Hamilton Chess Club

Open Division
1^st           Ben Hague                          (Auckland)                          5
2^nd =      Michael Steadman          (Auckland)                          4.5
Russell Dive                        (Wellington)
Grade I
1^st           Nathan Goodhue             (Auckland)                          4
2^nd =      Bob Gibbons                      (Auckland)                          3.5
Hilton Bennett                  (Hamilton)
Grade II
1^st           Luis Duran Rubalcava      (Hamilton)                          3.5
2^nd –       Josia Vickers                       (Mt Maunganui)               3
Juni Aguilar                         (North Shore)
Winner of Len Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for best Waikato player:
Graeme Spain                                    (Te Awamutu)                   4

Under 1800 Division
1^st           Michael Lin                         (Hamilton)                          5.5
2^nd =       Lara Heppenstall              (Hamilton)                          4.5
William Crombie              (Hamilton)
Grade I
1^st           Kendrick Zhang                 (North Shore)                    4
2^nd =      Gary Judkins                       (Hamilton)                          3.5
Jeffrey Yu                            (Auckland)
Ying Wang                           (Auckland)
Grade II
1^st           Joel Crombie                      (Hamilton)                          3
2^nd          Tracy Liu                               (Auckland)                          2.5
Vraj Dhankee                     (Waitakere)
Winner of William Lynn Cup for best Hamilton Junior:
Michael Lin                                         (Hamilton)                          5.5

We have 52 registered players for the open compared to 47 last year and 48 the year before. You can follow progress for the Open here and the U1800 here

We have fifty registered players for the open compared to 47 last year and 48 the year before. You can follow progress for the Open here and the U1800 here

Daniel Loy has joined his older brother as the newest member of the club. Welcome Daniel.

We are in recess for the school holidays. Club nights resume 24 July

Alex Hall and Joshua Walker are the clubs newest members. Welcome

We are currently part way through the annual club rapid championship. The format is one game per night over six weeks with time control 30 minutes, plus 10 seconds increment per move from move one. Hamilton Chess Club Special Rules, and the usual rules about awarding byes will apply. Note that this is a member only event, so if you are not a member check out the calendar for when new prospective members can come along and play

The astute among you will notice the hit counter at the top left of the webpage has been getting teasingly close to 100,000 hits over the last few weeks, and has now clocked over registering 100028 as this post goes up. The first post was made by Scott 0n 21/02/2011 which was 2675 days ago, so over that time we have averaged 37 hits per day. The average is a little inflated however, as we took several thousand hits with this Hamilton based international chess scandal that even made the front page of chess base

The club rapid kicked off last night. This years’ time control is a little longer than previous at 30 minutes plus 10 seconds. We have 34 players participating. The cross table after round one is below. Special mention to newcomer Joseph Hall who had winning chances against William Lynn. Eventually things simplified to a pawn and rook endgame and Joseph had to settle for a draw.

Games kick off at 7:30 next week but be there by 7:15 so we can do the draw. Do let Ian know if you won’t be playing as you can take a bye

Following an unprecedented surge in membership over the last few weeks the club now has 45 members. We welcome all the following as new members to the club: Ricky Hall, Talmage Scirkovich, Josh Holtham, Josef Gillgren, Cam Sundararaj, Shan Sundararaj, and Max Stephens. Club ratings have been updated so all new players can see where they sit on the ratings board.

We will start the annual club rapid championship next week. The format will be one game per night over six weeks. Time control to be 30 minutes, plus 10 seconds increment per move from move one. Hamilton Chess Club Special Rules, and the usual rules about awarding byes will apply. Note that this is a member only event, so if you are not already a member and want to take part you will need to join up next week

We had a new club record last night with 32 players turning up to join in the fun. In the end it was Richard on 5.5 for the tournament, followed by Prashanth and Hilton. That concludes the Autumn cup season and we will kick off the club rapid from next week

Thanks go to Hilton for organizing a great night on Tuesday with a 25 person Simul against Grandmaster Degan Bojkov from Bulgaria. Degan is in New Zealand at present due to his role as the Coach of NZ Open Team to Olympiad travelling to Batumi, Georgia this September. In 2009 Degan was champion of Bulgaria and member of the Bulgarian team at the European championships. He earned his GM title in 2008 and won the 48th Canadian Open Chess Championship in 2011. He was the trainer for Antoaneta Stefanova who was Women’s World Champion from 2004 to 2006. Degan’s current FIDE rating is 2478. The final score for the night was 24.5 to 0.5 with credit going to Prashanth who took the draw. Honourable mention also to William Lynn and Joel Crombie. At the finish William had connected passed pawns on the 6th rank, but was just nudged out by Degan’s bishop pair. Joel played firmly and was one of the last players to fall, with things very even in rook and pawn ending till close to the end.

The club welcomes Richard Ismay as its newest member.