Young chess star crowned African champion

Boksburg North chess master Michael Simpson (12) concluded a dominant showing during the African Youth Chess Championships in Namibia last month by being crowned the undisputed African u-12 open chess champion.

Simpson, a Grade Seven learner at Bishop Bavin School in Bedfordview, won all of his nine games at the tournament to earn himself a Fédération Internationale des Échecs master title (FIDE), translated as International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation.

It was the perfect ending to the year for the young tactician, who also won at the South African Junior Closed Chess Championship in March, also in the u-12 open section.

His next challenge will be to earn an international master title, which is a higher level of the game.

He has already qualified in the top position to participate at this year’s South African Junior Closed Chess Championships (SAJCC).

He also participated in another SAJCC team event at the Birchwood Hotel earlier this month on board A for Ekurhuleni’s u-14 open A-team, winning five of his overall seven games for a 71 win percentage.

With Simpson recently earning the FIDE Master title and immediately turning his attention to the International Master title, he would still need to reach the Grandmaster title before the ultimate Super Grandmaster level.

To put into perspective how difficult it is to achieve the milestone of becoming a Grandmaster, South Africa has only ever produced one Grandmaster: Kenny Solomon.

Many young players like Simpson strive to one day become chess Grandmasters, but that is certainly no easy feat and is thus not achieved by many chess players.

Simpson draws inspiration from reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, a Norwegian chess Grandmaster who is the current world chess champion, world rapid chess champion and world blitz chess champion.

The African champion has played school chess from Grade One and started playing for Ekurhuleni in the middle of his Grade Four year. He also represented the country in India (Commonwealth Chess Championships) and in China (World Cadet Chess Championships) during 2019.

He finished 13th in India and won half of his games in China against some of the best junior chess players in the world.