qobo, Lulama Nqubuka, Nkosinathi Masuku, Eugene Bernard, Cyril Thanda Danisa and Welcome Gwamanda.

SA Junior Closed announced

We have just received the following news via email from Warren Ahjum, the interim Secretary of the Chess SA Youth Commission:

"We are proud to confirm, herewith, the selection of players from your region to participate in the South African Junior Closed Chess Championships 2015 (SAJCCC 2015). The SAJCCC 2015 will be hosted in Tshwane, at the Waterkloof High School, from the 3rd to the 11th of April 2015. Kindly take note that it is the responsibility of the Region to inform each player of his/her selection and their subsequent registration for the Championship. Registration should be done online at www.sajccc.co.za.

Attached please find the list of players from your region who qualified for the Championship and the SAJCCC 2015 circular, containing important information about the event.

We would like to congratulate the Region on the selection of the players and wish them a successful tournament. For any information regarding the SAJCCC 2015 please do not hesitate to contact the Local Organising Committee."

Please contact Kevin Chetty in the event of any errors, omissions or queries.
PS. here is an amended list of KZN players as at 23rd February.

Games from Kimberley 2015

Capturing games at the SA Junior Chess Championships held in Kimberley in January 2015 was a mammoth task. In the end about 2700 games were captured - all the games from the Championship sections of the teams event (about 1700 games) plus selected games from the Wild Card and all the games from the Inter-Regional. The game capturers faced an unenviable job, since many players were unable to notate clearly throughout their games.

The organisers supplied PGN game files for each round on their website. These raw PGN files needed a lot of editing! After what seemed like weeks spent retyping player names (some names had 5 different spellings/variations), the next step was to find out and enter the age group sections (as these were omitted from the raw PGN file). I then had a working file on ChessBase and inputted the player ratings. After getting all the official results from the pairings software (one advantage of being an arbiter) I then looked for incorrect results (where a result differed from that on the team sheets). In a few cases I was surprised to find the colours in the raw PGN were opposite to those on the team sheets. It is possible that there are still errors in my corrected PGN files, so please let me know if you find any.

Here are all the games from the Junior Team Championships (1736 games, PGN) after correction of player names, event details etc. Some game scores are incomplete and others are missing. For missing scores, I have inserted player names and the published result in the PGN file. For reference purposes, here is the unedited PGN file of the teams event, from the official website.

I have not yet finalised my editing of the Wild Card events, so here is the unedited PGN file of the Wild Card events, from the official website.

Finally, here are all the games of the 2015 Inter Regional (172 games, PGN) after correction of player names, event details etc. Some game scores are incomplete and others are missing. For missing scores, I have inserted player names and the published result in the PGN file.

Excellent Ethekwini team results

The South African Junior Team Championships were held in Kimberley from 3rd to 7th January 2015. About 1950 players (208 teams) competed for the medals in 19 different sections, split into different age categories. Western Province dominated the A section of the teams event, winning gold medals in under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14, and a shared gold in under 18. The under 18 gold medals were shared as the teams had identical tie-breaks on match points, game points, direct encounter and Sonneborn-Berger (although I think the latter should have been calculated on game points rather than match points, in which case WP would have finished 2nd). Western Province also got silver medals in under 16 and under 20. The only teams that dented their golden record were Nelson Mandela Bay in under 18, Johannesburg Metro in under 20, and Ethekwini in under 16!

The Ethekwini under 16 A team won gold in the under 16 teams event, winning 6 of their matches and losing one. Western Province and Tshwane also won 6 and lost 1, so first place was decided on game points. Here Ethekwini was declared the winner, thanks largely to a controversial 10-0 sweep of Joburg Metro in the last round. This was because a cellphone rang in the Joburg Metro team manager's bag as the match was drawing to a close, resulting in them losing 10-0 instead of by 6-4. Both WP and Tshwane appealed the result, but this default rule was agreed to at the team manager's meeting before the tournament and applied to several other teams during the event.

Detailed results for all of Ethekwini's teams were as follows:

under 8 A team - 3rd in A section - BRONZE medals

under 10 A team - 3rd in A section - BRONZE medals

under 12 A team - 2nd in A section - SILVER medals

under 12 B team - 3rd in C section - BRONZE medals

under 14 A team - 2nd in A section - SILVER medals

under 14 B team - 1st in C section - GOLD medals and promotion

under 16 A team - 1st in A section - GOLD medals

under 16 B team - 1st in C section - GOLD medals and promotion

under 18 A team - 5th in A section

under 20 A team - 6th in A section

The official website for the event has a good selection of photos. Here are a couple of the Ethekwini players, from round 3 of the teams event:

I would like to publish more photos, but have not received any from the Ethekwini team managers!

Chess SA junior selection 2015

Each year Chess SA publishes its junior selection policy, which doesn't change much from one year to the next. The policy explains how juniors get selected for international events, such as the African Youth championships or the World Youth championships.

Here is the Chess SA junior selection policy for 2015 (10 pages, pdf format).

Inter regional teams Kimberley

After the junior team championships was completed, the organisers hosted an inter regional teams event alongside the junior wild card championships. The Ethekwini region entered a team consisting of Mwale, Qobo, Beekrum, Gopaulsingh and Botha. We had many of the best players in South Africa competing in this event, to name just a few - Cawdery, Kobese, Gluckman, Mabusela, Toma, both Bhawoodiens, Bouah, Klaasen and Solomons.

The event was dominated from start to finish by the teams from Tshwane, Western Province A and Western Province B who finished in that order after an exciting final round, with only a single game point separating the three teams. The Ethekwini team finished in 5th place after a disappointing last round match against the back markers from Ehlanzeni. As some consolation, Shivar Gopaulsingh received a gold medal for his 4/4 score on the 4th board.

The organisers supplied PGN game files for each round, which needed a lot of editing. Here are the games of the 2015 Inter Regional in PGN after correction of player names, event details etc. Some game scores are incomplete and others are missing. For missing scores, I have inserted player names and the published result in the PGN file.

Uthungulu wins a gold medal

Uthungulu entered the South African Junior Team Championships as a region for the first time this year. The teams event, which was held in Kimberley from 3rd to 7th January 2015, saw 208 teams competing for the medals in 19 different sections, split into different age categories. The Uthungulu under 18 A team was placed 1st in section C of the under 18 teams event, winning 6 of their matches and drawing one. They received gold medals and promotion to the B section next year. A great success!

Uthungulu's other teams finished as follows:

under 12 A team - 16th in C section

under 12 B team - 23rd in C section

under 14 A team - 8th in C section

under 14 B team - 17th in C section

under 16 A team - 8th in B section

under 20 A team - 7th in B section

Ilembe also entered the Junior Team Championships for the first time this year. Their teams finished as follows:

under 10 A team - 7th in B section

under 12 A team - 8th in B section

under 14 A team - 7th in B section

under 18 A team - 7th in B section