Month: November 2018

Stellenbosch Players Tops at Graham Solomon Blitz Tournament

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Players from Stellenbosch Chess Club dominated the inaugural Graham Solomon Blitz and Rapid tournament held the past weekend in Cape Town.

IM Henry Steel won the tournament by obtaining a combined score of 18 points out of a possible 24. Steel was followed by GM Kenny Solomon, IM Watu Kobese and NM Stephan Wagner.  Wagner is also from Stellenbosch.

The Graham Solomon Memorial Tournament was the strongest rapid and blitz tournament held in South Africa during the past year.

Stellenbosch players dominated the blitz section by clinching the top two positions.   NM Stephan Wagner won this division, while IM Henry Steel took second spot.  The time control for the blitz tournament was 5 minutes per player, with a further 3 seconds added to their time for each move, for the whole game. Stephan Wagner scored 9 out of a possible 12 points with 8 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in this division. One of his losses was to fellow Stellenbosch player IM Henry Steel.  IM Steel also scored 9 points with 7 wins 4 draws and one loss.  Wagner was awarded the top spot on the basis of tie-breaks in this division.  IM Watu Kobese came in third with 8 points.

In the rapid section held on Saturday, IM Henry Steel won second spot with 4,5 points out of a possible 6.

The Rapid tournament was won by GM Kenny Solomon with 5 points out of 6.  NM Stephan Wagner came in 9th in the rapid tournament with 3,5 points.  The time control for the rapid tournament was 20 minutes per player for the whole game plus a further 10 seconds per move.

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Stellenbosch Chess Club host World Championship Talk

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The most anticipated world chess championship contest of the 21st century got underway in London on 9 November 2018. The contestants are the reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway (who has successfully defended his title on two previous occasions) and the American challenger Fabiano Caruana. For the first time since the 1980s the battle for the domination of the chess world is between the two highest rated players. The challenger is also the first American since Bobby Fisher to play in a world championship match.

Dr Lloyd Hill of the Stellenbosch Chess Club gave a talk on the World match titled: The Millennial Grand Masters and 21st Century Chess hosted by the Club on Thursday evening 15 November 2018.

The talk was well attended and received, and led to some lively debate!

Stellenbosch Chess Club will be hosting more of these types of talks in the future. Thank you Dr Hill!