Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Making all the smart moves
THEY made all the right moves to outsmart their opponents on the chess board.
Emlyn Wilson, 8, and Kahill Dhevcharran, 16, from Curro Durbanville, were among the winners at the recent Inter-Curro online chess tournament.
The event, “the biggest school online chess tournament in South Africa”, was hosted by Curro Sport, and 234 primary and 103 high school pupils took part. There were a number of age-group categories, from Under-8 to U-20.
The tournament was held on the Lichess.org online chess platform, and was facilitated by Kenneth Willenberg from Chess Academy SA and Mercia Addinall from Curro Holdings.
Emlyn, who won the U-10 category, said she enjoyed playing against other Curro pupils. “It felt really good to win a tournament for Curro Durbanville. My coach Dione Goredema told me to take my time with each move, look for tactics or pieces to capture, and to make sure all my pieces are safe.
“I never gave up during the tournament; even after I blundered my queen, I still won the match,” she said.
Kahill, who won the U-18 category, said: “It is a very nice achievement and I feel humbled to have won. The competition was tough, and I was impressed to see how other Curro schools performed on the chess front.”
Addinall said Curro wanted to give their pupils an opportunity to come together and connect in a fun and competitive way.
“The online chess tournament gave our pupils (beginners and advanced) the opportunity to participate in the tournament in the comfort of their own home.
“We received great feedback from our pupils and parents after the tournament. Given the enthusiasm around the online chess platform, we will now be running mini-practice rounds throughout the year.
“They will also have the opportunity to play ‘friendly games’ against each other via the Lichess.org platform,” Addinall said.
Chess has been awarded “Curro Cup status” for next year, following the success of this year’s competition. This means chess will be one of the 12 sporting codes at next year’s Curro Cup competition.