New Zealand Chess

FM Alphaeus Ang's Remarkable Record

The West Auckland Secondary Interschool Chess Championship held on August 5th (see interschools results) was significant for FM Alphaeus Ang. It marks the final NZCF West Auckland Interschool Chess series that Alphaeus will be eligible to play in. Each year for eleven years in succession now Alphaeus had played as board one for his school's A (best) team. Amazingly (could this be a world record?) Alphaeus has picket fenced every year, winning all games in all rounds, in all years. The streak started with Alphaeus a year 3 in St. Paul's Primary School playing the Primary division in 2010 (the photo shows Alphaeus at this age) and concludes unbeaten and unbroken with Alphaeus a year 13 at Liston College in the Secondary division. Alphaeus also played for Liston College in the Intermediate division. Interschools chess in Auckland is known for keen and unforgiving competition, this is not an easy arena in which to excel. Thanks to the Waitakere Chess Club for running the event through it's history.

Asian Online Chess Camp for Girls Under-20

Judit Polgar and Viswanathan Anand (pictured) are just two of the presenters in an intensive, twenty day (2-3 hours a day, in the evening NZ time) online Zoom camp being organised by the Asian Chess Federation. NZCF has been invited to select just one participant. Take a look at the demanding but rewarding schedule, and if you are eligible consider applying to be our representative. To apply fully fill out the player card (incomplete applications won't be considered) and email it to Michael Freeman and Winsome Stretch by Sunday 26th July. Sorry for the late notice (but it's not our fault!).

Brian Foster 1937-2020

NZCF is saddened to announce the death of Brian Foster, on his 83rd birthday, after a lengthy illness. A private Family Service has been held on Friday 26th June.

Brian was initially a keen player but it was as a club organiser he made his first key contribution to New Zealand chess. In 1972, as President of Pencarrow Chess Club, he organised weekly training for around 100 keen juniors inspired to take up the game by the famous Fischer-Spassky match. Remarkably this group from the tiny town of Wainuiomata went on to produce three New Zealand Champions: Murray Chandler, Brian and Colleen's daughter Fenella (now Fenella Gordon), and Mark Noble.

Photo:The Wainuiomata School of Chess. In this scene from 1978, future Grandmaster Murray Chandler shows Brian the best first move, watched by Fenella Foster, Mark Noble, Peter Collins and Keith Chandler.

Former NZ Champs Cross Swords

Prolific chess organiser and promoter Paul Spiller has cooked up something a little bit different to showcase the game in an unusual setting, at least for chess. Former NZ Champs FMs Martin Dreyer and Ewen Green are going to play a blitz match at Poppies book shop in Howick on Saturday July 18th. The suburban retail heartland can be something of a cultural desert, so hopefully there's an eager audience for something that stretches the mind. Perhaps there will be some people who will be surprised and intrigued to discover that chess is not only the ultimate mind sport, it can be dynamic, fast moving and fun too.

There are now photos, games and results on the Results page.

Peter Stuart, a Memorial Tournament and a Database Update

In a sign that chess in New Zealand may be returning to a semblance of its normal self the Peter Stuart Memorial Tournament for 2020 has recently been added to the Calendar and confirmed as running as normal (assuming NZ remains at Covid-19 Alert level 1 or lower).

So it's fitting perhaps that an update to the Peter Stuart NZ Games database is now available. See the Peter Stuart database page. The update includes many recently rediscovered early games of NZ's only Grandmaster, NZCF President Murray Chandler, plus games from the recent NZ Chess Bulletin, plus some additional recent online interclub games. Finally Greek chess scholar Spyridon Louris has provided a valuable supplement to the historical game collection, 34 complete games from the 17th NZ Congress held in Wellington in the summer of 1904-05. These games were transcribed from contemporary accounts, thank you Spyridon.

2020 JETS Junior Training Opportunity Rebooted

Update June 29th: The players selected are: Girls Nicole Qin and Isabelle Ning; Boys Felix Xie and Josia Vickers.

The New Zealand Chess Federation is pleased to announce that we have the opportunity for four young New Zealand players to join the Australian JETS (Junior Elite Training Squad) Online training session to be held on July 7th 2020. Note: Applications close June 25th.

For more information and to apply for one of the spots please download the application form.

