Hamilton Chess Club

Peter has sent us a few photos from the Olympiad in Istanbul. Currently the mens team after 3 rounds have  3 points out of a possible 12 ( 0.5:3.5 Germany,  2.5:1.5 Nepal  and  0:4 Paraguay). The best individual result is a draw achieved  by Nicolas Croad against German GM I. Khenkin with a FIDE rating 401 points higher. The womens team have played 2 rounds and have 3.5 points out of 8 (0:4 USA, 3.5:0.5 Netherlands Antilles).

The club welcomes Daniel Davis as our newest member. Daniel recently played in the recent Waikato Open and scored 2.5 in the under 1800 division. Like our other junior members his chess is making some of the older members work hard to maintain their dignity over the board. Recently we have been adding a new member every one to two weeks so the future for the club looks bright.

As a new feature the club has added ladders for 25+5 and 5+0 chess — see the menu at the top right of this page. To improve your place on the ladder (and the associated bragging rights) you must challenge (and beat) someone with a higher rating than yourself. Inform Ian of your win and  the ladder will be updated. The rules for the ladder competition may evolve (I am open to suggestions), but at this point there are only two (in addition to the usual rules of chess, of course):

1. No re-match on a particular night: 1 game, 1 result only to count.         2. If your subscription remains unpaid for more than a few weeks you will slide to the bottom of the ladder.

Currently Colin Barrett Hogg occupies the top spot on both ladders, and given his relative rarity at the club of late, he might stay there for some time !!

The pundits were guessing who the “Mystery Guest” was going to be at the club night on Tuesday. Turns out that that Ian had organized a “Grim Reaper” tournament and that the Mystery Guest was none other than the Grim Reaper himself (sort of). The tournament attracted 14 players and was a handicap knockout blitz that was eventually won by Micheal Freeman following a tense last round against Peter Hulshof. Players were allocated a certain number of lives at the start of the tournament based on NZCF rapid rating, losing one life for each lost game, and being eliminated when they had no remaining lives. The “Grim Reaper” was Shredder playing on an 1800 rating that acted as the opponent to the odd man out when there were an odd number of players in a particular round. Needless to say nobody survived their tussle with the reaper who served well to clean up the stragglers. The tournament was quick fire, went to seven or eight rounds, and was generally enjoyed by all. Next time I think we will amend the rules such that if any two players get paired against each other in two consecutive rounds then that round is re – drawn to avoid the repetition. And perhaps the arbiter should start with a few extra lives as well.

The club welcomes Graham Nolan as its newest member. Graham performed strongly at the Waikato Open recently gaining 3.5 points out of 6 in the Open division, and will be a strong contender in future local tournaments, and in the club champs and rapid next year.

We tied with our best ever previous  turnout for the Rookies today with 30 competitors. Special kudos to those that travelled from as far afield as Rotorua and Auckland to take part. First overall was taken out by Benjamin Symon –participation in club night games has increased his ability in the last few months and he will be giving big brother Christopher a run for his money soon. Second and third went to club members Murray Tuatini and George Tuwhangai. Age division first and second prizes for U16 U14 U12 U10 and U8 were also awarded – the final crosstable and full details of all prizewinners and the tiebreak points can be found here, and these are the photos. Special thanks to Hilton for giving a simul against 6 players during the lunchbreak – hopefully we can provide the same challenge at next year’s events. This was the last rookies tournament for 2012 but we look  forward to seeing you all again next year when maybe we can get to 40 participants.

Castling is for sissies — Anon

Only three more and we will have reached 30

Numbers are looking good for this weeks Rookies Tournament with in excess of 20 entries. Make sure you dont miss out, register now

Hilton has managed to take the title of Club Rapid Champ 2012 with 4.5 out of 5, dropping only half a point to the second place getter Stefan. For the rest of us it is a case of “Maybe next year …. ” as usual. For his efforts Hilton’s name is now immortalized in the hall of fame. Final cross table is here. Next week we have a one night blitz tournament like no other – definitely not to be missed.

The link has now been updated so that you can access all the games (both u1800 and open grade divisions) of the Waikato Open Tournament 2012 in .pgn format

The results after round 4 are posted here. The final weeks draw will be
Hilton:Michael
Richard:Stefan
Ian:William
Murray:George
Benjamin:Craig

The games for the Waikato Open 2012 are now available here  in .pgn format. Currently only the Open Grade games are available, we hope to make the under 1800 grade games available in the near future. (The page is located permanently under Events > Waikato Open 2012).

Combining a top class venue with the organisational skills of Hilton Bennett and Keong Ang meant that once again the Waikato Open was a resounding success for the forty six participants, some from as far away as the South Island. The Open division was contested by 22 individuals including one IM and 3 FM. First place (4.5 out of 6) was a three way tie between Ben Hague, Mark Noble, and Ralph Hart. The Len Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for the best Waikato Player in the open division went to club member William Lynn. Twenty four aspirants tussled it out in the under 1800 division with first placed (5.0 out of 6) shared equally by Ian Kennedy and Nigel Crombie. David Chen and Arvin Lim took the first equal grade prize in the under 1500. The William Lynn Trophy for the best local junior was shared by Sheng Cao and Daniel Davis. A big thank you to all the participants and we look forward to an even bigger tournament turnout next year. Cross tables are located here and once again the obligatory rogues gallery is included here.

When the current rapid finishes we will be having a one night blitz tournament with a special guest (providing a minimum of 10 players are present) …….

We have 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 entries and counting for the Waikato Open to be held at St Pauls starting tomorrow evening. Remember that players meet at 7pm, game one starts at 7:15 sharp.

Welcome to Benjamin Symon who has joined us as our newest member. Benjamin has been cutting his teeth in the club rapid championship over the last few weeks and is due to face off against George in round 4 next Tuesday. He played for the Fairfield team that took first place in the Intermediate division of the schools’ competition this past weekend so will be off to the Nationals in September. He is also taking part in this weeks Waikato Open and we wish him every success.