What a crazy night this week, as we took a break from the long play format of the Winter Cup for something a bit different…. handicap blitz.

All games were 10 minutes – with no time added on. The club’s top players had just 1 minute against the club’s bottom players (anyone 600+ rating points lower), while moderately better players had 3 minutes against their opponent’s 7 minutes (anyone 250+ rating points below). Everyone else had 5 minutes each. Rounds followed continuously until not enough players were left or the pairings was exhausted.

Congratulations to Guy Burns (pictured below against Liam Parkes), who emerged victorious after 8 rounds, with David Paul, Gordon Lyall and Neels Du Plessis second equal on 5 points. See the full results here.

The night was a bit of fun, plus a chance for players to taste victory against people they’ve never beaten, or don’t normally beat, and there certainly were some giant slayings during the evening. Geoffrey topped the juniors with 4.5 from 8 rounds, but considering that most juniors aren’t able to stay the full night, it was great to see many securing good scores for the rounds they played, and the odd prize scalp or two along the way.

 “The truth is, blitz chess is not only insanely fun but extremely good training to develop intuition for slow chess.” [unnamed online source ]   or……

“It’s just not real chess, is it…” [unnamed Club member]

Round three of the Winter Cup was played this week. All results went to the higher rated player, and full results can be found here.  David Scott tried hard to upset this pattern against higher-rated Ross, and although he never had any winning chances, he did have opportunities to draw. You can see this game here, along with the game between Alistair McGowan and Geoffrey Gunawan here. After three rounds, David Paul and Guy Burns lead with the maximum 3 points.

Next week the Club takes a short break from the long format of the Winter Cup, with a one-off handicap rapid/blitz night. This promises to be a lot of fun, with a time handicap aimed to even things out a little. Players will play either 1 v 9, 3 v  7, or  5 v 5 minute games depending on the difference in rating between them and their opponents.

This game is from Round three of the 2019 Winter cup, played on 16 July 2019, under a 75 + 30 time format.

This game is from Round 3 of the 2019 Winter Cup. The time format was 75 + 30.

Black enjoyed the edge for most of the game, and even missed a win at move 36, with Qd2. But his move 36 …g6 allowed White to double Black’s passed central pawns, to be back to near equality according to the engine. David’s 39. Re5 was a mistake (Rd1 is best), and put Black back into a winning position. But he manages to hang on, and Black’s 48…Ng2 gives back equality, at least for a few moves until White finally cracks on move 50, blundering his knight and resigning next move.

Kapiti Chess Club members, Geoffrey Gunawan, David Paul and Gordon Lyall attended an elite chess coaching seminar on Saturday 13th July. The coaching seminar was given by Chess Grandmaster Dejan Bojkov, a FIDE Senior Trainer and coach to the New Zealand Olympiad team.

Dejan is a Bulgarian grandmaster, who has a background in sport science and many years of experience as a professional chess player. For a number of years he has worked with top juniors in Europe, U.S.A., and Asia, as well as former Women’s World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova, and various national teams, plus league teams in Europe. He is part of the FIDE elite FST (FIDE Senior Trainer) panel and produces training material for a number of online chess platforms. He is also the author of several books.

Photo: GM Dejan Bojkov (left) gives some coaching to KCC members David Paul (centre) and Geoffrey Gunawan (right)

The event was hosted by Wellington Chess Club and was attended by a number of talented junior players as well as the regions top senior players, including  14 time New Zealand Champion, International Master Anthony Ker. The event was thoroughly enjoyed by all and provided great insight into elite level chess.

 Some of the concepts and advice from GM Bojkov will be presented at local coaching sessions for juniors, held at Kapiti Chess Club every Tuesday at 7 pm.

Chess Trivia—Part Two:   Chess grandmaster admits to cheating

The Kapiti Chess Club is now in its 35th year since its beginnings back in 1984, so we thought it might be interesting to look back to some of its earlier days.

