They come from vastly different worlds but are among the sharpest young chess prodigies in the country, pulling together to fight for a spot in the grand finals of an international online competition.
South African Chess Hub team members, aged 14 to 23, take on England-based Petts Wood & Orpington in their World Chess League eliminator from behind their electronic devices tonight.
The winner will advance to the final rounds on July 12 and 13.
South African under-20 champion for 2024 and 2025 Charlton Mnyasta is taking a gap year after matriculating from Elsies River High School in Cape Town, turning down a university bursary to focus on chess in a move to realise his ultimate dream of becoming a grandmaster.
He was 11 when his single-parent mother took him to a local library for an exhibition day of multiple sports and activities. “I wasn’t really into all the physical sports, and then I saw chess.”
He didn’t immediately follow up, but when his cousin Tezihano started doing well at the game a few months later, Mnyasta was inspired to pick it up properly.
SA under-20 champion Charlton Mnyasta spends about eight hours a day studying and playing chess, without a coach. Ultimately, he will need to go overseas to take on more experienced players
Tezihano is also in the team compiled by South African Chess Hub founder Paul Wilson.
Mnyasta says the road in which he lives with his mother, who is applying for a disability grant, is safe, but travelling to other parts of Elsies River, which is ravaged by gangs, can be dangerous.
“It’s OK for me, I’m more introverted so I don’t go out a lot. But if I ever think of going somewhere I need to be very cautious,” said Mnyasta, who plays online chess on his phone.
If chess doesn’t work out, he plans to study, though he’s not sure what.
He spends about eight hours a day studying and playing chess, without the help of a coach. Ultimately, he will need to raise the money to get overseas to take on more experienced players and gain more ranking points.
“Going overseas, it’s a must if you want a grandmaster title,” said Mnyasta, who is hoping to get to the Commonwealth and African junior championships later this year.
King David Linksfield Grade 9 pupil Caleb Levitan at 14 is the youngest in the team but he’s the top-ranked active player in the country.
He recently achieved his status as an international master, one below grandmaster, but he admits his path was made easier by the fact that his family could afford to send him to tournaments abroad.
Caleb is coached by two grandmasters, one based in the US and the other in Hungary. One focuses on strategy and overall guidance and the other on openings and end games.
“We are fortunate enough to be able to go overseas,” said Caleb, whose twin brother Judah is eighth in the country. They honed their skills playing each other since the age of six.
At seven, Caleb won the South African under-eight championships.
Caleb, who tops 90% for maths and science and scores A's for English and Zulu, spends an average of 20 hours a week on chess, though that can go up to 30 hours in the build-up to a tournament, like tonight’s.
And he manages this while following other pursuits, like playing poker for fun and running cross-country, with a school race this past Friday. “I’m not that good,” he admitted. “I can run 4km in 20 minutes. My mates can do it in 15.”
Twenty minutes is about all the time he needs to dispense with the average chess player. Like Mnyasta, Caleb’s major goal is to become the country’s second grandmaster after Kenny Solomon, who now lives in Italy.
For that he needs to, among other things, push his ranking points from 2,400 to 2,500.
“I’m hoping two years, but 100 points is, like, a lot.”
Both he and Mnyasta are confident they can emerge victorious tonight, with the match being streamed live on www.chess.com.
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