Read Full Post »

International Masters Henry Steel and Watu Kobese both tied for joint 1st at the 2011 South African Closed scoring 9/11! Henry was declared the national champion by virtue of his superior tiebreak beating Kobese in their head-to-head encounter. Below are selected games from the Closed section. Jacques Meintjies won the B section and will be [...]

Read Full Post »

Dewain Barber with co-champs Michael Brown & Justus Williams. Photo by Melinda Matthews. Justus Williams shared joint 1st with Michael Brown at the K-8 Championship during the U.S. Open in Orlando. Justus finished on a sparkling 5.5/6 to push his USCF rating to 2265. He beat Cadet champion Arthur Shen in an exciting game. According [...]

Read Full Post »

Kasparov’s “African Dream” by Jackie Ngubeni Garry Kasparov, the world undisputed greatest chess player of all time, visited South Africa to deliver the key-note address for the IBM business convention. I caught-up with him at famed Soccer-City, ground-zero of the 2010 FIFA World-Cup spectacular, just at the outskirt of Soweto. He listened attentively to my [...]

Read Full Post »

Graham Jurgensen has written a report on ChessBase about the ongoing Commonwealth Championship taking place in Ekurhuleni, South Africa. The tournament began June 25th and has drawn over 700 participants including top-seed GM Nigel Short and a strong Indian contingent. There are fifteen countries represented at the event with 309 South Africans, 24 from India [...]

Read Full Post »

Jackie Ngubeni with GM Bassem Amin. Photo courtesy of Jackie Ngubeni. Egypt is sometimes known as The “Valley of the Kings” with a very rich history. Anyone who has traveled to the North African country will marvel at the ancient civilization and the magic of the Nile River. The nation of 80 million inhabitants, the [...]

Read Full Post »

Good Times in South Africa!! Jerald Times with some of the members of his Guguletu team. Photo courtesy of Jerald Times. Jerald Times has seen a lot in his chess career, but perhaps nothing could be more fulfilling than his current post in South Africa. Times was ask to join David MacNulty’s “Moves for Life” [...]

Read Full Post »

NM Jerald TimesPhoto by Daaim Shabazz. Jerald Times is known as a successful coach and winner of six national championships with Mott Hall Dark Knights and was an chess instructor at the Harlem Educational Activity Fund (HEAF). While the HEAF program was eliminated due to budget cuts, Times began working with the Harlem Children’s Zone [...]

Read Full Post »

South African President Jacob Zuma battles 12-year old Sfiso Mashazi at the Nkandla Chess Tournament. He spent a few days in Nkandla promoting the initiative. How many Heads-of-State have attended a chess tournament? In recent memory we remember the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan at the 2008 Chess Olympiad cheering his team on to victory. He [...]

Read Full Post »

President Jacob Zuma makes ceremonial move to launch initiative. Photo by Supreme Chess Trust. In a sign of good things to come, the Supreme Chess Trust launched “Moves for Life” program on October 24th at a gala event. President Jacob Zuma, a self-described chess player, gave the keynote address. Other dignitaries present were Mrs. Angie [...]

Read Full Post »

On May 15th, I left Chicago’s O’Hare airport for a long journey to Africa. I finally set foot in Africa on May 18th in Johannesburg, South Africa. My trip was delayed two days because of a passport issue. I finally got my passport corrected, boarded my flight and flew a smooth 15 hours over the [...]

Read Full Post »

The Chess Drum’s Daaim Shabazz will arrive in Africa on May 12th with a contingent of faculty members from universities around the continental U.S. The group will visit a number of businesses, organizations and sites in South Africa (3 days), Kenya (5 days) and Tanzania (5 days). Shabazz hopes to be blogging from Africa and [...]

Read Full Post »

The Late Arthur Kobese – May His Dear Soul Rest in Peace Arthur Kobese (South Africa) It is with great sadness that CHESSA has learnt of the passing of Arthur Kobese. He worked for the post office in the Eastern Cape relocating to Soweto around 1980. He became prominent in Chess circles when he began [...]

Read Full Post »

Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System Date: 21 Dec 2009 Title: Checkmate President Zuma Pretoria- President Jacob Zuma is to participate in the inaugural KwaZulu-Natal Chess Tournament tomorrow. The tournament, organised at the request of the President, will be held at the Nkandla Community Hall at 2pm. It is aimed at teaching the [...]

Read Full Post »

African chess experienced a brush with greatness the past week. Viswanathan Anand’s recent visit to Africa has been the subject of conversation this past week. What was not emphasized in the media was his short stop in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province in South Africa prior to Botswana. The World Champion stopped in Durban, a city [...]

Read Full Post »

ChessCube’s Headquarters in South Africa. In a very intesting experiment, Mark Levitt, the CEO of chesscube.com, is holding the South Africa Open with players who are not at the tournament venue. Three players are located in Australia and are playing via the Internet under the supervision of arbiters. The SA Open’s R90,000 ($12,000) prize fund [...]

Read Full Post »

Chess South Africa is hosting their annual Open tournament in July 3-11 at Wynberg High School in Cape Town. The tournament is expecting to draw players from throughout the region and continent. IM Robert Gwaze is scheduled to participate in the event. IM Watu Kobese won the event last year. IM Kenny Solomon may attempt [...]

Read Full Post »

GM Maurice Ashley recently spent time in South Africa touring the schools and promoting chess. He was able to leave the students with some valuable life lessons. The host was David Berman who runs the program, “Chess for Change”. Ashley sent the following letter: Hey Daaim: I just came back from a deeply humbling yet [...]

Read Full Post »

2008 African Junior Championship Chess Association of South Africa pulled out all stops to make the 2008 African Junior Championships a memorable festival. Looking at the large collection of photos, it would appear that they succeeded in making the event memorable. One thing that did not change is the dominance of South African girls and [...]

Read Full Post »

IM Watu Kobese at 2008 South Africa Open Photo by Gauteng North Chess Union. The “African Lion” IM Watu Kobese won the South African Open with a staggering 9.5/11 (+8). At one stage he had eight wins in a row and was only cooled by a draw to IM Thomas Rendle. IM Kenny Solomon came [...]

Read Full Post »