Fresh chess articles by Nick, breaking news, keen insights and the occasional controversial opinion.
I won’t go back to my early years (it can be summed up as: Chess Fanatic from the age of 9) but two things that changed my life were:
In 1966 I had caused half of the False Bay Chess Club to resign when I accepted André van Reenen, designated coloured, as a member. In 1970 Van Reenen departed the WP Chess Union to form the Chess Association for the People of South Africa (CAPSA). South African chess was split down the middle. The SA Chess Federation went along with the apartheid government while the SA Council on Sport whose motto was “No normal sport in an abnormal society’ excluded itself from all existing sporting bodies. Its members were not even supposed to watch sport on TV. CAPSA was affiliated to SACOS.
In July 1972, Eschel Rhoodie, was appointed to the post of Secretary of Information. Shortly after his appointment to what would later be called the ‘Dirty Tricks’ Department, Rhoodie created an organisation designed to counter South Africa’s sporting isolation. The result was the Committee for Fairness in Sport. On the counter side SACOS did all it could to exclude sport, including chess, from international competition.
Donald Woods
I first came into contact with Woods, a chess enthusiast, in 1975 when he accompanied Len Reitstein and Bill Bowers, president and vice-president of the SA Chess Federation, to the World Chess Team tournament.
South Africa went up in flames after the June 1976 youth uprising. The government responded by banning the entire Black Consciousness Movement along with many other political organisations, as well as issuing banning orders against various persons. Under Woods, (he was editor from 1965 to 1977), the Daily Dispatch had been critical of the South African government, but was also initially critical of the emerging Black Consciousness Movement under the leadership of Steve Biko. A young black woman, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, berated Woods for writing misleading stories about the movement, challenging him to meet with Biko. The two men became friends, leading the Security Police to monitor Woods’s movements. Nevertheless, Woods continued to provide political support to Biko, both through writing editorials in his newspaper and controversially hiring black journalists to the Daily Dispatch. I was then working as a sub-editor at the Cape Times (part of the same newspaper group), and attended a public meeting at UCT where Woods called Biko’s death, murder. The government denied giving Biko these injuries, even though police officers admitted to beating Biko to the point of nerve and brain damage. Woods was banned by the government soon after Biko’s death, and his life threatened. He fled to London, where he continued to foster opposition to apartheid. The movie Cry Freedom. documents that period of his life.
Before leaving, Woods asked me to be the conduit for news reports he intended to write — he joked that if he sent me a game, his moves could not be printed because he was banned! The Editor of the Cape Times, Tony Heard, published the letters Woods sent me under a pseudonym. On his return to South Africa in 1991 we met at the Waterfront, where we filled in our different histories and I introduced my son, Daniel to him. Woods again returned to South Africa in 1994 to support the fundraising efforts for the ANC election fund. He died in 2001.
When the ANC was unbanned, I received call from my fellow journalist, Lennie Kleintjies to meet the bogeyman of the nationalist government. It opened a new chapter in my life. Cameron Dugmore, the ANC’s Sports spokesman and future Education Minister in the Western Cape, took me to the Claremont Civic Centre where I was invited to join the ANC along with Kadar Asmal. Cameron introduced me to Berte van Wyk, Lyndon Bouah and Francois Kleynhans and together we formed a new body called the SA Chess Congress (SACON). We were charged with bringing chess into the ANC’s vision of how sport should progress.
The two existing bodies, the SACF and CAPSA were not on speaking terms. The former wanted things to go on as usual with some concessions, while CAPSA demanded a moratorium on all overseas contact. As SACON we eventually brought about reconciliation and contacted Fidé. I was delegated to draft the letter to Casta Abundo a Filipino, Fidé General Secretary, who I got to know when I worked in Manila in 1967. Fidé appointed a CACDEC (Committee for Assistance to Chess Developing Countries) troika headed by Nigerian lawyer, Emanual Omuku with US anti-apartheid activist, Jerome Bibold, and John Warnock president of the US Virgin Islands federation. It took weeks of hard negotiations before Omuku demanded a conclusion and Chessa was born.
From 1996 Fidé officially allowed SA to participate again in International Fidé regulated Championships. Selection of the team was the next challenge. I managed to get Dimension Data to set up a video conference link between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Michael O’Sullivan led the Johannesburg selectors and Faik Haroun the Cape Town team. Because CAPSA had been entirely Cape based and isolated, it was tough getting O’Sullivan to accept Deon Solomons and Maxwell Solomon from the Cape, but Charles de Villiers, David Gluckman and Watu Kobese were acceptable to both sides. Although everything seemed resolved, some tensions still remained and there were some unfortunate occurrences before and during the Olympiad . Watu was playing abroad and somehow his ticket to Manila did not arrive. De Villiers needed only to play in the final round to receive his international master title, but he was not included in the final four.
Although I would have preferred South African chess and its players to be at the top of the league I feel fortunate to have been at the centre of these momentous events and having met so many courageous fighters for freedom.
said Carlsen. “However, I submit to it.”
