Congrats to long-time club stalwart John Whibley, who pulled one out of the bag this week in the first night of the second leg of the Freebird Cup. After four rounds, John sits first equal on 3, picking up wins over past club champion Levi, and over Guy and Ross, all rated notably higher. He shares the lead with David Paul who dropped just two half points, against David Scott and Brandon. David P brings 7 points from the first leg played back in February so will go into next week’s final four rounds as clear favourite. But as usual, there are several close chasers and potential final winners. Current results and standings here.

The Junior Club had a casual chess night this week, followed at the end with a prizegiving to the winners of the Term 1 tournament that finished last week. Congrats to (from left to right in the photo)  Isaiah (bronze), James (silver) and Daniel (gold).

It was an exciting finale to the opening junior club tournament of the year. On top board, tournament leader Daniel was under pressure against Jingwei, who launched a dangerous kingside attack. However, Daniel defended accurately and ultimately triumphed. He took out clear first place with 5½ points from 6. James edged out Roy to take 2nd place on 5 points, and Isaiah also finished on 5 points and takes 3rd place on tie-break. Just outside the medals were Devin, Jingwei and Roy all on 4 points. Congratulations to all players in what was a very competitive event.  In the seniors, there was a good turnout and lots of fun for our first Blitz night of the year. 

Photo: Daniel and Jingwei shake hands after their epic battle.

Junior Club

In the penultimate round of the T1 Rapid, there was a tense struggle on top board with Daniel eventually taking the full point against tournament leader James (see photo). On board two Isaiah prevailed with the Black, as did Jingwei on board 3. There were good wins by Elia, beating one of the tournament favourites, and a great checkmate by Oscar M. Going into the final round, anyone of 5 can win. Daniel leads by the slimmest of margins, a half point, ahead of the chasing pack which includes James. Jingwei, Isaiah and Roy. It’s set up for an exciting final round.

Senior Club

The final and deciding two rounds of the Leo Eichholtz 25m + 5s tournament were a close affair yielding three winners tied for first place. Congratulations to David P, Ross and Lars who all finished on 5 points from 7. The key matches were the Round 6 match-up between David P and Ross, and the Round 7 match with David P and David S, both tough fought draws, with other results going the way of the stronger player. Results and final standings can be found here.  Next week will be a Blitz night.

Junior Club

There were some big match ups in round 4. James playing white against Brock held on to his unbeaten run, and leads the tournament with a perfect score of 4 points from 4 games. In fact it was a good night for those playing white on the top boards, with 4 wins from 5 matches. On board 3 Isaiah bucked the trend by holding Roy to a draw with the black pieces. With 2 rounds to go, James leads on 4, with Daniel, Jingwei, Tal, Tuautua, Isaiah and Roy all only one point behind.

Senior Club

After five rounds in the Leo Eichholtz, 25m + 5s tournament, David P and Lars share the lead on 4 points. David P is undefeated so far, but has drawn games against Guy and Gordon, while Lars has just a single loss – against David P this week. For others, some upset wins and losses have led to a large chasing bunch or 4 or 5  players, which each have a technical chance to overtake the leaders in the final two rounds next week. Current results and standings here.

New Training Club

This week we began our brand new training club sessions. These sessions are designed to provide some extra coaching and training both for aspiring juniors as well as adult beginners. We’re trialling these as 30 minute sessions from 7:30 to 8:00pm in between the junior club and senior club. For this first session we had a very good turnout of around a dozen, half from juniors and half from seniors. Gordon Lyall (a FIDE-qualified trainer) led the session with an informative lesson on blunders, how to spot them and how to reduce them in your games.

Junior Club

There were some exciting games in round 2 with the pick of the bunch, James playing white against Charlotte (picture). Under time pressure Charlotte was unable to find the knock-out blow and James narrowly secured the point. There was also a great tussle between Lachlan and Oscar L, with Lachlan prevailing despite a valiant effort by Oscar. Brock, Devin, Isaiah and James lead the pack with 2 points each from two games.

Senior Club

Rounds 1 and 2 of the annual Leo Eichholtz tournament were played this week. After two rounds, Lars and newcomer Jan both lead unbeaten on 2, with David P and Guy next on 1½.  Full results and standings here.  

The first junior tournament got under way, with 30 participants registered for the 10 minute plus 5 second add on, Rapid time format. The tournament will run for the next six weeks. There were no big surprises in round one, but there were good wins for Ewan, James and Tautua.

In the seniors, congrats to David P (photo) who wrapped up series 1 of the Freebird tournament with an unbeaten 7 from 7, followed  by Guy on 6, and David S and Ross on 4. Full results can be found here. The final half of this tournament will run later in the year.  Next week we begin our annual Leo Eichholtz 25+5 tournament.

New Training Sessions

From next week the Club is introducing an exciting new development. We will be trialling 30 minute training sessions to run from 7:30 to 8:00pm in between the junior club and senior club . These sessions are designed to provide some extra coaching and training both for aspiring juniors as well as adult beginners.

