SA’s first chess grandmaster

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Kompete

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There goes my dream of being SA's first chess grandmaster, my rating is around 1500... it was only a matter of time :D

well done Kenny


Cape Town - A Mitchells Plain father who grew up in the township and played his first game of chess at 13, has become South Africa’s first chess grandmaster.

Kenny Solomon, 32 was in a team of five South Africans at the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul for two weeks.

When results were announced at the weekend, he was one of eight international contestants awarded grandmaster – a title held for life. It is the highest title a player can attain and had been awarded to greats like Garry Kasparov and the late Bobby Fisher. To become a grandmaster a player must have a performance rating consistently above 2 500.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-afr...irst-chess-grandmaster-1.1380191#.UE_ea2thiSM
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Awesome news, makes a nice change from the usual negative crap we get fed.

How does the rating work? Number of wins?
 
Fudzy said:
Awesome news, makes a nice change from the usual negative crap we get fed.

How does the rating work? Number of wins?
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Sort of, but the rating of your opponent is taken into account as well. Eg, beating an 100 rated retard 50000 times is the same as beating Kompete once :D
 
grav80 said:
Sort of, but the rating of your opponent is taken into account as well. Eg, beating an 100 rated retard 50000 times is the same as beating Kompete once :D
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Where are the rankings kept? I'm assuming you would only 'level up' during official meets?
 
Fudzy said:
Awesome news, makes a nice change from the usual negative crap we get fed.

How does the rating work? Number of wins?
Click to expand...

Basically its a score/value calculated based on how you perform against the players. Beating a player with similar of higher rating = good, losing against a n00b = bad for rating. :)

Wikipedia

The ratings are normally kept by by either FIDE of in South Africa Chessa. You have to play in tournaments that are rated, meaning they meet certain requirements and the results are sent to FIDE or Chessa or who ever.

I think its epic that we finally have a GM!
 
Rated mid 1400 and I consider myself a decent player , can only imagine a 2500 !!! Respect to Kenny !!
 
Fudzy said:
Where are the rankings kept? I'm assuming you would only 'level up' during official meets?
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Well the official FIDE (world chess fed) ratings would only be done for the very top players, probably elo rating of above 2000 or so.

But the popular chess sites like ICC uses a similar systom or formula for determining players ELO ratings, and since there are literally hundreds of thousands of registered players, the rating that you get should be reasonably accurate and comparable to official FIDE ratings.

And you can experience it (i.e. you can feel the strenght of the opponent) when you play someone on ICC with a rating above or below yours. They also have events where grandmasters appear online to play or just teach the community
 
Well done!!!

He was brought on to coach the WP junior team the year when I played in the WP under-20 team. Played him only once in the WP league on board 1 and we drew. Now I can gladly say I drew against a grandmaster:D
 
Johnone said:
Well done!!!

He was brought on to coach the WP junior team the year when I played in the WP under-20 team. Played him only once in the WP league on board 1 and we drew. Now I can gladly say I drew against a grandmaster:D
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Wow , not everyone can say that !!!! I am envious !! Which club do you play for ?
 
Johnone said:
Well done!!!

He was brought on to coach the WP junior team the year when I played in the WP under-20 team. Played him only once in the WP league on board 1 and we drew. Now I can gladly say I drew against a grandmaster:D
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Ai, but he was not yet a grandmaster at the time! This is where the trick comes in!
 
Johnone said:
Well done!!!

He was brought on to coach the WP junior team the year when I played in the WP under-20 team. Played him only once in the WP league on board 1 and we drew. Now I can gladly say I drew against a grandmaster:D
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Nice. years ago I also played the then SA champ (forgot his name) who visited our school and he played 8 of us simultaneously. I took so long to make my moves that he eventually got tired and offered me a draw - which I accepted gratefully :D
 
Pfft, I'm a Super Grandmaster :p

Well done to Kenny though, great accomplishment!
 
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