Author: Gordon Lyall

  • 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.

  • Congratulations to David Paul, winner of the Club Champs—very closely followed by Itay Ben-Dom, who also takes the top Junior title. David also wins the important Grand Prix trophy, based on points allocated for every game played in the Club year. A great result for David who, if he wins the current Freebird 15-15 trophy, will, single-handedly,  take all the major titles in one year—a feat only ever achieved by Earl Roberts in 2001 and Andrew Stanton 1996 & 1997.

  • David Paul faced Itay Ben-Dom over the board tonight—a key game threatening David Paul’s lead in the Club Champs, a loss would have catapulted Itay into shared first place—but, alas, a draw was the result and almost ensures David his goal of securing all the major trophies for 2011. Mighty Mike O’Rorke scored a notable win against strongly rated Alastair McGowan and he now shares 3rd place with Gordon Anderson. Two more rounds remain in the Champs.

    Please support Wellington Chess Club Rapid tournament, to be held at Turnbull House on Sunday 20 November.

  • There are 3 more rounds of the Club Champs to go and David Paul still leads the pack, followed closely by Itay Ben Dom. Next week—26 October—we have a fun night, where we play some casual games; perhaps Club Captain David Paul will organise a casual blitz tournament.

    There has been some enquiries about the best free chess software for Club players to analyse and play games. After active research Kapiti Chess Club recommends Fritz 5.32. This programme cost over 100 US dollars when it first came out in 1998 and still packs a very powerful chess engine.

  • The Kapiti Rapid Tournament starts soon. Saturday October 8—just over a week away—players from the Wellington region and beyond assemble at Paraparaumu to play exciting competition chess. Kapiti players have free entry to the Tournament—cost normally $40—but must arrive at the community hall at 8am to help set the hall up. Please support Kapiti Chess and turn up on the day for an exciting 6 round tournament against new and interesting opponents—also, there will be plenty of prizes!

     

  • Section B of the Club Champs has resumed and 7 players are within 1 point of taking home the trophy. The next eight rounds will be closely fought and incumbent Kapiti Chess Club Champion, David Paul, will be gathering all the mojo he can muster to keep this trophy in his current war chest.

     

  • The fifth and final Blitz Tournament of the year is now over and Paul Frost dominated the evening finishing with a respectable 5.5 points, closely followed by Alastair McGowan on 5. Josh Bunker was the top scoring Junior with 2 points.

    With all results now in and tallied, David Paul is the Kapiti Chess Club 2011 Blitz Trophy winner—congratulations! Alastair McGowan and Mighty Mike O’Rorke follow closely. Johnny Hynes takes the Junior section, followed closely by Josh Bunker.

  • The first half of the Club Champs has been completed and incumbent David Paul barely holds the lead on 5.5 points after a mighty victory by Zoe Kingston—over David—in the last round of this section. Zoe, calculated as mechanical Swiss-watch, played steady chess to overwhelm her opponent—his first Club Championship loss in 4 year (also to Zoe).

    A plethora of members are within one point of the lead, including Junior Itay Ben-Dom on 5 points.

    Next Wednesday (15 September) we have the last round—round 5—of our 5 minute Blitz Tournament and the second half of the Club Champs begins on 21 September.

  • The 2011 Kapiti Rapid will be held this coming Saturday. Yes, we know the Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals start 6:00pm that day. But, we promise to finish on time and let you get away asap, if you really must get back to watch the match!

     

  • The chess-web-meister is on annual leave for a month and this commentary will resume in early September.

     

  • The dust has settled and Zoe Kingston and David Paul just are clear of the field by half a point. Gordon has a strong game tonight against Alistair McGowan and talented Itay Ben-Dom played strongly to draw against current club champion David Paul.