This is the second of two games is from Round 1 of the Winter Cup played on July 2, 2019. Brandon Holman is white against David Paul. Brandon opts for a King’s Gambit.

David Comments, “Having Brandon talk about the Cunningham version of the King’s Gambit,  I decided to decline and enter into one of Mark Noble’s lines, the Falkbeer Counter Gambit. 6. Bc4.   Usual for white here is Qe2 here or Bxd7. My move 6… a6 is a waiting move seeing what white’s plan is. After 8. …Bb4.  I considered exd4 ep but did not want to give the white knight an olive branch on the f3 square.  12. …Bb5   Time to get rid of the white bishop and get my pawn back. 16. …Nxd5    Qxb7 is full of nasty surprises after Rb6. Nxd5 gets my pawn back plus position.  17. Ne2   Nc6    Finally white moves his knight, I think I will do the same. Now Qxb7 loses straight away to Rb6, with a trapped queen.  18. g5    Bd2 would have been better for white, oh well lets go for the jugular.  18 …Qa8, threatens mate in one”

This week saw the start of a new club tournament the Winter Cup, being played over six weeks with a 75+30 time control. Round one saw underdogs prevail against their higher-rated opponents on the top two boards. Both Guy and John managed nice wins over the top two seeds, Gordon and Ross respectively. Ross comments “John and I exchanged bad moves but mine was blundering a piece…he missed it at first, but then having seen it, I moved to a different square that still left the tactic on!…that was the decider.” Full results from the night can be found here.

In the photo, Guy playing black, goes on from this position to win against top seed Gordon in Round one of the Winter Cup played this week. The full game can be found here, along with David Paul’s game against Brandon Holman.

Some interesting chess trivia news:  Ancient Lewis chess piece sold

Some great chess match-ups this week in the return North versus South night. This to decide who are the better chess players, those from North Kapiti or those from South. After the trouncing of the South a few weeks ago, there was a bit of a comeback this week, with the South edging out the night with 5.5 to 4.5, likely helped by a little blurring of the sides in order to balance out the numbers.

Ross and Gordon fought an even battle to share a win each, while Alistair and John also proved an even match, splitting two draws each. Geoffrey played well against David to reach dominant positions out of the openings, but faltered in the middle game in both games. In the juniors, Valera had a nice win over Hamish (see game here), while Savannah played well to reach a rook and king versus king ending against Liam, but then unluckily giving away a stalemate. See full results here.

Overall, after both nights, North were comfortable winners 14.5 to 9.5. Next week sees the start of a new club tournament, the Winter Cup.

This game features two of the Club’s Junior members, Hamish Lester and Valera Bonyuskin matching up during the second night of the North v South match. Played under 25 + 5 time control, Hamish is white, and opens with the Ruy Lopez, all going well for the first 10 or so moves, until he overlooks his hanging knight. However, Valera then plays well to mobilise his forces activating his bishop and getting both rooks into play along open files and ranks, to eventually convert his minor piece advantage to a rook and outside passed pawn (soon to be queen) advantage. Game over.

This week saw the second night in Club’s popular Blitz Cup series. Each player has 3 minutes for the game, and plays as many rounds as possible, making for an exciting and fun change from longer format  chess. Series 2 saw Gordon Lyall and David Paul take top spot with 6 points, with Neels du Plessis and Ross Jackson next on 5 points. Geoffrey Gunawan was the top junior on 4 points, with Valera Bonyushkin second on 3. Cumulative results after two series see Neels and David P leading, with Ross and Gordon following 1 point behind. Full results here. The third and final night will be played later in the year.

Last weekend three Club members, Geoffrey Gunawan, David Scott, Ross Jackson, and one past member, Lars Dobbertin-King, participated in the popular and longest running rapid tournament on the national chess calendar, the Upper Hutt Rapid. Congratulations to Geoffrey who took out third place in the C-grade, and to Lars who placed second in the B-grade. See results from the tournament  here.

