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RUSTENBURG HERALD - RUSTENBURG - This coming weekend, 9 to 11 February, all eyes will be on the Bojanala Closed Chess Championship finals being held at Sparkling Waters Hotel. 
The tournament will be rated by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and Chess South Africa. Players compete in age group sections, from U/8 to Open, with each winner being awarded the title of Bojanala Chess Champion 2024, a big trophy suited for a champion, plus R10 000. The runner-up in each section gets R5 000 and third place, R2 500. The best girl in each section also gets R2 500.

The field has been reduced to only the top players in Bojanala, with some strong players missing out. In the primary school sections (U/8 to U/14), four players (Ogone Pilane, Reotshepile Kotsokoane, Alvern Changara and Alvis Changara) are from Fields College. The most from any one school. Lebone College, Laerskool Rustenburg and Laerskool Generaal Hendrik Schoeman (GHS) will still be proud, with each one producing three finalists. These schools were also the top chess performers in the 2023 Bojanala School Chess League.
In the high school sections, Grenville High School, Lebone College and Bergsig Academy each have 2 players. These were also the top three schools in the 2023 Bojanala School Chess league, which seems to suggest that a good chess league performance will normally result in good representation in Bojanala Chess tournaments. One player that has been performing exceptionally well recently is Zandre Myburg from Bergsig Academy. In stage 1 of the chess championships, Zandre started as the sixth seed and comfortably won the U/16 section with 4.5 out of 5. This weekend though, he’ll have his work cut out for him, with the top seed, Raphael “Little Anand” Felix, from St Davids school being back in the mix. Raphael has a Chess South African rating of 1865 and an International FIDE rating of 1829. His FIDE rating is 400 points more than the second seat in the Closed!
Bojanala Chess Federation wishes all these players the best. All games will be screen live on idChess.