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Just hours before South Africa battled England for Rugby's great Webb Ellis Cup, a battle across 8800 kilometres commenced: eight children from Bilbao, Spain, pitted wits against eight children from Durban, South Africa.
Play started at 11:00 in both countries in a virtual arena setup on Playchess.com. In South Africa, uShaka Marine World hosted the Durban team, that used computers sponsored by the University of Kwazulu Natal’s School of Information Systems and Technology, and a 3G internet connection sponsored by “Vodacom4u @ uShaka.”
After four hours of intense struggle the match was drawn 8-8!! In Spain, the Bilbao team caught the attention of two former world champions, along with four other Super Grandmasters!!
Former world champion Boris Spassky, Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, Ukrainian
GM Sergey Karjakin, Hungarian GM Judit Polgar, Former FIDE world champion Veselin
Topalov, Chinese GM Xiangzhi Bu and Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen watch the Bilbao
team
Match results (the numbers along the top represent board position):
Individual scores (asterisk means reverse colours):
The City of Durban
Arial shot of uShaka Marine World
The Durban team, playing chess with opponents over 8800 km away!
I n Spain the players are seated in cool, well-shaded rooms
In Durban the blazing South African sun falls into the Marine World venue
All eight games are projected on a panel screen
The youthful team in Bilbao playing on notebooks
Team manager Desmond Rooplal, DMCA Chairman Bongani Mgaga, DMCA’s PR Officer
Moses Hadebe watching the games with keen interest in Durban
In Bilbao it's Judit Polgar, Veselin Topalov and Xiangzhi Bu ...
...Boris Spassky, Pentala Harikrishna, Sergey Karjakin who watch
Oh the pressure: Spanish player Endika Dosuna scored 2-0
Uxue Marcos lost 0-2 to Seshni Govindasamy in Durban
The Durban squad: Miguel Murugano, Adebayo Ojewole, Dhyaaneshan Pillay,
Desmond Rooplal, Nashlen Govindasamy, Pranesh Nukanna, Nashin Pillay, Mondli
Hadebe and Seshni Govindasamy
Report by Desmond Rooplal, pictures by Desmond Rooplal and Nadja Woisin