The Norwegian GM is on track to break Garry Kasparov’s record in the world rankings. Fidé would like chess to be considered an Olympic sport by the IOC in the future, and for that an anti-doping program is a prerequisite.
Carlsen met the Norwegian agency AP for an interview and answered some questions about drug use in chess, something he has never considered:
“For me it is unthinkable to do such a thing.”
It appears he will in the future have to submit urine or blood samples, in or out of competition. Carlsen is at a loss to say what he thinks about these measures. He thinks about it for a while, looking at his manager Espen Agdestein as he answers questions on the subject – and finally says that this is not a big deal for him.
“If I have to report where I am all the time, I’ll have to think more about it. I could get used to it, but it seems quite unnecessary.”
But does he think it is possible to take restorative pills to enhance one’s performance? “I suppose that is possible. But in order to perform well you would have to take things during the game. For my own part I need no hocus pocus in order to perform.”
Now that cycling is losing its sponsors one by one as a result of the Lance Armstrong case, one can’t help wondering if some of these companies could be interested in chess. A new story about cheating – in this case suspected cheating – doesn’t really help to create the image of a clean sport, though.
In last Sunday’s second round of the Bundesliga in Germany the chess games were overshadowed by an incident of suspected cheating. Falko Bindrich’s game was declared lost by the arbiter when the Germand grandmaster admitted that he had his smartphone with him while visiting the toilet, but refused to show it.
Chess Vibes reported “Before playing his GM Falko Bindrich (2532) went to the toilet, even though it was his move. In itself this shouldn’t be a reason for suspicion (if you gotta go, you gotta go).
“That’s why arbiter Dieter von Häfen decided to follow Bindrich, and ask him whether he had his smartphone with him. Bindrich answered positively, but refused to show his phone. The arbiter then pointed out to the player that if his phone wouldn’t show anything chess related, he could simply continue his game. As Bindrich still refused to cooperate, the arbiter decided to declare the game lost.”
There is far more technology involved in chess than in more physical sports. Chess playing programs and online play play a part, but must not have any place when players face each other across the board.
In the United States Chess League, where teams meet not facing each other, but using the Internet Chess Club — ICC — server an incident occurred during the week seven match between Dallas and Arizona, in the Board One game between GM Julio Sadorra and GM Rogelio Barcenilla there was a severe rules violation committed by the winner of a game, GM Barcenilla. who was detected as having “task-switched” out of ICC 24/37 moves in his game, and at the end of the game a chess engine (Houdini) was found to be running on his computer.
There are many initiatives to improve the level of coaching in South Africa with the lure of coaches being awarded titles — an obsession in chess, but this will be the subject of another article.
These initiatives have done a wonderful job at increasing the chess-playing skills of the coaches, but how to apply these skills to the players you are supposed to coach, that is the question.
“This was something he had tried out and enjoyed while studying at Moscow University and he quickly gained a reputation for transforming serious, hard-working 2200 (Elo) players into grandmasters. Similarly, it was said that established grandmasters could become champions under his tutelage and his student register began to read like a ‘who’s who’ of chess greats. Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Vesalin Topalov, Evgeny Bareev, Joël Lautier and Loek Van Wely were just a few of the players who benefited from his coaching. Four of his students went on to become Junior World Champions.”
He made his charges work! To survive with himself and the partner at his Moscow Academy, Artur Yusupov, students were expected to put in an eight hour day at least, and to keep on proving that they absorbed their lessons, not just regurgitating material, but learning to analyse their own games and those of future opponents. Slack and you get your ticket home.
South African coaches were privileged to attend a course by Efstratios Grivas the celebrated Greek trainer. My friend John Jurgens came away like a prophet new inspired, and I am sure that his charges will be better players after some sessions with him.
But a coach like John needs the infrastructure of an academy with many specialists.
Take the routine of a world champion, Anatoli Karpov, in preparation for the 1975 match that did not materialise — the World championship match against Bobby Fischer.
In South Africa we are not (yet) preparing for a future world championship contender, but are able to send a player to the World Junior Championship.
Former World Champion, Anatoli Karpov had the pick of Russian grandmasters psychologists and physical trainers.
“I was getting up late, because I go to sleep late. I was getting up at half past eight or nine o’clock, then physical exercise. Then breakfast. After breakfast, we worked on chess maybe two or two and one half hours, then one hour of tennis or swimming. Then lunch, then after lunch a one-hour break, then a chess game. Then more chess for two to three hours, then another half to one hour sports, then dinner. Then (after dinner), of course not every day, we could spend time on chess preparedness.”
So come on Chess South Africa let us start with young hopefuls for the next World Junior and the one after that..
The Western Province Awards Ceremony featured Ronel Pieterse as an action woman.
The first move is brilliantly hidden, and makes solving all the more difficult.
White to play, Mate in three
Black: Nakamura
White: Aronian — to play
White admitted he overlooked the consequences of 26. Rd2 — what happens next?
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