Key to Solomon’s success

His rapid rise from aspiring talent to chess hero was fuelled by a sponsorship from an unlikely source.

Solomon, 32, had approached many companies with requests for sponsorship, writing letters and meeting executives in an attempt to get funding to attend major chess tournaments, many of which take place in Europe.

A serendipitous meeting with a director of South African Bunkering and Trading through a friend and fellow chess player led to a low-key get-together over coffee in 2009, where Solomon was able to explain his goal of becoming a grandmaster.

Despite there being practically no overlap in fields — SABT is a marine fuel supplier, not a consumer brand — the company decided to sponsor Solomon fully for 2009.

“I don’t know of any individual chess player fully sponsored by a company in South Africa before my time,” he said.

Solomon said South African chess administrators had struggled for years to get sponsors to cover the junior squad’s expenses to represent the country at the World Youth Chess Championships, or to get the Chess Olympiad team flight tickets and accommodation for the biennial event.

Previously, sponsorships tended to cover only certain expenses.

“Sponsorships were mainly for tournaments. Over the years there was the Coca-Cola Open in Gauteng, and Red Bull sponsored some chess events, as well as the Spescom-Lightpointe Open chess tournament I played in the early 2000s.”

Solomon said he thought it “nearly unreal” that SABT had decided to sponsor a chess player in full.

The main costs for Solomon are flights to Europe and accommodation, as well as further training from grandmasters.

“In South Africa, top chess players play local events and need to combine that with chess coaching. That’s exactly what I did before. But the big prize money is where the best chess players are, which is mainly in Europe, the US, Dubai -in short, in the northern hemisphere.”

As is typical with sponsorships, Solomon has had to account for his use of the money -such as for training or materials and travel — but the R800 000-plus sponsorship has gone further than perhaps even Solomon could have imagined.

It not only continued beyond 2009 but, playing in 12 events a year, which equates to more than 90 games, mostly around Europe, last year he reached the pinnacle of the sport.

Solomon won the gold medal at the 2014 African Individual Chess Championship, held in Windhoek, Namibia, in December, to become South Africa’s first grandmaster.

Aside from world champion, it is the highest title in world chess and is retained for life.

This makes him only the second grandmaster from sub-Saharan Africa, after Zambian Amon Simutowe.

“I spend every day training and studying chess, four to five hours, and do physical training as well. If I am preparing for an important tournament, I can train the entire day. I teach kids at a chess club and spend time with my family in the evenings.”

Solomon is married to an Italian and has a three-year-old daughter at home in Venice.

SABT managing director Jon Hughes said the company had become hooked on the chess sponsorship idea, with a current plan to find ways to support the development of a chess academy, including with other partnerships.

The sponsorship of Solomon will remain open-ended.

Solomon’s goals are similar. “I would like to start a chess foundation in South Africa and be involved with producing more grandmasters in my country and, possibly, one day a world chess champion.”

Source: http://www.bdlive.co.za