132nd New Zealand Chess Congress – Final Results
The 132nd New Zealand Chess Congress ran from 2-12 January. A full report will follow, for now here are the prize winners:
NZ Open Championship
1st=: GM Gabor Nagy, FM Felix Xie. Felix also the NZ Champion and name on the Silver Rook, to go with his previous NZ Rapid Championship in Tauranga in 2020 and NZ Lightning Championship in Christchurch in 2022.
3rd: FM Alphaeus Ang
4th=: IM Herman van Riemsdijk, FM Yining Chen
Under 2100: FM Bob Smith, CM Ollie Archer, Nunilon Fulo III, Daqi Mao, Leo Baker
Best Female Player: Yining Chen
Major Open
1st=: Ceferino Isaac, Alexander Pan
3rd: Sai Somaraju
Under 1700: Alexander Pan, passed down to Yanshuo Pei and Junqing Jerome Tao
Under 1400: Nathan Sun
Best Female Player: Laura Xu
NZ Junior and Age Group Championships
1st, NZ Junior Champion, NZ Schoolpupil Champion: Kayden Loke
2nd=: Yanbo Jin and Ryan Hwang
NZ Girls’ Champion: Luna Xu
Under 16 Champion: Dion Wilson
Under 14 Champion: Ryan Hwang, prize passed down to Zi Yao Wang
Under 12 Champion: Luna Xu and Sai Somaraju
Under 10 Champion: Huankai Xu and Lucas Zhang
Under 8 Champion: Vera Xu
NZ Junior Under 1000 Championship
1st : Junhao Wang
2nd =: Krishna Tonniru and Oliver Junhao Xiao
NZ Rapid Championship
1st : GM Gabor Nagy
2nd=: IM Herman van Riemsdijk, FM Alphaeus Ang, IM Russell Dive, Daqi Mao
Under 2000: CM Oliver Picken, Hayden Steele, CM Cohen Young
Under 1700: Junqing Jerome Tao, Jonathon Hookings, Maximilian Fang
Under 1400: Aidan Heberle
NZ Lightning Championship
1st: GM Gabor Nagy
2nd= FM Felix Xie, IM Sravan Renjith (joint NZ Lightning Champions), FM Yinging Chen,
Under 2000:
William Rui Liu
Kendrick Zhang
Thomas Van der Hoorn
Kayden Loke
Mario Krstev
Under 1700: Maximilian Fang
Under 1400:
Abhinav Choudhary
Oliver Sun
Aidan Heberle
Shayan Samarawickrama
Jasper Hewlett-Coffey