Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship
The Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship, played in Paraparaumu on Saturday 12th December, saw players representing 22 schools from Wellington to Levin, compete across 4 divisions. In the premier Open Division, top seed Ryan Winter (Wellington College) suffered a surprise defeat in round 1 to Josh Langford (Wellington College). Former Paraparaumu College student, Geoffrey Gunawan, held the joint lead at the halfway stage but was not able to carry his early momentum into the later rounds. Going into the 6th and final round, Henry Zaslow (Onslow College) had a clear half point lead but had to settle for third place, after losing a tough battle to Kayden Loke who took the title on tie-break, from Ryan Winter. Kayden was unbeaten throughout the tournament scoring 3 wins and 3 draws from his 6 games. Three games here: Loke v Winter, van der Hoorn v Loke, and Loke v Laslow.
In the School event, Vincent Lou (HIBS) was an impressive winner in the Secondary grade, with 5 points from 6, ahead of Hamish Lester (Paraparaumu College) and Mia Vachon (Marsden Collegiate School). In the Intermediate section, Sravya Moparthi (Hutt Intermediate) had a perfect score going into the last round, and despite a loss playing Black against Youan Salt (Levin Intermediate), she held on to win the section on tie-break, from Youan in second and Ryan Goodall (Levin Intermediate) taking third place. The primary section had the largest field of all the grades and saw Lucas Qu (Churton Park) win the gold medal with silver going to Max Wang (Johnsonville School) and bronze to William Ding (Eastern Hutt School).
The Kāpiti Chess Club School Trophy, awarded to the top performing Kāpiti Horowhenua school, was comprehensively won by Levin Intermediate who had a strong tournament.
Final standings, 2020 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship:
| Junior Open: | 1. Kayden Loke, 2. Ryan Winter (Wellington College), 3. Henry Zaslow (Onslow College) |
| Secondary School: | 1. Vincent Luo (HIBS), 2. Hamish Lester (Paraparaumu College), 3. Mia Vachon (Marsden Collegiate School) |
| Intermediate School: | 1. Sravya Moparthi (Hutt Intermediate), 2. Youan Salt (Levin Intermediate), 3. Ryan Goodall (Levin Intermediate) |
| Primary School: | 1. Lucas Qu (Churton Park), 2. Max Wang (Johnsonville School), 3. William Ding (Eastern Hutt School) |
| Kāpiti Chess Club School Trophy: | Levin Intermediate (Youan Salt, Jack Davidson, Jack Grey, Ryan Goodall & Brock Clement) |
Full results from the day can be found here:
Kāpiti Junior Open 2020
Kāpiti Junior (School) Chess Championship (Individual results by age group)
Kāpiti Junior (School) Chess Championship (School results)
Below: Amy Knowles vs Lucas Qu | Below: Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship School Trophy winners, Levin Intermediate |
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More photos from the day can be found here.