Hamilton Chess Club

The icebreaker blitz was our first club night of the year. Results are posted below and club ratings have been updated to include this tournament.

The club welcomes Philip Rice as its newest member. Club membership now stands at 47. Welcome Philip.

Remember that  the club champs are open to financial members (or financial members temporarily in arrears), only. You can come along next week and become a newly paid up member if you wish to take part.

The club welcomes Alex as its newest financial member. He enters the ratings table at 1578.

Remember that our premier event, the club champs, will kick off on Tuesday 05 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 2019 and receive all the accolades that are associated with the title. The highest rated junior  will be awarded the title Club Junior Champion 2019.

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 shared.

The Summer Cup goes to Richard. Alex Delpech appears for the first time and has a respectable score that places him third on tie break and identifies him as in the stronger section of the club.

Don’t miss out on the icebreaker blitz to kick the year off next tuesday 12/2/19. Graham will be director of play as Ian is away. New members welcome. See you there

The calendar for 2019 has been posted. Several new formats will be used this year with an emphasis on longer games. Some of the seasonal cups that were three games per night at 20 + 0 have been replaced by rapids at 25 + 5, 2 games per night, over 3 nights. The club rapid has been lengthened slightly at 30 + 10. Club open, rapid and lightning retain the same format as last year. Club nights resume with an icebreaker blitz on 12 February. See you there !!

The club is in recess now for the summer. We will resume on Tuesday February 12^th. A 2019 calendar will be posted shortly.

Nine Rounds of 5-0 to finish off the year. Richard wins as usual

Richard takes out the final tournament of the year on 5.5. Notable mention to Alex Treat who managed third overall on tiebreak.

We will have a graded Robin of three games with groups of four players based on your current club ranking next week. Time control will be 20 + 0. Don’t be late because once the groups are set I cant go back and remake them all

A couple of club juniors have risen sharply in the ratings and are now snapping at the heels of the upper echelons. We will have a graded robin in groups of four next week. There is going to be fierce competition and perhaps some bruising in the ratings stakes. Be early so you don’t miss out, as once I have divided players up into groups it is going to be GAME ON and  it is too disruptive to redo the groups to accommodate later comers. Don’t be late or you will spectate!

We will kick off Spring (2) next week. It was graded robin on the calendar but Ian is away so that has been moved to later in the year.

September 29th-30th 2018 – Interschools National Finals, Mt Maunganui.

Two hundred and fifty students and at least 80 anxious parents and teachers travelled to Mount Maunganui for NZCF’s annual NZ Interschool Chess Finals on 29th and 30th September. The 60 school teams had all won their regional tournaments or been awarded one of a handful of “wildcard” spots. The finals were organised and run by at Mt Maunganui College by Bob and Viv Smith, with the help of members of the Mount Chess Club.

Seedings – always a bit of a guess at school level – proved remarkably accurate in the secondary and primary championships, with top seeds Macleans College and Pinehurst School (both from Auckland) convincing winners.

But seventh seeds Berkley Middle School (Hamilton) pulled off an upset in the intermediate division, finishing ahead of more fancied rivals.

The medal winning schools and team compositions were:

Primary

1st Pinehurst School    Felix Xie, Kenny Zhang, Ryan Fan, Allen Weng, Nicholas Xu

2nd Willow Park School  Matthew Chen, Emma Zhuang, Eddie Kim, Chenchen Wang, Wyatt Liu

3rd Eastern Hutt School Paul He, Ben Guo, Zac Li, Shaasthin Nithyananthan

Intermediate

1st Berkley Middle School   Lasen Silva, Aidan Morgan, Daniel Loy, Cam Sundararaj

2nd Murrays Bay Int     Andrew Li, Allen Li, Nathan Jin, Andy Song

3rd Mt Roskill Int      Nico McKinlay, Renae Ghadiali, Saasha Ghadiali, Adam Ali, Saahir Saheb

Secondary

1st Macleans College    Richard Jiang, Terry Shen, Judd Zhan, Kevin Guan, Oliver Dai

2nd Auckland Grammar    Allen Fan, Aaron Wang, James Liu, Nicholas Huang

3rd King’s College      Darrick Pan, Brian Qi, Ryan Nguyen, Fia Fa’afuhia