Hamilton Chess Club

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.

Gary, Gerri, Richard, and Graham ran a very successful regional school’s competition on Sunday to find the local Waikato representatives to go to the Nationals in Auckland later this year. Each of the three divisions was run in round robin style. In the High School division there were 2 teams each from Hamilton Boy’s, St Paul’s, and Putaruru. Hamilton Boys-1 came first on 19 points, followed by St Pauls-1 on 16.5. The Intermediate division had 8 teams from Fairfield (2 teams), Maeroa (2 teams), Southwell (2 teams), Marian, and Peachgrove. Southwell-1 came first on 22 points, Maeroa1 were a close second on 21. The primary division also had eight teams competing (2 each from Hukanui, Hilltop, and Southwell, one each from Marian and Tamahere.) Honours went to Hukanui-1 on an impressive 27 out of a possible 28 points, with Southwell-1 second on 19.5. Three of the four players in Hukanui-1 are club regulars. We wish each of the three teams good fortune for the National competition. Some photos from the weekends event are here.

Last night we had the Cambridge Springs Defense, a variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined that begins with the moves:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. Nf3 c6 6. e3 Qa5

Black breaks the pin on the h4–d8 diagonal and forms a pin of his own on the c3 knight (exploiting the absence of the White’s queen bishop from the queenside). If Black later plays dxc4, there may be threats against the g5-bishop. Graham now leads on 4 points, followed by Daniel and Richard Dare on 3, then Richard Jackson on 2.5. The crosstable has been updated. Matt has volunteered to bring along an opening for next week.

Rounds one and two of the openings tournament used the fiendish Frankenstein–Dracula Variation, a branch of the Vienna Game. (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. Nb5 g6 7. Qf3 f5). The opening involves many complications, however with accurate play the opening is very playable for both sides. The variation was given its name by Tim Harding in his 1975 book on the Vienna Game, in which he said that the bloodthirstiness of the character of play was such that “a game between Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster would not seem out of place.” The line is seen extremely infrequently in top-level play, mainly because the Vienna Game is seen so little at top-level play. Ivanchuk used the opening against Anand in Roquebrune in 1992 in a game that ended as a draw. The crosstable so far is here

Next week Graham will bring along the opening that will be used in rounds 3 and 4

For the next four weeks we will have a novelty tournament involving prespecified openings. The first 7 moves will be played out on the board, and then you are on your own. Each night there will be two games at time control 25 + 0. The same opening will be used in each game, so you will get to play one game as white, and one as black.

The cumulative points table for Club Blitz has been updated after round 4 last night. Once again Richard Dare leads the open division on 21.5. Round 5 will be played in August. Openings tournament next week.

For those of you keen to relive the memories here are a few more photos of the Waikato Open courtesy of Simon Lyall

The cumulative points table for Club Blitz has been updated after round 3 last night. Richard Dare leads the open division on 15.5 followed by Ian and Milton on 12. The reserve board division has Richard Jackson in a narrow lead over Sivoram. (The highest scoring player overall will be awarded the title of Club Blitz Champion. The title of Club Blitz Champion (reserve board) will be awarded to the highest scoring player whose club ranking was pawn, knight, or bishop at the start of the tournament. ) Round 4 next week.

If you have been thinking about coming along for a look then next week 08/07/14 at 7pm is a good place to start. We will be playing 6 blitz games at short time control of five minutes per game plus 3 seconds per move. New members are always welcome. Come along and join in the fun.

We will have the club blitz championship rounds 3 and 4 over the next two weeks. Guests are welcome to play. Remember that the title of club blitz champion will be awarded in August following round 6. There are a maximum of 6 points each night, so the champion will have the best score out of 36. Currently Richard is a clear lead on 10.5 points, followed by Milton on 9. Cumulative scores so far can be found here. There is also a reserve board competition running for those members ranked as pawn knight or bishop at the commencement of the tournament.

The final two rounds of the Winter cup produced a five way tie with Daniel, Richard, Eddie, Hilton, and Sivoram each on4.5 points. Tie break scores gave Daniel first place, followed by Richard second and Eddie third. We will run the spring cup using the same format of two 25 + 0 games a night in October. The final crosstable is posted here, and club ratings have been updated.

Once again Hilton, with the able assistance of Keong Ang as Arbiter, put togethere a fantastic tournament with 37 entries from as far away as Nelson. Nine of the participants hold official FIDE titles of one sort or another reflecting the strength of the top boards, but the tournament also had a share of under 1200 rated players. Top score, and the title of Waikato Open Champion 2014,  went to Michael Steadman on 5.5 out of 6. Mark Noble (5) came second, with Ben Hague and Ralph Hart sharing third equal (4.5).  Under 1950 honours were shared by Jack James, Efrain Tionko, and Viv Smith (all on 3.5). Under 1700 first equal was shared by William Crombie and Philip Mukkattu (3.5). Joel Crombie and Toby Zhang shared first equal in the under 1200 grade (2).  The William Lynn Cup for best result by a Waikato school pupil went to Daniel Davis. The Len Whitehouse Memorial Trophy (best result by a Waikato player) was shared by Hilton Bennett and William Crombie. The full crosstable is here, and some obligatory photos are here. The official NZCF record of the tournament can be found here. We look forward to seeing you all again next year.

The New Zealand Chess Federation page for the Waikato Open can be found here, with a list of confirmed entries so far