NASHLEN GOVINDASAMY
(1996 - )


Nashlen giving the traditional champion's simultaneous on 10 June 2010,
from the left his opponents are Alf Kohler, Ray Pietersen and Shaun Savy

Nashlen was born in November 1996 and won the Durban championships in June 2010, making him at 13 years and 7 months the youngest ever Durban champion. He eclipsed the old record set by Royee Banai way back in 1997.

Nashlen learnt the game from his father Collin, who also taught the game to his older sister Seshni. I understand that his first national tournament was the under 10 RSA championships, held in December 2005 in Port Elizabeth, where he scored a creditable 6½ out of 9 (=5th place). He followed this up with 5/7 in the under 12 event in 2006 and 6/9 in 2007. Another score of 6½ out of 9 on his debut as an under 14 in 2008 was followed by 7/9 at Cape Town in 2009. This secured him 3rd place on tiebreak and a place in the SA Junior Closed held in Pretoria in March 2010.

At the SA Junior Closed Nashlen finished in 2nd place with 7/9 and thereby secured a place in the South African junior team for 2010. Nashlen's success at the Junior Closed and in the Durban Championships saw his rating jump from 1714 in March to 1844 in August 2010.

Games

A win from the 2010 SA Junior Closed against the 1st placed player follows:

[Event "SA Junior Closed u14 Boys"] [Site "Pretoria"] [Date "2010.03.28"] [Round "3"] [White "Govindasamy, Nashlen"] [Black "Roberts, Marcel"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1714"] [BlackElo "1688"] 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 e6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.d4 b6 5.c4 Bb7 6.0-0 Nbd7 7.Nc3 c6 8.a4 dxc4 9.Nd2 Be7 10.Nxc4 0-0 11.e4 a6 12.Bf4 Nb8 13.a5 b5 14.Nb6 Ra7 15.Bxb8 Qxb8 16.e5 Nd5 17.Nd7 Qd8 18.Nxf8 Qxf8 19.Nxd5 cxd5 20.Qb3 Bd8 21.f4 g6 22.Rfc1 Ra8 23.g4 Qh6 24.Qf3 Bc8 25.Rc3 Bd7 26.f5 g5 27.f6 Rc8 28.Rxc8 Bxc8 29.b4 Bd7 30.Bf1 Bc8 31.Bd3 Bb7 32.Kg2 Bc7 33.Qh3 Qxh3+ 34.Kxh3 Bb8 35.Re1 Ba7 36.Rc1 Bb8 37.Kg3 h6 38.Kf3 Kf8 39.Rg1 Ke8 40.Rg3 1-0


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