Biography
Early Years
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My name is Innocent. I primarily specialise in blitz chess online. My chess journey had its beginning when I was 9 years old when my mother bought a chess/checkers set for me and my brother. However, the rules seemed somewhat abstract. There were few pictures available to elaborate on what the lexical descriptions were trying to convey. What was a diagonal? I remembered asking. I proceeded to get a dictionary to look up the definition. However, I could not quite understand. Was it referring to the diagonal with each individual square or another kind of diagonal?
I then began attending the local Msunduzi library, where I happened upon a book that explained the rules of the game using both words and pictorial illustration. I could not borrow the book from the library at that point since I did not yet have a library card. So I tried to remember the rules.
I then excitedly bought a chess set to challenge my brother. I tried to explain the rules as well as I could remember them. However, they were not correct. There were times when I tried to make up new rules, and my brother called me out on this.
There came a period of time when I forgot about the game. However, my mother had a Nokia phone, which had several games. These games included "snake," "space impact," "bounce," and chess puzzles. Seeing the chess puzzle game rekindled my interest in chess.
I returned to the library again to learn the rules. However, even though I learnt the rules, I could not solve the puzzles on my mother's cellphone.
A time came when my mother bought a new cellphone, and I became acquainted with how to download games from the internet. I remember downloading a chess-playing application and challenging my brother! This time, the rules would have to be followed! The game also made learning the rules easier as it highlighted the legal moves that were possible when I clicked on a piece!
And hence, my brother and I played. And I lost every single time! But at least I finally understood the rules, and all that I had read previously began to click and make sense.
Incidentally, around this period, when I had learnt chess, I would have an opponent that was not my brother. It was a young girl from my class named Nadia Mohammed. She had surprisingly brought a chess set to school. No one seemed to know how to play except me. I then played her, and as I was winning, she got frustrated and broke the rules. She picked up her knight and moved it far down the board in an "L" shape to capture my king and then announced that she had won!This led to a bitter argument, and we never played again.
I discovered later on that my mathematics teacher, Mr. Ebenezer, could play chess. I was one of the top math pupils in the grade and had a great deal of respect for Mr. Ebenezer. He was quite skilled in arithmetic and seemed to make no mistakes. I viewed him as supremely intelligent—there was no way a young mortal like myself could approach his great intellect.
Nevertheless, we played a game, and I won! I could not believe that I was a superior chess player! It baffled me.
Shortly after our encounter, the school announced a series of games, ranging from tennis, football, chess, and checkers. I decided to play both chess and football! My football team, called "the peacemakers," got knocked out of the tournament. However, I still had chess to look forward to.
In the final round, I face a young girl named Robyn Lee. She was attractive, and she earlier shoved me aside as we accidentally bumped into each other. I had a great deal of anxiety playing her, but the brief physical encounter motivated me to "settle the score.
I won that encounter, and I was crowned chess champion of Mountain Rise Primary School. It was the seventh grade. My final year! The next year, I would be attending Alexandra High School.
High school began on a Wednesday, and I had a great deal of self-confidence and enthusiasm. My brother had already told me about all the exciting sports and extracurricular activities offered by the school. However, I had little interest in chess. I wanted to be a popular boy. Hence, I chose a novel and active sport, i.e., basketball.
I was afraid of being identified as a nerd. In primary school I was very physically active. At one point I was in 4th position in the whole grade for a marathon. When I was 10, I was the fastest boy in my age group. I did not want to be viewed as an intellectual but as a jock who could relate to most people.
During orientation, different sports were introduced. The chess captain took the podium to introduce chess, and what he said intimidated me. He said that chess is for serious people. I was never that serious even though I tended to perform well academically. I was afraid of exerting myself mentally too much. On that day I decided not to play chess as an extramural.
There came a day in which a friend of mine, named Hlakanipho, came from the library after doing our homework. As we passed the halls, we noticed a classroom in which chess was being played. Hlakanipho suggested that we play if I knew how. I agreed.
I won that game against him, and then I was pitched against one of the strongest boys in the school. I also won that game, and everyone was very shocked. I was invited for chess practice in one afternoon that very week.
I was winning most of my games quite easily. I would open with the scholar's mate setup. Some of my weaker opponents fell for it. The more experienced players countered it, and the game would continue normally.
