Sonop and Madelief crowned new TuksChess Kings and Queens

Posted on March 08, 2016

On  March 2016, TuksChess invited the University of Pretoria residences and faculties to a thrilling TuksChess Res Tournament at Sci-Enza. Thirteen teams participated of which ten were male teams including Olympus, Boekenhout A and B, Sonop, NatHouse, Vividus Men, TuksVillage, TuksNaledi, Hatfield Studios Men and Ladies, Madelief, Klaradyn and Curlitzia. The men’s teams were divided into groups A and B, where the best two teams of each group would face each other in the semi-final and the winners would be determined thereafter. Each team consisted of five players and the team that won the most games in each group would get 1 point altogether. Teams with equal points after a round would then only get one point.

The day got off to a rather slow start but momentum and excitement built on as the tournament proceeded. Madelief were the winners of the ladies section, although the competition was tight between them and Hatfield Studios. Klaradyn and Curlitzia were let down by numbers as some of their players showed potential to represent TuksChess in the future. From group A, the two teams that proceeded to the semi – finals were Sonop and Boekenhout A, both teams showed flair in the group stage beating other teams by great margins. The teams that proceeded into the semi – final from group B were Vividus Men and NatHouse.

The highlight of the group stages was Maropeng Molepo’s win over Craig Bornheim (Sonop). That was Craig’s first loss since he joined TuksChess as a first-year student in 2012. Sonop won in Group A by winning all of their group games and Boekenhout A was placed second in Group A with 2.5 points. Vividus Men and NatHouse were tied at first place in the group stages with 3.5 points each. NatHouse won the group on overall game points. This meant that Sonop would face Vividus Men and Boekenhout A would face Nathouse in the semi-finals. Sonop and Boekenhout A proceeded to be the winners of their respective semi-finals to book a rematch in the finals.

Vividus Men and NatHouse played a 2 ½ tie each in the 3rd and 4th playoffs. We had to the use the blitz board 1 chess game as tie-breaker to determine the winners. NatHouse won the game with 20 seconds left on each side. The overall winner of the competition was Sonop, who narrowly beat Boekenhout A 3-2 in the final match. It was good for TuksChess to see such a good turn-out for the tournament. A big shout out to Hatfield Studios Men and Ladies for joining us for their first time. TuksChess would like to thank all the participants in the event. A great thank you also goes to Sci-Enza for  providing us with the venue for the tournament.

- Author Godfrey Kgatle

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