The first night of the 2018 John Kingston Memorial Trophy, which is played at a 55+5 time control, was another success. You can see Alan Winfield’s excellent win over Mark Woodward here. The first round had no major surprises, with Ross, Alan, David P, Gordon, Guy, Lars and Alistair all coming away with good wins. Unfortunately, owing to an error, the round cannot be rated with the NZCF. However, the next round of the tournament (which takes place next Tuesday) will be rated as usual. Full results here.

We also saw our first game of the ladder tournament, with Paul Frost defeating Rose Kingston. Ladder challenges can be played on any night after a player’s regular game, so it is good to see this getting underway. See here for more details about the ladder and the current standings.