Representative Honours Board

Thanks to Michael Freeman who has collated the playing statistics of every player to have represented New Zealand. The results are presented on a new Representative Honours Board page in the History section of the website. As well as the statistics, Michael supplied some nice team photographs (Paul Spiller joined the party and supplied the second Skopje 1972 photograph), which appear at the end of the page. If you have formal staged photographs of historical interest, either from international or domestic events, please email them to the web administrator to be considered for publication.

NZCF Sanctioned Online Interclub

An official NZCF online interclub competition has been organised, see online-interclub.html. Any club in New Zealand can participate. Every player can participate too, even if your club isn't participating directly you can still play as a member of the NZCF Lichess Team. In fact every New Zealand player is encouraged to join the NZCF Team, so they can participate in this and other future events. Please use your real name! See the dedicated online interclub page for all the details, the schedule, and (in time), the results.

Update 27 April 2020: The first match is coming up fast and there are now 10 clubs entered. It's not too late to get involved, but don't leave it to the last minute! The great majority of players have ignored my pleas to use their real name, and consequently the chat will be full of "Who is XenaWarriorPrincess2003?" etc. and in general no one will know who anyone else is. You were warned.

Auckland v Wellington v Christchurch Online Chess Match

Another inter city/club chess match was played on Lichess on Easter Monday. Link here.

These matches are likely to become regular events, look out for announcements on The Online Page.

Here is a PGN of the earlier Auckland v Wellington clash. PGN games with internet handles have very little long term interest or value, so this PGN sees all such handles replaced with real player names. This policy meant I had to discard games for which I didn't know who both players actually were. Please, don't be a part of this problem, play under your actual name - or, at the very least add your name to your Lichess profile so I can track you down. I will make a similar PGN for the Easter Monday battle and I will regenerate the Auckland v Wellington PGN if more mystery players let me know who they are. Late update: Timothy Ha livestreamed the Auck v Wgtn match and a recording is available here!

Olympiad 2021 Team Will Be Reselected

NZCF announces that regrettably the 2020 NZ Olympiad selections are annulled due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, A new selection procedure will take in due course, possibly at the end of the year, assuming the Olympiad is able to take place in 2021. NZCF sympathises with the affected players, but as any replacement event will be a minimum of 18 months after the original applications, this is just too big a gap.

In the event of the selectors having to choose between two very close candidates for the 2021 Olympiad, they may give preference to the one from the 2020 team.

Auckland v Wellington Online Chess Match

With Covid-19 having shut down traditional over-the-board chess in the meantime (see announcements below), players and administrators are looking to see what can be organised online. On April 1st at 7:30pm Auckland is taking on the Wellington Chess Club in a two hour online blitz match. If you feel an affiliation to either city, consider playing! Update: there's a short match report on the new NZ Chess Online directory page. Also, here is some information about how you might get your local club running at least partially online during the lockdown period.

Final 2019 Grand Prix Results

2019 Grand Prix Standings are now available on the Grand Prix page. Look for the 2019 Reports section. Just a reminder that the recent 2020 national congress also counts as a 2019 Grand Prix event.

A total of $6520 of prizes are to be distributed amongst 31 players competing in 10 categories. The Grand Prix is designed to reward consistent good performance in tournaments throughout New Zealand.

This year Michael Steadman takes out the top prize of $1500, with Evan Capel a close second.

NZCF would like to once again thank the Grand Prix sponsors, Poison Pawn and D & D Financial Consultants, and the people behind those organisations Michael Freeman and Martin Dreyer for their continuing generous support. Michael has also taken on the not inconsiderable burden of Grand Prix administration and calculation.

The official prizegiving will be at the Latvian Rapid on March 21st (see the Calendar). If you've won a prize email the NZCF Treasurer Winsome Stretch at secretary@newzealandchess.co.nz to discuss collecting your prize.

GM Vasily Papin's NZ Photo Essay

Russian Grandmaster Vasily Papin has been a distinguished visitor and competitor in the two most recent New Zealand summer seasons. To document his most recent trip here he has put together a skilful, affectionate and rather poetic collection of captioned photographs on his website here. Highly recommended.

JETS Junior Training Opportunity

The New Zealand Chess Federation is pleased to announce that we have the opportunity for two young New Zealand players to attend the Australian JETS (Junior Elite Training Squad) camp to be held in Queensland from July 4th to 9th 2020. Note: Applications close March 15th.

For more information and to apply for one of the spots please download the application form.

