CHESS BY MARK RUBERY

The 2024 SA Closed Championship held in Cape Town concluded earlier this month and saw Daniel Barrish win his second national title with an assured and professional performance. In second place was Caleb Levitan who at just 13 years of age has surely registered one of the greatest results since the inception of this tournament in 1892! Fresh from a solid result at the Reykjavik Open, Jan Karsten (16) taking third place underlined the wave of young talent this country has at present.

1st FM D Barrish 8/11 2nd FM C Levitan 7 3rd IM J Karsten 6,5 4th-8th C Mnyasta, FM B Mhango, IM W Kobese, J Mnguni and IM D Cawdery 6 9th FM C Klaasen 5,5 10th FM M Simpson 4 11th-12th CM K Khumalo and L Mfazwe 2,5.

The top three booked a place on the SA Olympiad team going to Budapest later this year and will be joined by Charlton Mnyasta and Banele Mhango who had the best tie break out of the cluster of players on 6/11. The team will be the youngest to represent this country by a significant margin -18,6 years being the average age! Evidence that the winds of change are sweeping through SA chess was that the old guard: Kobese, GM Solomon (who resides in Italy and did not compete) and Cawdery did not qualify. These three have been the spine of the squad for over two decades …

Here is an exciting contest where the Black king slips out of a mating net …

Cawdery,D (2380) – Mnyasta,C (2123) [B62] ch-RSA 2024 Cape Town RSA

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd3 a6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.0–0–0 Qa5 10.Qg3 Be7 11.h4

Rb8 12.Bc4 Qb6 13.Bb3 c5 14.e5 dxe5 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Ne4 Bb7? (16 ... Ke7 holds the balance) 17.Nxf6+ gxf6 18.Qg7 Ke7 19.Rd7+! (This attractive sacrifice should be decisive) … Kxd7 20.Qxf7+ Kc6 21.Ba4+ (21.Qxe6+ Kb5 (21 ... Kc7 22.Qf7+) 22.Qc4+ Kc6 23.Ba4+ Kc7 24.Qf7+ is the simplest solution.) ... Kd5 22.Qd7+ Ke4 (White is still winning but now he is required to find a ‘quiet’ move) 23.Re1+? (23.Qd1! controlling the d1-h5 diagonal snares the king … Kf5 24.Qh5+ Kf4 25.g3+ Ke4 26.Qg4+ Kd5 27.Rd1#) ... Kf5

24.Qg7 (24 g4+ Kg6 25 h5+ Kh6 26 g5+ fxg5 and the king is safe) … h5 25.Bb3 c4 26.Bxc4 Bd5 27.Bd3+ e4 28.f3 Qxb2+ 29.Kd1 exd3 0–1

The SA Ladies Closed: 1st J February 9,5/11 2nd-3rd C Badenhorst and C Van Zyl 8 SA Seniors Closed: 1st-2nd L Bouah and S Bhawoodien 8,5/11 3rd J Wilken

7,5 Those who say they understand chess understand nothing. – Robert Hubner