Darryl at the 2004 Natal Open

Darryl was born on 25 February 1969, and died on 28 March 2006, soon after his 37th birthday. He was taught to play chess by his father, but was soon able to beat him, and started reading chess books from the municipal library in order to improve his game. The simultaneous exhibition given by Karl Robatsch in early 1988 made a big impression on Darryl, and he subsequently played in the "C" section of the Natal Open in that year, where he tied for 6th place.

Darryl decided to join the Durban Chess Club in 1989, and made his mark very quickly in the Moss Kolnik Memorial Swiss. In the Durban Chess Club Bulletin I wrote "I was impressed by Darryl Mhlongo's win against Dave Turner. He is obviously a talented young player and plays with great speed and confidence". Darryl nearly caused a major upset in his game against Brian Byala (who was 2nd in the 1988 Durban championship), blundering in an ending when he was two pawns up.

Darryl made his debut in the 1993 Durban championship, where he ended with 6/9 just ½ point behind the joint winners. Had he not sealed an ambiguous move in an advantageous position against Gerald Boulle, he may well have been the 1993 club champion. In later years, Darryl battled to repeat this performance, with his best result coming in his final appearance in the 2004 championship, where he tied for 2nd place on a score of 6½ out of 9 games.

Darryl competed in the Natal Open on numerous occasions, winning the tournament in 2001 with 6/7 after a titanic last round struggle with myself (see game below). He was crowned Natal Champion on a tiebreak, ahead of Danisa and Paraskevopoulos. He shared first again in 2003, but this time he lost out on the tiebreaks.

Perhaps Darryl's proudest moment came when he won the 1995 Fat Albert Open, a one-day tournament held at the University from 1994 to 1996. Darryl received the magnificent first prize of R2000 after scoring a full house 7/7. His game against Pekka Niiranen is given below.

Another tournament that Darryl delighted in winning was the Glenwood Open, which he won in 1997, 2000 and again in 2001.

Here is a selection of games by Mhlongo. The first game was played in the last round of the 2001 Natal Open, at the time limit of 90 minutes for the game, and the next in the last round of the 1995 Fat Albert Open, at the time limit of 25 minutes for the game.