NZ Chess News Vol4 No1 Nov 1959
This issue uses a new process with better production values. The poor presentation of previous issues belies often excellent content. The issue has news of the final result of the Candidates Tournament (although no games from that event). Most of the issue is devoted to local news: the Gisborne Open, the Auckland Open Championship, the All-Wellington Final, the Auckland Chess Club Championship, the Taranaki Teams Championship, news from Canterbury and Otago (including the Otago vs Canterbury Telegraphic Match), plus Correspondence Chess results. There are 4 games: Morrison vs Belton (Auckland Open), Van Dijk vs Hutchings (Otago vs Canterbury), Poole vs Abbott (Otago vs Canterbury) and Feneridis vs Court (Wellington).
NZ Chess News Vol4 No2 Dec 1959
There is more on the Wellington Championship in this issue, with two games from that event: Beyer vs McNabb and Eriksen vs Fletcher. There is also more on the Otago vs Canterbury Telegraphic Match: the game Nyman vs Rasa. In addition, an article by Ortvin Sarapu examines ideas behind two new openings, the Pirc Defence and the Robatsch Defence.
NZ Chess News Vol4 No3 Feb 1960
This issue is mainly devoted to coverage of the annual congress in Dunedin over the New Year. Sarapu gained the title of NZ Champion by just a half-point over Feneridis. The crucial game which determined first place, Sarapu vs Feneridis, is annotated by Sarapu. Other complete games annotated by Sarapu in the issue are Hutchings vs Esterman, Sarapu vs Sutton, Phillips vs Esterman and Hayes vs Phillips. Sarapu also analyses positions from Marsick vs Feneridis, Esterman vs Sarapu and Phillips vs Haase. There is also a two-page review by Sarapu of the openings played in the congress. The issue concludes with a detailed coverage of correspondence chess results. An interesting item of news appears on page 29, regarding the publication of a tournament book of the Dunedin congress. I wonder if any copies of this are still available. It was 61 years ago, so it is now likely to be rare
NZ Chess News Vol4 No4 Mar 1960
This issue begins with a report of the first game of the 1960 World Championship between Tal and Botvinnik. There is also an article about the organisation of FIDE events such as Zonal tournaments, the World Junior and the Olympiads. A game from the Dunedin congress, Phillips vs Hutchings, is analysed and there are two obituaries – one for Mr J.C. McCrae, vice-patron of the NZ Chess Association, and one for Mr J.J. Marlow, a stalwart of the Otago Chess Club who was continuing to play club chess well into his nineties and who died at the age of 97 after a short illness. There is also a review of Congress Openings by Ortvin Sarapu, covering the Belgrade Gambit and the Sicilian Defence. After this issue there is a long gap of 8 months to the next one (Nov 1960); this was due to the editor, Ted Frost, taking an overseas trip and there being no-one available to take his place in the interim.
NZ Chess News Vol4 No5 Nov 1960
This issue begins with an apology from the editor, Ted Frost, concerning the 8-month break in publication. It was not possible to find a temporary editor for the magazine while he was overseas. There is a 3-page article by Ortvin Sarapu titled “How to improve” with an analysis of the game Sarapu vs Douglas, played at the 1960 Auckland Easter tournament. There is a lot of overseas news (covering the previous 8 months) with some unannotated games: Wade vs Korchnoi (played in Buenos Aires), Purdy vs Geus (from the Australian Championship) and Botvinnik vs Tal (game 6 of the World Championship match). There is an article about Arcadios Feneridis, whom NZ Chess News had selected as “Player of the Year”. Feneridis annotates a win of his against Sarapu in correspondence chess. There is also some New Zealand news: J.B. Kay won the Auckland Chess Club Summer Cup and the game Baeyertz vs Kay is given (although it is a win for the runner-up, Baeyertz), Rodney Phillips won the North Island Championship, Ortvin Sarapu placed first in the South Island Championship and Dave Lynch won the HB-EC (Hawkes Bay – East Coast) Championship in Napier.
