With a perfect night, and in the picturesque semi-rural setting of Club member Brandon’s home, Kāpiti Chess Club members with friends and family celebrated the end of the year with a memorable night of food, drink, prizegiving and social chess. 

The evening kicked off with end of year prizegiving. We were lucky to only have one of our trophies not able to be awarded this year due to Covid. Congratulations to all the winners and in particular to our Championship winners, Gordon Lyall in the A Grade, Geoffrey Gunawan in the B Grade, and Hamish Lester in the C Grade. Also to Geoffrey Gunawan for taking out the Grand Prix Glenys Mills Memorial Rook for best consistent performance over the year. 

With the formalities  out of the way, everyone then quickly settled into a great evening of eating, drinking and relaxed chess of various levels of quality, which went on well into the beautiful windless Kāpiti evening.

The full list of awards and winners for 2020 can be found here.
More photos of the night including all the trophy winners can be found here.

The Club has now finished for the year, and will resume again on 9 February 2021. Look forward to seeing you all then.

A key Round 4 battle between eventual joint winners of the Kapiti Junior Chess Championship played 12 December 2020. Annotations from Gordon Lyall.

Final round game from the Kapiti Junior Chess Championship Open that clinches a share of the title for co-winner Kayden Loke. Annotations from Gordon Lyall.

Round 5 game from the Kapiti Junior Chess Championship Open between eventual joint winner Kayden Loke and fellow Wellington Club member  Thomas van der Hoorn. Annotations from Gordon Lyall.

The Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship, played in Paraparaumu on Saturday 12th December, saw players representing 22 schools from Wellington to Levin, compete across 4 divisions. In the premier Open Division, top seed Ryan Winter (Wellington College) suffered a surprise defeat in round 1 to Josh Langford (Wellington College). Former Paraparaumu College student, Geoffrey Gunawan, held the joint lead at the halfway stage but was not able to carry his early momentum into the later rounds. Going into the 6th and final round, Henry Zaslow (Onslow College) had a clear half point lead but had to settle for third place, after losing a tough battle to Kayden Loke who took the title on tie-break, from Ryan Winter. Kayden was unbeaten throughout the tournament scoring 3 wins and 3 draws from his 6 games. Three games here: Loke v Winter, van der Hoorn v Loke, and Loke v Laslow. 

In the School event, Vincent Lou (HIBS) was an impressive winner in the Secondary grade, with 5 points from 6, ahead of Hamish Lester (Paraparaumu College) and Mia Vachon (Marsden Collegiate School). In the Intermediate section, Sravya Moparthi (Hutt Intermediate) had a perfect score going into the last round, and despite a loss playing Black against Youan Salt (Levin Intermediate), she held on to win the section on tie-break, from Youan in second and Ryan Goodall (Levin Intermediate) taking third place. The primary section had the largest field of all the grades and saw Lucas Qu (Churton Park) win the gold medal with silver going to Max Wang (Johnsonville School) and bronze to William Ding (Eastern Hutt School).

The Kāpiti Chess Club School Trophy, awarded to the top performing Kāpiti Horowhenua school, was comprehensively won by Levin Intermediate who had a strong tournament.

Final standings, 2020 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship:

Full results from the day can be found here:
Kāpiti Junior Open 2020
Kāpiti Junior (School) Chess Championship (Individual results by age group)
Kāpiti Junior (School) Chess Championship (School results)

Below: Amy Knowles vs Lucas Qu Zachery He vs Mia Vachon	Below: Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship School Trophy winners, Levin Intermediate

More photos from the day can be found here.

Final round game in the 2020 Club Championship that clinches the A Grade title for Gordon Lyall. Annotations by Gordon. 

Gordon Lyall makes it a threepeat and retains the Club Champion title and Tom Powell Trophy he won in 2018.  He secured the A grade title with a final round win this week against David Paul (See game here). Ross Jackson and Geoffrey Gunawan also had wins to retain second and third spots respectively (See Geoffrey’s game here). As the highest placed player rated under 1600, Geoffrey also takes out the B Grade champion title and keeps hold of the Ab Borren Trophy he won last year.  Hamish Lester takes the C Grade and Gufeld Trophy. Congratulations to all. See here for the full results and standings. 

A reminder that the Club is hosting the Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship this Saturday. This is the ideal chess event for all junior playing levels, with an Open section accommodating elite juniors, along with a Schools section with three grades. It’s not too late to enter, and promises to be a fun day. Details about the event and how to enter are here.

This was our last week of formal Club chess for the year. Next week is prizegiving, and a relaxed final night of social chess over some food and drink.

A final round game from the 2020 Club Champs. 

Round 6 game from the 2020 Club Championships. Annotations by Gordon Lyall.

An exciting game from Round 6 of the 2020 Club Championships. Annotations by Gordon Lyall.

