N ICK BARNETT CHESS

‘FIDE considers the resumption of the World Championship cycle as one of the main tasks. As one of the oldest sports traditions in the world, it is our duty to protect it and ensure its continuity.’

This was the statement with which FIDE announced that the Candidates tournament would resume, with the 8th round scheduled for November 1, 2020.

I will list the candidates nearer the time, since as we have discovered with COVID19, things can change without notice.

***

LEVEL 2 means that things are opening up in South Africa but the CHESSA website remains stubbornly unpopulated. No letter from the President, Hendrik du Toit (who fought so hard to obtain that position), no Provincial or Club details – which could have been delegated during lockdown! One knows that they generally consider their main focus to be the junior leagues but for years our top-rated players have been sadly neglected and unsupported in their efforts. These are the top ten FIDE rated player in South Africa at present. 1 Cawdery, Daniel (2419); 2 Steel, Henry Robert (2418); 3. Solomon, Kenny (2352; 4. Kobese, Watu (2324); 5. Barrish, Daniel (2306); 6. Van ZylRudd, Jack (2264); 7. Ophoff, Jac (2257); 8. Van den Heever, Donovan (2224); 9. Meyer, Gordon (2216); 10.

Mabusela, Johannes Manyedi (2212)

Cawdery, Steel and Kobese are not very active at present in competitive chess (as far as I can tell) but Kenny, Barrish and Mabusela recently took part in the Olympiad.

They did not fare well and South Africa sits at number 23 out of 25 on the entire list of countries. In typical South African fashion, CHESSA does not have an eye on the top of the ladder and country pride.

***

ON THE OTHER hand, Chessa’s Facebook page has enterprising chess-lovers offering online coaching

(Im Watu Kobese and FI Reuben Salimu), podcasts

(IM Calvin Klaasen), to name a few. Keep checking for events: Search for SA Chessplayers on Facebook.

***

THE ARGUMENT about the final outcome of the Online Olympiad with Russia and India declared joint winners and gold medalists, will probably continue forever. There were so many small decisions (and according to social media pundits, mistakes) that Daniil Dubov, a Russian team member has commented ‘Any important sport event is a failure without a winner. We thought there can be only one gold. The players were OK with restarting the two last games from move one, but no one has even asked us. We are not a random team and this is not the way we want to win.’

***

For comment or news please write to thechessnik@ gmail.com

White to move and mate in 4

mate! Ng6 4. Nef5 Rxb23. c6 Nd8=2. c5 Rb11.