Hamilton Chess Club

The Hamilton Press now lists us in “Clubs and Groups” so lets hope we can attract a few more members

The recently created New Zealand Chess Forum “Over The Board” can be found here.

Over the board is all about having conversations centred around Chess for the NZ Chess Community. So start a conversation or join in a conversation already started.

Discuss your favourite opening, get help analysing an interesting game, show off an awesome game you played, talk about famous players and your heroes, send your review of a book or two, throw in a comment about a tournament in progress, start a local chess event or even hint at something that is bugging you.

Share your love for our great game and inspire others to do the same!

Next week we will start the first of 2 Spring Cups. Please if you want to be in, make a commitment to be there for both nights.  The time control will be 20+0, 3 games per night, over 2 nights. We will have two solid hours of chess, so kick off will be as soon as the draw is done. Dont be late. Guests and non-members are welcome to come along and join in.

Club ratings and club ladder have been updated, as have the graphs of club ratings. There were a few games recorded incorrectly after the recent Round Robin, these have now been sorted.

If you have been thinking about coming along for a look then the next 2 club nights (1 Nov & 8 nov) at 7pm are a good place to start. We will have  lightning chess 1/11/16, 6 games at time control 3 minutes plus a 2 second increment per move from move one.  The following week we start the Spring Cup. Come along and join in the fun. Games kick off by 7:30 so dont be late.

Division A

Division B

Division C

We have three divisions in the round robin. Divisions A and B have six players each and are single round robins, division C has 4 players and will run as a double round robin. Last nights results are below. See you next week.

Division A

Remember we are back into it tomorrow night. Graded round robin, two games at 25 + 5. Don’t be late.

The club is in recess now for the school holidays, we resume on 11 October with rounds one and two of the graded Round Robin. There will be three (or possibly four) divisions depending on numbers:  An  A and B grade 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 tournament. There will be two games  for each of two weeks, with the fifth and final game 25/10/16. Time control will be 25 + 5. Please players  will need to commit to being there on each of the three nights to take part. See you there.

If you have been thinking about coming along for a look then the next 2 club nights (13 Sep & 20 Sep) at 7pm are good place to start. We will have  blitz chess, 6 games each night  at time control 5 minutes plus a 3 second increment per move from move one.   Come along and join in the fun. Games kick off by 7:30 so dont be late.

We will have two nights of blitz to round out the school term, six rounds at 5 + 3 on each night. Dont be late.

The first Fischer Random Chess tourney was held in Yugoslavia in the spring of 1996, and was won by Grandmaster Peter Leko.

In 2001, Leko became the first Fischer Random Chess world champion, defeating Grandmaster Michael Adams in an eight game match played as part of the Mainz Chess Classic. There were no qualifying matches (also true of the first orthodox world chess champion titleholders), but both players were in the top five in the January 2001 world rankings for orthodox chess. Leko was chosen because of the many novelties he has introduced to known chess theories, as well as his previous tourney win; in addition, Leko has played Fischer Random Chess games with Fischer himself. Adams was chosen because he was the world number one in blitz (rapid) chess and is regarded as an extremely strong player in unfamiliar positions. The match was won by a narrow margin, 4.5 to 3.5.

In 2002 at Mainz, an open Fischer Random tournament was held which attracted 131 players. Peter Svidler won the event.

Other interesting events happened in 2002. The website ChessVariants.com selected Fischer Random chess as its “Recognized Variant of the Month” for April 2002. Yugoslavian Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric published in 2002 the book Shall We Play Fischerandom Chess?, popularizing this variation further.

At the 2003 Mainz Chess Classic, Svidler beat Leko in an eight game match for the World Championship title by a score of 4.5 – 3.5

Opening preparation will go out the window next week with a  little light hearted fun  in the form of  Fischer Random mini tournament.  The games were will be played at 15 + 0.  The starting positions might look something like the diagrams at left, or a similar diabolical arrangement. Dont miss out. Guests also welcome to join in. The tournament will run over 2 weeks. See you there. Fischer random games are not eligible for club ratings