Passing Khayelitsha on the right and Delft on the left, it was not an average road trip out of Cape Town’s southern suburbs. It was dark and rain splattered the car windscreen.
Images of Cape Flats gangsters and carjackers clashed uncomfortably with the idea that somewhere nearby, people played chess.
But if the residents of Belhar on the Cape Flats deliberately sought to set themselves apart from the South African nightmare that borders much of the suburb, they did a good job of it.
Gone were the brooding big-brother-style floodlights and serried ranks of inadequate housing, replaced by generous, gardened plots and street names such as Symphony, Sonata, Ukelele, Mandolin and Harmony.
Belhar is home to Steinitz Chess Club, the reigning South African champions after triumphing in both A and B divisions at the national championships in Bloemfontein a few months ago. They also boast five national players, including current Western Province (WP) champion Lyndon Bouah (nicknamed ”The Accumulator” because of the number of titles and points he accumulates every year) as well as the teenage Willenberg brothers, Kenny — the South African under-20 champion — and Craig — the South African junior number one.
”We only had R700 for petrol money,” says Steinitz legend and father of Kenny and Craig, Roland Willenberg. ”That was enough for one car but because we were sending two teams we needed another.
”Then one of the guys said, ‘Hey, we’ll just have to win the money at the championships.’ And that’s exactly what we did — we won enough cash to get us back home!”
The Steinitz Chess Club was founded in 1976 when four high-school students came together in the Kalksteensfontein area of Bonteheuwel to play chess. They named their club after the first recognised chess world champion, Austrian Wilhelm Steinitz.
”At that stage we were the first club in the area and the first club founded by students from a previously disadvantaged area in the Western Cape,” says founder member and current club president Mark Lewis. ”We’ve notched so many firsts, including our first national title, and now we are trying to be the first club to win three consecutive [WP] championships.”
Two are already in the bag and with the national title thrown in, these are heady days for a club that used to meet in dingy school rooms and churches and whose members used to have to foot-slog as much as 15km to other venues or dodge ticket collectors on the trains.
Belhar is now the club’s base, but Steinitz is comprised of chess players from all over the Cape Flats. The one thing their players have in common is an attitude towards their game that reflects the day-to-day reality on some of the Cape’s meaner streets.
”One of the secrets of our game is that most of our players are very aggressive,” says Lewis.
”Having come from a background where you actually had to fight to survive, that instinct is translated to the chessboard.
”They’re not passive players who want to play the game for fun — they play hard, they play to win.
”There have been times when that aggression has counted against us but more often it has been to our advantage.
”We’re prepared to take risks. In the past we were unknowns and less experienced but we were treading new ground, prepared to explore new areas. In chess you have players who use set openings but we would play totally unconventional games — nothing you’d find in any book.”
Despite their fierce competitiveness on the chessboard, the players at Steinitz insist that when the game is over, chess is about friendship (rather like rugby players’ habit of getting to the bar after a good scrap).
”We have tried to build a spirit of community and camaraderie,” says Bouah. ”Blood is going to be spilled on that board, but afterwards we’ll have a drink with our opponents.”
The club’s motto is ”With Unity to Prosperity” but Steinitz also hold true to the motto of the world governing body for chess, FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs): ”Gens Una Sumus” — we are all one family.
”When you become a member of my club, you become a member of my family,” says Willenberg, who makes his living as a chess coach.
”As a club we make a huge effort to share our experience with each other,” adds Lewis. ”Most of our players are also coaches and we have to consider, search for and develop new talent. The club has never been a means to raise money — the financial side of it is probably where we are weakest, but the sacrifices the guys have made are enormous.”
And there is another club first out there for anyone who is interested. Steinitz are looking for a sponsor. As they have already proven, they know how to make a little go a long way.