I was close to selection when my brother showed up. We were paired against each other, and he always had a psychological advantage as he was always bigger and stronger than me. I lost most of my games against. He was my one true nemesis!
My brother knocked me out. I was not selected to play for the team. However, he declined the spot! I guess he just wanted to humble me. That was his only objective. He couldn't care less about serious playing, which is rather unfortunate, as he was naturally and highly talented.
There came a point in the 8th grade where one team player quit. The captain selected me to take his spot. I played many students from several different schools, including Maritzburg College, Weikhem Collegiate, St. Charles, Ixopho Secondary, Maritzburg Christian School, Hilton College, among others.
My final standing was 3rd place overall! I received my first chess trophy and certificate! The subsequent years I would go on to win team championships.
My greatest achievement would come in the 11th grade when I was placed 1st in the individual interschool chess championship. The championship was held in St. Charles College in the 3rd quarter. I was doing rather well until I was beaten in the final round by an opponent from Hilton College. My opponent had also incurred a loss earlier, which meant that we were both tied for first place.
Consequently we had to face each other in a tie break which consisted of speed games that were 5 minutes or less each. I completely outplayed my opponent in this format and won first place. I could not believe it!
The following week, during the school's assembly, our results were announced in the school hall. If memory serves, a fellow schoolmate got 3rd place. Then my name was called up as being first. The hall erupted in audible gasps. I was taken aback by this as I did not feel like I did something particularly amazing. But it was at that moment when I realised that I had shocked and surprised peers.
I actually received notoriety for playing chess. In the 8th grade, I thought the only way to achieve that was through playing physical sports. Many of my peers who played physical sports got almost no recognition for it. And here I was—a bit of a nerd who played chess, receiving applause for playing chess.
I think a few girls noticed and began greeting me more often. My high school life changed a bit.
I was finally awarded a colours award in high school, which was a fancy blue blazer. I never wore it, of course, as I was extremely shy and avoided drawing too much attention to myself.
The next year would be my final year of high school and what I thought would be my final year of chess.
12th grade began, and the chess team looked more or less the same with very few new faces. We were joined by two or three 9th graders. I announced that I would be quitting chess that year. My teammates, including Marcus, Sphumelele, and his younger brother, convinced me to stay. In retrospect, staying was the best decision I had ever made.This year St. Charles College had new young talent. Two boys in particular were incredibly strong. I could not beat them. I remember one of the boys' names. His name was Gregory Charles Hall. He completely outclassed me. He beat me with the greatest of ease while singing songs or reciting popular TV commercials.
I felt humiliated but at the same time gained a great deal of respect for him. The young man was truly exceptional. He truly humbled me.
These experiences of playing Mr. Hall made me realise that there are higher echelons of chess skill that exist out there outside of the weaker scholarly pools. This ignited my ambitions to push myself to attain greater heights of chess proficiency.
I proceeded to go to the library to pick up a book on chess openings. But I could not make sense of the chess notation! It was an old form of chess notation called description notation. The book was also heavily laden with analysis and variations, which were way too advanced for me at that point.
I ended up returning the book in defeat. I was discouraged by what I saw. It seemed that the more advanced levels of chess were something incomprehensible to me.
But then I was researching material related to chess on YouTube one day, and I came across a guy named Bobby Fischer. I saw his game annotated by a YouTube channel called "Chess Network." He played a game against Pal Benko in the United States Chess Championship.
This game was so beautiful. It completely changed the way I viewed chess. The tactics that showed up were so beautiful and profound. The geometrical motifs that were introduced left me in shock and awe. Chess took on a new meaning.
I then proceeded to learn more about Bobby Fischer and came across a documentary called "Anything to Win." This documentary, once again, rekindled my ambitions of attaining higher levels of chess skill. I then began training towards the remaining months of my high school. I learnt algebraic notation and got myself a brand new chess set. I also procured a notebook for chess where I would record my games against cellphone and computer programs in an attempt to reflect back on my games and learn from all of my mistakes and errors.
I also began watching more YouTube videos to learn some chess principles and ideas. I learnt from Chessnetwork primarily. I also learnt from Mato Jelic and some content from online chess lessons.
I opened a couple of online chess accounts. My first outside of Mxit chess was on a Russian chess server called "Jagplay chess." Here I met new friends and could socialise and improve. I also began reading books on chess. This was the beginning of a novel obsession with chess.
I kept this up in the subsequent years, and this led me to become the chess player I am today.