Olympiad 2020 Teams Announcement

The New Zealand Chess Federation has selected the following teams to participate in the 44th World Chess Olympiad, Moscow, RUSSIA August 1st-15th 2020. See also the Olympiad Page.

Open Team (in provisional Board order)
1 Ben Hague
2 Russell Dive
3 Scott Wastney
4 Daniel Gong
5 John Duneas
Captain: Dejan Bojkov

Women’s Team (in confirmed Board Order)
1 Helen Milligan
2 Jasmine Zhang
3 Isabelle Ning
4 Nicole Qin
5 Nadia Braganza
Captain: Herman van Riemsdijk

Hawkes Bay Rapid

FM Bob Smith scored a picket fence at this year's Hawkes Bay Rapid. Full results on the Results Page. In this photo (credit: Bruce Pollard) Bob and the other prize winners can be seen with age appropriate supplementary prizes. I suspect most of the juniors here already know how to beat their Dads actually.

The ever popular Bay of Plenty Rapid is up next, on February 29th. See the calendar for full details.

2020 Congress

The 127th Congress is complete. Congratulations to FM Bob Smith and his team for a very successful event. Full results (and a few more photos) are available on the Results Page.
Some other handy links;
Live games: Open, Major Open, Junior Open.
Follow on Vega: Open, Major Open, Rapid, Lightning, Junior.

George Trundle Masters

Since the first George Trundle Masters was held in 2006, this tournament (running at the Auckland Chess Centre from January 4th 2020) has become an important feature of chess in New Zealand. Before the "George", IM Norm opportunities for NZ players were few and far between. The late George Trundle (1918-2011, pictured), changed that by sponsoring this tournament, and his bequest continues to fund it. George Trundle was an officer and a gentleman, and a hugely popular figure in the local chess community. He loved chess more than most, after learning the game helped him get through World War II as a prisoner in the challenging environment of Stalag VII A. Hopefully this superb tournament will continue to honour his memory for many years to come.

President's Report 2019

NZCF President GM Murray Chandler has prepared a comprehensive report on a full year of chess in New Zealand. You can read the full report here.

Christmas Gift for Chess Congress Late-comers

If you’re still thinking about whether to play in the 127th NZ Congress in Tauranga next month, Chief Organiser Bob Smith is offering a Christmas incentive.

The latest deadline for entering the NZ Open, NZ Major Open and NZ Open Junior Championships is being extended until 31st December.

So if you want to save some dollars get in your entry in the next 10 days.

After that the higher prices for those events kick in.

The NZ Rapid and NZ Lightning Championships can both be entered on the day (23rd and 24th January) without penalty.

So far the field for the NZ Open includes three Grandmasters, five International Masters and four Fide Masters.

Photo: Ever popular visitor and friend of New Zealand chess Herman van Riemsdjik of Brazil is the latest IM to join the field

Hunter, Grayson and Tyleah Po'e-Tofaeono

Young Aucklanders Tyleah(11), Hunter(10) and Grayson(8) Po'e-Tofaeono have grabbed some attention on and off the chess board recently. The three siblings feature in a team of up to twelve Hillsborough Primary pupils who are competing in Melbourne in the Australia ChessKids National finals competition. Other teams going to Melbourne include groups from Mt Roskill Intermediate and Mt Roskill Grammar. The Pasifika siblings featured in feel good stories on Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme and also on Radio 531pi (scroll down to find the video). A Givealittle campaign to help pay for the Australian trip has raised over $11000 so far (more than enough!).

Note that ChessKids is a private company in Australia, and similarly qualification for the Melbourne event was earned at a tournament run by Chess Power, a private company independent of NZCF.

Grand Prix Update

The second Grand Prix update of the year is now available (see the report on the Grand Prix page). In the Open category there's a tight race this year, headed currently by Mike Steadman, with Evan Capel and Alphaeus Ang in hot pursuit. Each of these players has been having a great domestic season. Check the report for detailed results in all categories. Thanks to Michael Freeman who not only is the major Poison Pawn sponsor (with help from D & D Financial Consultants), but who also calculates the results.

In somewhat related news, Rowan Wood points out that this could be the first year since 1993 with no North Island Rapid champs (a prestigious GP event). Perhaps it's not too late for some enterprising and capable club to step up and organise the event? Update 2: Mike Steadman and the Auckland Chess Centre have stepped up and answered the call - pencil in December 7th (no longer 14th) at their Cromwell Street clubrooms. The event will be restricted to 50 entrants, due to venue capacity constraints, the event is now in the calendar.

