The Kāpiti Chess Club will resume for 2023 on Tuesday 7 February. Junior Club runs from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, with the Senior Club starting at 7:30pm. The Club meets at the Salvation Army Rear Hall, 41 Bluegum Rd, Paraparaumu. 

All welcome. If you have questions about the Club, please contact us at 029 905 8045 or at gordon.lyall@outlook.com

The final junior chess club night of the year was well attended, with 22 kids participating. Here is a link to photos from the night. https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFRttSTM7LYcVavK8.

The season ending team competition was a close affair and could have gone either way. Ultimately, Team Magnus prevailed (in photo 3 in the link above, from left to right: Devin, Yoav, Orlando & Tomas), edging out Team Giri by a single point. Each of the winning team members received a chess set. It was also award night for those who recently took the NZCF Badge Scheme test.

Congratulations to those who completed Level 1 (in photo 4 in the link above, from left to right: – Ronan, Thomas, Yoav & Yonatan), and Level 2 (in photo 5 in the link above, from left to right: Daniel, Jingwei, Benjamin, Elane & Rueben). Special mention to Yoav, who scored a perfect 100% on the test, which has not been achieved since June 2021!

The final awards of the night were for Most Improved Player and Player of the Year (Photo 1 in the above link). Most Improved went to Elane who took down some of the top players in both the Club’s internal blitz tournaments and achieved both NZCF Level 1 & 2 this year. The Player of the Year went to Devin, who had an outstanding season, winning both T2 & T3 Blitz tournaments, taking a bronze at the Kapiti Junior Chess Championship, as well as captaining team Magnus who won the team event. It was a great finish to the season and everyone took home a Xmas goody bag.

It was also a final get together for Senior Club members last weekend with a very enjoyable BBQ hosted by Club President Gordon and wife Andrea, followed by prizegiving. Special mention goes to Year 12 student Levi Paxton, a new member this year, who carried away many of this year’s Club’s trophies, including co-Club champion and the overall Glenys Mills Memorial Grand Prix Rook. Photos from that day can also be found at the link above.

Best wishes to all over the holiday period and remember, chess is cool.

The final junior competition of the year is a team event, with 4 players on each side. The format simulates an inter-school match and gives the juniors experience in this format, as they look forward to representing their respective schools in the new year. There is also the added pressure of playing with chess clocks! After 2 rounds Team Magnus and Team Giri are joint first place with 5.5 points each, followed by Team Naka (3) and Team Beth (2). It promises to be a close and exciting conclusion to the tournament next week, on the last club night of 2022. 

Meanwhile, senior club played its final night of the year this week, but not its final event – with a BBQ get together and prizegiving scheduled for this Sunday.

How is my team doing? Juniors check to see results. More Club photos here.

It was test time at the Junior Chess Club, with 7 students sitting their NZ Chess Federation Level 1 Badge (Pawn) and 5 students sitting Level 2 (Knight). Level 1 covers chess fundamentals, basic checkmates and etiquette. Level 2 introduces the special moves in chess, checkmate & stalemate patterns, as well as pawn promotion. Good luck to all…

Another school, Paraparaumu Beach, has signed up for the “Chess in Schools” program. PBS plan to start their school chess club after the holidays. They already have a strong core of good players, with 3 of their students, members of the Kapiti Junior Chess Club. This takes the number of schools who have committed to the Chess in Schools program to a total of seven!

Next week is the final night of the year for the Senior Club, with the final night for the Junior Club on the 13th.

We have a new Club Champion for 2022, or more accurately two Champions! Congratulations to Levi Paxton and Ross Jackson, joint winners of the A grade and the Tom Powell Memorial Trophy. Both scored 6 points from 7, with 5 wins and two draws each. The Ab Borren trophy for B grade Champion is also shared this year, with Andrew Brockway and Andy Hicks joint winners on 4 points. Final results and standings can be found here. 

The penultimate round of the 2022 Club Championship was played this week. Round 6 saw Levi win against Andrew, Ross win against David, and Andy win against Geoffrey. With one round to go next week, it’s pretty much now just a two-horse race between Levi and Ross, both on 5 points going into Round 7 next week. See current standings here.

The game of the week was Andy against Geoffrey. Andy playing white continuing some good form of late with a nice win over the higher-rated Geoffrey. See the annotated game here. This puts him in third place going into the final round next week, and with an outside chance of sharing the Championship should both front-runners lose next week. 

Meanwhile, in the Junior Club we had our biggest turnout ever, with 19 kids playing, with some very keen ones playing well beyond their normal finishing time!

Kāpiti Chess Club has just launched its Chess in Schools initiative to encourage local schools in the Kāpiti Horowhenua region to start up their own chess clubs. As part of the initiative, Kāpiti Chess Club will provide free chess sets to get the school clubs started. Te Rā School, Paraparaumu College and Horowhenua College have already benefited from this program. Interested parents or teachers should contact Kāpiti Chess Club for more details.

The race for the Club Champs is heating up with Round 5 played this week. Levi won over Andy to catch front-runner Ross. Both now lead on 4 points. Andrew also won over Geoffrey to catch Andy for a share of third place on 3 points.  With two rounds to go, the winner will almost certainly be one of these four. Latest results here.

The game of the night however, was Ross v John which played late into the evening. John some 300 rating points lower, played well to hold Ross to a draw, with John’s two knights more than a match for Ross’s two bishops in a tight endgame. Post-mortem analysis even suggesting that John had the winning position.

Junior Chess term 4 started with a strong turnout, for a night of fun chess including “hand & brain”. This term the students will be tackling the next level NZCF Badge challenge, with some students going for Level 3 (Bishop badge). This will be the highest NZ Chess Federation level achieved to date by any Kāpiti Junior Chess club members!

Round 4 of Club Champs was played this week in the Senior Club. Front-runners Ross and Levi fought out a tough draw, while Andy continued his great form of late, with a win over David. Ross still leads the field after 4 rounds on 3½, with Andy and Levi in second spot on 3 points, and a pack following close behind. There are three more to go, so still too close to call yet. Current results and standings here.

In this week’s photo, Geoffrey takes on a keen group of juniors as Term 4 begins.

The annual Club Championship had its third round this week. Just Ross remains undefeated after 3 games, with a win over Andy this week. Levi is second on 2½ with a win over Geoffrey this week, and Andy makes up the leader group in third place on 2 points. Full results and standings can be found here.

Special mention to Andrew and Levi who travelled down to Invercargill last week to play in the South Island Championship. Both held their own against a strong field putting in solid 50%+ performances. Tournament results here.

A reminder too, that Term 4 in the Junior club starts next week at the usual time of 6:30.

This week’s photo shows long-time Life member John Whibley in action in Round 3. John joined the club in 1988 and has been a loyal member every one of the 35 years since then.  In the longest game of the night this week, John showed he is still more than competitive playing flawless defence against a strong London kingside attack from David, and then gradually playing himself into a winning position. But in Chess it sometimes only takes one mistake, and it was David who came away with a lucky win. For more club pics see here.