Roxanne Thangwane and Xolani Koyana

ONE of the greatest chess players of all time, former world champion Garry Kasparov, met his match yesterday in Khayelitsha where he was held to a draw by an 11-year-old Cape Town pupil, Daniel Barrish.

Kasparov was in Cape Town to promote a joint venture between his foundation and a local NGO providing local chess-based mathematics and science programmes aimed at under-privileged children.

Yesterday the Russian played simultaneous chess matches against 25 young people in Khayelitsha.

After going toe-to-toe with Barrish for three hours, the international chess grandmaster surrendered to the Grade 6 SACS pupil.

Speaking to the Cape Times from his Constantia home, Barrish said it had been an honour for him to play Kasparov.

“I was very happy that I was going to play him, even more that I drew with him. I was nervous and thought I was going to lose. He made a couple of mistakes, he was moving too fast and I capitalised. He had to fight for a draw,” the 11-year-old said.

Barrish, a three-time under- 10 national chess champion, has never conceded a defeat in his age group. He also won the African chess under-10 championship and is the youngest in the Springbok chess team.

His father Jean-Claude Barrish said he was proud of him: “He is good, he has lots of talent. He has put a lot of work into it. He is doing very well academically and what I like is that he balances everything out because he also plays cricket, rugby and tennis.”

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

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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