Final night prizegiving – Club wraps up for 2022

The final junior chess club night of the year was well attended, with 22 kids participating. Here is a link to photos from the night. https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFRttSTM7LYcVavK8.

The season ending team competition was a close affair and could have gone either way. Ultimately, Team Magnus prevailed (in photo 3 in the link above, from left to right: Devin, Yoav, Orlando & Tomas), edging out Team Giri by a single point. Each of the winning team members received a chess set. It was also award night for those who recently took the NZCF Badge Scheme test.

Congratulations to those who completed Level 1 (in photo 4 in the link above, from left to right: – Ronan, Thomas, Yoav & Yonatan), and Level 2 (in photo 5 in the link above, from left to right: Daniel, Jingwei, Benjamin, Elane & Rueben). Special mention to Yoav, who scored a perfect 100% on the test, which has not been achieved since June 2021!

The final awards of the night were for Most Improved Player and Player of the Year (Photo 1 in the above link). Most Improved went to Elane who took down some of the top players in both the Club’s internal blitz tournaments and achieved both NZCF Level 1 & 2 this year. The Player of the Year went to Devin, who had an outstanding season, winning both T2 & T3 Blitz tournaments, taking a bronze at the Kapiti Junior Chess Championship, as well as captaining team Magnus who won the team event. It was a great finish to the season and everyone took home a Xmas goody bag.

It was also a final get together for Senior Club members last weekend with a very enjoyable BBQ hosted by Club President Gordon and wife Andrea, followed by prizegiving. Special mention goes to Year 12 student Levi Paxton, a new member this year, who carried away many of this year’s Club’s trophies, including co-Club champion and the overall Glenys Mills Memorial Grand Prix Rook. Photos from that day can also be found at the link above.

Best wishes to all over the holiday period and remember, chess is cool.