NZ Champions competing in New Caledonia

Paul Spiller reports:
The 2019 New Caledonia Open took place in Noumea from October 12-19. It was the culmination of a years planning by Ligue D'echecs de Nouvelle-Caledonie and its president Jean-Jacques Testet. A total of 38 players competed including French GM's Adrien Demuth & Samy Shoker, co - NZ Champions IM's Russell Dive and Anthony Ker. Several other FMs and WFMs competed including WFM Camille De Seroux from Switzerland and WFM Vivian Smith from NZ. Players from Australia, PNG, & The Solomons also took part. The photo shows GMs Samy Shoker & Adrien Demuth with chief arbiter Shaun Press. See also the Results Page.

Steadman Doubles up at the South Island Champs

Mike Steadman followed up his earlier triumph at the 2019 North Island championships by completing the double at the South Island championships in Hanmer Springs. Full results are of course on the results page. The photo shows Matthew McNabb and Eddie Lee, the South Island champions (Mike of course is a North Island interloper).

2019 Summit Rapid

The Summit Chess Club is still the new kid on the block as far as the Auckland chess scene is concerned. But Ying Wang is an energetic organiser and the Summit club is determined to make some noise and be noticed. The second annual Summit Rapid weekend open is coming up on November 17th. There are numerous attractive features, including the superb Alexandra Park venue and a generous $1450 (Poison Pawn, D & D Financial Consultants Grand Prand Prix Class 1) prizefund. Check out more details on the Calendar Page

2019 Interschools Finals

Mark Noble reports: The National Interschools Finals was held on the 28th & 29th of September. A total of 66 Teams and over 270 players played in the event. A great spectacle to see.

In the Secondary Section Auckland Grammar were clear favourites to win the event with Olympiad player Daniel Gong leading their side. The rug was quickly pulled out from under their feet as Euan McDougall came in with the upset win against Daniel in the 4th round. This left the path open for Macleans College to sneak past and secure victory.

The Intermediate Section was a smooth path to victory for the top seed Takapuna Normal. This team managed the feat of winning all of their matches and with a score of 23 wins, 4 draws and only 1 loss.

The Primary Section was very tightly contested between Milford, Pinehurst and Hillborough with all three finishing on a score of 11/14 Match points. Milford and Pinehurst even had the exact same number of games won in the event (21) and so a second tie break was needed to declare Milford the Primary National Champions.

It is great to see such tight competition and will be very interesting to see how these teams get on in future years. Results are on the Interschools Results Page.

Photo: Photo courtesy of NZ Chess News

Titles for NZ Players

They've taken a while to come through, but thankfully new direct titles from the Guam Oceania Zonal, and the Auckland Oceania Junior Championship events have now been awarded. From the Guam event, John Duneas is now an FM and Tony Dowden a CM. From the Oceania Junior Alphaeus Ang and Allen Fan are now FMs. There are also a number of titles pending achievement of rating minimums, as follows;

• Meng, Richard - FM title Conditional 2100 rating
• Renjith, Sravan - FM title Conditional 2100 rating
• Qin, Oscar - CM title Conditional 2000 rating
• Zhang, Kendrick - CM title Conditional 2000 rating
• Zhang, Jasmine - WIM title Conditional 2000 rating
• Braganza, Nadia - WFM title Conditional 1900 rating
• Yuan, Kimberley - WCM title Conditional 1800 rating
• Ning, Isabelle - WCM title Conditional 1800 rating
• Xu, Hannah - WCM title Conditional 1800 rating

These titles now appear on the lists in the Resources page. Keong Ang reports that Jasmine Zhang should achieve the rating threshold this Sunday September 1 when the next FIDE rating list is announced (Update: Confirming that Jasmine reached the threshold and her WIM title is now officially confirmed on the FIDE website).

Snippets

The North Shore weekender is a long standing fixture on the chess calendar. Now renamed for its late founder, the Peter Stuart Memorial was held this year on the weekend of 24th and 25th August, and the Open Tournament finished in a three way tie between Alphaeus Ang, Evan Capel and Ben Hague. The photo (credit: Helen Milligan) shows Felix Xie receiving a prize from club Vice President Neil Gunn. Felix was the lowest rated player in the Open, but scored very well. See the Results page and also the new Archives pages.

