Reflections by Lyndon Bouah

Wednesday 11 November 2015 will go down as an historic day in the chess community in Cape Town.

The Old Mutual Mitchell's Plain schools chess league was formed at Cedar High School. In 2015 a pilot league was started to gauge the interest in Mitchell's Plain. The area is of course famous for being the birthplace of Kenny Solomon, South Africa's first grandmaster. Seth Riley Adams the current South African under 12 champion resides in Mitchell's Plain.

Old Mutual was founded in 1845. The 166 member Mutual Life Association of the Cape of Good Hope was founded with no initial capital other than the premiums of the first policy holders. In 1954 it issued its millionth policy and in 1982 was the first South African company to revive over R1billion in premium income.

In 2012 IWYSE brought Grandmaster Garry Kasparov to South Africa and he promoted chess in South Africa. I continued to have talks with the company and in 2015 we agreed that Old Mutual and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport would combine to build a chess league in Mitchell's Plain which has over 70 schools.

Eight schools registered for the 2015 league and we envisage a further 12 schools will register for the 2016 league with the league being built incrementally each year by ten schools.

The teams played on Old Mutual boards and used white and green pieces. The Western Cape Department of Education then issued each participating school with tens chess sets each. This will allow the schools to play each other on an intra-school and inter school basis.

The league has certainly stirred the interest in chess in Mitchell's Plain. The first league was won by Mitchell's Heights Primary C team school with the results being as follows:

Team P W L D GP MPMitchell Heights Primary C 5 4 0 1 24,5 4,5Meadowridge Primary 5 4 0 1 24 4,5Huguenot Primary 5 2 1 2 16,5 3Parkhurst Primary A 4 2 0 2 15 2,5Caradale Primary A 5 2 2 1 13,5 2,5Montague Drive Primary 5 2 2 1 12,5 2,5Caradale Primary A 5 2 2 1 13,5 2,5Caradale B 5 2 3 0 14,5 2Merrydale Primary 5 2 2 1 13,5 2Mitchell Heights A 5 2 3 0 11 2Mitchell Heights Primary B 4 1 3 1 6 1,5Parkhurst Primary B 4 1 3 0 7,5 1

Mr. Savarion Arendse and Mrs Helene Africa from Old Mutual Western Cape

The Old Mutual Chess board and Chess set.

Budding Grandmasters

Getting Ready to Capture