Another great turnout at junior club this week, and great to so many kids participating and having fun with this great game. Also a good turnout at senior club, including three new faces. We played the first night of our annual Freebird event, played with a 10m + 5 s time format. After three rounds David P leads on 3, followed by Ross, Guy and David S on 2. Full results from the night can be found here. 

For those who might not know, our website  https://kapitichess.club/  holds heaps of interesting stuff about the Club, including latest news, events and results, games, and a large club photo collection, from now going back to the Club’s beginnings in the late 1980’s. You can check this out here: https://kapitichess.club/photos/

For the aspiring juniors in the club, it was interesting to see this week two 8 year-olds beat the the world record (one a few days after the other) for the youngest person to ever beat a Chess Grandmaster. You can read about it here:   https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/20/eight-year-old-beats-chess-grandmaster-youngest. Showing Chess is one of the few games where young and old can often compete on even terms.  

Opening night for junior chess was buzzing with 28 members playing some fun casual games. We also extended a warm welcome to 8 new members who seemed to really enjoy themselves. Next week will be another casual night before we get down to business with the first tournament of the year! More on this to follow.

In the senior  club, we held our opening night AGM followed by some casual chess. The Club reported a successful year for 2023 with highlights including a booming junior club, record turnouts for it’s two open tournaments, a strong online presence, and a healthy financial position. The committee, fees and calendar of events for 2024 were set, along with some great discussion and ideas on a range of other business. However, the highlight of the night was the awarding of a Life Membership to long-time Club stalwart Guy Burns. More on that in an upcoming post. A record of the AGM will be posted here soon. Next week we’re back into business with our annual Freebird tournament.

It was a great finish to the year this week as both Junior and Senior sections of the club had their final night get together and prizegiving.

There was a fantastic turnout of 40+ kids and parents for the final Junior night. After a bit of casual Chess, the kids was split into 5 teams, joined by a further team of parents, and we ran a fun Chess-themed set of 20 multi-choice questions. For example, ‘what is it called when a Knight attacks more than one piece at once’. A: spoon, B: fork ,or C: knife?  ok, maybe you know that, but how about ‘who was the the longest reigning Chess world champion?’ or ‘what is the longest ever recorded game of chess (in moves)’? In the end, the kids acquitted themselves well, with the top team scoring 17 out of 20. For the record, the parents did not do as well!

Prizegiving followed the quiz. Cups, certificates, medals were awarded as follows, and a number of NZCF badges and medals were also awarded.

Photos of all the winners and lots more from the night can be found here. Congratulations to everyone!

Prizegiving for the Senior Club followed. It was decided to repeat the Junior quiz for the Senior Club. Members,  partners and parents split into two teams and some fun and some madness ensued for a while. It was close battle in the end with just one point in it, but both senior teams still scored slightly short of the top scoring junior team earlier!

This was followed by  prizegiving. Congratulations to all the winners, in particular to Gordon Lyall who reclaims the Club Champion title and A grade Cup for 2012, amongst a number of other trophies. The full list of event and trophy winners can be found here: here

The night concluded with some enjoyable food and beverage at a local pub. More photos of the night can be found here.

That’s it for 2023. Thanks to all members and supporters for a great year. We look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2024. Stay tune in January for details when.

A great finish in both the Junior and Senior Club Champs this week.

In the Senior Club:

Congratulation to Gordon who beat Jacob to clinch the 2023 Club Champion title and A grade trophy. This goes with his three titles from 2018 to 2020. In a very tight battle for runner-up, Brandon played well to get himself into a strong, maybe winning, position against last year’s co-champion Ross, but Ross came back to win and take clear second place. Lars needed Ross to lose, and himself to beat last year’s other co-champion Levi to secure runner up, but neither eventuated and both Lars and Levi finished the comp sharing third place.  The B-grade trophy for players rated under 1600 went jointly to Brandon and John both finishing a creditable 4 points from 8. With a number of new members and several from the Junior Club playing both Junior and Senior Champs, there was a great spread of players and clashes this year. It was great to be able to award the C-grade trophy to two deserving up and coming juniors Jacob and Brock. Jacob also took out the Junior Club Champion title – see below.  Congratulations to all. Full results here.

In the Junior Club:

It was an exciting conclusion to the Junior Club Championship. In the Senior grade, the top match went down to the wire, with Cobus, playing white, taking down the tournament leader Brock (see photo). This enabled Jacob, with his win on board 2 against Jingwei, to slip passed Brock into first place with a score of 5½ from 7. Julia was edged out of third spot by Isaiah, who shared third place with Cobus and Daniel.

Final standings for the senior grade:

1. Jacob 5½/7
2. Brock 5/7
3. Cobus, Daniel & Isaiah 4½/7

In the Junior grade, the tournament leader, Tuatua capped off a strong tournament with a win against Orlando on board  1. Ronan prevailed against Ewan on board 2, and Charlotte ended the tournament strongly with 3.5 points from her last 4 games. Final standings in the Junior grade:

1. Tuatua 6/7
2. Ronan 5.5/7
3. Charlotte 5/7

Next week is our final club night for the year, including prizegiving for both juniors and seniors.