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Archive for the ‘chess players of South Africa’ Category

Henry_Kamsky

Henry’s game vs Kamsky. Tromso round 4

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 d6 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. a3 O-O 7. Ba2 Nc6 8. d3 Rb8 9. Re1 b5 10. Ne2 a5 11. Ng3 b4 12. c3 Ba6 13. d4 bxc3 14. bxc3 Nd7 15. Bf4 e5 16. Be3 cxd4 17. cxd4 exd4 18. Nxd4 Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Ne5 20. Rb1 g6 21. Rxb8 Qxb8 22. f4 Nd3 23. Nf5 Re8 24. Nh6+ Kf8 25. Qa1 Rc8 26. Bxf7 Bh4 27. Rf1 Rc2 28. f5 Ne5 29. fxg6 Bxf1 30. Qxf1 hxg6 31. Bxg6+ Bf2+ 32. Bxf2 Kg7 33. Bh5 Kxh6 34. Be3+ Kg7 35. h4 Qc8 36. Qd1 Qc6 37. Qe1 Kh7 38. Bg5 Qc5+ 39. Kh2 Qf2 40. Qxf2 Rxf2 41. Be7 Rd2 42. Be8 Rd3 43. g3 Ng6 44. Bd8 Rxa3 45. h5 Ne5 46. Bc7 Re3 47. Bxa5 Rxe4 48. Kh3 Re2 49. Bc7 Rd2 50. g4 Kh6 51. Bb5 Kg5 52. Kg3 Nxg4 53. Bd8+ Nf6 54. h6 Kg6 55. Kf3 Rh2 56. Bc7 Rh3+ 57. Kg2 Rb3 58. Be2 Ne4 59. Bf3 Rb2+ 60. Kg1 Ng5 61. Bg2 Rd2 62. Bb6 Kxh6 63. Be3 Ra2 64. Bf4 Ra6 65. Bf1 Rb6 66. Kf2 Kg6 67. Bd3+ Kf6 68. Ke3 Nf7 69. Bc4 Ne5 70. Bg8 Ra6 71. Ke4 Ra4+ 72. Ke3 Ra8 73. Bh7 Ke6 74. Bc2 Ra3+ 75. Ke2 d5 76. Bh7 d4 77. Be4 Ra2+ 78. Kf1 Nc4 79. Ke1 Ne3 80. Bg3 Rb2 81. Bc7 Nd5 82. Bg3 Nf6 83. Bd3 Kd5 84. Bf4 Nd7 85. Bh7 Ne5 86. Bg3 Nf3+ 87. Kd1 d3 88. Bf4 0-1

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Round 4: Kamsky Photo-  @Tromso2014 

I was super excited when Gert – also a chess enthusiast, who mainly blogs about great South African Afrikaans writers and poets and writes about movies, musicians, componists, etc.  in general- informed me about the win of Henry Steel vs Gata Kamsky. I have been following this particular group of South African champs for the past few years in the ‘big‘ tournaments like these and they are a strong team of chess players and South Africa can be proud of them. Congratulations to Henry, we hope that your game against Kamsky will inspire the team to do even better. The following images are from Tromso, tweeted out to the twitter community by Susan Polgar.

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Kenny Solomon
This is very exciting news for South Africa and South African Chess players. We’ve been waiting for a Chess Grandmaster. We knew it was just a matter of time…and the time has come! Congratulations to Kenny! Proudly South African!

September 11 2012 at 10:01am

Cape Town – A Mitchells Plain father who grew up in the township and played his first game of chess at 13, has become South Africa’s first chess grandmaster.

Kenny Solomon, 32 was in a team of five South Africans at the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul for two weeks.

When results were announced at the weekend, he was one of eight international contestants awarded grandmaster – a title held for life. It is the highest title a player can attain and had been awarded to greats like Garry Kasparov and the late Bobby Fisher. To become a grandmaster a player must have a performance rating consistently above 2 500.

Solomon could not be reached as he was flying from Turkey to Italy, but Anant Dole, whom he taught chess for five years, said his rating had been around 2 600 over nine rounds at the Olympiad as well as at three other previous tournaments.

“The best rating in the world is 2 880. Kenny has been working very hard for the grandmaster title – even while he trained me he was preparing himself. He deserves it.”

Dole who lives in Constantia said Solomon moved to Italy last year to hone his skills.

“Playing top-class chess in South Africa is very difficult because there are few top-class players. Kenny was number one here, but for him it was not enough,” Dole, 19 said. He said Solomon was married with a daughter.

On his blog, Solomon said he started playing in Mitchells Plain aged 13 after his older brother, Maxwell, was flown to Manila to play in an Olympiad.

He began reading chess books, taught himself and in two years won the national championship. Also on the blog were messages, including one from a Sharon Snell who wrote: “South Africa’s first grandmaster. You are an inspiration to us all.”

Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Ivan Meyer said: “We await with great excitement for the confirmation of his new status … making him only the second chess player from sub-Saharan Africa and only the eighth in Africa to ever achieve this.”

Please click HERE to read the original article.

