NICK BARNETT CHESS

How many active chess players would you say there are in South Africa? Many more than CHESSA has on its website, I can assure you. But this is what we find: Active Players: 2261. Of those 1781 are male, 480 are female. In terms of age there are 66 senior, 436 adult and 1745 junior. (These are registered players.) Not reassuring is it? Although we all understand that the pandemic has impacted the ability to recruit people into the fold (especially from schools), evidence of forward thinking and planning is not found on the website, nor on the Facebook page. ***

What could have been, was evident at the Russian Team Chess Championship from 30th of April to the 11th of May, 2021, in the Grand Hotel Zhemchuzhina, Sochi.

Ten teams took part in the Premiere League.

The team composed of 6 boards and 2 reserves. There were 4 boards and 1 reserve in the women’s tournament and the Higher League.

At the same time the 28th Russian Team Championship Premiere League, the 22nd Russian Women’s Team Championship, and the all-Russian Team Championship Higher League were played The event was held subject to compliance with strict Covid-19 requirements with plexi-glass divisions down the middle of each board and pairs of players separated by a regulated distance.

GM Andrey Esipenko scored 6.5/7 playing for the winning team, Mednyi Vsadnik. Having won the European U10 Chess Championship in 2012, and both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Championship in 2017 as well as beating GM Magnus Carlsen at the 2021 Tata Steel Chess Tournament, at 19 years of age, he is surely a rising star. His FIDE rating has now reached his peak rating of 2071.

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This being South Africa, can politics and chess not intersect? On ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule’s twitter space, he posted a picture of himself playing chess. Immediately the twitterati pounced on what was an illegal move!

One Twitter user reached out to Kasparov: “A friend and I have been trying to figure out what this opening sequence/strategy is called (white pieces)?” said the user.

Amidst laughter, Kasparov called it a “photo-op opening”.

According the site https://chess-math.org: ‘The penalty for illegal moves varies depending on the situation. In games with clocks, the penalty for the first illegal move is adding two minutes to the opponent’s clock. A second illegal move forfeits the game. In games without clocks (grades 1-2), there is no penalty for illegal moves.’

‘No penalty for illegal moves’ should suit Magashule admirably. ***

Remember to check facebook.com/ SACHESSPLAYERS for tournaments in South Africa. You need to do it often because notice is usually quite short.

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