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Gauteng Championships I (February 2003)

by Dorian Love
The innaugural Gauteng Championships was also the first time a Diplomacy tournament had been held at a SAWU Championships, and so the atmosphere was redolent of historical occassion. With many of the Internet Diplomacy players playing in the figure-gaming championships, the number of entries was always likely to be small, but there were nine entries in total. Donald Mullany (Old Eds) withdrew to take part in the computer section, while I stood down to GM the tournament.

With two games to be played by the same seven players, the effect of club and/or age cohorts was going to be important. The Old Eds and St Enda's Eagles Clubs each had three players, while Pretoria Boys High School had a single player, he won't mind me saying a wee bit older than the rest. Isolated by the age cohorts, Carl was cold-shouldered, and did well to teach the youngsters some tactical lessons, and how to go down with good grace.

Here is the summary of results over the two games. Matthew Strachan, after his annihilation at Old Eds/SEE in the previous month, certainly showed he has the right stuff by bouncing back magnificently. He played a waiting game in both games, and was able to lead both games without attracting attention.

Gauteng Championships Diplomacy Scores Game One Game Two Tournament
Player Club Power 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 Total Power 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 Total Total Position
Matthew Strachan Old Edwardians Germany 6 7 8 9 10 85 Russia 5 6 7 7 8 10 67 152 1st
Dale Rimmington Old Edwardians Turkey 5 5 6 7 7 42 France 5 5 5 7 8 10 67 109 2nd
Donovan Robinson Old Edwardians Austria 4 6 7 6 7 42 Germany 5 6 6 7 8 8 39 81 3rd
Dominic Aphane St Enda's Eagles France 4 5 4 5 5 29 Italy 4 4 3 3 2 2 20 49 4th
Bhekumuzi Ntuli St Enda's Eagles England 3 4 4 4 3 21 Turkey 5 4 5 4 3 4 28 49 4th
Carl Holliday Pretoria Boys High Italy 4 3 2 2 2 16 England 4 3 1 0 0 0 3 19 6th
Neo Mohapi St Enda's Eagles Russia 5 4 3 1 0 4 Austria 4 6 7 6 5 0 5 9 7th


Dale and Donnovan both played confident games, but perhaps should have done more to reign in Matthew. Old Eds is obviously the Gauteng Club to watch, having taken the top three spots at the Old Eds/SEE tournament as well.

The three Grade 8 pupils from St Enda's Eagles played excellent games, only their second game ever, and certainly showed what youngsters are capable of! Neo Mohapi, especially showed that he has real talent, getting into a good position in the second game, only to lose out in the re-alliance of forces in the final bound.