Marianne Merten
‘I’m hoping one day to be a chess grandmaster. That’s my goal,” smiles Craig Willenberg (14), who is South African and Western Province chess champion in his age group.
Craig and his older brother Kenny have grown up in crime-ridden Belhar and for the two, chess is not a sport but a passion.
“I can sit here for six hours straight just give me some pieces and a clock,” says Kenny Willenberg (16). He holds the under-18 South African and Western Cape provincial honours.
The teenagers are now preparing to compete at the World Youth Chess Festival the chess equivalent of the rugby World Cup in Spain later this year.
Various sized chessboards and trophies are proudly displayed in the living room of their modest semi-detached home. Engraved glass chessboards they won at last year’s South African championships are still wrapped in the protective packaging.
Kenny’s school blazer features three scrolls for chess the highest honour his school bestows for a pupil’s accomplishments.
“On the chess scene we are like celebrities. To deal with it you have to be on your best behaviour,” Kenny explains.
Coming from a tough neighbourhood with one of the highest murder rates on the Cape Peninsula, staggeringly high unemployment, gangs and many shebeens has its challenges.
But the brothers shrug and say they know “how not to get into such things”.
Their father, Roland Willenberg, admits to being a bit of a disciplinarian. “I don’t allow them to play games at the shop,” he explains. “We may live in the ghetto, but we don’t have to be it.”
The Sicilian defence, Queen’s Indian defence or the Three Knight game may baffle most people, but these moves are all in a day’s game for the teenaged chess champions. Both have mastered moving pieces across the board while blindfolded, as well as blitz or speed chess.
They study chess theory from the 40-odd books on their shelves. Kenny says they also play computer chess games “because all that’s in the books is on computer”.
In 1979 Roland Willenberg started a chess club which is still going strong today. He coaches chess hopefuls.
Kenny and Craig are third-generation players. The youngsters started playing when they were four years old. Their family jokes that their father put pawns into their mouths when they were babies, instead of dummies.
Yet their father was caught by surprise at their expertise.
“To be honest I didn’t teach them. I just found out they could play. They refused to go to bed when their uncles came to play.”
Craig started playing chess in earnest in 1995. In his first year he captured both provincial and national honours and at the age of nine went on to compete in Spain. Kenny came into his own about two years ago. Last year he was tied for third place at the World Chess Olympiad in the Ukraine. Some 300 youngsters from 29 countries competed there.
But the brothers will miss out on their invitation to the prestigious South African Closed Championships during their school break. There is simply not enough money to send them to Pretoria despite the prestige attached to the by-invitation-only contest.
Sponsorship is scarce. Most companies regard chess as a Cinderella sport without spectators, compared to the crowd-pullers like rugby, cricket and soccer. There is little financial support from provincial or national sports departments.
“Chess is exciting and challenging. We prefer a chess game to playing soccer,” says Craig.
“Not always. We are not chess geeks,” chips in his older brother, who plays soccer at school.
The boys’ mother, Marinda Willenberg, plays chess occasionally. Asked if she ever beats them, the teenagers hide their smiles and admit they let her win sometimes.