The 22-year-old Madibaz star is one of 16 from Mandela University who will stand up to be counted when they face the country’s finest varsity players at Wits University in Johannesburg from December 1 to 5.
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Nigel Bezuidenhout, a member of the Madibaz chess team for the upcoming University Sports South Africa tournament, focuses during a match at last year’s event.
Bezuidenhout will rely on the lessons he learnt during his previous two appearances at the tournament to make an impact this time around.
He competed in his first Ussa competition in 2023, two years after arriving at the Gqeberha university.
“It was a steep learning curve for me,” the management student explained. “That year I got four and a half points out of nine.”
In 2024 he showed that he was improving steadily when he earnt five and a half points for both him and his team. Importantly, he feels familiarity with the tournament’s inner workings will stand him in good stead.
His baseline target this year is six and a half points, which he believes will place him among the top 30 competitors. But he needs to keep a cool head in the heat of the moment when those around him flounder.
“When you face strong opponents it can have a psychological effect on how you approach each match. If you don’t stay calm, you can be forced into silly mistakes early on.”
Being able to convert good positions into winning ones is another hurdle to overcome.
“In chess you have to win three times – the opening, the middle game and the end game.”
When any of these stages goes wrong it puts a lot of pressure on the player and increases their chances of losing, especially when facing higher-rated opponents.
Maintaining concentration for the full duration of the game is crucial and therefore Bezuidenhout’s build-up to major events is meticulous.
“I just play a lot of chess in the time before the tournament and in the week before the Ussas I watch a lot of videos and practise what I learn.”
He also studies his previous games to see where he went wrong and what strategy he can adopt to prevent the same from happening again.
At the event he ignores his phone like the plague because simple things like speaking to friends, viewing status updates and scrolling mindlessly can become very distracting.
“The Ussas is that one time of the year when all I want to speak about and think about is chess – nothing else.”
Madibaz Sport Acting chess manager Tasquane Mullins is hopeful that her charges can improve on their seventh place of last year.
She explained players competed as individuals and that their points tally was added to the team’s kitty to determine their overall position.