Photo: Geoffrey Gunawan, third place in the Upper Hutt Rapid, C grade, 15 June 2019. 

The first KCC North versus South night saw pairs from each team play each other twice in two 25 + 5 minute games.

In one of the more even match-ups, John Whibley (North) squared off against David Scott (South), first as white, then as black. The games saw neither wanting to give too much away, but equally not able to find any decisive blows. In Game two, David gets a thematic kingside attack going from the London opening, sacking his bishop on g6, but without seeing clear options for  advantage opts for a perpetual. Result: two draws. Full results for the other games here.

The important question of whether KCC players in North Kapiti are better than those in South Kapiti was tested in a fun new event this week at the Kapiti Chess Club. With Kapiti Road as the demarcation line, the club was split into two teams, paired off in roughly equal strength, to play two 25 + 5 games. The North took out the night fairly comprehensively 10 points to 4. (See results here, and a couple of games from the night here). However, this was only the first of two nights, so no bragging rights can be claimed yet, and some appeals may still be pending from the South. But overall, this was a fun, new addition to the club calendar, credit to Club Captain, David Paul. Don’t miss next match up on June 25.

Another important happening at the club this week was the awarding of the first set of NZCF badges to our junior members. This is a great NZCF initiative which seems to have gone down well. Congratulations, and now it’s on to the knight badge!

Photo: Mark Summers receives the NZCF pawn badge from Club President Gordon Lyall. Also awarded were Hamish Lester, Valera Bonyushkin, Geoffrey Gunawan and Savannah Edwards.

The 2019 winner of the Club’s Leo Eichholtz Board for best rapid player was decided this week.

This tournament this year was played as a series of two 8 round tournaments in a 25+5 rapid format. The series 2 winner was Ross Jackson with an unbeaten 7 from 8, followed by Gordon Lyall on 6.5 and David Paul on 6. But when combined with Series 1 results, the overall winner of the 2019 Leo Eichholtz board was Gordon Lyall on 13.5 from 16, with David Paul second on 13, and Ross Jackson third on 12.5. Congratulations.

Well done also to all the juniors that played, in particular to Geoffrey Gunawan who took out best-placed junior, and to Mark Summers who came in second.

Full results here.

And who is Leo Eichholtz? He was a founding club member when the club was established in 1984, and who donated this distinctive shaped chessboard trophy to the club for the best rapid player. It’s been played for since 1990. See previous winners  here.

Here are three games from this year’s Kapiti Rapid played in Paraparaumu on the 25th May 2019.

The first game is from eventual tournament winner Scott Wastney (rating 2346), playing white in Round 2 against Edward Tanoi (rating 1920).

Against the Sicilian, it is fairly equal into the first 20 moves, but Scott gets his rook and two knights working actively together  to advance into enemy lines and secure a positional and material advantage which eventually converts into a runaway passed b pawn.

The second game from the final round is the decisive game that wins the tournament for Scott. Played against the current New Zealand champion and Wellington clubmate Anthony Ker (Rating 2374).

Another Sicilian, but in this game, harry is allowed to march and tear open the black king’s defence, allowing white’s forces to then penetrate with deadly effect.

The third game from round 3 was nearly a case of David v Goliath with second place-getter Romie Guerra (rating 2014) up against promising junior William Ackroyd, rated some 600 rating points lower. With post-analysis-vision it might have felt like a roller-coaster, with both players having overwhelming winning positions twice, but not quite finding the winning continuations.

By move 15, black seems to be easily winning but mis-steps with Nxc6, instead of maybe exf4. William comes back very creditably and is given a chance when allowed to play Qa4+ on move 22, and again after 25. …Bd3 a few moves later…with himself now with a winning advantage… given the open lanes for his queenside pawns. However, a few moves later he mis-steps with f3 to allow black’s rook to enter the attack with material losses unavoidable.