2022 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship
A field of 44 players from 16 schools across Wellington to Levin competed in the third running of the annual Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship played on Saturday 13th August at Raumati Beach School in Paraparaumu. This was a record turnout for this event.
Congratulations to top seed Ryan Winter who took out the Championship Open division with an impressive unbeaten 6 wins from 6. Along with Ryan, the Open division featured a strong field this year – including current NZ junior champion Ollie Archer, last year’s NZ junior champion Josh Langford, and previous Kāpiti Junior Open winner Kayden Loke. All three traded a win and a loss against each other, to go with a loss to Ryan and wins in their other rounds, to finish second equal on 4 points. But after tie-breaks, Kayden took out the silver medal, and Josh the bronze.
In the Schools event, Joy Ulm (Aotea College) was an impressive winner in the Secondary grade, unbeaten with 6 points from 6, ahead of Kushal Chatla (HIBS) and Ethan Hill (Tawa College). In the Intermediate section, Eashan Maveram (Johnsonville School) had just one loss to take out the gold medal, with Roy Mackay (Levin Intermediate) taking out the silver on tie-break ahead of Zachary He (Waterloo School). In the primary section, Lucas Qu (Churton Park) repeated his win from 2020 to take out another the gold medal, with silver going to Alex Chen (Waterloo School) and bronze to Kāpiti Junior Club member Devin Direen (Paraparaumu Beach School).
The Kāpiti Chess Club School Trophy, awarded to the top performing Kāpiti or Horowhenua school, was retained for a second year by Levin Intermediate narrowly edging out Te Ra School, 13 points to 12½. In third place was Waterloo School.
Thanks to all the players and parents for a fantastic day of Chess, and to organiser and director Gordon Lyall, along with others who helped out, to make the day run smoothly.
Final standings, 2022 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship:
| Junior Open: | Gold: Ryan Winter, Silver: Kayden Loke, Bronze: Josh Langford |
| Secondary Age Division: | Gold: Joy Ulm (Aotea College), Silver: Kushal Chatla (HIBS), Bronze: Ethan Hill (Tawa College) |
| Intermediate Age Division: | Gold: Eashan Maveram (Johnsonville School), Silver: Roy Mackay (Levin Intermediate), Bronze: Zachary He (Waterloo School) |
| Primary Age Division: | Gold: Lucas Qu (Churton Park School), Silver: Alex Chen (Waterloo School), Bronze: Devin Direen (Paraparaumu Beach School) |
| School Championship Trophy for best Kāpiti-Horowhenua School: | Levin Intermediate (Faith Thomson, Brendan Goodall, Jethro Brewerton, Alistair Brownee, Roy Mackay) See photo below including teacher: Lars Dobbertin-King. |
Full results from the day can be found here:
2022 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship – Open
2022 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship – Schools tournament (Individual results by age grade)
2022 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship – Schools tournament (School results)
Photos and videos from the day including all the prize-winners can be found here.
