On 23 February 2024, Wynberg’s top four chess teams departed Cape Town to attend the prestigious annual chess tournament hosted by Grey College, Bloemfontein. This was the thirteenth time that WBHS had attended the tournament and the first time as defending champions. Never in the 21-year history of the tournament had there been a school to win the title back-to-back, but after hours of chess matches over two days our 1st team did it again, winning the tournament as the best chess team for the second year running!
We were able to take 4 teams on tour again this year with our matric group making up 12 of our 16 players, and with the help of our coach, Fayyaaz Harnekar, our teams were well-prepared for the challenge. All four teams faced off against schools from all over South Africa and the results speak for themselves.
Our C and D teams took part in the B section of the tournament and placed second and eleventh respectively. This was an outstanding tournament for our 3rd team, achieving a silver medal against some very strong teams and only narrowly missing the gold medal against Paarl Boys’ B team. Both our 1st and 2nd teams played in the A section and competed against some of the best school players in South Africa achieving first and eighth place respectively.
Adding to the awards, we congratulate Daniel Budge for achieving the Board Prize on Board 3 for winning all five of his games at the tournament.
This tournament is an amazing opportunity for boys to push their limits to keep improving. All our players can be incredibly proud of the results:
1st team: Keean Vassen (Captain), Daniel Budge, Damian Hetherington, and M Saalih Tasriet.
Final ranking – 1st (out of 20)
2nd team: Hasan Smith (Captain), Ben Budge, Ethan Pinn, and Liam Storey.
Final ranking – 8th (out of 20)
3rd team: Amien Gierdien (Captain), Adam Uhuaba, Jake Rowe, Connor Brown.
Final ranking – 2th (out of 36)
4th team: Sebastian de Klerk (Captain), Ross Read, Thomas Roberts and Matteo Coronti.
Final ranking – 11rd (out of 36)
Article courtesy Mr Louis Schultz, Teach in Charge of WBHS Chess
