Hamilton Chess Club

Club nights will be restricted to members only for the next 4 weeks. You can pay a sub online, or on the night ($40 adults, $20 under 18) and join in the fun. By becoming a member you support chess in the Waikato, get a discount on entry for club weekend tournaments, and acquire a club rating. Non members are allowed three free nights attendance before deciding to commit to full membership.

On September 9 we will start a graded round robin tournament. There will be three divisons: An A and B grade (based on club ratings) consisting on groups of six players based on club ranking. There will also be a C grade that will be a five round Swiss style tournaments. There will be two rounds on 9/9/14 and again on 16/9/14, with the final round 23/9/14 followed by a very brief AGM. I think this will be a very popular tournament. Please players will need to commit to being there on each of the three nights to take part as we don’t want any no-shows signing on.

Next week we will have round 5 of the club rapid champs, followed by a break with round 6 resuming on 14th October. If you have forgotten where you stand on the cumulative points table so far it can be found here.

Round 6 of the blitz last night once again drew a big crowd with 22 players. Final points have been tallied. The Club Blitz champion 2014 (Open division) goes to Richard Dare, well clear of the rest of the pack on 30.5 points. Second was Ian on 24, followed by Stefan on 21. The title of Club Blitz Champion 2014 (Reserve Board), awarded to the highest scoring player whose club ranking was pawn, knight, or bishop at the start of the tournament, is shared equally by Sivoram and Richard Jackson on 21.5 points each. Nick came in third on 18. To try and tiebreak Sivoram and Richard I went back over each of the rounds to see their scores against each other, only to find that not a single game was played between them over the whole tournament. The winners have been immortalized on the champions board. Our next blitz event will be “Super Blitz” with eight rounds of 3 minutes on the clock and a 2 second increment. That tournament will be held over 2 club nights starting on September 30th.

There has been bit of a hiatus in club ratings as the openings tournament wasn’t used for ratings purposes. Last nights blitz was a ratable event though, and so club ratings have been updated accordingly. Joel Nick Eddie and Richard all achieve new personal bests.

We had 23 for round 5 of the blitz last night. Fuatai looks like a strong addition to the club with his clean sweep score of 6. Second on the night to Richard and Stefan, both on 5 points apiece. The crosstable and cumulative points tables have been updated. Richard Dare has an unassailable lead in the open division on 26.5, 6.5 points clear of his nearest rival. In the reserve board division two players are tied on 17.5 points each, so it may come down to the wire next week. Welcome to a lot of new youngsters as well. The sixth and final round of the 2014 club blitz champ will be held next week. Guests welcome to come along for a look. Games kick off at 7:30 so don’t be late.

Round 5 of the club blitz champs are next week, with the sixth and final round the week after. Guests are welcome to participate. Richard would look to have a fairly unassailable lead, but there is still plenty of scope to jockey into position for the minor placings. We will be having a graded round robin shortly in which your playing division will be dictated by your club rating. The next few weeks will be your last chance to polish up (or polish down?) your rating in preparation for that event.  Kick off is 7:30 so dont be late.

We had the final two rounds last night. Richard bought along the symmetrical variation of the four nights defence as the study for the evening. The final crosstable has been updated here, with Richard Dare and Graham both finishing on 7 points apiece. Richard took out pole position on tiebreak points. The big news of the tournament is Elijah who finished with 3.5 points along with Sivoram and Ian. Elijah claims 5th position based on tiebreak points, which is a tremendous effort for a youngster who is clearly coming ahead in chess ability in leaps and bounds. Well done. Next week we look towards some faster action with the return of the club blitz champs. See you there. (For the record Shredder favours  the continuation 1.Bg5 Bxc3 2.bxc3 Qe7 3.Qe2 h6 4.Bh4 g5 5.Bg3 Bd7 6.Rab1 in the position at left)

Last night Matt entertained us with the Benko Gambit. The Benko Gambit is characterised by the move 3…b5 in the Benoni Defense (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5). When White accepts with 4.cxb5 we are entering into a lively encounter as Black will almost certainly come back with 4…a6 offering the second pawn. If White accepts this (he will often refuse playing 5.b6 instead) we are in true Benko territory. Before long we have Bxa6 and the gloves are off. White’s main dilemma is what to do on his kingside. Playing his pawn to e4 has the drawback of the light-square bishop exchange where he will lose the right to castle. Now he’s in the King Walk Variation where he will lose a number of moves getting his king safe and developing his rook. This is the variation we played last night. Richard, Daniel, and Graham now lead on 5 points. The crosstable has been updated. Richard has volunteered to bring along an opening for the final two rounds next week.