The peace and quiet of the University of the Western Cape ahead of the beginning of the academic year was the perfect space for epic battles between two kingdoms. This week, the campus hosted the 2025 Cape Town Masters’ Chess Challenge in Jakes Gerwel Hall. 

The six-day event brought together chess players from around Cape Town, some as young as 11, who matched against players in their twilight years. The quiet intensity of the chess games was matched only by the hunger to top the leaderboard and walk away with top honours.

UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Balfour addressed the players and shared why he first started playing chess at high school. “I have very fond recollections of when I began to play chess as a young person. I remember at my High School in Pretoria, chess was regarded as a sport, and it was always a better alternative for me than rugby because it was one game where you could be assured that the best of your intellectual skills could be applied with the minimum risk of being hurt in the process,” said Prof Balfour.

The UWC Chess Club has a proud history of contributing to the game in South Africa. In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous UWC staff members played leading roles in chess federations.

For example, UWC’s Prof Bertie Van Wyk helped create a unified chess structure in 1992, ensuring that Chess South Africa brought together chess clubs and groups from across the country. Former Cape Town Chess President Burton Van Staaden was also the tournament director for the Masters' Chess Challenge and said it was like a homecoming when UWC opened its doors to them: “Part of our collaboration with UWC Chess Club and the UWC Sports Administration is to see how we as Cape Town Chess can assist UWC in further developing chess on campus, because there are a lot of learners that are attending schools around the institution and UWC is always an option for them after they matriculate to pursue their further studies.”

Waylon Brander is one of those students who chose UWC because of its notable tradition of chess players. During his high school years, Brander was a member of the Kraaifontein Chess Club, and it was there that he discovered that UWC had a chess team. “We played against the UWC team once in the league, and it was then that I saw they had a team. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we beat them,” said Brander, a second-year Bachelor of Education student. 

Last year, Brander finished third in the Under-20s’ SA Junior Chess Championship and represented South Africa at the chess tournament held in Egypt. “UWC Chess has a good coach, and I really feel like I am going to improve my game. There are training sessions every week, so I encourage anyone to join.”

The 2025 Cape Town Masters’ Chess Challenge was intended to raise awareness about the game and encourage people to take up the challenge and play a round of chess.