Daniel Barrish began playing chess with his grandfather long before going to primary school. In Grade 1 he competed in his first national junior championship and won. Since then, chess has been an important part of his life.
His excellent performance in the sport was recently recognised at the Stellenbosch University (SU) Rector's Awards for Excellent Achievement. The awards recognise and celebrate students' achievements in academics, sports, leadership, social impact, culture and service provision. He was one of the 82 recipients of this year's Rector's Awards and received the award in the sports category for his achievements in chess, including winning the 2021 Western Cape Open Chess Championship, representing South Africa earlier this year at the African Individual Chess Championship in Malawi and at the 2021 FIDE (International Chess Federation) World Cup 2021 in Russia.
Receiving the award is a great honour, says Barrish, a final-year BCom (Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science) student at (SU) and member of the Maties Chess Club.
Competing comes naturally to Barrish, and he enjoys it. "I'm quite a competitive person, for better or worse."
He currently has his sights set on the Grand Master title, an accolade awarded to chess players of the highest class, especially those who have won an international tournament.
“My long-term goal is to become a Grand Master, but COVID, unfortunately, put a spanner in the works. To become a Grand Master, one needs to play in overseas tournaments, usually in Europe. This is quite time-consuming, expensive and difficult to arrange with COVID-19," he said.
Asked about his future plans after graduation in December, Barrish says he is weighing up two options.
One is to take six to 12 months off, work remotely, and play high-quality tournaments in Europe. The other option is to continue with his postgraduate studies and continue to experience the “great student life" at SU. “The quality of student life here is one of the main reasons I will recommend SU to friends and peers, and it's one of the main reasons I'm so reluctant to leave – so reluctant perhaps, that I'll stay on to do my Master's."
Click here to read more about the Rector's Awards and recipients.
*A total of 82 top Stellenbosch University (SU) students were recently honoured with Rector's Awards for excellence in academics, leadership, social impact, culture, sport and service provision. During the next few weeks, we will feature some of the winners.
