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. See the 2024 News Page for more on what happened in our 2024 year.

DURBAN CHESS CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, OCTOBER 2024
The club's 131st annual general meeting was held on 17th October 2024 (as there was no quorum on the 10th). Here are the minutes of the AGM and the draft program for 2025.

REVIVE SWISS, JANUARY TO MARCH 2025
The club started its 2025 year with the Durban Chess Club Revive Swiss (link to chess-results). The winner was Jason Subke, with 7 out of 9, closely followed by Sivuyile Mgobhozi, with Sphelele Makhanya in 3rd place. There were over 30 players for most of the rounds.

RAPID SWISS, MARCH/APRIL 2025
The Revive Swiss was followed by a Rapid tournament, played at 2 games per week, over three club evenings. The surprise winner was young Madhav Puran, who has improved considerably since last year. He took the scalps of some of our top players, finishing with 5 wins and a draw. Here are the detailed results: (link to chess-results). Veteran player Cyril Danisa finished 2nd with 5 wins.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS, APRIL TO JUNE 2025
The members agreed to a proposal that the 2025 championships be FIDE rated and held in one section, so that everybody could have a crack at our top players. Another innovation that was agreed to was that anybody could ask for a half-point bye between rounds 2 and 7, so long as they asked for the HPB a week in advance. The top seed was newcomer Matthew Huber (originally from Belgium) who unfortunately had to miss a couple of games. As the tournament reached its half-way stage, the leader was Sphelele Makhanya, with 4 wins from 4 games. However, he was caught by Cyril Danisa, and they finished in a tie for 1st place with 7 points from 9 games. Here are the detailed results: (link to chess-results). The games from the top 5 boards were captured by me and can be downloaded from chess-results.

KZN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS, MAY 2025
The 2025 KZN Open championships attracted a huge field of 265 players. Play took place at Glenwood High School and their main hall provided a pleasant playing venue. Section A was open to everbody and was FIDE rated. Section B was for any players with a rating of less than 1500. Then there was section C, for all the under 12 players. Section A saw a triple tie for 1st place between Banele Mhango, Keith Khumalo, and Providence Oatlhotse (a visiting IM from Botswana) on 6 points out of 7. The best KZN domiciled player was Thapelo Matsaung (on tiebreak ahead of Yan Weilun, who was the best KZN junior player).

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

SECOND SWISS, JULY TO SEPTEMBER 2025
The Second Swiss commenced after the July school holidays. The early leader was Jemusse Zhemba, but he had to withdraw after 4 rounds to return home to Zimbabwe. Madhav Puran then took over the lead, but was caught in a dramatic last round by Khulekani Danisa and Mbusiswa Zuma. Here are the detailed results: (link to chess-results). Here is the last round game between Jerry and Madhav with some brief notes:
(see game here).