Trophies - The Silver Rook

The Silver Rook

The Silver Rook is awarded each year to the New Zealand champion. This storied trophy is intimately tied to our the long history of our National championship (the world's oldest) The trophy is widely admired around the world, has a magnificent presence, and is very valuable. Consequently these days it is kept securely at NZ chess HQ rather than trusted to the custody of individual chessplayers, who of course don't have a tremendous reputation for reliability as a group in general. A little like cricket's Ashes which sadly never leave the long room at Lord's even when 'held' by Australia.

Amongst many others, the trophy bears the name of the late great IM Ortvin Sarapu no less than twenty times, an international record for multiple wins of a national championship.

New Zealand Champions

The table below lists all New Zealand champions, the row numbers are Congress numbers, the City column indicates where the player was living at the time.

	Location	Year	NZ Champion	City
1	Christchurch	1879	Henry Hookham	Christchurch
2	Christchurch	1888/89	Arthur Ollivier	Christchurch
3	Dunedin	1890	Henry Hookham	Christchurch
4	Wellington	1890/91	Richard James Barnes	Wellington
5	Auckland	1891/92	Franz Vaughan Siedeberg	Dunedin
6	Christchurch	1892/93	Franz Vaughan Siedeberg	Dunedin
7	Dunedin	1893/94	Joseph Edwards	Wellington
8	Wellington	1894/95	William MacKay	Wellington
9	Wanganui	1895/96	William Meldrum	Rangitikei
10	Christchurch	1896/97	Richard James Barnes	Wellington
11	Auckland	1897/98	Richard James Barnes	Wellington
12	Dunedin	1898	Robert Alexander Cleland	Dunedin
13	Wellington	1900	William Edward Mason	Wellington
14	Christchurch	1901	David Forsyth	Dunedin
15	Auckland	1901/02	Richard James Barnes	Wellington
16	Dunedin	1902/03	John Cresswell Grierson	Auckland
17	Wellington	1903/04	William Edward Mason	Wellington
18	Oamaru	1904/05	Arthur William Oswald Davies	Wellington
19	Auckland	1905/06	Richard James Barnes	Wellington
20	Christchurch	1906/07	William Samuel Viner	Perth
21	Wellington	1908	Arthur William Oswald Davies	Wellington
22	Dunedin	1908/09	Fedor Kuskof Kelling	Wellington
23	Auckland	1909/10	John Mason	Wellington
24	Timaru	1910/11	William Edward Mason	Wellington
25	Napier	1911/12	William Edward Mason	Wellington
26	Nelson	1912/13	John Cresswell Grierson	Auckland
27	Auckland	1913/14	William Edward Mason	Wellington
28	Christchurch	1914/15	Fedor Kuskof Kelling	Wellington
29	Wellington	1919/20	William Edward Mason	Wellington
30	Dunedin	1920/21	John Dunlop	Oamaru
31	Auckland	1921/22	John Dunlop	Oamaru
32	Christchurch	1922/23	John Dunlop	Oamaru
33	Wellington	1923/24	Spencer Crakanthorp	Sydney
34	Nelson	1924/25	Cecil Purdy	Sydney
35	Dunedin	1925/26	Spencer Crakanthorp	Sydney
36	Auckland	1926/27	Arthur William Oswald Davies	Auckland
37	Christchurch	1927/28	Arthur William Oswald Davies	Auckland
38	Wellington	1928/29	John Angus Erskine	Melbourne
39	Wanganui	1929/30	Gunnar Gundersen	Melbourne
40	Rotorua	1930/31	Alfred William Gyles	Wellington
41	Napier	1931/32	Gunnar Gundersen	Melbourne
42	Auckland	1932/33	Maurice Edward Goldstein	Sydney
43	Dunedin	1933/34	John Dunlop	Dunedin
44	Christchurch	1934/35	John Angus Erskine	Invercargill
45	Wellington	1935/36	Alfred William Gyles	Wellington
46	Auckland	1936/37	Hedley Roy Abbott	Christchurch
47	Dunedin	1937/38	Samuel Hindin	Christchurch
48	Wanganui	1938/39	John Dunlop	Dunedin
49	Wellington	1939/40	John Dunlop	Dunedin
50	Timaru	1940/41	Philipp Allerhand	Wellington
51	Wellington	1943/44	Robert Wade	Wellington
52	Auckland	1944/45	Robert Wade	Wellington
53	Christchurch	1945/46	Tom Lepviikman	Wellington
54	Palmerston North	1946/47	Tom Lepviikman	Wellington
55	Dunedin	1947/48	Robert Wade	Wellington
56	Wanganui	1948/49	Alan Edgar Nield	Auckland
57	Auckland	1949/50	Philipp Allerhand	Wellington
58	Christchurch	1950/51	David I. Lynch	Hastings
59	Napier	1951/52	Ortvin Sarapu	Christchurch
60	Timaru	1952/53	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
61	Wellington	1953/54	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
62	Auckland	1954/55	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
63	Dunedin	1955/56	Frederick Alexander Foulds	Auckland
64	Wellington	1956/57	Arcadios Feneridis James Rodney Phillips	Wellington Auckland
65	Christchurch	1957/58	James Rodney Phillips	Auckland
