The Moja Chess Extravaganza
In South Africa, we have a small city named Kimberly. Less than 300,000 people live there. It’s rich in history, is the largest city in the Northern Cape, and has one very big hole.
You must be wondering… what is the relevance of this pit?
Well, Kimberly is known for its diamonds, the mining thereof, and De Beers, the diamond company. My dream is to go swimming in the hole one day. Though, it might be the last thing I ever do. It’s nearly impossible to reach the body of water or even get close to the edge, I'm not entirely sure how I'd get out (why not pool, if pool shaped). I could go on about the history and the role Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato played but I really wanted to talk about what happened in Kimberly just a few weeks ago…
Yes, I'm making it sound all ominous. On purpose of course. I prefer to be as dramatic as possible when telling a story or writing an article. It was in fact a chess tournament (surprise, surprise) called the Moja Chess Extravaganza that took place in September.
It’s by far (sorry SA Open) one of the biggest tournaments in South African chess. The tournament Organiser, Dr. Jabu Mokoena pulled all the stops to make sure our stay in Kimberly was an 11/10. Thanks Jabu!
A lot of effort was put into the organising of the tournament and the most attractive feature of the event was the prize money (is it crude of me to say?). This year, first prize in the open section was R50,000 ($2850) and first prize for the ladies, R25,000 ($1425). To a South African (me), that’s a lot of dough. You can make many loaves with that dough.
7 players travelled straight from the World Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary just to play in this tournament. Even though most of us were incredibly tired, we powered on, trying to play the best chess possible. There were some brilliant games and many, many upsets. If you're only here to see some of those brilliancies, let me save you the time - scroll to the bottom!
In the open section, 17 year old Matfey Rogov scored an impressive 7.5/9 and +80 rating points. He walked away with first place after taking down some of the top guns including SA’s IM Daniel Cawdery and Botswana’s IM Providence Oatlhotse (who both represented their respective countries at the Olympiad just a couple days prior). I think his live rating must be somewhere around 2300 by now. I still remember seeing him at a tournament early 2022 just after moving to Cape Town. No-one had ever heard of the Rogov brothers before that. Matfey was still 1700 (obviously severely underrated) and instilled fear since his very first appearance. It will be fun to see where he'll be a year from now...
In the ladies section, I had my work cut out for me. I had about 3-4 coffees daily - which was a need - given we were playing double rounds every day. It was also my 6th tournament in a row! Yeah, I’m not sure what I was doing playing that much chess either. I will chat about all of that another time.
After 9 rounds, I scored 8.5 and +14 rating. I was joined on the podium by WIM Anzel Laubscher in 2nd and Jacqui Grobberlaar in 3rd place.
The largest rating gain from the tournament was +119 points. It’s worth noting Sizakele Masango is 27 years old!! “The chess speaks for itself”... Let’s just say she’s doing a good job at representing us ladies climbing the chess ladder in our (late-ish) 20s.
And finally, what is a chess article without some chess.
I present, some of the finest games from this tournament in the form of puzzles. Enjoy!
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Thanks for reading and see you soon! 
