African 4.5 Zonals: Team South Africa fares well, heading into the final stretch
The 2022 Zone 4.5 African Individual Chess Championship has crossed the half-way mark, and the South African contingent is keeping its title hopes alive in both the Open and Women’s sections.
South Africa has traditionally been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to African Zonal events. Funding and the Covid-19 pandemic meant that the Zone 4.5 event did not take place in 2021 or 2020, while Chess South Africa (Chessa) politics resulted in no South African players participating in the 2019 event. This means that it has been 4 years since South Africans were able to watch their top players battle it out for the Zonal title, when WIM-elect Megan Van Niekerk won the Women’s section (with WGM-elect Jesse February in second place) and FM Calvin Klaasen brought home bronze for the men in the 2018 Championships held in Mozambique.
Credit: Kenyachessmasala.com
This year, the South African contingent consists of FM Daniel Barrish and FM Calvin Klaasen in the Open section, and WIM Jesse February, WIM Anzel Laubscher, Robyn Klaasen (neé Van Niekerk), and Chloe Badenhorst in the Ladies section.
FM Barrish is the current South African Champion, and started as 2nd seed in the event. FM Klaasen is a previous South African Champion and Olympiad player, and 5th seed in a field where relatively little rating separates the 1st and 9th seed. WIM February is 3rd seed, but a strong contender for the title as the reigning African and South African Champion, while 6th seed WIM Laubscher brings years of Olympiad experience to the board. Klaasen showed she was a strong competitor after placing 2nd at the 2019 South African Closed Championships, and Badenhorst won the u14 Girls’ section of the 2021 African Youth Champs in Ghana undefeated, and is looking to gain valuable experience at the event.
The Open Section
After 3 rounds, Barrish was sole leader on 3/3 after a clean win against CM Donaldo Paiva from Mozambique, where he was never at risk of losing. He looked to be on-track to maintain his half-point lead into round 5, as he built up a solid advantage in the middlegame with the black pieces against Timothy Kabwe of Zambia. However, after a series of inaccuracies, things were looking more equal, and Barrish missed a tactical queen manoeuvre which would have handed him a large advantage. Soon after, Kabwe was able to pick up a pawn and force a queen trade, after which white’s connected passed pawns were unstoppable.
Nevertheless, Barrish bounced back strongly in the afternoon game and had a dominating win over Kabwe’s compatriot, FM Nase Lungu, to head into the rest day on 4/5.
After a surprise draw in round 1 against Mabuza Mbongeni from eSwatini, FM Klaasen quietly worked his way back up the rankings. First, he disposed of host-country Lesotho’s Lebajoa Tsephe, and then he outplayed FM Lungu with white in a game where the engine never even dipped below 0.00. CM Paiva’s unfavourable results against South Africans continued when facing Klaasen in round 4, as Klaasen’s passed d-pawn ended up overwhelming white’s defenses.
Heading into round 5 joint first, it was Klaasen’s opportunity to get Barrish’s revenge over Kabwe, as well as head into the rest day as sole leader on 4.5/5. It looked as though this was the likely outcome, as Klaasen exited the middlegame with a large advantage which climbed all the way to +8 in the endgame. With queens still on the board, and only one extra pawn, Klaasen still had to play precisely to convert the game. Unfortunately, time was not on his side, and with 4 minutes left on his clock (versus his opponent’s 1h16min), he missed the way forward and one inaccurate check a few moves later brought the engine evaluation to equal and the game ended in a draw.
The South African men have shown that they can compete with the best in Southern Africa, and the field is still wide open. After 5 rounds, four players are on 4/5 and there will no doubt be a lot of exciting chess over the next few days. After the rest day, South Africa will clash on board 1 where Barrish and Klaasen will duke it out, while Zambia’s Kabwe and Siame Kela Kaulule will battle it out on board 2. With decisive results on these two boards, the field of leaders will be whittled down to 2, and with Klaasen-Kaulule the only remaining match-up among these four players, it’ll be up to the rest of the field (including top-seed FM Sergio Miguel) to determine the champion of the event. Players like Spencer Masango from Zimbabwe, who is only half a point behind the leaders and still to face both South Africans, will also be eagerly waiting for any of the front-runners to slip up in the remaining 4 rounds.