Melissa Greeff – South Africa’s first Woman Grandmaster – since 2009

Read about Melissa on this link.

More Titles – source: chessa

More titles… Steel & van den Heever
Wednesday 12 September 2012

Congratulations to Henry Steel who was awarded the title of International Master (IM) for his sterling performance at the 2012 FIDE Olympiad.  Henry’s rating also surpassed the 2400 mark.  And congratulations to Donovan van den Heever who is awarded the title of FIDE Master (FM) for his rating breaking the 2300 barrier.  Well done guys!.

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Chess Games of Round 8: South African chess players as well as: Magnus Carlsen, Boris Gelfand, Ivan Cheparinov, Topalov, Radjabov, Yelena Dembo and a few more GrandMaster-games to play through on my blogger-blog, please click on the link here and it will open in a new window.

http://chessaleeinlondon.blogspot.com/2008/11/dresden-olympiad-2008.html

Click on the logo and you will be taken to the Official site and the “live” link will take you straight away to the live-games! Both links will open in a new page.

Please click HERE to see more results of games played in round 1 and round 2. The link will open in a new window. Please click HERE to see lots of South African Chess player-pics and to see the results of rounds 3-6. At the bottom of this post you will find a link to play through games of round 5, where South Africa played Luxembourg.

On this link…see their games of round 6 and you can play through their games interactively. Also, the games of Kramnik and Ivanchuk (my favourite) of round 6 can be found on this link. The page will open in a new link.

http://chessaleeinlondon.blogspot.com/2008/11/south-africa-dresden-and-round-6.html

Schedule: Dresden

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From L-R: Anzel Solomons, Melissa Greeff, Jenine Ellappin, Carmen de Jager, Monique Sischy

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LtoR: Watu Kobese, Kenny Solomon, Henry Steel, Daniel Cawdery, Johannes Mabusela

Dresden Olympiad 2008 Round 7

Ladies team against Guatemala and the mens team against the Faroe Islands

Results: See the chess graphics

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Dresden round 7: Anzel Solomons move 14…0-1
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Dresden round 7:  Melissa Greeff move 12…1-0

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Dresden round 7 Carmen de Jager  move 18..1-0

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Dresden round 7 Monique Sischy move 7…0-1

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Dresden round 7 Watu Kobese move 11…1-0

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Dresden round 7 Kenny Solomon move 18…1-0

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Dresden round 7 Daniel Cawdery move 14…1/2

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Dresden round 7 Johannes Mabusela move 17…0-1

Round 8: South Africa vs Cyprus: Mens team

Round 8: South Africa vs Bosnia Herzegovina: Ladies team

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Dresden round 8 Watu Kobese…1-0

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Dresden round 8 Kenny Solomon…0-1

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Dresden round 8 Henry Steel…1-0

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Dresden round 8 Johannes Mabusela…1/2

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Dresden round 8 Anzel Solomons …0-1

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Dresden round 8 Melissa Greeff move 19

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Dresden round 8 Melissa Greeff…0-1

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Dresden round 8 Jenine Ellappen …0-1

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Dresden round 8 Monique Sischy…1-0

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Results: rounds 5-9 South African ladies’ team…Round 9 was played today, Saturday 22nd November. Click on the image for a clear view.

 
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Results: rounds 5-9 South African men’s team. Round 9 was played today, 22nd November. Click on the image for a clear view.

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afjun07finalgirls.doc     afjun07finalboys.doc

 

 

Well done to all the South African players particularly Daleen Wiid for winning the Girls section, Carmen de Jager for 2nd place and Calvin Klaasen for his second place in the boys section.  The boys section has been won by Kareim Wageih (Egypt).

Ryan van Resnburg was 3rd in the boys section, Lthuekela Zitha 5th, Melissa Greeff 6th (boys) and Angelique Hattingh was 7th in the girls section. You can click on the two doc-links to download the final results or you can click HERE ….. for the official site of the SA Junior Chess Association. Links will open in a new window.

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Egyptian, South African win Africa junior chess
BY Mphatso Malidadi
12:05:21 – 08 January 2008

Egyptian top seed Kareim Wagein and South African Wiid Darleen on Sunday won this year’s Africa junior chess champions in boys and girls respectively during the week-long event that was staged at the elite Kamuzu Academy.
Wagein, who accumulated 7.5 points, and Darleen were rewarded with international master title status
South African Calvin Klaasen finished as Wagein’s runner-up with 6.5 points while his compatriot Ryan Van Rensburg came third with 5.5 points.
In the girls category, Carmen De Jarger emerged second while Rocha Valquiria was third.
However, the three Malawian flag carriers failed to make it into the top three positions in the open category which saw South African girl Melisa Greef taking part in the boys group.
Despite failing to make it into top three, the country’s ambassadors showed they had made strides in the competition as they occupied better positions unlike in the previous competitions where they had ended at the bottom.
Chuma Mwale finished eighth with five points, national junior champion Chiletso Chipanga came 11th, national champion Joseph Mwale came 14th in the event that had 23 participants.
Read the entire article
HERE ….

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