Hamilton Chess Club

The Waikato Open 2013 was a great success with 38 players. The Open division was contested by 19 players with FM Bob Smith taking the $325 first prize on a score of out of 5 out 6. As well as the cash prize Bob was pleased with what he calculated to be an extra 22 points added to his FIDE rating following the weekend’s effort. Second place was a three way tie between FM Mike Steadman, FM Mark Noble, and Craig Blaxall. In the Under 1800 division 18 players toughed it out. Richard Dare managed 5 out of 6 to take out first place. Tony Wang was second on 4.5 points, and third place was a three way tie between Benjamin Symon, Allen Fan, and Ian Kennedy all on 4 points. In the grade prizes Caleb Wright (3.5 out of 6) took the U2000 cash prize on points, and there was a five way tie in the U1500 between Daniel Davis, Lillian Dare, Christopher Symon, Murray Tuatini, and Dion Charles, all on 3 out of 6. The Len Whitehouse Cup for the highest scoring Waikato player went to club member Eddie Tan, who managed 3 points in the Open Division. The William Lynn Trophy for the best Waikato Junior went to Benjamin Symon. Club ratings have been updated to reflect the weekend’s games. The full crosstables are here, and the rogue’s gallery is here.  The Champions board has been updated here. Thanks to all the participants, especially those that made the effort to attend from out of town, and thanks once again to Keong Ang for his super smooth running of the tournament. We hope to see you all again next year.

We have 39 registered for the Waikato Open starting tomorrow night. With a few stragglers we should make 42 or 43. Dont be late, first game starts at 7:15 pm sharp.

We had round 2 of the rapid last night. Wins in the A division for Michael and Asheesh, and in the B division for Daniel Ian RIchard and Brandon. Gary picked up rating points in some casual games after the formal part of the evening to reach an all time personal best of 1554. Statistics and crosstables have been updated. Round 3 next week.

1. There has been a change in the pawn structure. Your opponent has 8 and you don’t have any.
2. Your opponent begins to throw pawns at your eyes.
3. You have a postion won but your opponent has a gun.
4. The Director tells you not to bother turning in your scoresheet after the game.
5. Before game begins you notice your opponents 1st initials are ‘GM’.
6. After completing your development you sense your opponent playing the endgame.
7. Just as you make your opening move your opponent announces mate in 11.
8. You don’t control any squares at all.
9. Your draw offer sends all the people watching your game into uncontrollable laughter.
10. Your opponent has 3 bishops

The Club Rapid Championship (25 + 5) kicked off last night in two divisions. The A division will be contested by seven players (William and Stefan are not participating, leaving Michael, Hilton, Asheesh, Gary, Eddie, Sivoram, and Graham) and will run as a round robin, while all other club members get to participate in the B division as a Swiss Style Tournament. Last night saw wins for Michael and Eddie. The round robin draw has been posted under Events>Club Rapid 2013. After the formal games for the evening players indulged in some casual chess, with the option of playing for ratings points. Statistics and ratings have been updated as usual. Non-members are still welcome to come along for a look and some casual chess, although the formal games (members only) will be running until around 8:15pm each club night for the next six weeks.

Club players generally improved their National ratings in this rating period. The biggest gainer was Daniel Davis, who added an impressive 170 points to his national rapid rating, while Graham, Benjamin, Gary and Christopher also made healthy gains of 154, 128, 99, and 50 respectively. Several other players made smaller gains, and there were only a couple of players that dropped a few points. There is real potential for sibling rivalry with Benjamin’s rapid rating now only 8 points behind older brother Christopher’s. Several players entered the rating list for the first time: Eddie enters with a rapid rating 1998, Asheesh comes in with both a standard (1902) and rapid (1776) rating, and Adam and Darius are now nationally rated players entering with 853 and 1109 respectively. The club list has been updated to reflect the new national ratings. Players can work to improve their standard ratings at the forthcoming Waikato Open.

The club welcomes Adam Hasan-Stein as its newest (and youngest!) member. Adam has been coming along with brother Darius for some weeks now and the 51 ratable games he has played at the club have now been incorporated into the club ratings page. So far he has managed a total of 8 wins, and his chess is sure to come on over the next 12 months. He is a starter for the club rapid championship which kicks off next week. Welcome Adam.

Following tonights six round Swiss Tournamet Gary, Asheesh, and Stefan have achieved personal best club ratings of 1551, 1600, and 1621 respectively. Gary retains the Rook ranking that he achieved last week, and with it the privilege of playing in the open division of the club rapid championship commencing next week. All club rankings and ratings have been updated under the link at top right.

We had 16 for the final round of the club blitz championship this week. In the open division it came down to a countback on individual results with both Stefan and William tied on 19 points apiece, out of a possible 24. In round one they had drawn in the fifth game. In the second round Stefan won as black in game 4, and he won again in round 3, this time as white in game 6. In tonights fourth round William won as white, but Stefan takes the crown with +2=1-1. His name has been immortalized on the champions page.

