Author: Gordon Lyall

The 2012 KAPITI RAPID  was held on Saturday 8 September 2012 at the Kapiti Community Centre, Ngahina Street, Paraparaumu. The tournament attracted a field of 26 entries. Kapiti players dominated the event with Todd Stewart sharing 1st place in the B Grade and Victor Fagundes taking top honours in the C grade. Michael Nyberg from Wellington Club won the A grade with an impressive five and a half points from six rounds.

Todd Stewart leads the field after Round three of the Club Champs. Junior Victor Faguundes is a player whose form is rapidly improving and had a fine win over Senior member Iain Liddell. Don’t to forget Saturday 8 September—it’s our Kapiti Rapid Tournament.

Round two of the Club Champs was played and members are starting to get into the rhythm of the longer time-frames. The eight rounds of this Series A set will continue until 26 September, then we have a Round 4 of our Five minute Tournament. Don’t to forget to mark Saturday 8 September into your Calendars—it’s our Kapiti Rapid Tournament.

Round three of our Blitz Trophy was played on 25 July. Current Blitz champion David Paul cleaned up the field to continue overall lead in this five round tournament played over 5 nights through 2012. Round one of our club championships have started and we look forward to seeing you all there for round two this coming Wednesday 8 August.

Congratulations to David Paul for taking out the Leo Eichholtz Board with a massive margin of 5.5 points, David is a very clear winner ahead of Mike O’Rorke who was lucky to come out half a point ahead John Whibley, due to a ‘game of the year’ win by Iain Liddell against John. Well done Johnny Hynes for winning the Junior Grade, half a point ahead of Victor Fagundes. Next Wednesday is round number three of our 5 minute Blitz Tournament.

Club Champion David Paul suffered a rare loss to Alistair McGowan in our 30-30 Leo Eichholtz Board competition. Final round is held this Wednesday—18 July.

Series B of our 30-30 Leo Eichholtz Board roars on. With 4 rounds to go, David Paul appears to have an unattainable lead—John Whibley follows on 10.5 points and Victor Fagundes leads the juniors. Two more nights play remain.

Round two of our Blitz Tournament was played and David Paul blitzed the field with 5.5 points from six games—he leads the field, but with three more rounds to go this year anything can happen. Josh Bunker leads the Juniors with three points. 20 June we start Series B of our 30-30 Leo Eichholtz Board Trophy

Four games of the Freebird Trophy (15 minutes per player, per round) second series were played and Zoe Kingston made a clean sweep of the field, including a fine win against the current Trophy holder David Paul. Next week (13 June) we have round two of our Blitz Trophy and that’s five minutes per play, the chess equivalent of 20 Overs cricket.

The Chess Club website is now operational after undergoing significant delay due to a computer upgrade. During the interim (14 March to 18 April 2012) play in our John Kingston Memorial Trophy—55 min. plus 5 sec. timeframe—was completed and line honours are shared by David Paul (last year’s champion) and Alistair McGowan. Top Junior prize goes to Victor Fagundes. This Wednesday—6 June—is night 3 for our Mike O’Rorke Freebird Trophy—15 min time-frame—where we play 4 rounds—see you there, if you dare–visitors welcome!

David Paul and Alistair continue neck and neck in the John Kingston Memorial Tournament after two fine wins last week. There is one more round to go for this Tournament, which will be played 18 April.

The first round of the Mike O’Rorke Freebird 15-15 minute Trophy starts at our next Club night–11 April.

David Paul and Alistair McGowan are neck and neck with one round to go, both share the lead with 6 points each! Mike O’Rorke trails on 4.5 points.

Kapiti Chess Club is saddened to hear of the passing of Setefano Mikaio and offers condolences to his family and friends. Setefano will be remembered for his passion, determination and proven skill in the game of chess. He impressed people with his warm, gentle and positive manner. His presence will be missed.   

David Paul continues his John Kingston Memorial Tournament lead, closely followed by a large field on 3 and 2.5 points. Next week is the AGM — 7 March — an important occasion where paid members elect the Committee, set fees for the year and discuss general business. A key point of discussion will be finances, as the Club made a loss last year of nearly $650—we have options of raising our fees, sponsorship or pulling out of the Chess Federation—if you have some good ideas, please let us know….

The Club is humming at the moment as 5 new players joust with members. Our 60-60 John Kingston Memorial Trophy is in full swing and current 60-60 trophy holder David Paul leads the pack on 3 points, closely followed by Alistair McGowan and Setafano Mikaio on 2.5, with a large pack on 2 points.

Kapiti Chess Club began the year’s play with a rapid 5 Minute Tournament. 18 players traded blows over the board, including 3 Junior visitors for the night. Setefano Mikaio and Paul Frost tied first with 5 points each, closely followed by a pack of players on 4 points. Johnny Hynes and visiting brothers Vinicius and Victor Faguundes were the top Juniors on 2 points.

Next week we start our 60-60 John Kingston Memorial Trophy, with a new timeframe of:  50 minutes on the clock and with each move, 10 seconds is added.

Kapiti Chess starts soon Wednesday 1 February. The Queenstown Chess Classic has just finished and FM Mike Steadman is now NZ Chess Champion.

For further results check out:  

 http://newzealandchess.co.nz/results.html
Former Kapiti Player Roy Seabrook played well, finishing with 4 points, ranking  89 out of 148 players.

Kapiti Chess Club’s David Paul made Kapiti chess history by winning all seven major trophies in 2011. At the Club’s 14 December prize giving, Mr Paul was awarded the trophies, which included A Grade Champion, Grand Prix trophy and several rapid play titles.Mr Paul learnt to play at age 10 and was inspired by Bobby Fischer when Fischer became the first non-Russian to win the world championship in 1972. “He heavily influenced the way I play my chess and has been a lifetime inspiration on how exciting and dynamic chess is executed on the 64 squares of the board” declared Mr Paul.

Congratulations to David Paul; first-time winner of the Mike O’Rorke donated, Freebird 15-15 Trophy—but, it was a close call!—a magnificent win by Glenys Mills—in magnificent form this year—against Zoe Kingston, put the brakes on Zoe’s attempt to steamroll David’s grasp on the new Trophy. Johnny Hynes and Josh Bunker took out top Junior positions. Don[t forget Prize Giving:  7:00pm at Paraparaumu Library, Wednesday 14 December.

The penultimate round of the Freebird Trophy was played  tonight and David Paul and Zoe Kingston are neck and neck on 8 points each, closely followed by Alistair McGowan. Pressure is on David Paul to take this trophy and achieve the rare feat of single-handedly  taking all Kapiti Chess Club major trophies in one year.