South Island Championships in Hamner Springs

New Zealand’s most picturesque spa town will be the location of this year's South Island Championship, October 5th-10th. Open to all (including overseas players), the event features $5000 in prizes, thanks to generous support from NZCF and Benson Insurance Brokers.

FIDE Arbiters' Seminar in the Solomon Islands

A FIDE Arbiters' Seminar is going to be organized from 4th to 6th September 2019 in Honiara, Solomon Islands, by the Solomon Islands Chess Federation, under the auspices of FIDE.
The venue of the Seminar will be the National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands Conference Room in Honiara.
The Lecturer will be IA Press, Shaun (PNG), FIDE Lecturer.
The Seminar will give norms and titles of FIDE Arbiter, according to the Regulations for the titles of Arbiters.

For more detailed information:
Anthony Maelasi
Email: amaelasi@gmail.com
Phone: +677 7246165

All Oceania Federations are invited to send participants to this seminar. The Oceania Chess Confederation may be able to offer some funding to assist with expenses.

Senior, Junior and Oceania Senior Champions

The Howick-Pakuranga Festival tournaments are complete, and the trophies and prizes have been distributed. All the results are on the Results page. The photo montage shows NZ and Oceania Senior Champion Mike Steadman and NZ Junior Champion Alphaeus Ang along with organiser and Howick-Pakuranga stalwart Dr Tony Booth.

Howick-Pakuranga Festival of Chess

Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club are marking their 50th anniversary in appropriate fashion by running a series of important tournaments, as can be seen on the Calendar. First up is the NZ Junior Championship, shown in our action shot here. Next comes the Oceania & New Zealand Senior Championship, update: which is now underway, liveboard link here.

The tournaments are being held at the Howick Bowling Club and spectators are welcome. So if you're in Auckland, why not drop in and check out the action. Thanks to sponsors Poison Pawn and D & D Financial Consultants.

Peter Stuart NZ Database Update

After negotiating some initial speedbumps the Peter Stuart NZ Chess Database is now being smoothly updated. This project has its home on the History page. The latest update includes all the A Grade games from the 2019 edition of NZ's biggest Open, the 42nd Trusts (thank you Bob Smith - see another contribution from Bob here).

There's also now a complete collection of 2018 North Island Championship games, plus Bob Mitchell's World Amateur Championship games and other games from recent NZ Chess Bulletins. There's not only some very recent Auckland Interclub games, there's also a game from the 1947 Auckland Interclub. From the 2nd grade fixture between the Dominion Road and Papatoetoe chess clubs to be precise. That might not sound very exciting, but it was actually a fabulous game with a beautiful mating finish. One of the great things about our game is how amazing action highlights can be preserved in perfect fidelity forever.

The 1947 game was transcribed from the first issue of The New Zealand Chessplayer magazine. We are steadily scanning and uploading all 23 issues of this excellent older magazine. All the chess from the first issue has been transcribed and made live and interactive. And of course all the NZ games that were transcribed are in the latest version of the Peter Stuart NZ database. Some excellent Bob Wade games that don't appear in the standard databases are amongst the gems here.

Snippets

The latest issue of the experimental NZ Chess Bulletin interactive magazine is now available. It features a report from Bob Mitchell (pictured) on his remarkable victory in an Amateur Senior World Championship tournament last year! Amongst other things we learn that as the wins rolled in Bob allowed himself a dram or two. A must read!

One of the benefits of an online magazine is that past mistakes can be rectified, and a small article from Bob Smith that was inadvertently omitted from he June issue has been added in July.

The traditional Upper Hutt tournament was won by Scott Wastney, completing a Wellington Open Rapid double after his recent Kapiti win. One of Scott's wins features in the NZ Chess Bulletin discussed above (thanks Brian Nijman for happily annotating a loss!).

Check the Calendar for an exciting new venue for the North Island championships in July next year.

Finally a plea from Stan Yee for tournament organisers to make sure they're using the latest Vega (v8.1.1.1 currently). Download instructions are on the Resources page.

Peter Stuart Training Tournament

Eagle eyed visitors to our tournament Calendar will have noticed a new event was recently added for the weekend of July 20th and 21st.

