Hamilton Chess Club

“The Pin is mightier than the sword.”

– Fred Reinfeld

The 40th Chess Olympiad is scheduled to take place in the Turkish metropole of Istanbul, from August 27 to September 10th, 2012. The Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other, it can be seen as the unofficial world team championship. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation. The previous Olympiad was held in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, the next will be in Tromsø, Norway. The first was held in Paris, France, in 1924, with 16 nations participating. The last Olympiad had 143 nations, 1294 competitors, and included no fewer than 254 grandmasters, 65 WGMs, 159 IMs, and 90 WIMs. This time the organisers are expecting even more.

We are pleased to report that two members of the Hamilton Chess Club will be attending this years Olympiad: Hilton Bennett as captain of the men’s team, and Peter Hulshof as captain of the Women’s team.

Open team (in possible board order):
FM Nic Croad, IM Russell Dive, IM Paul Garbett, FM Mike Steadman, Luke Li
Captain: Hilton Bennett
Women’s team (in board order):
wim Sue Maroroa, wfm Helen Milligan, Judy Gao, wfm Nicole Tsoi, wfm Natasha Fairley
Captain: Peter Hulshof

Winter rapid final results below — a win for Peter, with Gary second. Casual chess next week.

We had seventeen for rookies round 2. Christopher Symon came first with 6.5 out of a possible 7, dropping a half point to Murray Tuatini. David Chen and Nigel Crombie were tied on 5 points a piece, but David took second on tiebreak with Nigel third. Gary Judkins got the prize for best adult, and Maimoena Hulshof edged out her sister Zamiena for best girl. Age based prizes went to Benjamin Symon (U14), Sam Eddy (U12), Finlay Buckell (U10), and Campbell Wood (U8). Campbell was especially proud of his victory over Luke Halliwell. The full cross table is here, and a rogues gallery of photos is here. The final Rookies tournament for the year will be on 19 August.

Hurry and get your registration in to avoid disappointment, this is shaping up to be a well attended tournament with a good range of talent to test yourself against. Dont miss out!!!

The round four results are in. Final two rounds next week.

The club welcomes our newest member George Tuwhangai. George has been coming along to club nights for the last several weeks and has now joined as a fully fledged member. He managed to score a win in the first round of the club Winter rapid last night, and is looking forward to next weeks’ games

We kicked off a  six round mini rapid last night with 9 players. Welcome back to Michael returning after a long absence from chess, and welcome also to our newest member George Tuwhangai.
Standings at round 2:

…. Peter Hulshof has taken out the Title of Club Champion 2012 with an impressive 6.5 out of 7 score. For his efforts he gets $40 in prize money, the Trophy, and of course the accolades that go with the achievement. The final crosstable can be found here. If that wasnt enough, Peter also managed to take out the $20 prize for “Best Tactic Or Combination Leading To A Decisive Winning Advantage” with his neat 16. Bf4.

For the rest of us, as always, it is a case of “Next year, next year, next year I will come through victorious!!!!”.

Well… not those All Blacks, just that all games played were 0-1. With Hilton in Australia next week Peter now has an unassailable lead, so the contest is on for the minor placings. Final round next week. After that a six round rapid two games per night for three weeks.
Crosstable at round six …

In a gambit, you give up a pawn for the sake of getting a lost game

As well as leading the field for the title of Club Champion 2012, Peter Hulshof is now the main contender for the “Best Tactic Or Combination Leading To A Decisive Winning Advantage” award following a clever sequence in last week’s game against Stefan. His 16 Bf4 forces the black e-pawn forward which, following B x P both clears the e file and compels the knight onto e5, where it can be pinned against the king. The knight then falls to f4 followed by f4 x N. With his position in tatters, Stefan’s only recourse was to resign. Full analysis can be found here. Next week is the penultimate round for the Club Champs, but it will be your last chance to submit a combination for the above award.

Calling all rookies and juniors

After a long hiatus the next rookies shield event will be held at Hamilton Girls High School on June 24th

Where
Hamilton Chess Centre, Room G1, Hamilton Girls High School, enter from Hill St
Entry fees – cash only please – Juniors (and club members): $10, Adults: $15 *
Game time 15 minutes each player

Program
11 am Registration; Introduction.
11.30 am – 1 pm Rounds 1, 2 and 3,
1.10 pm Lunch break
1.50 – 2.55 pm Rounds 4, 5
2.55 pm Snack break
3.05 pm Rounds 6, 7 (Final)
4.15 pm Awarding of prizes

Cash Prizes: for 1st, 2nd and 3rd open, and best adult, best U18, U16, U14, U12, U10, U8, highest scoring girl.

Prior registration required to allow planning

To avoid disappointment register now; don’t delay

**Entries are restricted to players under 1600 NZCF rapid rating as this is a Rookies event – which still includes 80% of rated chess players!
**In case of tied scores a tiebreak count back will be used to allocate prizes. Only one prize per competitor
**Age is based on the date of the tournament, not 1 Jan
**Event will go ahead providing a minimum of 18 registrants indicate attendance

There are two more weeks to run for the club championship. From 12 June we will run a winter rapid over 3 nights, two rounds per night, with time control 20/5

Peter leads, but Hilton and William are breathing down his neck. Two more weeks to run and the 2012 Club Champ will be named.
The crosstable tells the story …..

Another set of tense battles last night. Still four contenders for the ultimate accolade with three rounds still to go.
Standings currently

Round three produced a tense battle between Stefan and Hilton. Hilton had 2 bishops and a queen to Stefan’s queen and knight but with time ticking down for Hilton a draw was offered and accepted. Round four next week is likely to be just as tense. Standings at round 3

St Pauls provided a very comfortable venue for the Annual Rapid Tournament run there by the club. Proceeds from the tournament have been donated to the New Zealand Chess Olympiad Fund. There were 36 entries and as usual a respectable contingent of Aucklanders made the effort to come down for the day. First overall was Ben Hague FM, dropping a half point to Peter Hulshof, a new recruit to the Hamilton club who previously played chess at a high level in Holland. Peter is a welcome addition to the club and to New Zealand chess having taken on the captaincy of the women’s team to the forthcoming Olympiad in Istanbul.  Second prize overall went to Hans Gao and Noel Pinic on 5 points each, while Peter Hulshof took out third place on 4.5.

In the under 1800 division first place was a three way split between Graham Nolan, William Crombie and Alphaeus Ang, all on 4 points. There was a five way split of the prize money in the under 1300 group between Daniel Gong, Joy Qin, Yuno Oh, Benjamin Simon and Christopher Simon. Daniel and Joy got to share the book prizes based on tie break score. Nicholas Huang and Craig Scott took out first and second place in the under 1000 division.  The Crosstable is here, and these are some photos

Since its inception in February 2011 the club website has now received just a little over 25000 hits — 25086 to be precise. Typically we receive 35 to 50 views per day. Our best ever day was in March 2011 with 3121 hits courtesy of Lara Stock (WGM) and her father Michael Stock (2200+) who entered the Rookies Shield tournament under false names, swept the field, and made off with the prize money. That original post is here. Since then we have banned Grandmasters from entering the Rookies Shield Tournament, but are pleased to offer them free entry to our other club events.

Following hot on the heels of the successful ANZAC day rapid please find  the   St Pauls Rapid Entry Form advertising the St Pauls rapid next Sunday 6th May
This is a Myer Tan Grand Prix Class 2 Event with a total prize fund of $700
–Great venue
–Great prizes
–Great cause
–Great tournament
On line and postal registration as per the flyer
We look forward to seeing you there