Report on the 2026 Steinitz Chess Festival by CM Dr Lyndon Bouah
The Steinitz Chess Club in Cape Town hosted their annual chess festival over the weekend of 20-22 March at De Kuilen High School in Kuils River. I have been playing for Steinitz since 1996. I first heard of Steinitz in 1987 when they won the title of best club at the Chess Association for the People of South Africa (CAPSA) at the annual CAPSA Open held every Easter. Hiran Peterson, from Port Elizabeth as it was then known, told me about the club that had a whole family (the Willenbergs!) and was very strong.
In 1991 when I moved to Cape Town, I joined Bellville South Chess Club and I revived the University of the Western Cape Chess Club. Over the weekends though, I spent time in Bonteheuwel and Heideveld playing blitz with the Steinitz guys. It was in November 1976 that four high school students came together in Kalksteenfontein, a suburb of Bonteheuwel and started playing the odd game against each other. Later in 1977 they decided to form a club. They were school friends who decided that since they were playing together every day in any event then perhaps they should form a club. After much debate they called themselves Steinitz Chess Club after the first chess world champion on 29 April 1977.
The players affiliated the club with the Western Province Chess Association (WPCA). The WPCA had recently broken away from the white Western Province Chess Union to form a non-racial chess body. The players went on to play in the WPCA league from 1979 and their first match was against Elsies River Chess club. No one in the club had a vehicle in those days so club members at the time simply walked over ten kilometres to the other chess clubs to fulfil their league fixtures. That is dedication of the highest order. The players grew in strength and from the mid-1980s started to assert themselves. They won the WPCA league four times in the 1980s.
| Year | Western Province Chess Association (WPCA) |
| 1978 | Manyanani |
| 1979 | Manyanani |
| 1980 | Grassy Park |
| 1981 | Steinitz |
| 1982 | Steinitz |
| 1983 | Grassy Park |
| 1984 | Grassy Park |
| 1985 | Steinitz |
| 1986 | Mitchells Plain |
| 1987 | Steinitz |
| 1988 | Mitchells Plain |
| 1989 | Mitchells Plain |
| 1990 | Mitchells Plain |
| 1991 | league not completed |
In the early 1990’s the political situation was very fluid in the sport movement. The club observed the First Unity tournament in 1991 and did not participate in it. In 1992 the club decided to assist in the formation of a unified chess body in Western Province.
The unified body was established and in 1992 the first unified league was played. This was a very historic time because it was the first time in nearly two decades that organised chess matches were played between white and black chess clubs. In 1993, in the second year of unity in Cape Town, Steinitz Chess Club won the unified league for the first time. For the chess club from Bonteheuwel this represented a new high. The club was featured in various newspapers including the Argus and the South newspapers which was an anti-government newspaper which followed the fortunes of the people of the Cape Flats. This heralded a new high for the club as it went on a recruiting drive which grew the club exponentially.
Steinitz Chess Club has been at the forefront of the transformation within chess. In the late 1990’s Roland Willenberg adopted youngsters from Gugulethu who came to spend weekends with him at his then home in Belhar. These youngsters included Vuzumzi April, Thando Sentile and Kwando Kaso. They later made the WP junior teams and Kwanda Kaso also won the 1997 WP Open.
As the years developed the club started to attract players from all communities. Today Steinitz is proud of its non-racial character with players residing from Durbanville to Bellville and various other parts of Cape Town. Steinitz has always focused on developing its players and does not mind having younger players on the top boards. These players tend to develop faster when they are exposed to stronger competition even at the cost of a league point or two.
The club participates in every WP, Western Cape and Chessa event. Its members travel and traverse South Africa to participate and compete in events.
Steinitz Chess Club boasts at least 10 professional chess coaches who also serve as WP coaches, and the club also currently has active arbiters. The Steinitz Chess Club has had phenomenal success within Chess Western Province (CWP). It has won the CWP league in 1993, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2022 (no over the board league in 2020, 2021 due to COVID-19), within the unified period since 1992. The twelve league victories are a tremendous success for the club and it is tremendously proud of these victories. In 2013 in one of its finest hours Steinitz won the A division, the B and C divisions! The club was runner up eight times in the WP Team league in the following years, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2023. It achieved the bronze medal position in the years 2000, 2015 and 2017. It has thus achieved podium position in 23 out of 33 league seasons. A great return for any club. (It won the online WP League in 2020).
In the Western Cape Chess Championships, Steinitz has won the Western Cape Club Championships ever year between 2012 and 2019. This is an incredible eight in a row! In 2021 Steinitz lost its title when it lost to Elsies River. Steinitz ended joint second in that event with Blackjacks. In 2022 Manyanani won the event with Steinitz coming in second. In 2024 Steinitz again won the Western Cape title.
On the national scene Steinitz has won the South African National Club Chess Championship eight times in the following years 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2019. It was also runner- up on a number of occasions. Steinitz is still the current national Club Champion of South Africa, Steinitz has been a club that has won the WP Team Blitz championships 19 times in the following years 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 2016 and 2019. This is a phenomenal record!