The Peter Stuart training tournament is an innovation from North Shore Chess Club. As the name suggests, the emphasis of the tournament is on training and improvement. The tournament is funded by Peter Stuart's bequest to North Shore chess club and the goal is to further Peter's vision of promoting junior chess and instilling love for the game.

The key innovation in this tournament is on-site coaching from GM Dejan Bojkov and others for immediate feedback between rounds. Truly striking while the iron is hot and helping players improve their thinking process while their game thoughts are still fresh in their minds! North Shore are promising more initiatives in a similar vein so stay tuned. All the details are on the Calendar Page.

42nd Trusts Open

Evan Capel took care of business in the 42nd Trusts Open to win New Zealand's biggest weekend prize. With multiple winner Ben Hague absent, and top seed and defending champion Anthony Ker out of form, Evan did what he needed to do conceding just two draws and scoring a solid FIDE 2300 performance. Others to impress included dark horses John Duneas (2nd= with upset wins over Ker and Steadman), David Vincenti (2nd= and undefeated) and Bob Gibbons (6th, upset 1st round win over Ker, +44 FIDE points and U2200 1st).

Some games are available from the Vega page (see the Results page), others are still currently available from the weekend's live link (thanks Ying Wang), and many more will appear in the Peter Stuart NZ Database as soon as possible.

Photo: Evan Capel, photo courtesy of NZ Chess News

Tournaments Small, and Big

The annual Kapiti Rapid is an important event in the Wellington region. This year's version featured a happy and surprisingly large (see photo) crowd for what is usually a small affair. A new generation competed in a both the main event and a separate junior tournament. FM Scott Wastney held off rivals IMs Dive and Ker for first prize, and Aucklander Romie Guerro slipped through the gap to take second (see Results). Thanks to Gordon Lyall and the re-energised Kapiti Club management for a very successful event.

By way of contrast, the Trusts Open is by far the biggest weekend tournament, and the 42nd annual tournament is taking place on Queens Birthday weekend June 1st-3rd, so act quickly and secure your place. All the details are on the Calendar.

Photo credit: Gordon Lyall

New NZCF Constitution

At the NZCF AGM in January a new Constitution was approved by member clubs to simplify administration. Regular tournament players are no longer required to be individual direct members of NZCF at a cost of $20 each. Henceforth simply being a member of any NZCF Affiliated or Associated Club now entitles a player to participate in NZCF rated tournaments.

As a result the charging system for Clubs to be registered for 2019 is now also changed, with Clubs paying a flat-rate charge of $10 per club member as follows:

NZCF Affiliated Clubs: Will declare their Club Membership figures (emailing the list of names to NZCF) on 15th November 2019. Affiliated Clubs will be invoiced $10 per Club Member to retrospectively cover the year 2019, with payment due by 31st December 2019.

NZCF Associated Clubs: Will declare their year 2019 Club Membership figures (emailing the list of names to NZCF) no later than 31st January 2020. Associated Clubs will be invoiced $10 per Club Member to retrospectively cover the year 2019, with payment due by 28th February 2020.

This new system removes a great deal of needless bureaucracy that was affecting tournament organisers and Club officials, and it also supports Members Clubs by making club membership compulsory.

Photo: The simplifying changes means that organisers and officials can now hopefully put their feet up a little more

Jennya Charomova vs The Public

Paul Spiller reports on some welcome coverage of chess in the mainstream media. Jennya Charomova represented NZ at the 2002 Bled Olympiad and was NZ Women's champion in 2005 (see the NZ Chess report). After many years away from NZ, she's back, studying in Christchurch, and playing chess. This NZ Herald story tells the story, including an upcoming (at the time) public simul in Christchurch. Paul tells us that the simul went well with Jennya scoring 14-2 against the public.

Bids invited for staging NZCF official events in 2020

NZCF invites all member Clubs and any other interested parties to consider bids for organising the following official events in 2020:

• North Island Championships
• South Island Championships
• New Zealand Junior Championships
• New Zealand Senior Championships

North Island Championship

Mike Steadman won last year's North Island Championships in Palmerston North in dominating fashion with a picket fence scoreline. To his credit, Mike is travelling south again to defend his title. This time he will have to get past each of the four "big dogs" (this is Mike's own idiosyncratic term) from the nation's capital, as well as perennial contender Bob Smith and a host of other worthies if he wants to hold onto his title. The tournament (which incorporates the traditional Wellington Easter Open) is being held at the CQ Hotel in downtown Wellington over all four days of Easter.
Follow on Vega here.

