Wanderers Chess Club siblings shine at South African Junior Closed Chess Championships

Wanderers Chess Club members, Sebastian Stelloh and Alexander Stelloh placed 4th and 16th in the South African Junior Closed Chess Championships.
Up to 30 people in each age group are chosen to play and compete for a position to represent South Africa at The African Youth Chess Championship in June.

“Wanderers Club Chess and the coach decided to award us with trophies for our brave participation and scoring so highly in the five-day event. We loved the tournament. It was difficult but we beat strong opponents we never thought we would beat from different regions,” said Sebastian.

The nine-year-old explained that his dad who is from Germany played chess. “He taught Alexander and me to play chess from a young age, but we only played at home until I was seven and Alexander was five.

The two siblings play chess three times a week – other times more than other days depending on the extramural activities they have.

Alexander explained that schoolwork always came first. “However, we do make sure we get some chess in. Sometimes we play socially or even for our school. We go to The Ridge School and right now it is rugby season; it’s going to be a big juggle.”

Sebastian noted that chess taught him and his brother to be calm when there is a lot of pressure, be a good sportsman be happy for someone else when they beat you (sometimes), patience, and strategy.

“We learned to solve puzzles through patterns and learned to play and have fun with children from different schools.”

Although the two brothers enjoy playing chess, they do not have goals of playing the sport professionally. Sebastian wants to be a zoologist coder and Alexander wants to be an artist.

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