On Wednesday 12 September 2018 Candidate Masters Perrson Abrantes and Lyndon Bouah presented a lecture at the George Sports Club in George. Mr. Pietie Steyn organised the lecture after learning that I would be in George that day. The clubs in attendance were George Chess club, Pacaltsdorp chess club and Mossel Bay chess club.
The lecture started at about 6:10 and ended about seven thirty. CM Abrantes told the audience about chess in Mozambique. He pointed out that Mozambique first competed at the Olympiad in 1996 in Armenia and thereafter only started up again in 2006. Chess in Mozambique has however come along in leaps and bounds. In 2008 Mozambique hosted the first and thus far only Zone 4.3 Team Championships which was won by South Africa by one point with Angola being second. CM Abrantes reported that in 2011 Mozambique hosted the All African Games and chess was one of the codes of sport.
CM Abrantes
CM Abrantes has competed in three Olympiads already and will be competing in his fourth Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia. He is playing board one for Mozambique. He regaled the audience with his games against many famous grandmasters including some great games against GM Servey Kasparov and GM Ipatov. CM Abrantes relishes the cut and thrust of the open practical play. He holds South African players in high esteem and enjoys good relations with everyone.
In my
lecture I told the audience about Olympism and what my duties as a captain of
the Olympiad team will be. I also analysed the game I played against Piet Kroon
in a league match. I shall share the game in a later article.
I was quite taken by the George chess club. The club had their boards out and had various chess articles posted against the walls as well as pictures of former wins of various events. I share some of these. I was also intrigued by the clubs ladder which shows the ranking list of the club. I remember the ladder that was used at my old high school. It certainly brought back memories.
I gave Romano Floors a lift to Pacaltsdorp. I’ve spent very little time in Pacaltsdorp and Mr Floors shared some views with me. We drove past the amphitheatre of Chief Dikkop also known as Chief Dikwe. Floors pointed out that although George is celebrating 200 years it is actually Pacaltsdorp that is 200 years old! According to Wikipedia the mission station Hoogekraal was named Pacaltsdorp after the death of the German speaking missionary of Czech origin, the reverend Charles Pacalts in 1818. He was invited by Kaptein Dikkop/ Dikwe, leader of the Khoikhoi living in the area.
He informed
me that Pacaltsdorp chess club started in 2016 with about five clubs. The club
has grown to fifty players now due to support from Eden Chess club. It aims to
integrate chess in schools all around
George, taking with it, New Dawn Park Primary, Delville Park, St Mary’s, George High and other schools. In 2017 and 2018 the club hosted the Pacaltsdorp Open that attracted players from as far afield as the Eastern Cape.
Pacaltsdorp Chess Club
In 2017 the club entered six 6 teams into the Eden chess league. Pacaltsdorp A won the first division with a clean sweep and has been promoted to the Eden Premier division. In 2018 Pacaltsdorp entered four teams in the Eden league. They came second in the Premier and Pacaltsdorp B came third in the 1st Division.
At the SAJCC two players qualified for the SA Closed championships while others won the majority of their games. Sydney Micheals won the SAJCC under 8 girls section and became SA National champion. PCC delivered 12 players who competed in the Western Cape Chess trials in 2018. New Dawn Primary school ended as 1st place under-11 team in Eden. New Dawn Primary also ended in 3rd place in the Western Cape top schools under- 11.
Regards
Dr Lyndon Bouah 3jIXuHؓ
