The first half of the Club Champs has been completed and incumbent David Paul barely holds the lead on 5.5 points after a mighty victory by Zoe Kingston—over David—in the last round of this section. Zoe, calculated as mechanical Swiss-watch, played steady chess to overwhelm her opponent—his first Club Championship loss in 4 year (also to Zoe).

A plethora of members are within one point of the lead, including Junior Itay Ben-Dom on 5 points.

Next Wednesday (15 September) we have the last round—round 5—of our 5 minute Blitz Tournament and the second half of the Club Champs begins on 21 September.

The 2011 Kapiti Rapid will be held this coming Saturday. Yes, we know the Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals start 6:00pm that day. But, we promise to finish on time and let you get away asap, if you really must get back to watch the match!

The chess-web-meister is on annual leave for a month and this commentary will resume in early September.

The dust has settled and Zoe Kingston and David Paul just are clear of the field by half a point. Gordon has a strong game tonight against Alistair McGowan and talented Itay Ben-Dom played strongly to draw against current club champion David Paul.

Club Champs are now well under-way, the field is slowly starting establish their positions. It takes several rounds for the dust to settle before we start to see the leaders appearing through the haze, who then become targets that all members want to beat in the heat of battle.

The Club Champs are now under-way and round one was played last week—results will be posted soon. The Champs continue for next week.

Round 4 of our Blitz Trophy series was played and David Paul took out the honours. Full results will be posted soon.

Congratulations to David Paul who has won the John Kingston Memorial Trophy and to Itay Ben-Dom, first placed junior. David easily beat Guy Burns tonight to pip runner-up, Alistair McGown, by 1 point.

Next week—13 July—round 4 of our Blitz (5 minutes per player) will be held.

David Paul leads the field coming into the final round of the John Kingston Memorial Trophy (55 min. plus 5 sec. timeframe). He is closely followed—half a point—by Junior player Itay Ben-Dom. Only a defeat in the final round (6 July) will prevent David’s name being on the trophy this year.

The following week—13 July—round 4 of our Blitz (5 minutes per player) competition is to be played.

Demand for coaching is spasmodic and from this point, coaching will be available by demand only. If you are a junior or senior player, please arrange coaching by ringing Club Captain David Paul on 04-905 0898, or Club Captain Guy Burns on 04-9042002.

Talented Junior Itay Ben-Dom sought, saw and secured an opportunity to win his 60-60 John Kingston Memorial Trophy Tournament match against current Senior Club Champion, David Paul, enacted an error in the endgame, of a drawn game. The win places top junior Itay into the lead alongside David. Alistair McGowan breathes down their necks, a half point behind. Round six, of this 8 round event continues next week.

Itay Ben-Dom capitalises on an error in the endgame, by David Paul to win Round 5 of the 60-60 John Kingston Memorial Trophy Tournament

The great chess movie “Bobby Fischer against the World” will be coming to the Wellington Film Festival—Friday July 29 (2:00pm) and Sunday July 31 (2:00pm) at the Paramount Theatre Wellington—see a review of the documentary Here.