Wednesday 6 August 2014

Uthungulu Youth Trials, 2nd-3rd August 2014

I was invited to Richards Bay as chief arbiter of the Uthungulu Youth Trials by Lisa Griffiths, the chairperson of the Uthungulu Chess Association. Her committee did a good job in organising the tournament, setting up the playing venue, keeping track of the scores and so forth. I really liked their table numbers, which were easy to see at a distance. 

On the first day we had a tournament for the under 12 players. There were no defaults and the juniors played so quickly that I was able to do pairings sooner than expected, so we finished the day early. As there were not enough under 10 players for a full team, the best under 10 players were included with the best under 12 players for team selections.


On the second day we had a full house of players from under 14's to under 20's. Despite lots of late entries we started on time, but then ran late as there were so many defaulters (players who had entered but who failed to pitch up) who had to be removed from the draw before round 2. We later caught up on the playing schedule and held the selectors meeting and prize-giving on time.


On both days there were a lot of new and inexperienced players, with a surprising number of games ending in draws due to stalemate or the 50-move rule (when trying to mate with K+Q vs K or K+R vs K). That's something for Head coach Makhosonke to sort out before Nationals in January! Here are some pictures from both days of the youth trials:



Stefan Britz vs Mongezi Shoba, they both scored 6/7 and tied for 1st place


Tlhoni Tsotetsi also scored 6/7 in the under 12


Khandisiwe Mbambo


Scorers Nishi and Michelle were kept busy


Lisa Griffiths with best girls Lungelo Vilakazi and Londeka Buthelezi


This game ended in stalemate!


Sandile Mdunge vs Nikash Baboolal, the top 2 seeds in under 14

Here are the final results for each age group:

under 8/10/12 results

under 14 results
under 16/18/20 results

For more information, contact Lisa Griffiths.