Cape Town - Grade 5 pupil Andrea Lewaks, has set her sights on becoming a grandmaster after recently achieving top spot at the West Coast Schools Prestige Chess Championship.
The West Coast Primary Schools Chess Championships took place in Van Rhynsdorp on Saturday where Andrea won the under-11 girls’ championship.
Andrea, from Vredendal and who has played the sport since the tender age of five, walked away with the title and will now move on to represent her grade in the Western Cape Schools Championship to take place in the Eden District in May later this year.
Andrea said the win was important because chess is one of the sports she has played competitively since she was very young.
The grandmaster hopeful said she was proud of herself for the achievement and will now work ardently towards her goal.
Proud father and Western Cape Chess Association president, Andre Lewaks, said his daughter’s hard work was finally paying off.
“The West Coast Schools Prestige is the strongest competition in the in the West Coast, normally the top-rated players per age group play in the competition for a spot to represent the West Coast region in the Western Cape Schools Championships.
“Andrea started to play chess when she was five-years-old and won the Under-7 SA South African Junior Championships previously and had also won the Western Cape under-9 championships at the age of 9”.
“She stopped playing competitive chess for the past two years as she developed a keen interest in netball and athletics. She returned to the board last year and started to play part-time if there are no netball games.”
Meanwhile, the Western Cape inter-regional chess championships also took place at the weekend.
The regions participating are the Western Province, West Coast, Eden, Cape Winelands as well as Overberg districts with a total of 76 players who participated in the blitz chess championships.
Cape Times