Hamilton Chess Club

Last night saw the welcome addition of three new members to the club, from the very junior to the very experienced. We now have a total of 24 paid up members and a couple of prospects in the wings as well. First of all we welcome Darius Hasan-Stein as a junior member. Darius is 13 and a pupil at St Pauls Collegiate. No doubt he will make Gary’s school team in later years. He lists his interests as Chemistry, Science, and chess. He has been coming along the last few nights with younger brother Adam, who will graduate to full club membership in a few years as well. Welcome Darius. Next we welcome Damian Eades. Damian comes to us from the Bay Of Plenty and is a strong player with an NZCF standard and rapid ratings of  1701 and 1475 respectively (and now a HCC rating of 1031). Finally we welcome Michael Freeman. Michael is a very strong player (NZCF standard rating of 2174) while his rapid rating of 2110 places him at number 28 nationally. Michael was NZ Correspondence Champion in 1979/80 and 1983/84, and earned a NZ Correspondence Chess Master title. In 1995 he gained an International Correspondence Master title (2450 level) and in 2003 he won the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) 50th anniversary IM-D event and gained a Senior International Master title. Over the board Michael represented NZ in chess at the 1996 Chess Olympiad and the 1983, 1993 and 1995 Asian Teams events and was NZ Team Captain for four Chess Olympiads (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000) and a member of the FIDE Executive Board from 1998-2002. He is the current FIDE delegate and also the NZ delegate to ICCF.