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High-Fashion Human Chess Game Delights Onlookers

By Sun International | 29 July 2009

Durban – Greyville Racecourse came to a standstill as a ground-breaking human chess game was played, based on the raceday theme “Games people Play” as part of the buildup to the Vodacom Durban July next month.

A cast of dancers, models and young ballet students performed as chess pieces under the direction of Durban choreographer David Gouldie and was filmed by a television crew for the magazine show Top Billing.

A ten metre square chessboard was specially built for the event in front of the grandstand facing the winning post at Greyville Racecourse, where the black and white clad performers, dressed in stylized costumes, carried out the moves in two chess matches.

The first match featured the two jockeys, Bernard Fayd’Herbe and Kevin Shea, who hit the headlines when they dead-heated in last year’s Vodacom Durban July. The subsequent match featured the reigning Miss South Africa, Tatum Keshwar and top Billing presenter Dhiveja Sundrum.

The players were guided by experts from the Durban Chess Club, who relayed the moves of two legendary chess games to them by two-way radios.

In keeping with the stylish fashion profile of the Vodacom Durban July the task of designing the two sets of chess pieces was given to iconic Durban designer Terrence Bray and his class of fashion design students at the Durban University of Technology.

The students provided a cutting-edge take on traditional chess pieces, after Bray and Durban University of Technology fashion department head George Vorster urged the students to delve into the history of the chess pieces to find their inspiration for the costumes.

With the two sets of players blissfully unaware of the fact, the chess experts Keith Rust and Desmond Rooplal played out two famous chess matches, both of which ended in suitably dramatic finishes.

There were gasps as the match between Keshwar and Sundrum concluded with Keshwar losing her queen, only to have her returned to the board after a pawn swept across the board, capturing a castle, and reinstating the queen, replicating a match won by Henry Bird in London in 1886 in a bold “smothered mate” move.

Each captured piece was elaborately removed from the board by a cadaverous looking Gouldie, to the sound of tolling bells.

“It was fabulous!” enthused Keshwar after the match was completed. “It was really unusual and great fun. The costumes that were made for each of the pieces were brilliant, and made for a dramatic spectacle.”

The Durban Chess Club enthusiast Keith Rust confirmed that this was the first human chess game played in Durban, and only the third recorded human chess match in South Africa.

“I know that Reginald Borders, the chess columnist for the "Natal Mercury" from 1903 to 1930, played at least one such game in 1911 – but this game was played at his father's residence in London,” said Rust.

“Leonard Reitstein's book "A History of Chess in South Africa" records only three previous human chess displays in South Africa. Two of these were held in Cape Town in 1887 and 1890, and there was an exhibition at the Wanderers in 1928,” he added.

The matches will be featured on Top Billing on Thursday 2 July at 7:30pm on SABC3.

Any questions about the Vodacom Durban July Fashion programme can be directed to the fashion programme director Tiffany Prior on (031) 309 6114 or by email on tiffany@dbn.icemodels.co.za. Further information or bookings for the Durban fashion shows can be directed to Lisa Williams on 031 314 1640 or email lisaw@goldcircle.co.za

Vodacom Durban July 2009 Theme: Games People Play

Play the game in your mind,
Don’t let your thoughts be confined,
Once your strategy’s been defined,
Your plan of action will unfold.
It’s on the table you will make your play,
Cut your cloth and lead astray,
Show the masterpiece on the day,
The thrill of winning to behold.
The stark elegance of black and white,
On the chess board that invite,
Backgammon, Solitaire delight,
Result beyond any doubt.
The rich colours of the King and Queen,
It’s on the cards that you must seen,
Show your hand and cause a scene,
Winning’s what it’s all about.
Maybe daring – don’t follow suit,
Drip in diamonds, bling so cute,
Colours of the heart astute,
Or dazzle in club glitz.
Then it’s the joker in the pack,
A different angle of attack,
Do what you like – don’t hold back,
The game’s a battle of wits.
Mlabalaba, dominoes,
Rummy, bridge whatever goes,
You’ll be playing with friends and foes,
But play it your way.

Any game that you embrace,
Create, produce, want first place,
Remember to play your ace,
On Vodacom Durban July Day.

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