A final Round match between Lars and David in the 2022 Kingston Memorial played on 10 May, at a time control of 55m + 5s.

Round 1 of the 2022 Kingston Memorial played at 55m + 5s. Lars Dobbertin-King holds 2021 Kingston winner and Club Champion to a draw.

The annual Rose and John Kingston Memorial tournament kicked off for 2022 on the 29 March. The level of the players in the tournament this year suggested there would be few easy games and a promise of some good battles. This is the first game from Round 1. A very even game until Black decides to opposite castle queenside leading to a classic kingside versus queenside attacks, where first White is winning – but able to find the finish, with Black storming back with a pawn storm and Knight sacrifice to open Whites kingside and allow his major pieces in for the kill.

While COVID continued to keep NZ Chess Clubs online during September 2021, this was one game played during one of the Kāpiti Chess Club’s online arenas. Black, using his role as the Club website person, to somewhat indulgently show off a rare win against Ross, albeit under a casual 10+5 online format.

This is a game from one of the Club’s online meetings while OTB meetings were suspended due to COVID in the second half of 2021. The time format of 10 m + 5 s does not always provide for high quality games, but they can be entertaining none the less. In this game Geoffrey is able to get a good kingside attack going, again from the London, eventually ripping open the Black King’s defenses and ending with a nice mate. 

With OTB chess temporarily suspended again due to COVID, this was a game from one of the Club’s online Arenas, played with a 10m + 5s time control. Geoffrey tries out his new version of the the London with 6. f3, and 7. g4 followed by a nice kingside storm. While the advantage alternated between both players several times, as is often the case in this  format, White’s kingside attack prevailed, ending with a nice mate finish.

Round 1 game in the 2021 Winter Cup played at a 25m + 5s time format. 

Final round of the 2021 Leo Eichholtz 25+5 competition played 1 June 2021. A victory for either Ross or Geoffrey will secure the second place spot for them. Annotations by White. Geoffrey, playing the Vienna of late, tries out Stanley or Three Knights Variation.

Stewart Holdaway was the deserved winner of the first leg of the Club’s Leo Eichholtz tournament, which is played under a 25m+5s time format. On his way to a 6½ from 8 finish, here is one of his points from Round 3, with annotations by David Scott and his Stockfish engine.

On 16 May, 2021 the Manawatu Knights Chess club hosted the second I.M. Sims Memorial in Palmerston North. Four players from Kāpiti participated. In the game below, Stewart Holdaway annotates his Round 5 clash against James Burt.