Following on from the successful Kāpiti Rapid last month, the club is hosting an open tournament for school kids and juniors, the Kāpiti Junior Chess Championships, on December 12. This is the ideal chess event for all junior playing levels, accommodating elite juniors in the Open section and three school grades. This should be a fun day. Details about the event and how to enter are here.

Meanwhile, things are really heating up with Round 6 of the Club Championships played this week.  Top seeds Gordon Lyall and Ross Jackson lead on 5 and 4½ respectively, with would-be contender Geoffrey Gunawan third on 4. Geoffrey wasn’t able to hammer home his great form to date, losing to John Eccles this week (see game here), while Ross and Gordon got the full point from their games (Gordon’s game here). However with one more round to go, all three have a chance of securing the title next week. Stay tuned! Full results so far can be found here.

The distinctive white knight of the Ab Borren Trophy for B grade champion, with the cup for most improved player behind. Geoffrey Gunawan won both last year, but has his eyes on the bigger prize this year. Can he do it?

Club Champs Round 6 game between John Eccles and Gordon Lyall played 24 November 2020. Annotation from Black.

The 26th playing of the Kāpiti Rapid drew one of the largest number of entrants in the tournament’s history and attracted players from as far afield as Auckland.

The top grade boasted a strong line up with an average rating of almost 2100, and 5 titled players, including current New Zealand Champion and top seed, FM Ben Hague. Things did not go smoothly for the pre-tournament favourite, when he suffered a loss playing Black against Athula Russell in round 3 (see game here). FM Nic Croad took control of the tournament with a win in round 5 against defending champion, FM Scott Wastney (see game here). He secured the tournament win with a final round win against CM Jack James (game here), to achieve 5½ from a possible 6 points. Athula Russell, who remained unbeaten, and Ben Hague tied second on 5 points.

2020 Kāpiti Rapid winner Nic Croad with Club President Gordon Lyall

The B grade was a tight affair and resulted in a 4-way share of first place between Kayden Loke, Nathan Hall, Lars Dobbertin-King and Paul He, each scoring a very impressive 4 points.

The C grade was shared by Jamie Webster and ungraded 15-year-old Henry Zaslov who recently arrived in Wellington from the USA.

The Junior gold medal winner was Michael Sole, who scored a solid 4 points and played on board 2 against Ben Hague in the last round. Winner of the silver medal, on tie-break, was Afique Nazeer.

The Junior (U15) gold medal went to Kayden Loke on tie-break from Paul He, who took silver.

David Paul and Ross Jackson were the highest scoring locals on 3½, and share the Flora Paul Memorial Trophy for the best performing Kāpiti Club members.

Full results can be found here.
Photos from the event can be viewed here.
Past Kāpiti Rapids can be viewed here.

The final round game on Board 1 in the 2020 Kāpiti Rapid tournament. FM Nic Croad (2323) is White against CM Jack James (2210). Nic’s win in this game gives him 5½ from 6 and the 2020 Kāpiti Rapid title.

The top board clash from Round 5 in the 2020 Kāpiti Rapid tournament between last year’s winner FM Scott Wastney (2350), playing White against this year’s eventual winner, FM Nic Croad (2323). 

A key game from Round 3 of the 2020 Kāpiti Rapid tournament. On Board 1, Athula Russell (2096) is White against top seep and current New Zealand Champion Ben Hague, 2430. Annotations from White.

The annual Kāpiti Rapid Chess tournament is on this Saturday, and with the interest shown so far, it promises to be another great day of chess on the Kāpiti Coast. All are welcome. See here for details how to join in. You can also follow it on Vega here.

Round 4 of the Club Champs this week. Geoffrey Gunawan followed up his earlier draw against Club Champ Gordon Lyall, with a 22-move win over top-rated Club player Ross Jackson – some 490 rating points higher! See their game here. Geoffrey now leads outright on 3½ from 4, with Gordon next on 3 (see his game here), followed by a chasing pack on 2½. Full current standings and results can be found here. With three more rounds left in the competition, the Tom Powell Trophy is still up for grabs. Will Geoffrey continue his good form, or will the bigger guns, or even one of the lesser guns, prevail! Stay tuned.

This game was played in Round 4 of the 2020 Club Champs between Gordon Lyall (rated 1944) and long-time Club member John Whibley (rated 1673). Annotations from Gordon.

Round 4 of the 2020 Club Champs played 17/11/2020. Geoffrey Gunawan followed up his draw last week against Club Champ Gordon, with this 22-move win over top-rated Club player Ross Jackson – some 490 rating points higher on current ratings.

Round 2 of the 2020 Club Champs.  Geoffrey employs 1…c6 to White’s Réti (1. Nf6), and follows it with accurate play to hold Gordon to a draw. The game was pretty much even from start to finish. But a commendable effort given Geoffrey, still technically a junior, was rated some 350 points below 2019 Club Champion Gordon.