Top seed International Master (IM) Daniel Cawdery fully lived up to expectations when he won the South African Closed Chess Championships
for 2015.
Cawdery was in such in impressive form. He went through
the entire 11 rounds without losing a single game. He won 7 games and
drew 4 games. There is no other participant at the Section A
for the SA Closed who was undefeated.
In second place was the experienced IM Watu Kobese. Third was Fide
Master (FM) Calvin Klaasen and defending champion Donovan Van Der
Heever. 11 Rounds is a long stretch, basically a marathon but
Daniel Cawdery showed great composure with such a great performance.
He will part of the South African Olympiad which will play in Baku
later in the year.
Kulasande Mafanya won the Open B Section of SA Closed with an
incredible 10 points out of a possible 11. He was followed in second
place by Roland Bezuidenhout on 9.5, Daniel Wium (7) and Jacques
Meintjes on 6.5. Mafanya and Bezuidenhout were the only players in this
section not to lose games. Mafanya drew 2 games and won 9 while
Bezuidenhout drew 3 games and won 8 games. These two gentle were tied
on points for much of the tournament until Mafanya pulled away for a
sole lead in the least few rounds.
Women International Master (WIM) Denise Frick won the Women’s SA Closed tournament on tie-break with 7.5 points. Also on 7.5 points was WIM Tshepang Tlale. In 3rd place was Jesse February who staged an incredible recovery in the tournament after a very bad start. She finished off with 7 points. Fourth place WCM Inge Marx on Tie break.
It was very entertaining to play through the games from the closed.
There were many fantastic battles. While in the Men’s Sections Daniel
Cawdery and Kobese seemed to be the main ones battling it out for first
place, in Section B be it was Mafanya and Bezuidenhout. With the ladies
things were a bit more complicated as there were quite a few names
in the mix until the very end.
A very big thank to you everyone involved who made the South African Closed Championships for 2015 a big success.