Julian Isaak, the 2010 Namibia National Junior Chess Champion won the 6th Kehat Beukes Memorial Chess tournament ahead of senior chess players.
In round 3 Julian Isaak and William Kamberipa was paired agaisnt two senior chess players and Julian remarked to his peer "We will get them today William". Little did we know that his words was no idle comment it was a threat. It was real. The young lad, according to his version blew away Candidate Master Charles Eichab after the latter made an apparent blunder.
On the other side of the hall Max Nitzborn the 2011 National Chess Champion also had to fight for dear life as he chose the dubious Budapest Defence against one of his students. The attack of the young lad was relentless and Nitzborn had to accept defeat at the end. It was shock and awe. Two TWCA (The Weekend Chess Academy) students just annihilated two senior chess players in the same round. This feat placed Julian Isaak in the lead and he remained there until the last round.
In the picture is all the winners. From left to right Stephne Swartz, Lichen Mentile, Rex Oberholzer, Sylvestor Nanyala, Julian Isaak (The Champion) Abhinav Lahiri and Charles Eichab.
The 6th Kehat Beukes Memorial chess
tournament came to an unusual end. It’s the first time in Namibian chess
history where 4 players came in tied for first place and had to be separated by
tie-breaks. The players were, Julian Isaaks, Sanders Oberholzer who is a former
national team player returning to chess after a long break, CM Charles Eichab
and Max Nitzborn. They all scored 7/9 points.
Direct-encounter was the first tie-break and could not
be applied because the players didn’t play out amongst themselves which meant
that the placement had to be done by the Progressive score which was the 2nd
tie-breaker. Julian who scored an inspired victory against top-seed and two
time winner- CM Eichab- when the latter blundered in a winning position led the
tournament on progressive score from that moment onwards. He lost to Oberholzer and Nitzborn in the
later rounds but still enjoyed a superior progressive score.
In 2nd place was CM Eichab and in 3rd
Oberholzer. Lishen Mentile won the best Girl Prize followed by Stepne Swartz.
Sylvester Nanyala rallied after a poor start to won the best Junior prize
followed in second place by Abhinav Lahiri. The organizers would like to thank Anna Bayer, Dr.Ogbonna as well as Thuringer Hof hotel and Windhoek Country Club and
Resort for sponsoring the event.
The Namibia Chess Federation would like to thank Charles Eichab and Larissa Beukes for organizing the event. Well done!! Keep it up.