Photo: Mike Steadman receives the trophy from chief tournament organiser Ross Jackson

Interclub Chess Match between the Franklin Chess Club and the Thames Chess Club

A report from Ron Lanning of the Franklin CC: On Saturday 23rd March the Franklin CC travelled to the Thames CC to play an interclub match. The event was accompanied by a morning tea of biscuits, chocolate eggs, tea and coffee. The Match was officially won by the Franklin team by 6-4 but it was a close run thing, it was 3 games each after 6 games! The Games were played in tremendous spirit and the day was a very enjoyable one for all involved. Interclub matches between the two clubs will be run twice a year. Contact details for both clubs are on the Chess Clubs page.

Many thanks to Russell from the Thames Club for organising the match and to Age Concern Thames for allowing us to use their premises.

2018 Grand Prix Results

2018 Grand Prix Standings are now available on the Grand Prix page. A total of $6520 of prizes are to be distributed amongst 31 players competing in 10 categories. The Grand Prix is designed to reward consistent good performance in tournaments throughout New Zealand.

Ben Hague once again takes out the top prize of $1500.

NZCF would like to once again thank the Grand Prix sponsors, Poison Pawn and D & D Financial Consultants, and the people behind those organisations Michael Freeman and Martin Dreyer for their continuing generous support.

The official prizegiving will once again be at the Latvian Rapid on March 16th (see the Calendar). If you've won a prize email the NZCF Treasurer Winsome Stretch at secretary@newzealandchess.co.nz to discuss collecting your prize.

Guam Oceania Zonal

The picture shows FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich playing the ceremonial first moves against Lt. Governor Josh Tenorio of Guam to mark the opening of the 2019 Zone 3.6 Championships being held there from February 18th to 23rd. As revealed in the pilot (trial?) issue of The New Zealand Chess Bulletin the tournament featured a massive upset in round 1.

Photo credit: Paul Spiller

Hawkes Bay Rapid

Weekend tournaments in two of the most beautiful parts of the country are a perennial highlight of this time of year. A visitor from the south swept in to pick up first prize at the Hawkes Bay Rapid, see the Results page. Next up is the Bay of Plenty Rapid on February 23rd, see the Calendar page.

Photo: Happy prize winners set to enjoy some fine Hawkes Bay produce. L to R; Tobey Hughes, Bob Smith, Felix Xie, Evan Capel, William Duncan, Stephen Lukey, Viv Smith and Bernard Carpinter. No doubt Felix will be cellaring his prize for ten years or so.

Blindfold Clock Simul in Wellington

Blindfold king Timur Gareyev took on twelve players in a hastily organised evening exhibition on the first Wellington club night of 2019. Juniors Ryan Winter and Michael Sole managed a win and a draw respectively, while the grandmaster scored eight wins. The other two games were also draws, and were distinguished by the novelty feature of IMs Ker and Dive playing blindfold themselves. On the plus side they did have scoresheets and empty boards but playing without increment was a significant handicap, especially as Russell tried to convert a winning ending. Down to less than a minute, Russell sportingly continued to write down his moves before pressing his clock, and a gentlemen's draw was really the only satisfactory conclusion. Coverage (including a short video) on Stuff.co.nz here.

Photo: GM Gareyev puts in the miles as he takes on twelve locals in Wellington. The joint NZ Champions can be seen carefully studying their empty boards. Club Captain Phil Rossiter handles the move calling duties.

A Successful 126th Congress

Thanks to Chief Organiser Paul Spiller, hosts Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club, chief sponsor Kasparov Chess Foundation Asia Pacific, Grand Prix sponsors Michael Freeman and Martin Dreyer, plus arbiters Bruce Pollard, Craig Hall and Ying Wang for putting on another great tournament at a great location. The overseas marquee players showed their class. GM Gareyev followed up his unbeaten equal first in the NZ Open with dominant 8.5/9 and 9/9 scores in the Rapid and Blitz respectively. Amongst the locals, the established elite showed they aren't ready to relinquish their grip in classical chess, but a new generation shone in rapid and blitz. All results on the Results Page.

Photo: The spirit of chess on display as congress wraps up (this is round 8 of 9 in the Blitz Championships). Locals Ralph Hart and Evan Capel are about to beat a Russian GM and an Australian IM respectively