NZ Chess News Vol4 No6 Dec 1960
A large part of this issue (4 of the 12 pages) is devoted to analysis of strange decisions made by the Director of Play at the Australian Championship in Adelaide. These decisions affected the final placing of Ortvin Sarapu, who was required to play a game that he had already won by default (as his opponent had arrived more than an hour and three-quarters late and the win by default had previously been declared at one hour after the start of play). The next 2 pages are devoted to an article by Ortvin Sarapu in his “How to improve” series; this one focuses on specialising in particular opening lines and the advantages this brings in terms of familiarity with typical plans and combinations and in saving time on the clock. There is an article on Richard Sutton, with three games: Hayes vs Sutton, Sutton vs Douglas and Sutton vs Bollee. In addition, Tal’s surprise loss to Penrose at the Leipzig Olympiad is given and also a game Roundill vs Davida from the Hawke’s Bay Championship.
NZ Chess News Vol5 No1 Jan 1961
This issue has the results of the NZ Congress over the New Year; Sarapu took his 6th NZ title, with 10 points from 11 games (9 wins and 2 draws). J.R. Phillips was close behind with 9.5 points (8 wins and 3 draws). There was then quite a gap to the 3rd place-getter, Richard Sutton on 7.5 points. Roger Court won the Reserve Championship with straight wins – 11 points from 11 games. The third article in the “How to improve” series by Ortvin Sarapu focuses on the value of analysis (including post-mortem analysis) and correspondence chess for improvement by identifying deficiencies. Sarapu gives an example from one of his games in Sydney where he had the choice of exchanging rooks to bring about a king and pawn ending. He had thought during the game that the K + P ending was drawish, but in fact it was a forced win for him. There is also a game from the NZ Correspondence Championship 1959-60 (Court vs Cunningham) annotated by the winner, Roger Court. There is an article on Australian events: the Sub-Zonal tournament and also the Australian Championship (Sarapu played in both), with games Sarapu vs Endzelins and Sarapu vs Viner, both annotated by Sarapu. The Letters to the Editor section focuses on the events in the Australian Championship described in the previous issue, with a lengthy letter from C.J.S. Purdy on the subject. And finally, there is a truly historic entry: the first national rating list for New Zealand.
NZ Chess News Vol6 No2 Feb 1961
There is an article about the Auckland Congress by J.R. Phillips, with the game Sutton vs Sarapu annotated by Sarapu. This was considered to be Sarapu’s best and most interesting game in the tournament. There are two more Sarapu games in the issue, Sarapu vs Bagirov and Averbakh vs Sarapu, also annotated by Sarapu. Both of these games were played in Australia; Averbakh and Bagirov are well-known grandmasters (and Averbakh is still living in 2021 at the age of 99; he is the oldest living grandmaster). In addition, Alan Fletcher contributed an appreciation of the late Frank Tibbitts, with a correspondence game Tibbitts vs Kiley annotated by Roger Court.
NZ Chess News Vol5 No3 Apr 1961
First, I should mention that there was a mistake in the previous issue (Feb 1961) that I uncritically copied. That issue stated that it was Vol6 No2 when it was actually Vol5 No2. The current issue, Vol5 No3, is a bumper issue as the number of pages is up from the usual 12 to 20. This might be partly related to the the lateness of the issue (it was due to appear in March). It begins with news of the World Championship Match 1961 between Botvinnik and Tal – a return match by Botvinnik after losing the title to Tal in 1960. There is also an interview with Tal taken from the Russian magazine Nedelya. There is an article by J.R. Phillips on congress highlights, which looks mainly at various swindles and upsets that occurred and includes a complete game, Baeyertz vs Sarapu. The fourth article by Ortvin Sarapu in his “How to improve” series looks at the value of spending much time on deep analysis of a single position. There is some local NZ news: Richard Sutton won the Auckland Chess League’s Easter tournament (which is also the Auckland Championship), H. McNabb won the All-Wellington title, B.J. Halpin won the Wellington Easter tournament, and Gisborne Chess Club played a correspondence match with Madrid. The issue concludes with some games from the New Zealand Correspondence Chess Association Championship 1960-61: Hignett vs Huygens, Huygens vs Cunningham, Cunningham vs Court, Cunningham vs Fletcher, Esterman vs Fletcher, Collins vs Pound and Gagen vs Rogers.
