Junior T3 Blitz Championship wraps up

There was an exciting climax to the Junior T3 Blitz comp. In the penultimate round, two of the main contenders had challenging games, with Lucas losing to Elane and Ewan drawing with Charlotte. Elane continued her good form with a draw in the final round against Jingewei, but the draw deprived both of them a podium place. In the last round Ewan managed to convert his endgame against Ronan, and this secured third place with 5½ from 9. Despite a draw in the final round against Orlando, Lucas managed to hold onto second on tie-break. The clear winner was Devin, who maintained his consistency to score an impressive 7 points from 9 games. Special mention to Jingwei who narrowly missed out on third place on tie-break. Strong performances also from Elane (5) and Amy (5). Photo below shows medal winners Ewan, Devin and Lucas. 

Success for Levi at Manawatū School Pupil Chess Championship

Big congratulations to Club member Levi Paxton who won this year’s Manawatū School Pupil Chess Championship held in Palmerston North on 29 September. Levi was unbeaten scoring 6 wins from 6 games. Well done. Photo below.

Club Championships begin

Meanwhile in the senior club this week, Round 1 of the 2022 Club Champs kicked off. Ross, Levi, Geoffrey and Andy all scored the full point over Andrew, David, Lars and John respectively.   Results can be found here. There are six more rounds to play.

With only two rounds to go in the Junior T3 Competition, things are tight at the top with Devin, Lucas and Amy sharing first with 5 points from 7 games. They are closely followed by Ewan and Jingwei on 4 points with Elane on 3.5. This sets up for an exciting finale to the tournament, with only two rounds to go.

In the Senior Club, the usual fun and madness prevailed in the second and deciding leg of the 2022 Blitz Cup.  Congrats to Geoffrey who was unbeaten on the night, with Levi and Lars coming in second. When combined with results from the first leg played back in May, the overall winner is Gordon, who retains the Blitz Cup for another year. Second equal overall were Lars and Geoffrey. Final results here.

The Club Championship tournament starts next week.

The second week of the Term 3 Junior rapid chess competition was played this week. After 5 rounds, Devin remains in first place, unbeaten on 5 points. In second place is Jingwei on 4 points, followed by Amy, Lucas and Ewan, who all have 3 points. Some 21 players representing 8 local Kapiti schools are competing, and the tournament will run till the end of the current term. 

In the Senior Club – in a break from normal Chess – recently qualified FIDE instructor, Gordon gave an informative training session on the importance and benefits of analysing your games, taking us though his analysis of one of his recent games. A great session for those us trying to improve our game. Next week is the final leg of the Blitz Cup.

Junior members commenced the Term 3 rapid chess competition last night. Devin and Lucas are the only players with a perfect 3 points from the first three rounds. Yonatan is a half point behind, followed by Amy, Charlotte, Jingwei, Orlando, Ronan and Jed, who all have 2 points. The field consists of 21 players representing 8 local Kapiti schools. The tournament will run till the end of the current term, with a further 6 rounds to be played. 

Meanwhile in the Senior Club, we ran a Gambit night last week (results here). A gambit is where one player will deliberately offer up some material, usually a pawn, in the opening moves of a game in order to try and get some other kind of compensation, such as a positional advantage in the centre, or sometimes just to throw their opponent off from their opening knowledge. There are hundreds of known chess gambits (see a list here), including one of the most common or well-known – the Queen’s Gambit. 1.d4 d5. 2.c4.

Coming up soon will be the final leg of the Blitz Cup, with the Club Championships starting in early October.

The final rounds of the second leg of Club’s annual 10m+5s tournament for the Freebird Trophy were decided this week. Gordon Lyall and David Scott were both unbeaten this week to take first equal in the second leg on 4½ from 7.  Combining points from this leg with those of the first leg played back in February, congratulations go to Gordon Lyall who takes out the Freebird Trophy for this year on 9½, followed by Ross Jackson on 8½. Final results here.

There was a strong field for this year’s Kāpiti Junior Open Championship played on 13 August 2022. This included both the current as well as last year’s NZ junior champions, and an average rating well over 1700. The tournament was won by top seed Ryan Winter from the Wellington Club.

Here is a game from Round 4 between Thomas van der Hoorn (rated 1897) and Leo Malcolm (rated  1797). Annotations by Gordon Lyall.

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:

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.

Round 4 Open game Van der Hoorn v Malcolm  

Tournament poster and entry form

The final rounds of the (new in 2022) Mid-year Rapid tournament were played this week. Going into Round 6, Geoffrey Gunawan needed a win against Andrew Brockway, which he managed – but also needed recent newcomer to the Club, Michael Sole, to prevail against  Levi Paxton to deny Levi of the tournament win, and to secure tournament victory for himself. Congratulations Geoffrey!  Final tournament results here.

This Saturday is the premier Junior event on our Club’s calendar – The Kāpiti Junior Open and Schools Championship. It’s just $20 for a great day of fun and competition. Interest has been great so far, and there is still time to enter.  See details here. 

Club Captain, Geoffrey Gunawan gave a simul last week at the junior club. He played 9 of the juniors, and a prize was awarded to Devin, who held out the longest. The night was a great success with the juniors enjoying the challenge. More photos from the night can be found here.

Armageddon Chess is variant of rapid chess where if there is a draw, Black wins. As compensation, White gets a little more time on their clock, for example, 5 minutes versus 4 minutes with no increment  is typical. It’s often used as a tie-breaker in tournaments. The Club held its first ever Armageddon night this week, which was great fun. After a double round robin Geoffrey and Gordon came out as joint winners. Results here.

Congratulations also this week to Oscar, Charlotte & Orlando Liu  (front row in photo) and Jed Le Boutillier  (back row) who were awarded their NZCF Level 2 (Knight) certificates and badges.

Congratulations also to Gordon Lyall who has successfully completed training to become an internationally certified Chess trainer. The FIDE Instructor or FI title is awarded based on rating, student performance, experience or special achievements,  trainer & related professional skill, and a written exam. The title will be officially awarded at the FIDE Council Meeting on 4 August 2022. Great news for our Junior Club which he and his wife Andrea run each week.