Results for the open section can be found here, and the top 3 boards’ games can be watched live here or here.
The Ladies Section
With only 2 boards being broadcast from the ladies’ section, it’s been harder to follow the South African women’s tournament apart from the overall results, but the chess that we have been able to watch has no doubt kept viewers on the edge of their seats.
After an ‘easy’ first round win for most of the South African players (with the exception of Badenhorst, who played top seed WIM Esperanca Caxita from Angola), the difficulty ramped up drastically in round 2. Laubscher looked poised to score an upset against Caxita on board 1, but a series of inaccuracies in the endgame (with mere minutes left on the clock, compared to Caxita’s 40+ minutes) handed the advantage to the defending Zonal champion, who clinched the win just as the move-40 time control was reached. Klaasen and Badenhorst lost to their higher-rated opponents, while February was only able to score half a point off of experienced opponent WCM Constance Mbatha from Zambia.
In round 3, February and Laubscher faced off, with the African champion emerging victorious. Since the first two boards ended in draws, this placed February in a 5-way tie for first going into round 4. Klaasen beat eSwatini’s Temahlubi Dlamini, while Badenhorst was able to score her first point against host-country’s Sethabathaba Boitumelo.
Round 4 saw February playing on board 1 against Angola’s WFM Ednasia Junior. February was never in trouble, and was able to pick up a knight and then a queen after patiently building her advantage. This put her in a three-way tie for first place heading into the final round before the rest day. Caxita’s victories over the South African women continued as she beat Klaasen, while Laubscher and Badenhorst moved to 2/4 as they beat their lower rated opponents.
Round 5 was a crucial one in the Ladies section, with the winners on the top 2 boards looking well-placed to maintain their lead for the rest of the event, given that many of the top match-ups had already happened. Things looked bleak for February on board 1 as her Angolan opponent, WFM Luzia Pires amassed a large advantage in the middlegame, with the engine evaluating the position as -6 despite black only being a single pawn up. Fortunately for February, Pires struggled to find the correct continuation and after giving the pawn back, a fairly equal endgame was reached.
As we all know, though, endgames are games where single moves can make the difference between drawing and losing, and it was Pires who had all the chances in the endgame. In the end her, knight proved too tricky and her king too active, and she was able to simplify the game to a won ‘rook and two pawns vs a rook’ position, which she converted without difficulty.
In another South African match-up, experience triumphed over youth as Laubscher scored the point off of Badenhorst, while Klaasen was able to bounce back with a win against her lower-rated opponent. This means that, heading into the rest day, February is in a three-way tie for 3rd, one point behind the leaders, Pires and Caxita. Both leaders still have to face 2nd seed, WFM Junior, and February still has to play against Caxita, so South Africa’s chance for the title in the Ladies section is not over. Even Laubscher and Klaasen, each on 3/5, still have good chances of a podium finish with a strong performance in the last 4 rounds, although a big obstacle is their match-up in round 6, where only the victor will keep their podium hopes alive. On 2/5, a top-3 finish for Badenhorst is looking unlikely, but she still has a chance to gain valuable experience and climb the rankings in the second half of the event.
Results for the ladies section can be found here, and the top 2 boards’ games can be watched live here or here.
***
All the available South African games (not already shown) are presented below:
***
The 2022 4.5 African Zonal Chess Championship is taking place in Maseru, Lesotho from 5-13 March. The tournament consists of 9 rounds, with a time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move from round one, with an additional 30 minutes added for the rest of the game after 40 moves have been made.
The prize fund for the Open section totals USD$4 650 and the Ladies section has a prize fund of USD$2 750, and both sections’ winners will receive free travel, board and lodging to the 2022 Sharjah Masters or Challengers, subject to rating requirements.
While it was advertised that winners in the Open and Ladies section would be awarded IM and WIM titles, respectively, it is alleged that this is no longer the case (more to follow once more information is available).
