A very successful Wellington Junior Chess Open was held on Saturday 21st September at Amesbury School, Churton Park. In total, 70 competitors aged 5 to 18 years competed, and 25 schools within the Wellington region were represented, including Paraparaumu College, Kenakena and Raumati Beach schools from Kapiti. The event was organised by the Northern Suburbs Social Chess Club for Kids and co-hosted by Kapiti, Wellington & Upper Hutt Chess Clubs.

Two of our club members, Geoffrey Gunawan and Liam Parkes competed in the tournament, and big congratulations to Geoffrey who took first place in the college section.  

Back at the club this week, Round 2 of the Club Championships saw some great match-ups, with Ross Jackson prevailing over Gordon Lyall, and Guy Burns upsetting David Paul, and David Scott winning against John Whibley. The B-grade clash saw Brandon’s brave piece-sac-for attack v Geoffrey not quite work out, and in the C-grade, Mark Summers made it 2 from 2 with a lovely kingside mate against Rick Lowe. See the latest results here.

Below: KCC members Geoffrey Gunawan and Liam Parkes competing in the Wellington Junior Chess Open, 21 September 2019.

The 2019 Kapiti Chess Club Championship kicked off this week. This year the competition is being played as two tournaments, a combined one for A and B grades, and one for the C grade. Winners will receive the Tom Powell Trophy, the Ab Borren Trophy and the Gufeld Trophy  for A, B and C grades respectively.

Round one saw all games go to the higher rated player, although many were made to work for their wins. After Round 1, Gordon Lyall, Ross Jackson and David Paul head the A/B grade, while Rick Lowe, Mark Summers and Hamish Lester head the C grade. Full results can be found here.

Will last year’s Club Champion, Gordon Lyall being able to retain his title? or will traditional club trophy hogger David Paul get it back?  With a strong junior contingent this year, the C grade also promises to be an exciting closely-fought event. Stay tuned.

Above: Savannah Edwards and Liam Parkes battle out a draw in Round one of the Club Champs, played 17 September 2019.

Last weekend, five Kapiti Club members (Guy Burns, Gordon Lyall, Geoffrey Gunawan, David Paul and David Scott) played in the Wellington Rapid, a tournament hosted by the Wellington Chess Club at the their club rooms [photos below].

This was a fun day, with six rounds played under a 25 + 5 time format. While none of the squad hit any of the major prize money, overall we came out with a pretty reasonable performance. Full results can be found here.

Meanwhile at the club this week, we saw a fun night of Blitz chess, with eight rounds of fast and furious chess. Coming out on top was Gordon Lyall with a perfect 8 from 8, followed by the two Davids on 6, and Guy Burns on 5. 
Next week sees the start of the Club’s main event on its calendar, the Club Championship.

The final night of the 2019 Freebird Trophy last week saw Ross Jackson impressively clean the board with four wins from four, to follow his four wins from four the previous week. Congratulations Ross! Runner-up was Gordon Lyall with 7 from 8, followed by David Paul on 6. Full results here.

Junior coaching continues to be popular and well-attended. A little under half the club membership are now juniors, adding a lot to a good club atmosphere, and promising well for the future.

This week saw a change to the published calendar with a great night of casual chess. Next week will be a Blitz night, which have been very popular this year. All welcome.

This week, the Club shifted into a different gear with the start of the 2019 Freebird Trophy, four rounds a night of rapid 10m + 5s games.

Ross Jackson, in good form, led the night with four wins from four, ahead of David Paul, Gordon Lyall, David Scott and Geoffrey Gunawan on 3. See here for full results from the night. The competition continues next week with Rounds 5-8.

The sixth and final round of the inaugural 2019 Winter Cup this week saw David Paul convincingly take it out, sealing the deal with a win against incumbent Club Champion Gordon Lyall, in a great game (see here). David [pictured below] scored 5.5 out of 6, a clear 1.5 points ahead of Ross Jackson, Guy Burns, and David Scott on 4. The top Juniors were Geoffrey Gunawan and Mark Summers on 2.5 points. Full results can be found here. 

The Winter Cup is one of four Club competitions  that count towards the Glenys Mills Memorial Trophy – A ‘Grand Prix’ style award for the consistently best performing club player over the year. At this stage, it is Ross Jackson who is leading this, just a whisker ahead of David Paul.

Next week sees the start of the Freebird Trophy, eight rounds of 10 minute rapid play games, played over 2 weeks. This promises to be a fun couple of weeks ahead of the Club Championships. 

You can click on these links if you’d like to find out more information on the club’s tournaments and trophies, and past winners.

The deciding game of the 2019 Winter Cup, David Paul is playing white against Gordon Lyall and plays a great game to seal top spot. (Annotations by Gordon Lyall).

Round 5 of the Winter Cup was played this week, and with one round to go, there was plenty to play for with several players in the running still for the top prize.

Gordon Lyall secured a hard-fought half-point from Ross Jackson (see photo below), while Guy Burns had a win against Savannah Edwards. Along with so far undefeated front runner David Paul, all three are in the running to win the cup in the final round next week. Good luck! Amongst the juniors, Geoffrey Gunawan grabbed a win from Mark Summers to grab the leading juniors spot heading into the final round. See latest results here.

Check out also a great game here  from last week’s Round 4 between Guy Burns and David Paul.

Round 4 of the 2019 Winter Cup. An exciting game between David Paul & Guy Burns, with lots of tactical opportunities on both sides, and well annotated by Gordon Lyall.