The question on the lips of any 20th century chess player after this article would be “Is Robert Gwaze Back?” But my question back to them would be “Did chess ever leave him?”
A match was set up, which called out the slayer of grandmasters at Bled Olympiad, an Olympiad gold medalist, an African Champion, a brilliant son of Zimbabwe & Africa, and one who remains an international master with the exploits of a grandmaster, IM Robert Gwaze.
He was called out to lend some of his experience to the young and super promising Namibian wonderkid, who has held his own against top players on the continent, an African youth (U18) champion, Namibia’s youngest National champion, and one of the fastest rising juniors from the continent of Africa.
The match was put together by Mr Emanuel Sihlahla, who understands the value of passing across knowledge from one generation to another. He set up the match as a ten (10) game match, with a time control of three (3) minutes flat. This match took place at the Tenbergen Pension Hotel in Windhoek, Namibia.
The match started with a fierce approach from the veteran international master, who drilled home the first three games in devastating fashion. African veterans who were following via the YouTube channel below were not surprised at the speed and accuracy of the veteran.
However, what followed blew everyone away. IM Dante grew into the game on a consistent basis, but continuously fell short of the time.
A second string of three games met with resistance, which was not enough to hold the veteran to a draw. However, the experience continue to pile up for the young Namibian champ.
The next three (3) games were not much different from the preceding three (3). Although the young IM Dante found the important moves to keep him in the games, finding these moves came at the expense of his time. This means that he lost yet again.
The final round was an all out attacking game for Dante, however, Robert showed the art of counter attack in devastating fashion, which left the veteran IM a rook ahead, after the attacking dust had settled.
At the end of the match, IM Robert Gwaze had shown that he still got it, by defeating young Dante ten (10) to naught (0). Robert may have left the chess scene for a long time, but chess never left him.
The organizer, Mr. Emanuel Sihlahla, mentioned that the purpose of the match was basically to make Gwaze come out of retirement and play more actively. He was joyed that both players accepted the invite without hesitation.
He definitely did not expect the following the match got, but praised the Namibia Chess Federation for making the African continent get to see Gwaze in action once again.
He hopes to have Gwaze playing competitively again, as he also hopes the young Dante grows into a formidable force in the nearest future.
