GM Hikaru Nakamura successfully completed one of the largest simultaneous exhibitions ever held in South Africa as he took on a total of 101 opponents as his last major activity associated with his visit to the 2017 South African Junior Chess Championships (SAJCC).
His opponents largely consisted of a determined set of youngsters including some of the best junior players in the country. Few were willing to give him an easy ride and none wanted to be the first to finish.
The full event lasted a mammoth 6 hours and saw Naka play in excess of 3000 moves while covering a distance of close to 4.5 km's. He eventually scored 92 wins and conceded 7 draws and 2 losses.
The two successful players were 17 year old Khanya Mazibuko from Tshwane and 14 year old Alexander van der Merwe from Western Province. Alexander found a nice tactical combination to win his game while Khanya earned his win the hard way as he finally converted the point in the final game to finish the event.
KCF Africa would specifically like to acknowledge Mr David Swartz from SWVG Attorneys for his contribution towards making the exhibition and tour a reality. We also wish to thank Tanda Tula game lodge in the Timbavati National Park for generously offering their facilities to Hikaru as he continues to explore South Africa over the next few weeks.
Hikaru will now remain in South Africa for another few days and will be spending some vacation time on Safari and in Cape Town before he returns to Gibraltar to defend the prestigious title he won at this tournament in 2017. We would like to wish him luck with his title defense and we thank him for the incredible contribution he has made to the players who have been privileged to interact with him over the last 5-6 days.
Credit for all photos goes to Lennart Ootes who has been capturing all proceedings for the 2017 tournament on behalf of the local organizing committee.
His incredible photos which form a fantastic digital catalog of the entire tournament are available on his personal Flikr account at https://www.flickr.com/photos/42731673@N06/albums and from the official Facebook page of the SAJCC tournament at https://www.facebook.com/SOUTHAFRICANJUNIORCHESSCHAMPIONSHIPS/
His opponents largely consisted of a determined set of youngsters including some of the best junior players in the country. Few were willing to give him an easy ride and none wanted to be the first to finish.
The full event lasted a mammoth 6 hours and saw Naka play in excess of 3000 moves while covering a distance of close to 4.5 km's. He eventually scored 92 wins and conceded 7 draws and 2 losses.
The two successful players were 17 year old Khanya Mazibuko from Tshwane and 14 year old Alexander van der Merwe from Western Province. Alexander found a nice tactical combination to win his game while Khanya earned his win the hard way as he finally converted the point in the final game to finish the event.
KCF Africa would specifically like to acknowledge Mr David Swartz from SWVG Attorneys for his contribution towards making the exhibition and tour a reality. We also wish to thank Tanda Tula game lodge in the Timbavati National Park for generously offering their facilities to Hikaru as he continues to explore South Africa over the next few weeks.
Hikaru will now remain in South Africa for another few days and will be spending some vacation time on Safari and in Cape Town before he returns to Gibraltar to defend the prestigious title he won at this tournament in 2017. We would like to wish him luck with his title defense and we thank him for the incredible contribution he has made to the players who have been privileged to interact with him over the last 5-6 days.
Credit for all photos goes to Lennart Ootes who has been capturing all proceedings for the 2017 tournament on behalf of the local organizing committee.
His incredible photos which form a fantastic digital catalog of the entire tournament are available on his personal Flikr account at https://www.flickr.com/photos/42731673@N06/albums and from the official Facebook page of the SAJCC tournament at https://www.facebook.com/SOUTHAFRICANJUNIORCHESSCHAMPIONSHIPS/
