DURBAN CHAMPIONSHIPS March to May 2013:
The club championships started on 14th March, and we now have 2 weeks remaining to determine all the winners. Here are the pairings for 23rd May and these are the pairings for 30th May.

Section A became a standard 10 player round-robin, following the withdrawal of Bentham and Mabuya. Currently Bongani Mgaga is on fire with 6 out of 7, with his next game being against Nashlen Govindasamy, who is on 5 out of 7. Jason Subke has ended with 6 out of 9. These are the latest results and pairings for section A.

Section B has got 9 games still to play, and is now wide open after Paul Curry stumbled and lost to Denver White this week. Paul is still leading with 6½ out of 9, but it looks like he will be overtaken by Jonathan Kupis, who now has 6 out of 7. Here are the latest results and pairings for section B.

Section C has just 2 games left to complete. Ampie Niehaus has won the section with 8½ out of 9, with Nadean Gopaulsingh in 2nd place on 6½ points. Here are the latest results and pairings for section C.

Section D is now complete. James Naidoo was the clear winner with a full house 9 out of 9! James had some trouble in his last game vs Rajendra Moodley, which went down to the last minute of play. Going into the event James was unrated, so it will be interesting to see his new Chessa rating. Mondli Ngcongo finished in second place on 7 points. These are the final results for section D.

KWA-ZULU NATAL OPEN 26th to 28th APRIL 2013:
Durban Chess Club celebrates its 120th birthday this year ... so we decided to go BIG and increased this year's prize fund by R8 200, for a total of R23 700.

These are the results after the final 7th round for section A, section B.

LATEST DOWNLOAD: 2013 KZN Open (games played on top 10 boards).

SOUTH AFRICAN JUNIOR CLOSED 1st to 7th APRIL 2013:
A large number of our junior members took part in the SA Junior Closed event held in Benoni. I was particularly impressed by the under 12 boys where Ananta Reddy finished 1st with Cailin Chetty in 2nd place. Well done to them!

ETHEKWINI OPEN 22nd to 24th MARCH 2013:
The KZN Chess Union had a record 164 entries to this event, although this was reduced by a number of player defaults. The first round saw a few big upsets, the biggest being on table 13 (unlucky for some), where Thirushan Pather scored a 780-point upset! Quite a lot of players ended day 2 on 4 out of 4, including young Marques Hansen, who registered wins over Bongani Mgaga and Henco Marais. The final 3 rounds saw a number of draws, which left several players in the running for the top places. We got the much anticipated battle between visiting stars Daniel Cawdery and Rodwell Makoto in the last round, with Daniel winning this one to secure 1st place. In the last few minutes of play, errors by Durban players Nashlen Govindasamy and Jason Subke let their opponents through to tie with Daniel on 6½ points. These are the final results.

FISCHER MEMORIAL 9th MARCH 2013:
Robert James Fischer (9 March 1943 -17 January 2008) is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. Durban Chess Club hosted a one day rapid tournament to commemorate Fischer’s 70th birthday at Glenwood High School. In a tournament full of upsets, the biggest shock came in the last round, when top seed Erick Takawira blundered a piece against Marius Botha and lost. This led to first prize being shared between Nashlen Govindasamy and Marius Botha, both with 6 out of 7. A large group followed, just half a point behind them. Here are the final results after round 7.

MOSS KOLNIK MEMORIAL SWISS January/February 2013:
The club's first tournament of the year started on 10th January and is now finished. Here are the final results after round 8.

GLENWOOD OPEN 23rd FEBRUARY 2013:
Thanks to Jonathan Bentham for organising the Glenwood open. After 6 rounds top seed Nashlen Govindasamy was leading by half a point, but he could only draw his last round game, which let Keith Rust, Desmond Rooplal and Travis Chetty catch him on 6 out of 7. Here are the final results after round 7.

DURBAN AND KWA-ZULU NATAL CHAMPIONS:
A full list of Durban Champions and Kwa-Zulu Natal Champions is included here. These pages highlight the achievements of some of those players, as well as paying tribute to a number of players I have met over the board in Durban. Detailed cross tables are available from 1953 for the Durban championship, and for most years for the Kwa-Zulu Natal championship.

DOWNLOADS:
This page includes the games from the 1969, 1971 and 1972 Natal Opens, as well as games from the 1978, 1993, 1995 and 1996 South African Opens held in Durban - some 3,300 games in total. A special collection is all of the games (over 1,200) published in the Durban Chess Club Bulletin from 1973 to 1996. You can also download the FIDE laws of chess that became effective from 1 July 2009.

Recent updates: Games from 2013 KZN open, pairings list & results of club championship, results of KZN open 2013, report on SA Junior Closed, report on Ethekwini open, revised club calendar, results of Fischer memorial rapid, results of Moss Kolnik memorial 2013, results of Glenwood open.
For previous news stories refer to my News from 2012 page, or to my News from 2011 page.

Keith Rust.

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