In June 1992 I played my first international chess event which was the Olympiad in Manila, Philippines.
Since then, I have had a soft spot for this fantastic competition which brings together chess players from all
countries in the world. I have decided that it is important to record the South African history at Chess
Olympiads. I have started with the 2018 Olympiad as it was the last physical Olympiad I attended as
captain. I have now analysed all the games South Africa’s Open and Women’s team played in Batumi,
Georgia and have drawn important lessons from all the games played over the eleven rounds played at the
event. The book is available at R300.
The book launch will take place at the University of the Western Cape Stadium between 18h30- 19h30 on
Friday the 18th of July. You are welcome to attend this hour-long event.
Extracts from the book follows:
Foreword by Professor Berte van Wyk
First Chessa President – 1992
The ideas on the series of history of chess in South Africa by Dr Lyndon Bouah are the fruits of a life-long
commitment to chess. I am convinced that since his earliest days as a chess player in Bethelsdorp, Dr
Bouah, displayed a more than casual interest in the game we all love. It certainly did not start in 2018,
which is the focus of this book.
Historical consciousness is a powerful tool to explore his trajectory and to develop a deeper understanding
of what led to the country’s participation in the 2018 Chess Olympiad. To backtrack a bit: keep in mind that
South Africa was re-admitted to the FIDE community in 1992 after the South African Chess Federation was
banned due to the country’s apartheid policies. It took a great sense of pragmatism and leadership from
the three disparate chess bodies i.e., the South African Chess Congress (SACCON), Chess Association for the
People of South Africa (CAPSA) and the South African Chess Federation (SACF), to come together and to
unite in the interest of chess. This led to South Africa’s participation in the 1992 30th FIDE Chess Olympiad in
Manila where Dr Bouah was a member of our team.
Foreword by Professor Marion Keim
With his eleventh book on chess heritage and especially his chapter, A Case for Olympism and Olympic
Values in Chess over the last Seven Decades Adv Dr. Lyndon Bouah gives us a review of the past and a
view to the future, just like the motto of his Alma Mater, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Respice – Prospice. We are particularly proud of this achievement as this is the first book under the newly
established Olympic Study Centre, the Olympic Studies and Research Action Group (OSRAG) at the
University of the Western Cape which joined the elite prestigious group of 70 Olympic Studies Centre
around the world.
In 2024 we marked 120 years of Africa’s participation in the Olympic movement, as the first country on the
continent, which we celebrated in Paris on the eve of the opening of the Games at the 2024 International
Olympic Education, Sport and Peace Conference where Adv. Dr. Bouah was one of the presenters.
Incidentally the roots of the Chess Olympiads trace also back to Paris, when the French Chess Federation
aspired to run a chess tournament alongside the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Though debated in its early
form, the official lineage of the Olympiads began in 1927, with 16 nations competing and laying the
groundwork for what has now become a biennial gathering of over 190 countries.
In the spirit of Olympism, which emphasizes the harmonious development of body, will, and mind, this
retrospective reflection by Dr. Lyndon Bouah seeks to celebrate not only our competitive milestones but also
the values and cultural significance the Olympiads represent”.
I decided many years ago that it is an important part of our chess heritage to write about chess and I
decided that I will accept that duty. This is my eleventh volume of a series of reflections that I am
publishing. I have decided to write about my journey in the world of chess from different perspectives. I
have added learning lessons from the 2018 Olympiad Games and also interesting quotes from famous
players and authors.
There are close to 100 games in this volume. I have also told the reader a bit about Georgia as the country.
A narrator told us that one of the legends connected to the invention of chess takes us to India.
Presumably, chess entered Georgia from India itself. According to historical information, women’s dowry
from the Middle Ages were always the same two things- Shota Rustaveli’s poem ‘The Knight in the
Panther’s Skin’ and a chess set, which once again confirmed the Georgian’s people’s endless love of chess.
The Knight in the Panther’s Skin is a Georgian medieval poem, consisting of over 1600 quatrains, written in
the 12th century by the epic Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli. It is considered as the masterpiece of the
Georgian literature. It tells how Queen Tinatin, orders her beloved general Avtandil to help a knight, Tariel,
found weeping and wearing a black panther’s skin, to retrieve his beloved Nestan-Derejan from captivity
and his kingdom from usurpers.
I further learnt that Georgia is proud of its rich chess traditions, and the most intense duel the Georgians
still remember very well is the match that took place in 1978 in Bichvinta, Georgia between the world
champion at the time – Nona Gaprindashvili and the seventeen-year-old Maia Chiburdanidze.
It was since then that Georgia is now called the country of queens. And to this day, children are still named
after the legendary chess Olympic Champions (Nona Gaprindashvili, Maia Chiburdanidze, Nana Alexandria,
Nana Ioseliani.)
The book is available from Lyndon on 071 363 1306 or on lyndon.bouah@gmail.com.
See you at UWC on the 18th of July.
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