As if to cement his chess achievements, Candidate Master Simphiwe Dlamini has defended his Nhlangano Chess Open Title, he remains the Shiselweni chess King.

You’re probably wondering how we ended up here. Well, Nhlangano Chess Club hosted yet another prestigious open chess tournament in the region, and to the champ, it was a summon: He had to defend his throne. You’ll recall that he ascended to the throne in 2024 after battling the game of brilliance with Eswatini’s finest players. 2025 called him to defend his territory. That was the assignment, and he understood it well.

With an overall performance of 5.5/6 points, CM Simphiwe remained undefeated, but here is the catch: he may just hit the 1800+ FIDE rating and joins the likes of Candidate Masters Smilo Hlophe, Mbongeni Mabuza, whom he ran over in this tour. Let’s just say, welcome to the 1800+ club champ!!

Stories aside or maybe let’s delve deeper into who CM Simphiwe is. He is the club’s head coach and trainer and has propelled his players to outstanding performances. In the very same tournament, he brought with him, as if to lead from the front, Snethemba Matsebula, whom he regards as the ‘rising star’. Snethemba has taken it upon himself to terrorize the open section, as he scored a good 4/6. Asked to comment about his performance, the champ could not hide but admitted that

‘regardless of Snethemba’s absence in club training, he still does wonders, getting fourth place in such a tournament, he threw me off the cliff. I'm happy.’

But can we see Snethemba putting his coach to his knees in the future? We may never know, let's just watch and see.

Not only did the champ arm himself for the open section, but he also did so even with the junior’s section, where two players from the club, Semukwelwe ‘Sammy’ Nhlengetfwa and Nqoba Kunene, scored 4/6. The Juniors’ section was no junior’s play, as 3 players tied for 1st place with a score of 5/6, and 5 players tied with a score of 4/6. Tough play, right? Yeah! Maybe it was no junior’s play indeed.

Regarding Sammy’s performance, CMphiwe noted that his player

‘still needs more mental strength; he's good in play, just a loophole in handling pressure. However, he did his best and I am proud’.

Yep! A lot still needs to be done to unlock the wolf in Sammy.

On Nqoba’s performance, CMphiwe could only say,

‘She gave it her best, and the results were very impressive. Given every resource she needs, I bet she would beat even me in just one year. Her character, patience, and keeping cool are indicative of a deadly opponent she is.’

Is it giving Judith Polgar vibes, coach? We want to know!

‘It can only be God!’

That is what CM Simphiwe had to say about this achievement. As if not to deny his feelings, he added, ‘Defending my NHO title wasn't easy, the opposition I got was very tough, I needed to keep composure, especially in dynamic positions where the game could go either way. At the end of it all, I came on top.’