In 2017 the event was not held and in 2018 the club came second behind Stellenbosch. In 2019 the WP Blitz event was held as part of the Cape Town Classic. The Steinitz A team won this part of the event but lost the combined blitz and rapid to MRL in March 2019.
One of the things that have made me proud to be a member of Steinitz Chess Club has been the fact that we organise an annual event in the name of our club. The Steinitz Open was first held in 2007 when Steinitz celebrated its 30th anniversary. The event was exciting and was played at the Claremont Chess Club in Rondebosch. The event was held at the existing chess club and in the minor hall at the library. This first edition was won by the then IM and now Grandmaster Kenny Solomon. All the top players at the time participated in the event. There were some nice prizes and wine holders at the event. Players came from as far as the Eastern Cape to participate in the event.
We then as Steinitz Chess Club started the event again in 2012 when we continued with the 35th anniversary. The event was held at Settlers High School and was very interesting and exciting because our own Craig Willenberg ran away with the laurels after beating his opponents and also helping out in the tuckshop with him mom Marinda!
The event then moved to the Curro Primary School at Century City in 2013. Here we had different sections and filled the whole hall as well as some of the classrooms as well. The event was won by IM Watu Kobese. Watu loves Open Swiss events. He plays exciting and attacking chess. One has to be on guard the whole time because one slight mistake and Kobese is attacking. The Lion of Africa is always dangerous and showed no mercy at the event!
In 2014 Steinitz launched something that had not been attempted for a long time. It organised a Grandmaster section as well as Open section. The event attracted grandmasters from around the world. The event was won by Grandmaster Aleksa Strikovic (Serbia) who ended ahead of hometown favourite (then IM) now GM Kenny Solomon. Other notable players in that event included GM Sergey Kasparov (Belarus) and WGM Katya Toma (Poland and now England) and GM Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh).
In 2015 the Steinitz event was again held at Curro and this time the Prestige Section was easily won by Grandmaster Strikovic (Serbia).
In 2016 the event was won by Daud Amini who ended on 5/6 edging out CM Chiletso Chipanga from Malawi and Kenny Willenberg who was on 4.5/6.
In 2017 the event attracted Grandmaster Sahaj Grover from India who won the event with some good play. I enjoyed my game against him and probably could’ve drawn but went for glory and lost! Steinitz was able to attract some top women players. This event was held in Bellville South.
In late March 2018 the Steinitz Chess Club hosted its annual club event which this year was a FIDE rated event. We were very happy to host the three-time African Junior champion Angolan IM David Silva. The event was well contested and was ultimately won by three players IM Watu Kobese, IM Mohammed Henry Steel and Craig Willenberg. They scored 6/7.
The 2019 Steinitz Open organised to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the club ended in a great victory for IM Watu Kobese. The event had four sections and was well contested.
In 2020 and 2021 we did not host the annual Steinitz event.
In 2022 I won the event with Kenny Willenberg on 5/6. I had the better tiebreak than Kenny and quite enjoyed the event. There were over 200 players.
In 2023 the Steinitz Open was won by Matfey Rogov.
In 2024 the Steinitz Open was won by Lutho Mfazwe.
In 2025 the Steinitz Open was a Rapid event.
In 2026 the event returned to its traditional festival.
On Friday 20 March 2026 players arrived to compete in the Intermediate, Advanced and Championship section. I was seed number 2 and Matfey Rogov was seeded number 1. I had a shocker in the first round when I lost to the talented Indian youngster Shaurya Singh. He played an excellent game when I overpressed.
The tournament then on Saturday had to take a different turn for me. I then ended up winning 2 out of 3 games on the Saturday to end on 2/4 that Saturday afternoon. However, a number of players were announcing themselves. Chase Salimu showed he meant business by playing solid chess and staying on the top boards. He beat Reegan Palmer and 2024 champion Lutho Mfazwe. Mr Singh continued his blistering form by beating Lutho Mfazwe and Reegan Palmer as well. after all the excitement Matfey Rogov continued his fine form by winning the event with 6/6. He was never in any real danger. I thought Ethan Samuels was having a good position against Rogov but the exchange sacrifice of Rogov proved to be enough for the victory.
Chase Salimu announced himself by ending a fantastic second in the event. Ethan Samuels and Lyndon Bouah both ended with 4 each but Ethan only lost one game. Shaurya Singh ended fifth and picked up a whopping 103 rating points!
We will add some games from the event at a later stage. Congrats to all the players and trust that you have enjoyed yourself and that you will join us from 19-22 March 2027 when we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary tournament. See the rest of the tournament photos here: https://steinitzchessclub.co.za/steinitz-festival-2026/
Advanced Section Final Standings
Intermediate Section Final Standings
Under 14 Final Standings
Under 12 Section Final Standings
Under 10 Section Final Standings
Under 8 Section Final Standings
Open Rapid Section Final Standings
