WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE
This website is devoted to the history of the Durban Chess Club and to the stories of chess players who lived and breathed chess in Durban and its surrounding areas. Durban Chess Club was founded in 1893, making it one of the oldest chess clubs in South Africa. I joined the club in 1974 and was privileged to win the club championships a record 25 times, before retiring from active play at the end of 2018.

Coverage of events from 2019 to 2023 is limited because of the club being closed during the Covid pandemic. Club activities were revived at the end of 2023 and we played our first Revive Swiss in January 2024. The News Archive contains links to previous news stories.

DURBAN CHESS CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, OCTOBER 2025
The club's 132nd annual general meeting was held on 9th October 2025. Here are the minutes of the AGM and the draft program for 2026.

REVIVE SWISS, JANUARY TO MARCH 2026
The club started its 2026 year with the Durban Chess Club Revive Swiss. The lead changed hands numerous times, as you can see here: (link to chess-results). Eventually we had a 3-way tie for 1st place between Jason Subke, Cyril Danisa and Sivuyile Mgobhozi, who all scored 6½ out of 9.

There were many good games, and I have picked this game between Thapelo and Jaydon to show you:


Thapelo vs Jaydon (see game here).

RAPID TOURNAMENT, MARCH/APRIL 2026
The Revive Swiss was followed by a Rapid tournament, played at 2 games per week, over three club evenings. The winner was Jason Subke, with 4½ out of 6, here are the detailed results: (link to chess-results).

ALMOST A BRILLIANCY
I was recently the chief arbiter at an open tournament in Umhlanga, and found the following game to be quite fascinating. It was played at 60/60 and Xolani thought for about 20 minutes before playing his 16th move. Afterwards I asked him what he was thinking about and he said he was thinking of sacrificing his Queen! He decided not to as 1st prize was on the line and he couldn't see the checkmate. What would you have done? Have a look, if your name is Tal or Stockfish, then you already know the answer!


Xolani vs Aviwe (after White's 16th) (see game here).

SA JUNIOR CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIPS, MARCH/APRIL 2026
The annual South African Junior Closed Chess Championships took place near Rustenburg this year, from 28th March until 2nd April 2026. Only the best Junior players in South Africa were invited to play, and these included a number of past and present Durban Chess Club members. Here are the detailed results of the under 8 girls section, from there you can just click on the links to all the other age group sections: (link to chess-results).

Notable successes were Amrienta Gabriels (2nd place, under 8 girls); in the under 14 open Madhav Puran was 5th, Michael Schwartz was 6th and Saien Naidu was 11th; whilst Joray Soojay tied for 1st place in the u18 open.

The organisers broadcast a few top board games on lichess.org at this link: (lichess). Unfortunately the organisers did not scan and upload the notation sheets, as was done in previous years, so I don't have any games to show you.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS, APRIL TO JUNE 2026
The annual Club Championships will be FIDE rated and will take place over 9 rounds, starting on 16th April and ending on 11th June 2026. The event is for club members only, so subscription fees of R400 per annum must be paid, for your entry to be accepted.
Here is the club Banking details and here is the online Entry form.

Pairings and results are here:(link to chess-results).

KZN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS, MAY 2026
The 2026 KZN Open championships attracted close to 300 players, which must be a new record. The playing venue was the Yellowwood Park Civic Hall, which was able to accommodate everybody with room to spare! Both sections A and B were FIDE rated. Section C was for under 16 players and section D was for all the under 12 players.





Section A saw a tie for 1st place between Michael Simpson and Keith Khumalo, with Michael receiving the main trophy due to the direct encounter tiebreak. The best KZN domiciled player was former DCC champion Nashlen Govindasamy, who made a welcome return to tournament chess, after taking several years off for his studies.

All the games from section A were captured by me and can be downloaded here or from chess-results. Here are the detailed results:
KZN Open, section A;
KZN Open, section B;
KZN Open, section C;
KZN Open, section D.



AFRICAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS, MAY 2026
The annual African Youth Championships will take place in Uganda, starting from 14th May 2026. Several of the club's junior members were invited to play. Here is a link to the entries for the under 8 girls section, from there you can just click on the links to all the other age group sections: (link to chess-results).