Hamilton Chess Club

Thirty players turned out for the icebreaker blitz which I think is a club record. Honours go to Hilton on 5.5. Next week we will have slower paced chess, 2 games per night over three weeks. Please make a commitment to come to all three nights. We look forward to many of the new faces last night turning into regular attenders and fully fledged members

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After a long covid winter the chess club will resume activity at 7pm on February 2nd 2021 (assuming the country is in level one). The playing calendar for term one 2021 has been posted. Hope to see you all again soon.

Sadly as the year draws to a close the club will remain in covid recess for the remainder of the year.

Richard (AKA Chessy64) takes line honours in our second virtual tournament. Email Andrew if you want to take part in the new tournament starting next week.

We will have a virtual Swiss over the next three weeks, two games per week at time control 20+ 0. If you don’t know how to join contact Andrew (see below). Please don’t join if you know you cant commit to the three weeks. Be in the waiting room at 7:20. Kickoff is 7:30

Thirteen players for our first virtual tournament. Cross table below. First blood to Prashanth

Club nights will resume this Tuesday 25th August in virtual format. We will start with a six round swiss on the Lichess server. Time control will be 5 + 3 with one minute between rounds. Start time is 7:30 so be in the waiting room by 7:25. If you dont have a Lichess username or account go and sign up now for free (maybe you could use your initials so other club members know who they are playing). Andrew Malcouronne is Director Of Play so you need to email him to become part of the HCC Lichess user group. If you are not already member of the group then email  Andrew (see below). Assuming things go smoothly we will run some more traditional club events (like 20 + 0, 3 games per night over 2 nights, etc) starting from next week.

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With regret your committee have decided it is time to suspend all club activities in light of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Subscriptions will be deferred until the club resumes – ie if you have 10 months subscription remaining currently, and the club is closed for 12 months, you will have 10 months subscription credit from the time of reopening

Club champs are underway with 27 entrants. We have had 2 rounds so far. The crosstable is below. Remember all players are assumed to be playing unless I am notified by email on Sunday evening. Draw will be posted Monday. Richard Jackson has kindly volunteered to act as “twelfth man” to make up the numbers if we have an odd number on the night, but has noted that his games wont be used for club rating purposes. The current crosstable is appended and the tentative round 3 draw is below that

The draw for round three, subject to change at this point if there are withdrawals, is below

Club ratings have been updated

Remember that our premier event, the club champs, will kick off on Tuesday 03 March.

Time control will be the same as last year at 60 minutes + 10 seconds per move from move 1.

One game per night over 6 weeks.

The format will be start time 7.15pm (7.30 on week 1), 1 game per night, open to financial members (or financial members temporarily in arrears), and newly paid up members, only. You can check when your sub is due by going to the website – About > Who We Are. Online payments preferred, see the website for details. If you are not currently a member but want to take part then you can join on the first night.

(Adult: $40 per year, or $25 for 6 months. Juniors $20 per year)

A single division Swiss Style Tournament. The overall winner will be awarded the title Club Champion 2020 and receive all the accolades that are associated with the title. The highest rated junior  will be awarded the title Club Junior Champion 2020.

The draw will be based on Current club ratings. New players without a club rating will be assigned 1500 points for the purposes of the  draw.

Entry permitted in round one and two, but round one preferred!.  If you can’t make it on the first night let me know and you will be awarded a half point bye. If you enter in round two without prior notification you will retrospectively receive a zero point bye for round 1. Also if you want to play but might be a little late on the first night let me know and I will include you in the draw. Please don’t turn up after 7:15. Entries will not be accepted in week three or beyond.

Games start at 7.15pm – a 30 minute late time applies (your game is lost if you are 30 minutes late). Clocks will be started at 7:15 even if neither player is present.

Usual FIDE laws apply with  the exception of the Hamilton Chess Club Special Rules found on the website. Disputes committee will be club executive (Hilton Ian and Richard). If one or two of the disputes committee is/are party to a dispute, the remaining member(s) will constitute the disputes committee.

Please bring a pen if you wish to record your games. Recording is not mandatory, but if you don’t record your game you will not be allowed to claim a draw for the 50 move rule or 3 fold repetition unless agreed by your opponent.

One 1/2 point bye allowed per player, if notified to Ian the Sunday before the round that it applies.

No half point byes allowed in rounds 5 or 6.

Tie breaks will be according to the NZ  standard  1. Direct Encounter. 2. Cumulative (Sum of Progressive Scores). 3. Total Buchholz. 4. Sonneborn-Berger. 5. Buchholz Cut1.   If still tied the award will be share

We only managed two rounds of the Summer Cup on opening night. To finish out the Summer cup we will have rounds 3 and 4 this Tuesday, and rounds 5 and 6 the next. The time control will be 30 + 0.  Week five we will kick off the club champs.

We had 20 for the simul in the end. Notable wins to William and Prashanth. Graham was close to a win with knight and three pawns against bishop and pawn but in the end had to settle for a draw. Regular club nights resume on Tuesday.

We set a club record with six new members joining on the first night of the year — Colin Barrett-Hogg, Sivaram Manoharan, Thomas Beier, Stanley Lin, Ben Firestone, Jarvis Xiang. Colin, Sivaram and Jarvis have all returned after several years absence while Thomas Stanley and Ben are new blood.  Welcome guys.

We had a great turnout on the first night of the year with 26 players fronting. Several new members joined up, and some members returned after an absence of several years. The club keeps getting stronger and stronger.  We managed only two games due to some computer teething problems and will continue the tournament in two weeks time at slightly longer time control. Next week is the GM simul so don’t miss out.

We have the possibility of a GM Simul on club night 11th February.
Dejan Bojkov is a Bulgarian GM and was champion of Bulgaria in 2009. He was the trainer for Antoaneta Stefanova who was Women’s World Champion from 2004 to 2006. Degan gave a simul at the club back in June 2018 that was very popular. The final score for that night was 24.5 to 0.5 with credit going to Prashanth who took the draw. William Lynn and Joel Crombie were in with chances on that night also. The cost to play will be $10 payable on the night. If you are interested please let Ian know by completing the form below. Note the simul will only go ahead if we have the numbers.

The club calendar for 2020 has been posted. Continuing last years trend there is an emphasis on longer format games. Club nights resume on 4th February with 3 games at 20 + 0. See you there

Club ratings have been updated (now really including the just completed rapid). Graphs of ratings have also been updated. Check out the graphs to see if you have gone up or down in your last 50 games.