66	Hamilton	1958/59	Frederick Alexander Foulds Barry C. Menzies	Auckland Auckland
67	Dunedin	1959/60	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
68	Auckland	1960/61	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
69	Wellington	1961/62	Graham G. Haase	Dunedin
70	Christchurch	1962/63	Ortvin Sarapu Richard John Sutton	Auckland Auckland
71	Auckland	1963/64	Roger A. Court	Wellington
72	Wellington	1964/65	James Rodney Phillips	Auckland
73	Hamilton	1965/66	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
74	Christchurch	1966/67	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
75	Dunedin	1967/68	Bruce R. Anderson	Christchurch
76	Wellington	1968/69	Bruce R. Anderson Ortvin Sarapu	Christchurch Auckland
77	Auckland	1969/70	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
78	Nelson	1970/71	Richard John Sutton	Auckland
79	Hamilton	1971/72	Richard John Sutton	Auckland
80	Wellington	1972/73	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
81	Christchurch	1973/74	Paul Anthony Garbett Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland Auckland
82	Dunedin	1974/75	Paul Anthony Garbett	Auckland
83	Upper Hutt	1975/76	Lev Aptekar Murray Chandler Ortvin Sarapu	Wellington Wellington Auckland
84	North Shore	1976/77	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
85	Wellington	1977/78	Craig Laird	Tauranga
86	North Shore	1978/79	Ortvin Sarapu	Auckland
87	Upper Hutt	1979/80	Ewen Green Ortvin Sarapu Vernon A. Small	Auckland Auckland Christchurch
88	Lincoln	1980/81	Roger I. Nokes Ortvin Sarapu Vernon A. Small	Christchurch Auckland Christchurch
89	North Shore	1981/82	Vernon A. Small	Christchurch
90	Dunedin	1982/83	Paul Anthony Garbett David A. Gollogly	Auckland Auckland
91	Auckland	1983/84	Paul Anthony Garbett	Auckland
92	Upper Hutt	1984/85	Vernon A. Small	Christchurch
93	Christchurch	1985/86	Adrian J. Lloyd Ortvin Sarapu	Christchurch Auckland
94	Wanganui	1986/87	Russell J. Dive	Wellington
95	North Shore	1987/88	Jonathan Sarfati	Wellington
96	Dunedin	1988/89	Paul Anthony Garbett Anthony F. Ker	Auckland Wellington
97	Wellington	1989/90	Benjamin Martin Ortvin Sarapu	Dunedin Auckland
98	Auckland	1990/91	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
99	Dunedin	1991/92	Martin P. Dreyer	Auckland
100	Wellington	1992/93	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
101	Invercargill	1993/94	Anthony F. Ker Peter D. McKenzie	Wellington Christchurch
102	Wanganui	1994/95	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
103	Wellington	1995/96	Russell J. Dive Martin P. Dreyer Robert W. Smith	Wellington Auckland Auckland
104	North Shore	1996/97	Alexei Kulashko	Auckland
105	Hamilton	1997/98	Alexei Kulashko	Auckland
106	Dunedin	1998/99	Russell J. Dive	Wellington
107	Auckland	1999/00	Alexei Kulashko	Auckland
108	Waitakere City	2000/01	Scott Wastney	Nelson
109	Christchurch	2001/02	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
110	Wanganui	2002/03	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
111	Wellington	2003/04	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
112	Wanganui	2004/05	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
113	Queenstown	2006	Murray Chandler	Queenstown & London
114	Wanganui	2007	Puchen Wang	Auckland
115	Auckland	2008	Murray Chandler	Auckland
116	Queenstown	2009	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
117	Auckland	2010	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
118	Auckland	2011	Anthony F. Ker	Wellington
119	Queenstown	2012	Michael V.R. Steadman	Auckland
120	Wellington	2013	Scott Wastney	Wellington
121	Auckland	2014	Puchen Wang	Auckland
122	Auckland	2015	Russell J. Dive Nicolas Croad Ben Hague Paul A Garbett Anthony F. Ker Gino Thornton Robert W. Smith Leonard J McLaren Alexandra Jule Gordon Morrell	Wellington Wellington Auckland Auckland Wellington Auckland Mount Maunganui Auckland Australia Auckland
123	Auckland	2016	Alexei Kulashko Michael V.R. Steadman	Auckland Auckland
124	Wellington	2017	Scott Wastney	Wellington
125	Palmerston North	2018	Russell J. Dive Alphaeus Ang	Wellington Auckland
126	Auckland	2019	Anthony F. Ker Russell J. Dive	Wellington Wellington
127	Tauranga	2020	Kirill Polishchuk Ben Hague Paul Anthony Garbett Russell J Dive	Mount Maunganui Auckland Auckland Wellington
128	Palmerston North	2021	Nicolas Croad	Wellington
129	Christchurch	2022	Daniel Gong	Auckland