NZ Chess News Vol5 No4 May-Jun 1961
I’ve resumed the scanning after a long lockdown lay-off. There are just 3 issues of the current batch left to scan, so a final burst over the next few days will do it. The current issue begins with coverage of the North Island Championship in Wanganui, won by R. Chapman. The game Chapman vs Phillips (won by Chapman) is annotated extensively by both Chapman and Phillips. Two brevities from the tournament are then given: Smith vs Whitehouse (10 moves) and Evans vs Humphries (13 moves). The openings played in the Congress at New Year are reviewed by J.R. Phillips and there are several annotated games from Congress: Phillips vs Feneridis, Cuthbert vs Feneridis, Reindler vs Court and Court vs Whitehouse, followed by another North Island brevity: Reindler vs Whitehouse (10 moves). The issue concludes with the NZ Rating List for March 1961 and the cross-table of results for the 1960-61 NZ Correspondence Chess Championship (won by J.A. Cunningham).
NZ Chess News Vol6 No1 Jul 1961
This issue begins with an article on the impending 1961 World Junior Chess Championship and the need to raise funds to send Rodney Phillips to that event. The article also mentions other possible entrants, such as Vladimir Hart of Czechoslovakia. I think they must have meant Vlastimil Hort, who is Czech and was 17 in 1961. Next is an article about the founding of “Chess Friends”, which is described as “an organisation dedicated to the raising of money to help promote chess”. There is an article on correspondence chess, with three non-annotated games: Blomfield vs Esterman, Cunningham vs Taylor and Graham vs Perrott (the last just 10 moves long, an unusually brief correspondence game). R.A. Rasa contributed an article on the South Island Championship (won by G. Haase) and J.R. Phillips continued with the second section of his review of Congress Openings. The Hawkes Bay – East Coast Championship was won by E. Davida; there is a brief account by G. Severinsen and L. Meredith. The results of the 1961 Waikato Chess League Championship are presented by J.R. Phillips, including a complete cross-table. Phillips and Sarapu were joint winners. The games section has two games from the Waikato tournament: Sarapu vs Phillips (annotated) and Phillips vs Evans; one from the South Island Championship: Steele vs Watt; and one from a correspondence match New Zealand vs England: Mitchell vs Feneridis (annotated).
NZ Chess News Vol6 No2 Aug 1961
This leaves just one issue remaining, Sep 1961, to scan in the current batch. The Aug issue begins with favourable news of J.R. Phillips at the World Junior Championships in the Netherlands, followed by an article on the fund-raising organisation “Chess Friends”. There is an account of the first round of the Bledisloe Cup team competition, and then part III of J.R. Phillips’ review of Congress Openings. The Games Section has the following: Tal vs Botvinnik (18th match game, annotated); Sarapu vs Phillips (from NZ Championship, annotated); Fletcher vs Hartley (not annotated); Phillips vs Reindler (annotated); Petre vs Skerrett (annotated); Howe vs Prince (not annotated). The issue concludes with some correspondence games: Kiley vs Court (1959-1960, annotated); Kiley vs Court (1960-1961, not annotated); Howard vs Taylor (not annotated); Howard vs van Enckevort (not annotated); Goodier vs Napier (not annotated & only 12 moves); and Hubbard vs Esterman (annotated).
NZ Chess News Vol6 No3 Sep 1961
The issue begins with several articles covering different events: Chris Evans’ win of the National Schoolboy Championships, the Bledisloe Cup Match Palmerston North vs Wellington, the Inter-University Chess Tournament, and Rodney Phillips’ result at the World Junior Championship. The Games Section has a large number of games: Smyth vs Coghlan, Howe vs Clarke, Walpole vs Fournier, Prince vs Poole, Robb vs Bibby, Frankel vs Haase, Henderson vs Sutton, Lynch vs Severinsen, Davida vs Gilchrist and Skerrett vs Haase. Of these, only Frankel vs Haase and Henderson vs Sutton have any significant annotations. In addition, there are some correspondence games: Gyles vs Kiley (annotated), Huygens vs van Pelt and Montin vs Prentice. My description of the contents will follow.