World Youth 2001
Puchen Wang scored 6.5/11 in the World Under 12 Boys for 25th equal, and 33rd on countback. Evginia Charomova scored 5.5/11 in the Under 12 Girls for 33rd equal and 47th on countback. A full report available in the NZ Team Reports pages.
All Canterbury 2001
The 2001 All Canterbury event saw Bruce Anderson head the field with 4.5/5, with Ben Giles second on 4/5. Twelve players took part.
Waikato Open Hamilton 17th, 18th & 19th August 2001
The tenth Waikato Open attracted a field of 32 players for the 6 round swiss format weekender. Half of the field was from outside the Hamilton region including a 5 player Wellington contingent. The pre-tournament favourite was Leonard McLaren, a regular at Waikato tournaments, along with local player Graeme Spain.
Open: 1st = (5 points) M van der Hoorn, L McLaren, R Gibbons
Grade 1 (u1700): 1st = (4 points) M Nyberg, P Rossiter
Grade 2 (u1400): 1st (3.5 points) T Gothorp
2nd = (3 points) A Mayne, V Prinsloo
Top Juniors: V Prinsloo (3), C J Philips (2.5)
Len Whitehouse Memorial Trophy (top Waikato player) G Spain (4.5)
Upset Prize: G Judkins
Devonport Open Junior Chess Tournament 18th & 19th August 2001
Felicity Timings organised a very successful weekend tournament for children under 13, which attracted 108 entrants and was won by Puchen Wang, with Evginia Charamova among those sharing second (she lost only to Puchen). Director of Play was David Shead, while NZCF Coach Ewen Green also assisted.
Birkenhead Licensing Trust Open Auckland 22nd & 23rd September 2001
Another successful event took place last weekend with the Open tournament eventually being won by Bob Smith and Ben Giles (4/5). The outright winner of the "B" Grade tournament was Aaron Cossey.
Maruia Open 2001 - A Brief Report and Crosstable by Chris Wright
The Lewis Pass on the way to Maruia Springs, Springs Junction, Maruia, Murchison, and Nelson is a very scenic place to drive through. We drove past Maruia Springs (the initial venue) which is 41 km south of Springs Junction, and Maruia Village is 20 km east of Springs Junction. It took about two and a half hours drive (230 km) to get to Maruia from Christchurch. Maruia is the midpoint between Nelson and Christchurch. A very picturesque place - a secluded area amongst forest and mountains with snow on them. The air was fresh and crisp. Maruia is a peaceful location. It was good to catch up with old friends again, and Friday night consisted an evening of 5 minute chess and a Hungarian goulash meal that Pearl Giles had superbly prepared. The venison was delicious! The venue was Reid’s Store, a very famous Backpackers that you would find listed in any Lonely Planet travel guide. A fabulous venue to play chess! The Maruia Open drew players from Nelson, Wakefield, Maruia, Christchurch, and North Otago. Sadly, Gavin Marner and FM, ICM Mark Noble could not join us, but Maruia still had a strong tournament line-up nonetheless! The top six seeds in the tournament were past or present chess champions. Scott Wastney (NZ Chess Champion), Ben Giles (South Island Chess Champion), John van Ginkel (Nelson Champion), Shane Hudson (1992 NZ Schoolpupil Champion), Brian Donaldson and Arie Nijman (1999 South Island Champions). There were 16 players at the Maruia Open. Bruce Donaldson, Arie Nijman, Bruce Gloistein, and Dan Dolejs made up the tournament midfield (rating distribution 1786 to 1658).
In the first round I was paired to play Ben Giles. After I thrashed out 31. ...Qxf3 I heard a smirk from Scott Wastney who was watching. After the game he showed that I had missed a force win in two! (2019 Editor's note: this game is in the Peter Stuart NZ Database, now freely available on this website). Instead, the result was a draw, but I was happy with that!
In rounds two and four I played white against Bruce Gloistein (North Otago) and Erin Roughton (Wakefield) - I lost both games due to my desire to over-press. I also found out that a free pawn is not always a free pawn! In round three I got to play Sarah Brown (aged 11). Sarah came 3rd in the Christchurch Schoolgirls Championship on May 30 earlier this year. During analysis with Bruce Gloistein, Bruce said that Sarah had a strong game. Sarah did put me under a lot of pressure in the opening and early middlegame. Embarrassingly, I could have lost my Queen! I must admit, I had more to fear in this game than I did against my easy win against Edith Otene in the Waitemata Major Open! Sarah is distinct from the other Junior chess players in that she has the concentration and maturity at the chess board to be a good tournament player. In my opinion, and in Ben Giles opinion, she has great potential to be a very strong player. During friendly games, she defeated another promising junior, Shannon Clements (aged 16), from Nelson College. I played two games with Shannon in friendly play, both games were drawn.
