Hamilton Chess Club

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A belated welcome to Emi Ng who joined as a member in early March but didnt receive the customary acknowledgement due to an oversite on the part of Ian. Emi has been coming along with brother Daniel for some time now and has a club rating of 924 following participation in all 5 rateable tournaments so far this year. Emi brings the number of fully paid up club members to 25.

The club champs crosstable has been updated. Eddie Christopher and Hilton are in the lead. Dont forget, games start 7:15 next week for round 3. There will then be two weeks of casual chess and round 4 will resume May 8th

We had a great turnout with 33 for the Autumn Rookies. A special thankyou to the competitors who made the effort to come down from Auckland, and those that came from Tauranga. The prize winners were:  First overall – David Chen;  Second equal (despite four tiebreaks) – Erwin Pacua and Daniel Davis. Age division prizes went to Sivaram Manoharan (U16), Benjamin Symon (U14), Nigel Tee (U12), Nikolai Tee (U10), Daniel Plant (U8), and Emma Salazar (U6). Emma is only five and a half but has been playing at the MC Cup Tournaments in Auckland since she was 4. She won the Pawns division of that tournament in February and is now in the Rooks division. She is coached by Paul Macdonald from Chess Power and attends the Auckland Chess Center’s Thursday nights for juniors. There is no doubt she will be a force over the board in a few years time. The crosstable is here, and a few photos are here.  (Thanks to Erwin for providing additional photos). Club members that participated will have their club ratings adjusted shortly. Thanks to all for a most enjoyable tournament.

Thanks to Michael who is now officially the Club Ratings Officer for reworking all the ratings for this year and posting the revised and improved ratings. Club ratings will continue to be updated on a game by game basis for financial members using an ELO type system. Check out where you sit on the club rankings. Ratings sit at the top right of the main page

We have 27 entrants so far and likely a few more on the day, allowing extra prizes. There will now be prizes for: 1^st  ($50), 2^nd ($40), and 3^rd ($30) overall, plus age prizes for U16 U14 U12 U10 and U8. And there might even be a few spot prizes at the end for those that miss out on any of the monetary awards.

Club performance ratings have proved popular. Currently Michael is reworking the ratings so that rather than a simple performance rating after each tournament there will be real ratings more akin to an official ELO system. (Check out Wikipedia if you want to know the difference between a performance rating and an ELO style rating). The bottom line is there is that the ratings will be a more accurate reflection of your performance in club events. The ratings page will be updated shortly …..

The Autumn Rookies is this Sunday at the club’s rooms, Hamilton Girls’ High School. Registration from 11am. We have 28 entrants so far so it is going to be a great event. We can still accommodate another 6 or so entrants, so it is not too late to sign up. See you there.

Last night saw the launch of the club’s premiere in house event, the club championship. This year there are 19 contenders for the coveted title. Time control is 45 minutes, plus 10 seconds per move. The event will run over eight rounds, with a two week interlude during the school holidays. The crosstable so far is located here

Last night two new members joined the club. We welcome Clayton Howard and Daniel Zhuang. Both Clayton and Daniel have been coming along for the last several weeks and have now decided to commit to membership (and participate in the Club Champs).

Dont forget you can follow Hamilton Chess Club on facebook!

Last night saw the welcome addition of three new members to the club, from the very junior to the very experienced. We now have a total of 24 paid up members and a couple of prospects in the wings as well. First of all we welcome Darius Hasan-Stein as a junior member. Darius is 13 and a pupil at St Pauls Collegiate. No doubt he will make Gary’s school team in later years. He lists his interests as Chemistry, Science, and chess. He has been coming along the last few nights with younger brother Adam, who will graduate to full club membership in a few years as well. Welcome Darius. Next we welcome Damian Eades. Damian comes to us from the Bay Of Plenty and is a strong player with an NZCF standard and rapid ratings of  1701 and 1475 respectively (and now a HCC rating of 1031). Finally we welcome Michael Freeman. Michael is a very strong player (NZCF standard rating of 2174) while his rapid rating of 2110 places him at number 28 nationally. Michael was NZ Correspondence Champion in 1979/80 and 1983/84, and earned a NZ Correspondence Chess Master title. In 1995 he gained an International Correspondence Master title (2450 level) and in 2003 he won the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) 50th anniversary IM-D event and gained a Senior International Master title. Over the board Michael represented NZ in chess at the 1996 Chess Olympiad and the 1983, 1993 and 1995 Asian Teams events and was NZ Team Captain for four Chess Olympiads (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000) and a member of the FIDE Executive Board from 1998-2002. He is the current FIDE delegate and also the NZ delegate to ICCF.

We had 22 players at the club last night which I think is our best ever turnout. We had a lightning tournament of eight rounds at 3 + 2, Richard’s favourite time control. Peter and Michael were neck and neck with Peter just taking it out by half a point, although based on Club ratings Michael came out on top with 1598 to Peter’s 1577. Christopher and Richard were clear third and fourth respectively, Stefan and Eddie tied for fifth and then there were the rest. Ian managed to score a spectacular own-goal by calling time against Eddie, only to realize that it was his own flag that had fallen and not his opponents (palm slaps forehead). Club ratings have been updated, and the crosstable is below.

The Club champs will start next Tuesday the 2nd of April
The Championship will run over eight club nights excluding the School Holidays

The format will be  start time 7.15pm, 1 game per night, open to paid up club members only     No exceptions
– if you are not a financial member, please remember to update your  subscription payment this Tuesday – or next week at the latest (Subs can be paid online — details on the website)

You can check when your sub is due by going to the website – About > Who we are

-time limit 45 minutes plus 10 seconds per move from move 1, as we need to be out of the room by 9:30
-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
-please bring a pen to record your games
-one 1/2 point bye allowed per player, if notified the Sunday before the round that it applies
-no half point byes allowed in rounds 7 or 8.

Entries will be seeded based on Current club ratings

We will be starting the club champs shortly. You will need to be a paid up member to participate so check when your subscription expires under About>Who We Are

We have 21 participants registered so far for the Rookies, so may get close to thirty once all entries are counted.

Hamilton Chess Club is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the North Island Rapid Champs on Sunday the June 23 . The Waikato Open will be held  26/27/28 July. Once again we will be making use of the excellent facilities at Saint Pauls Collegiate. We look forward to seeing you there. Flyers will be posted shortly

Looks like we will have a big turnout for the Autumn Rookies come April 7 with seventeen players already registered. Past experience is that only half of attendees will have registered by this point meaning we might be headed for a  turnout of around 35. So come on the rest of you sign up for more chess fun than you can poke a stick at and register!

We had sixteen for the 5 + 3 last night. Peter once again proving too tough for the rest of us. He now holds the record for the all time highest club rating of 1947. Ian picked up around 270 rating points from a couple of good wins.  The crosstable is below and club ratings have been updated.

Chess etiquette dictates that one should resign when you KNOW you are lost, but failing that the aims of play can be summarized as—
1 To mate the opposing king;
2 To build up a decisive concentration of pieces on the approaches to the king;
3 To gain an advantage in material that, in time, can be converted into a mating force;
4 To make your pieces work effectively as units and harmoniously as a team;
5 To render the opponent’s pieces ineffective;
6 To frustrate the opponent’s plans;
7 To draw, if to win is out of the question;
8 Not to lose;
9 If losing, to create chances for the opponent to go wrong;
10 To fight like hell to achieve these objectives;
11 To remain courteous to your opponent.