In the reserve board division (for those ranked Bishop or below at the start of the tournament) Asheesh came out on top with 14 points, which would have been enough to place him fourth overall had he been competing in the open grade. He was followed by Gary on 13, and then Ian on 12. The final scores are tabulated below, and all the crosstables and cumulative points are here

Club ratings have been further enhanced. Now members can track their performance by individual game, and a table of the maximum rating recorded by individual players, and the date that the rating was achieved, has been added to the bottom of this page. The permanent links are at top right under “Club Ratings”

Gary managed a win against Eddie last night in the third round of the club blitz champs and scooped a fist full of club rating points in the process. As a consequence he has leapfrogged up the rankings reaching the lofty grade of rook. If he manages to remain there next week he earns the privilege of playing in the A division of the club rapid

The club welcomes Brandon Cuellar as its newest member. Brandon has played in the last two rounds of the club blitz champs  (where he is placed fourth in the reserve board division) and has an official club rating of 1458 which he hopes to improve in coming weeks. Brandon is honing his chess skills for when he plays in the Fairfield intermediate team.

William and Stefan are tied on first place in the open division of the Club Blitz Champ a 14.5 points each, with Hilton 3rd on 13, so there will be real competition for Honours next week. In the reserve board division Asheesh leads on 11 with Gary and Ian sharing 2nd equal on 9. Crosstables and cumulative scores are here. Club ratings have been updated and there are a few surprises after this weeks games. One more week to make it into the top division for the club rapid champs that start the week after next.

A Myer Tan Nz Grand Prix Class 1 Event

Venue: St. Paul’s Collegiate School, Hamilton

Friday 26th To Sunday 28th July, 2013

The Tournaments:

An open and an under 1800 tournament, each a six round swiss with a time control of all moves in 90 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. the open tournament will be a fide rated event. both tournaments are nationally rated and are therefore open only to nzcf registered players. nzcf registration $20.  players under 1800 nz rating may enter the open tournament, but the organisers reserve the right to move players between events if they feel that it is appropriate.

A pdf detailing the tournament is here, and the registration page is here. This is the Premiere Waikato Chess Event of the year, dont miss out.

Simon Lyall has kindly set up a flickr site with lots of photos from the weekend rapid. The site can be accessed here

To paraphrase a famous opening line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all chess players are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are openings, end games and the pursuit of higher ratings…”

Up until now ratings have been done using a system in which stronger players (Michael, Hilton, William and Stefan) were automatically assigned a higher starting rating (1500) while everyone else was assigned a lower starting value (1000). With several stronger players joining the club the issue of where they should be assigned for starting rating has arisen.  Giving everyone the same starting rating removes the burden of having to decide who gets a higher initial rating, and as ratings tend towards an equilibrium over time the eventual result is very similar irrespective of where players start out. It does mean you are more likely to lose points to a much stronger player (if they start with a rating much higher than you then you lose little if any points to them when they beat you). On the other hand all the other club members will likely play them as well with the same result, and as stated above, the ratings will tend toward an equilibrium.

Accordingly all players ratings have been reworked using 1500 as a starting value, and the updated results posted on the usual page.

Note that when we run the club rapid (after the current club blitz) there will be two divisions (kings queens and rooks will play in their own division, bishop knights and pawns in the reserve division).

That means you only have 2 more weeks to polish up your club ranking if you want to play in the open division of the club rapid.

Round 2 of the club blitz saw 18 players turn out, an improvement on last weeks 14. Stefan, William, and Michael shared 5 points each, followed by Hilton on 4.5 and Sivoram a respectable 4. Half way through the club blitz champs Hilton, William, and Stefan are leading the open division on 9.5 followed by Graham on 8.5. In the reserve board division Asheesh is on 6.5, followed by Ian on 6. Crosstables and cumulative points totals have been updated, as have club ratings and rankings. Round 3 next week

For the record, these were the divisional placings from this weekends tournament.

Open: Noel Pinic  1st = 5 points Hans Gao  1st = 5 points Bob Smith  1st = 5 points Michael  Freeman 1st = 5 points.

Under 1800 Grade: Graham Nolan  1st = 4 points Johnson Li  1st = 4 points Layla Timergazi  1st = 4 points Alphaeus Ang  1st = 4 points Daniel Gong  1st = 4 points Leo Zhang  1st = 4 points

Under 1500 Grade: Ian Kennedy  1st 4 points

Under 1000 Grade: Naveen Saily  1st =  2 points Aaron Taylor  1st =  2 points Darius Hasan-Stein 1st =  2 points Lucas Salazar  1st =  2 points Brijesh Sivabalan 1st =  2 points Finlay Buckell  1st =  2 points Daniel Salazar  1st =  2 points Shilong Yang  1st =  2 points Oscar Qin  1st =  2 points William Morrow  1st =  2 points

In addition to the cash prizes for the players above, book prizes were allocated as followed

Open: Eddie Tan was the top player on 4.5 points on tie-break and received a book prize.

Under 1800 Grade: Each player a book prize.

Under 1000 Grade: The top two on tie-break(Naveen Saily and Aaron Taylor) received a book prize.

Some photos from the rapid have been posted, so you can see if were photogenic enough to make it into the rouges gallery

We ended up with 54 players for the North Island Rapid Championship. This was also the first New Zealand FIDE rated rapid, and a Myer Tan Class 2 Grand Prix event. Noel Pinic, Hans Gao, Robert Smith and Michael Freeman all managed scores of 5 out of 6,  while Eddie Tan, William Zhang, and Giovanni Thornton shared 4.5. A full list of divisional prize winners will be posted shortly. The final crosstable is here, and some photos here.   Club ratings have been updated