As for other juniors, Patrick Downey (winner of junior prize at Nelson Cole Cup - 16th June 2001) looks promising but has a lot of work yet to do, and as for Chris Wastney (Scott’s nephew) and Michael Price - Sarah Brown proved that she is clearly the stronger player! After 3 rounds of chess on the first day of play, Saturday night entailed the playing of trivial pursuit - as relaxation. This was enjoyed after a pasta dish and a cold beer. Bruce Gloistein (nicknamed Groinstrain) won the Grade 1 prize on countback. Sarah Brown clearly won the Grade 2 prize (despite her not being present for the first two rounds due to a Saturday netball game), and Scott Wastney won the Maruia Open trophy. Sadly, Ben Giles had a poor tournament, drawing with Chris Wright (I missed a force win in two), and lost to Arie Nijman and Shane Hudson. I do hope that Ben can still make the 2000 qualification mark for the upcoming 109th NZ Chess Congress. Ben and Pearl Giles are to be highly complimented for their generous hospitality and organisation of the Maruia event. Everyone enjoyed their time in Maruia, and everyone desires to be back next year. See you at the Maruia Open in 2002!
Maruia Open 2001
1 S. Wastney (FM) 2230 +B8 +W6 +B4 =W3 +B5 4.5 1st 2 B. Giles 1954 =W9 +B7 =W3 -B6 -B4 2 3 J. van Ginkel 1930 +B10 +W15 =B2 =B1 +W6 4 2nd= 4 S. Hudson 1852 +W11 +B5 -W1 +B7 +W2 4 2nd= 5 B. Donaldson 1786 +B12 -W4 +B10 +W8 -W1 3 6 A. Nijman 1692 +W13 -B1 +W11 +W2 -B2 3 1st= Grade 1 7 D. Dolejs 1673 +B14 -W2 +B15 -W4 +B10 3 1st= Grade 1 8 B. Gloistein 1658 -W1 +B9 +W14 -B5 +W11 3 1st= Grade 1 9 C. Wright 1343 =B2 -W8 +B16 -W10 +B12 2.5 10 E. Roughton unr -W3 +B13 -W5 +B9 -W7 2 11 S. Clements (J) unr -B4 +W12 -B6 +W15 -B8 2 12 P. Downey (J) unr -W5 -B11 +W13 +B14 -W9 2 13 C. Wastney (J) unr -B6 -W10 -B12 -W16 +B15 1 14 M. Price (J) unr -W7 +Bye -B8 -W12 -B16 1 15 C. McKinstry (J) unr +Bye -B3 -W7 -B11 -W13 1 16 S. Brown (J) unr =Bye -def -W9 +B13 +W14 2.5 1st Grade 2
North Island Championship 2001
The 2001 North Is. Champion is FM Bruce Watson who scored an impressive 7.5/ 8 to head head off second seed Graeme Spain who finished on 6.5. Despite an increased prize fund, excellent playing conditions, and plenty of advance notice the field was smaller than usual (26), and notable for the absence of many top players. Bruce's "picket fence" was stopped by Ben Giles in Round 6, with Graeme Spain losing to to the top seed and drawing with Henry Vital in the final round. Henry Vital and Ben Giles finished on 5.5 for 3rd = place. Ben Giles' efforts to keep contact with the leaders were derailed in Round 4 by a loss to Maciej Wojnar.
One notable feature of the Junior Grade placings was that 1st and 2nd positions were both taken by female competitors in Evgenia Charamova and Dorette Prinsloo.
Final Scores:
1st - Bruce Watson 7.5, 2nd - Graeme Spain 6.5, 3rd = Ben Giles & Henry Vital 5.5
Grade 1, 1st = Philip Rossiter, Maciej Wojnar, Don Stracy 5
Grade 2, 1st - Regan Jackson 4.5, 2nd = Jonathon Whittle, Edith Otene, Gary Judkins 4
Junior Grade 1st - Evgenia Charamova 4, 2nd Dorette Prinsloo 3, 3rd CJ Phillips 2
North Island Rapid Championship 2001
In a field of 40 players including 15 juniors, the honours were finally shared between top seed Leonard McLaren and Ralph Hart who both finished on 5.5 / 6. Once again there was a shortage of 2000 plus players at the head of the field.
The pairings for the Rapid were done using the SwissPerfect pairing software currently being trialled by NZCF, which passed the test with flying colours.
The final positions were:
1st= Leonard McLaren, Ralph Hart 5.5, 3rd = Alan Dunn, Ben Giles 5
Grade 1, 1st= Barry Williams, Graham Pocock 4
Grade 2, 1st Caleb Wright 4.5, 2nd Regan Jackson 3.5
Grade 3, 1st= CJ Phillips, Navin Singh 3, 3rd Maziar Hojabri 2.5