THE game of chess has taken over the Datharam household and there is no turning back for the three sisters whose moves on the board are making international waves.
Chess became part of the Stanger family’s life when the eldest sister, Diya, 12, started playing chess at Umhlali Preparatory Primary six years ago.
“I started playing when I was in Grade 1, and when I was in Grade 2 I started playing in tournaments, and that’s when I represented KZN, and I’ve been playing at the nationals since,” said the Grade 6 pupil.
She did not leave the board and the pieces at school, but brought them home to practise with her father, Kiran Datharam, and soon, her younger sisters Aarti and Archana wanted to join in, too.
“She was always playing with dad and I wanted to play with them, so I asked them to teach me,” said 10-year old Aarti.
Archana, 8, soon picked up the skills, too, and by the time she enrolled for Grade R, she could already notate her moves.
While their enthusiastic brother, Yadav, 5, is not yet allowed to play in tournaments even though he is already showing great potential, Aarti and Archana have been invited to represent South Africa in the Commonwealth Games in India, the World Youth Games in Brazil and the African Youth Games in Egypt, all which will be held later this year.
This will not be Aarti’s first international tournament as she has represented South Africa in international tournaments for the past two years. She won the African Youth Games twice, and in 2014 she received the title of Women’s Candidate Chess Master in Tunisia.
In 2015 Aarti made the family proud when she became one of the top four finalists for the KZN Sportswoman of the Year award.
“Chess is fun and I practise really hard before a big tournament I’m sometimes a bit scared just before the game starts, but I really enjoy playing in tournaments,” she said.
Archana, who is in Grade 3, recently won the SA Junior Chess Championships, where she won nine and drew two of her 11 games.
“One of the games was three hours, and I won that too,” said the 8-year-old.
She has also held national colours for the past two years.
Proud parents Kiran and Nitasha said the girls’ commitment to the game surprised them.
Nitasha gave credit to Umhlali Preparatory for making chess part of the school’s academic programme. The school has its own resident coach, Siphamandla Nkosi, who introduces the game to pupils at Grade R.
“I don’t know how they (children) do it, because I can’t even go into the hall when they are playing, I get scared for them,” she said.
Kiran said the family had not gone on holiday for three years because of the tournaments they needed to travel to every year.
“There is always somewhere we need to take someone It’s an expensive hobby and we spend between R2500 and R3000 monthly on private coaching alone, and then there is travelling, but they love it so we support them every way we can,” he said.