It is also an opportunity to recognize our longest standing member, John Whibley, who has been a regular Club member for over 30 of those years. Exactly how many he can’t quite be sure, but a pretty impressive record. Here is a photo from 25 years ago – the 1994 Club prize giving at Kapiti College, where the Club met at the time. Although John admits he can “hardly recognize the handsome young man in the white shirt”, it shows  him as co-winner of the Leo Eichholtz rapid trophy that year, along with A-grade champions,  Earl Roberts (holding the Tom Powell cup) and Alvaro Lacunza. Also shown is Bert Leggett, winner of that year’s Gufeld Trophy for winner of the C grade.

Here are three games from round 2 of the Winter Cup played on 9 July 2019. The time format is 75 + 30.

The first features a game from our junior members, Hamish Lester playing white against Mark Summers. Mark tries a modern defense 1… with g6, then Bg7, and comes away with the advantage after the opening phase. While Hamish tries some nice counter play with his rook and knight honing in on the king, he is still in a pretty lost position around move 17. However, Mark lets him off the hook with 17… Rab8, leaving his bishop to be taken for free. Ten moves later, it is Hamish who is a completely winning position, but fails to find the killing blow (29. h4! and if 29 …Rxc2 then it’s Rg7 mate), and  then drops his knight, allowing Mark to pounce back and eventually promote his d pawn and trap Hamish’s king on move 37.

The second game features another tight battle between Guy Burns and David Scott. Guy played his standard d4 and the game played tight and uneventfully  until David mishandled a queen-exchange tactic, doubling his pawns on move 23, instead of leaving the pawn on f6 and moving g5. He struggled into an endgame, which was the most interesting part of the game, in terms whether a draw could be salvaged or not. However  some further inaccuracies with allowing the trade of rooks, in particular  32…Rg5, and with Guy not making any errors, eventually saw Guy take it out.

The third game features an interesting game from top club players Gordon Lyall (playing white) against Alistair McGowan.

With 5.Nxd4 White is playing to exchange the knight for Black’s dark-squared bishop. 7…Qxd4? is a mistake, Black should play Nc6 when he has nothing to worry about. After 8.Bb2 White is clearly better, when Black has dark-square weaknesses on the kingside and a lack of development. 17.Bf3 threatens to win with Nc5. White opens up the game with the sacrifice 23.Nxf6±, however 23.c5 is more deadly, strongly threatening d6+. After a series of exchanges White emerges with a two pawn advantage and winning endgame.

This week saw a good turnout along for Round 2 of the Winter Cup, boosted also by a few past and prospective members. Top boards saw last week’s winners square off. John Whibley was not able to repeat his underdog win from last week, dropping a piece to David Paul, while a typically close struggle between Guy Burns and David Scott saw the latter miscalculating a queen-exchange tactic to double his pawns and struggle into an endgame which he could not salvage the draw from. Top seeds Ross and Gordon also had wins closing up the standings for minor places after two weeks.  Full results here.

Photo: In the juniors, Savannah has a nice win over newest member Jerry to go with her bye from last week…making her 2 from 2 and current joint leader with David and Guy, and could expect a tough game next week!

This is the first of two games from Round 1 of the 2019 Winter Cup. Guy Burns, playing black against Gordon Lyall goes for a Sicilian, with Gordon opting for the Grand Prix attack, 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3, Nc6, 3. f4.

White is slightly better after 8.Qe2! however, he should follow up with e6 on move 10 or 11.  Black quickly equalises with 11…Bxf3! when White should recapture with the queen 12.Qxf3= Nxe5 13.Qg3.  Black continues to defend accurately and his pieces are more active after 17….Ne5. Black seizes the initiative with 18…f5 when his pieces are starting to co-ordinate better. Once the Black king slips to f7 on move 19, connecting the rooks, Black has a clear initiative.
White has not been able to create any play on the open g-file, and the pawns on f3 and h5 will be a liability in the endgame.
White follows the correct strategy and forces the exchange of major pieces with 23…c4, and avoids the capture on f3 which is inferior (23…Qxf3 24.Rde1=). After the rooks are exchanged on d-file after 29…Bxd8, Black has a won endgame which he converts well.