The Club Championships are now over and the dust has settled. David Paul finished the year Kapiti Chess Club Supreme Champion taking the honours for all Trophies–A Grade Championship, John Kingston Memorial Trophy, Leo Eichholtz Trophy, Freebird Trophy, Grand Prix Prize and Blitz Champs. Rick Lowe won the B Grade Trophy and top Junior Johnny Hynes the C Grade Trophy. For photos of the Prize-giving, click Here.

Defending champion David Paul beat contender Paul Frost to set his seal on the Club Championships. John Whibley won against Sean Doyle. Lars Dobbertin-King drew with experienced Glyns Mills. Johnny Hynes beat leading B and C Grade contender Rick Lowe. Club Captain Mike O’Rorke won against battler Rose Kingston. Zephyr Wills beat Ian Liddell and Spenser Viernes won against Hayden.
Nathan Price had the bye.
Next week is the last round of the Club Champs.

Kapiti Chess Club member Guy Burns attended the 18 Gokarna International Chess Tournament held in South India 23 November 2014. The Swiss-based Tournament was run over 5 rounds at the Namaste Yoga Farm, Kudle Beach, Karnataka. Guy struggled against a strong international field and his loss to Spainard Luisa Zamora in the first round set the tone for his play in the Tournament. Europeans dominated the event, with top honours being shared by Oliver Drometer (Germany) and Tapani Sydӓnmetsӓ (Sweden) with 4 points, followed by Jӧrg Gehmann (Germany) on 3. Full photos HERE.

2nd Round of the Final Series of the Kapiti Club Championships was played and Lars Dobbertin-King achieved a respectable draw against current title-holder David Paul. A draw now puts David only one point ahead of nearest rival Paul Frost–their game will be the one to watch as a win by Paul will put him level with David. There are no other players within cooee, so the Kapiti Coast Chess champion will be one of these two players.
Rick Lowe leads the field in the B and C Grade, one and a half points from Ian Liddell.
Johnny Hynes is in front of the Juniors, half a point from fellow Junior Spencer Viernes.

The final round of our Blitz Tournament was played tonight and ultimately, David Paul came out trumps with a two and half point lead over his nemesis Paul Frost. Club Captain Mike O’Rorke took out third place with 14.5 points. In the Juniors Zephyr Wills and Spencer Viernes share honours for the top spot.
Next week is the third and last series of the Club Championships—6 rounds of play—and there’s still a chance to knock David Paul off his perch, but, it won’t be easy with his one and a half points lead.

Last game of the 2nd series of our Club Championships was played and maestro Paul Frost played a strong game against current Kapiti Chess champion David Paul. Once again David still managed to avoid a loss in this Tournament, with the game ending in a draw, David continues to lead—ahead one and half points from nearest rival Paul Frost.

Club Captain Mike O’Rorke plans succeeded with a fine swindle against John Whibley. Junior, Johnny Hynes played well to beat dark horse Ian Liddell and Ian now has 6 points—only a half point lead from Rick Lowe, who is half a point off top placed Junior Spencer Viernes. Lars Dobbertin-King won against Glyns Mills and Sean Doyle beat Rose Kingston. Rick Lowe won by default with a bye point.

The 3rd and last series of the Champs starts 29 October and will go through to 3 December. Our next game to be played is the 3rd night of our Blitz competition—see you there!

David Paul continues his lead in the Club Champs—a full point and half ahead of his nearest rivals, whilst it’s a much tighter battle in the B and C Grades. Here, Ian Liddell leads by a bare half point from Rick Lowe, who, is closely followed by leading Junior Spencer Viernes—Full Results below. See you there for the final round of Club Champs Series 2—and don’t forget there is still hope for those on less points: we have a Series 3.

Alistair McGowan put some pressure on David Paul in their Club Champ game. But, with the battle ending in a draw, David continues his unbeaten run and leads his nearest rivals—Paul Frost and Alistair—by one and half points. Rick Battler Lowe leads the B and C Grade, one point ahead of Ian Liddell.

David Paul slowly extends his lead in the Club Championships with the absence of Alistair McGowan and won his game against ex-Olympiad player Glyns Mills. Mike O’Rorke beat Rick Lowe and Sean Doyle won against Junior Zephyr Wills. Johnny Hynes beat visitor Hayden. John Whibley won against Paul Frost and Lars Dobberton-King beat leading B Grade contender Ian Liddel. Top Junior Spencer Viernes won his game against Rose Kingston. Next round is the 4th game of the 2nd series of the Champs.

Round 2 of the second series of the Club Championships was played and David Paul continues to lead the A grade by one point from Alistair McGowan and Paul Frost. Ian Lowe and Rick Lowe are neck and neck in the B & C grade. Spencer Viernes is also a point ahead, in the Junior League. See you there for round 3.

Series B of the Club Championships has just begun. Congratulations to 13 year old Wellington chess player Layla Timergazi who has just earned her World Chess Federation women’s ‘Master’ title after winning six and drawing two of her 10 games at the World Chess Olympiad held in Tromso, Norway in early August— Click Here for more information. Round 2 of our Champs next Wednesday—see you there!

