World number one Magnus Carlsen played a simultaneous chess exhibition against players from Cape Town’s chess clubs.
Some of the world’s top chess grandmasters, including world number one Magnus Carlsen, played freestyle chess against Cape Town players at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on Thursday.
Eight top players are participating in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in Grootbos, close to Hermanus, next week.
Freestyle Chess, also known as Chess960, is an increasingly popular variation of chess in which the back rank at the start of the game is randomly chosen from 960 possible positions. Carlsen has been championing this form of the game because players cannot rely so much on their memory of chess openings to play it.
There were hundreds of spectators at the event. Dozens of them got to play against the grandmasters.
The UWC event was organised by Freestyle Chess in partnership with Chess South Africa.
Besides Carlsen (Norway), the hundreds of chess fans were entertained by the world’s elite: Levon Aronion (formerly from Armenia, now United States), Vincent Keymar (Germany), Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran) and former challenger for the world championship Peter Leko (Hungary). Carlsen, Aronion, Leko and Keymar played a simultaneous freestyle exhibition against local players. Maghsoodloo played blitz (fast) games against young fans.
Grandmaster Peter Leko, who narrowly missed becoming world champion in the 2000s, played freestyle chess against eager youngsters.
The crowd applauded as the players arrived at the UWC stadium. Carlsen and Aronian, who was for a long time the world number two and is known for his friendly, chatty demeanour, got especially loud cheers.
Andre Lewaks, president of Chess SA, said to GroundUp that it was a “huge development” in the South African chess world to have the tournament hosted in the country and on the continent.
Lewaks noted that elite tournaments such as the World Chess Olympiad have never been hosted on the African continent. In August this year, Chess SA announced its intention to bid for the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess Olympiad 2030.
Lewaks said the Freestyle Chess tournament would “showcase [South Africa’s] capacity to host this type of event”. He also said it would allow chess players to “demonstrate their abilities” and “bring chess closer to the people”.
Burton van Staaden, from the Kraaifontein Chess Club and also former Cape Town Chess President, said, “To have these grandmasters playing focuses the attention of the whole world on Cape Town.”
Lyndon Bouah, the chief director for sport and recreation in the Western Cape department, and one of the country’s leading chess players, introduced the grandmasters ahead of the event at UWC.
Tauriq Jenkins from the Observatory Chess Club said chess is an accessible sport that can be played “irrespective of race, class, creed, and physical ability”. He said it was an “intimate” sport, where you could find yourself sitting across a board with someone for hours. “The pieces become an extension of the player themself,” he said.
Next week’s tournament will include the above players (except Leko, who will be commentating for the live broadcast) as well as Fabiano Caruana (United States), Arjun Erigaisi (India), Hans Niemann (United States) and Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan).
Grandmaster Parham Maghsoodloo played blitz against promising junion Janko Weideman from Durbanville.
Iranian grandmaster Parham Maghsoodloo played against up-and-coming junior 16-year-old Bianca Hagan of Brackenfell.
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Bunny Chow. This is a traditional South African Indian dish and usually consists of curry served in a hollowed-out half-loaf of unsliced white bread. It’s best when the bread is soft and fresh and the curry is extra spicy.
Amphibi-Dangerous
Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?