Hamilton Chess Club

We had round five of the club Rapid Champs  last night. Joel now has an unassailable lead in the Junior section so will claim the book prize for Juniors. Stefan can potentially still tie for first place with Richard in the open, although the real race is for the minor placings. Final round next week. Games kick off at 730pm. Be there by 7:20 or you wont make the draw. Junior pickup at 8:15 please.

Junior

Open

We had two new juniors (Alex Liu, and Geon Choi) and an adult (John Chin) sign up as new members last night. All three have been included on the updated statistics page. Welcome.

The club rapid tournament resumes at round five next week. We will have one game per week at 25 + 5 time control. Rember  we will have a book prize for the winner of the Junior division. As there is only one organized game on the night pickup for Juniors will be around 8:15 please. Note that this is a members only event. You can join the club on the night and play out the remaining two rounds of the tournament if you wish. The crosstable after the first four rounds can be found here.

Twenty two players in two grades last night. Jeff Xiang impressive with a clean sweep in the youngsters. Richard top sored on 5.5 in the adult division. Crosstables below

Youth

Open

The club welcomes Prashant Mistry as its newest member. Prashant is a keen chess player with over 600 NZCF rated games. He previously played at the North Shore Club but has wisely made the move South. He enters the club ratings board with 14 rated games so far and a club rating of 1570. Welcome Prashant.

If you have been thinking about coming along for a look then next week 8 September at 7pm is a good place to start. We will have an evening of blitz chess. New members are welcome. Come along and join in the fun.

(The following few weeks are members only, you can check out the program on the calendar at top left)

Four players achieved personal best all time ratings last night. You can find out who by consulting the bottom table on this page. One club player has clearly been putting in a bit of study with the ratings graph below over the last fifty games. You can find out who by referring to this page.

Twenty seven players turned out for blitz last night. We played six rounds of 5 + 3. Hilton and Stefan topped out for the adults. Jeff Joel and Dhusar turned in good scores in the younger division. Notable wins include Gary taking a rare point off  Hilton. We will have more blitz next week, format to be decided. The week after that we will complete out the Club Rapid. Crosstables are below, and ratings have been updated.

Adults

Youth

We had 8 rounds of 3 + 2 blitz last night. Top score (7/8) to Prashanth and Richard in the adult division, and top score (7/8) to  Sean and Joel in the Junior division. Blitz again next week, six rounds or 5  + 3. Guests welcome.

Adult

Junior

We will have a Swiss blitz tournament next week of six rounds. Depending on numbers we will probably have an older players and a youngsters division. Guests are welcome. Come along and join in the fun. Doors open 7pm, The blitz will kick off at 7:30. Dont be late.

The club welcomes Michael Serrate as its newest member. Michael will be a valuable addition at the strong end of the club spectrum:  he has played 13 ratable games so far and enters the ratings board with the rank of Rook on a very respectable 1604.Welcome Michael.

Seventeen last night for a mini round robin in three divisions. A few false starts at the end but things eventually settled down to 3 games at time control 10 + 0. Special mention to Richard Jackson, Dhusar and Sean who all manged a clean sweep of their games.

We had 19 players for the round robin last night. Special mention to Graham Nolan and Sean Clark who both won all three of their games. The format was popular and will be repeated next week, don’t be late: games kick off at 7:30 sharp

Forty eight players turned out for the Waikato Open on the Weekend, which is a local record. The open section had 23 players. First was Michaeal Steadman on 5 points, followed then by a six way tie on four points between Russell Dive, Robert Smith, Ben Hague, Daniel Gong, Layla Timergazi, and Alphaeus Ang. Twenty five played in the under 1800 division. Sivaram top scored on five, while Ian Kennedy and  Aaron Wang shared second equal on 4.5 points. Final crosstables are here, and this is the rogues gallery. Thanks once again to Gary for organizing the venue, and Keong Ang for a stirling effort as arbiter.

This weekends Waikato Open looks to be our best ever, with 47 confirmed entries so far, including 7 FIDE titled players (6 FM, and an IM). Registered players can be seen here for the open division, and here for the under 1800. We look forward to seeing you there!

Numbers were a little light this week and the graded double round robin didn’t eventuate. Depending on numbers that attend  we might try and have a mini graded round robin the next two weeks. Groups of four players of similar ability based on club ranking playing against each other, 3 games, time control 15 + 0. Same again the following week. Remember your club needs you to show some commitment and turn up.

We didn’t quite have the numbers to make the round robin feasible last night so had an evening of 3 + 2 blitz instead. There was an adult and a junior section. Special mention goes to JARVIS who won his first four games and was outright leader at that point. Unfortunately he dropped his next two gaims but still ended up first equal with Adam and Jeff on 5 points. Jarvis has gained 58 club rating points in his last 15 games, which is more than any other club player, so his chess is really coming along. In the adult division Richard  Graham and Michael were first second and third respectively. Crossstables are below, and club ratings have been updated.

Junior

Adult

THe club welcomes Reuben Sharko as its newest members. Reuben has come along to the last couple of blitz nights, and enters the club ratings board on 1513. Welcome Reuben.

The Hamilton Chess Club is pleased to announce that the Waikato Open will now be a Poison Pawn Grand Prix Event. To reflect the added prestige, prize money has been increased as listed below, and the tournament divisions have been altered to an Open Division and an under 1800 division. The revised flyer is here. The registration page is here. Be  Quick only NINE days to go

Open Tournament: 1st $325, 2nd $200, 3rd $150

Grade Prizes: cash and chess book prizes to the value of $175

Under 1800 Tournament: 1st $175, 2nd $125, 3rd $75

Grade Prizes: cash and chess book prizes to the value of $175

We had the fourth and final round of the club blitz champs last night. Richard came away with six points, and has 22 points for the entire event so is Club Blitz Champ 2015. Sivaram and Hilton were second equal on 16.5. In the junior division Joel (13), Jeff (11)and Suriya (10.5)are first second and third respectively. Last nights crosstable is found on this page, and the cummulative points table is below.