We played round 7 of the Freebird Trophy (15 – 15 minute timeframe) and competition is heating up. Paul Frost won all his games to streak ahead within 2 points of current champion David Paul with Mike O’Rorke in 3rd position on 19 points. In the Juniors, Spencer Viernes and Johnny Hynes share the lead. There is one more round to go (10 December) to decide this Trophy. Next Club night—10 September—we start series B of the Club Championships.

14 players turned up for the last round of series A of the Club Championships. Current Kapiti champion David Paul leads—but only by half a point from a determined Paul Frost. Spencer Viernes is tops the Juniors—one point ahead of nearest rival Zephyr Wills. Mad Mike O’Rorke played Dynamic David Paul with the game being won in the end game by David. Alistair wham McGowan battled it out with Paul Frost and lost—well done Paul. Ian Liddell drew against Glenys Mills and Rick Lowe dealt to Spencer Viernes with a fine win.
Lars Dobberton-King defeated Johnny Hynes and Rose Kingston beat the new guy and potential club member Devi. A great night was held by all. Next week we have another round of our 15 15 tournament.

12 players were in attendance for the 5th round of the Club Championships. The game to watch saw unbeaten Alistair Wham McGowan pitted against the incumbent A Grade Champion David Paul. The game was decided by a cunning tactic by David on move 34—resulting in David winning a piece—at this point Alistair threw in the towel. Mike O’Rorke played up and coming junior Spencer Viernes—at one point in the game Spencer had Mike on the ropes with a forced win (according to the keen eye of David Paul)—but Spencer misplayed and lost. Paul Frost managed to win against the promising Junior Zephyr Wills. Ian Liddell—recovering from his loss to Spencer last week—beat top A grade contender John Whibley dealing a serious blow to his chances to take the prestigious A grade Trophy. Rick and Rose battled out for a draw and Ex Olympiad player Glenys Mills started her comeback into the tournament with a win over Johnny Hynes. This leaves the points tables very interesting with 1 round to play in this series

10 players attended Club Champs. Mike O’Rorke did a manual draw as he had computer problems. Alistair Wham McGowan continued his golden unbeaten run like Rocky Marciano—delivering a knockout blow to John Whibley. Glenys Mills and Mike O’Rorke fought it out for a draw. Lars Dobbertin-King was beaten by Paul Frost. Top Junior Spencer Viernes dealt to dark horse Ian Liddell—great result Spencer. Rose Kingston and Johnny Hynes game ended up drawing. There will be some good battles next week with current Kapiti Champion David Paul returning after missing the night’s play.

The previous week, we played the third series in our Freebird 15 minute trophy. Paul Frost is leading the field for this Tournament, two points ahead of the current Trophy holder David Paul on 10 points. Johnny Hynes is leading the Juniors with 5 points, one point clear of Zepher Wills.

Another great night was held at the club 14 players attending. In that game to watch, Alistair Wham McGowan disposed of Mike ORorke and now leads the field. David Paul won a drawn out battle with Lars Dobbertin King. Paul Frost returned from a long absence and battled out for a draw with John Whibley. The upset of the night saw Spencer Viernes beating Glenys Mills. Dark horse Ian Liddell won another game; beating Rose Kingston. Zephyr Wills won against Johnny Hynes and Rick Lowe had a solid win against Sean Doyle.

Round 2 of the Club Championships resulted in some interesting results. Current A grade champion David Paul battled it out with John Whibley for 52 moves—eventually coming to a point where neither could make any progress—a toughly fought draw. Mike ORorke had the Black pieces against Lars Dobbertin-King and left his Knight for ‘free’, Lars took it then Mike played discovered check and whoops! Mike had pocketed Lars’ Queen—great win to Mike. Alistair McGowan snared a win over Glyns Mills.
Dark Horse Ian Liddell played lovely positional chess to deal a blow to chessmaster Rick Lowe. Sean Doyle ended up stalemating himself whilst seeking an elusive win over Johnny Hynes. And Rose was Tea lady for the night having the bye. Next week will see a top-of-the-table clash between the only two players on maximum points, when Alistair Wham McGowan plays Mighty Mike Tree O’Rorke—a game well worth watching.

A good nights start for our Club Championship with 12 players contesting our premium Trophy. This is the ultimate Kapiti Chess contest and the prestigious Trophy is currently held by David Paul and will be fiercely contested. After the first round, David Paul, Mike O’Rorke, John Whibley, Glyns Mills, Lars Dobbertin-King and Alastair McGowan all took away one point from Rose Kingston, Zepher Wills, Johnny Hynes, Ian Liddell, Sean Doyle and Rick Lowe. Second game next week.

11 players turned up for the Freebird Trophy. David Paul led the field with dp 3.5 points, closely followed by Lars Dobbertin-King, Alistair McGowan and Mike O’Rorke on 3 points. John Whibley, Ian Liddell won 2 points, Glyns Mills 1.5 and Rose Kingston, Johnny Hynes and Rick Lowe 1 point. Zephyr Wills did not score. Next weeks play is the ”holy grail” of the Kapiti Chess Club with the start of our Club Champs which will be 3 series of 6 games per series, using the Swiss Pairing system.