Hamilton Chess Club

Over the last several months there has been discussion among senior members with respect to the direction of the club.

The Hamilton Chess Club exists for the benefit of members that want to play serious chess in a controlled, relatively quiet, peaceful environment. In addition there are issues of responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of youngsters (think: broken arm following a fall on the stairs, or an exuberant dash across the carpark late at night).

In respect of the above the executive have decided that henceforth:

The minimum age for new club members will be 12 years. In addition any member under the age of 14 must be fully supervised by a parent or guardian while participating at the club – no exceptions.

Exisiting members under the age of 12 can continue uninterrupted membership as at present, but we  will require a parent or guardian to remain on site during club nights.

We regret this change may disappoint some of our younger juniors but believe it to be necessary to best enable us to ensure the long term vigour of chess in the Waikato. We would encourage younger players to become more fully involved with school chess clubs (and request that their school start one if necessary). We thank all our parents for their understanding. In addition Richard Jackson has indicated he may consider hosting a chess club solely for juniors if a suitable venue can be identified.

We will start back on October 13th with a round robin run over 3 nights. Players will be in groups of six based on club rating. There will be two games per night  on October 13 and 20, and the fifth and final game wiil be on October 27. Time control is 25 + 0. See you there.

The club is in recess for the school holidays. Normal club nights resume October 13.

Club Member Prashant Mistry scored an impressive win at last weeks North Shore Open, taking out the B division with a perfect score of 6 from 6. Prashant collected a sizable monetary prize for his efforts. Well done.

Paul is the club’s newest member. He has played 26 rated games so far and enters the club rating list on 1483 points.Welcome Paul.

Richard Dare and Joel Crombie are the club Rapid Champions for 2015, both coming through their respective tournaments with perfect 6 out of 6. Joel wins a book prize for his efforts. Sean and Jeff  came second and third respectively in the Junior division with Stefan and Christopher second and third in the open. Final crosstables are here. The Previous Champions page has been updated also.

We had round five of the club Rapid Champs  last night. Joel now has an unassailable lead in the Junior section so will claim the book prize for Juniors. Stefan can potentially still tie for first place with Richard in the open, although the real race is for the minor placings. Final round next week. Games kick off at 730pm. Be there by 7:20 or you wont make the draw. Junior pickup at 8:15 please.

Junior

Open

We had two new juniors (Alex Liu, and Geon Choi) and an adult (John Chin) sign up as new members last night. All three have been included on the updated statistics page. Welcome.

The club rapid tournament resumes at round five next week. We will have one game per week at 25 + 5 time control. Rember  we will have a book prize for the winner of the Junior division. As there is only one organized game on the night pickup for Juniors will be around 8:15 please. Note that this is a members only event. You can join the club on the night and play out the remaining two rounds of the tournament if you wish. The crosstable after the first four rounds can be found here.

Twenty two players in two grades last night. Jeff Xiang impressive with a clean sweep in the youngsters. Richard top sored on 5.5 in the adult division. Crosstables below

Youth

Open

The club welcomes Prashant Mistry as its newest member. Prashant is a keen chess player with over 600 NZCF rated games. He previously played at the North Shore Club but has wisely made the move South. He enters the club ratings board with 14 rated games so far and a club rating of 1570. Welcome Prashant.

If you have been thinking about coming along for a look then next week 8 September at 7pm is a good place to start. We will have an evening of blitz chess. New members are welcome. Come along and join in the fun.

(The following few weeks are members only, you can check out the program on the calendar at top left)

Four players achieved personal best all time ratings last night. You can find out who by consulting the bottom table on this page. One club player has clearly been putting in a bit of study with the ratings graph below over the last fifty games. You can find out who by referring to this page.

Twenty seven players turned out for blitz last night. We played six rounds of 5 + 3. Hilton and Stefan topped out for the adults. Jeff Joel and Dhusar turned in good scores in the younger division. Notable wins include Gary taking a rare point off  Hilton. We will have more blitz next week, format to be decided. The week after that we will complete out the Club Rapid. Crosstables are below, and ratings have been updated.

Adults

Youth

We had 8 rounds of 3 + 2 blitz last night. Top score (7/8) to Prashanth and Richard in the adult division, and top score (7/8) to  Sean and Joel in the Junior division. Blitz again next week, six rounds or 5  + 3. Guests welcome.

Adult

Junior

We will have a Swiss blitz tournament next week of six rounds. Depending on numbers we will probably have an older players and a youngsters division. Guests are welcome. Come along and join in the fun. Doors open 7pm, The blitz will kick off at 7:30. Dont be late.

The club welcomes Michael Serrate as its newest member. Michael will be a valuable addition at the strong end of the club spectrum:  he has played 13 ratable games so far and enters the ratings board with the rank of Rook on a very respectable 1604.Welcome Michael.

Seventeen last night for a mini round robin in three divisions. A few false starts at the end but things eventually settled down to 3 games at time control 10 + 0. Special mention to Richard Jackson, Dhusar and Sean who all manged a clean sweep of their games.

We had 19 players for the round robin last night. Special mention to Graham Nolan and Sean Clark who both won all three of their games. The format was popular and will be repeated next week, don’t be late: games kick off at 7:30 sharp

Forty eight players turned out for the Waikato Open on the Weekend, which is a local record. The open section had 23 players. First was Michaeal Steadman on 5 points, followed then by a six way tie on four points between Russell Dive, Robert Smith, Ben Hague, Daniel Gong, Layla Timergazi, and Alphaeus Ang. Twenty five played in the under 1800 division. Sivaram top scored on five, while Ian Kennedy and  Aaron Wang shared second equal on 4.5 points. Final crosstables are here, and this is the rogues gallery. Thanks once again to Gary for organizing the venue, and Keong Ang for a stirling effort as arbiter.