The main IM Norm tournament went down to the final round encounter between GM Sahaj Grover and GM Farrukh Amonatov where Farrukh demonstrated his class to finish on a fine 8/9 and claim the R10,000 first prize. Sahaj ended second on 7/9 ahead of IM Daniel Jere from Zambia who claimed 3rd place with a solid +2 score of 5.5/9. In fourth place was our own International Master Rodwell Makoto who defeated one of the top Grand Masters who took part in this round robin tourney GM Grover Sahaj of India in an interesting tactical game which was won by Makoto. The winner of this ten player round robin was Amanatov. Our own Spencer Masanga finished last with 1 point in this round robin tourney.
He managed two draws against GM Sriram Jha of India and Hercules Benjamin of South Africa.UNfortunately Makoto failed to hold against the highly rated GM and the winner in an interesting game which he could have at least drawn , but he miscalculated and eventually lost a well fought game. His other losses were against GM Sriram Jha of India and Mosethle Kgaugelo of South Africa. This event was sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation. This foundation is doing some great exploits in the Southern African chess community. Recently they also sponsored the Easter Open in Zimbabwe as well as one in Zambia.
This month from the 26th-28 they will host another tourney in Swaziland. So all roads will lead to Swaziland for this open tourney. For registration people can log onto the Kasparov Chess Foundation website.
The lower sections saw some incredible performances and we specifically wish to congratulate the following section winners and stand-out performances:
Round Robin A – 1st FM Roberto de Abreau (+35 ELO), 2nd FM Jack van Zyl-Rudd (+50 ELO)
Round Robin B – 1st Siyabonga Choko (+37 ELO), 2nd Aaron Klevansky (+38 ELO), 3rd WIM Anzel Laubscher (+38 ELO)
Round Robin C – Masiya Mafundo won this event with 7/9 to earn a tournament highlight of 223 ELO rating points!
Round Robin D – Vusimuzi Mlahleki recorded the only 9/9 amongst the round robin sections to earn 132 ELO! Hansen Marques ended 3rd in this section earning 121 ELO in the process!
Round Robin E – FM Dante Beukes from Namibia won this event with 8.5/9 to earn 129 ELO! CM Ewald Schoeman earned 120 ELO for 2nd place and Donald van der Westhuizen improved by 80 ELO for his 3rd place finish.
Round Robin F – Unrated James Dinham won this section with 7/9 to record a 1605 tournament performance and secure his first FIDE rating!
Round Robin G – Dawid Marais won this tightly contested section with 7/9
Swiss A was won outright by FM Francois Oberholzer with a perfect 7/7
Swiss B was won outright by John Mkhaliphi with 6.5/7
Swiss C was won on tiebreak by Liam Stuurman with 6/7
Swiss D was won on tiebreak by Helen Rautenbach with 4/5
The Swiss E was won by Lebone Malunga who scored a perfect 5/5
Final results and standings for all sections are available at http://chess-results.com/
The games were also live on Chess24 broadcasting the games from the tournament. This tourney was a success said the tournament Director Graham.