Rounds 3 and 4 of the Leo Eichholtz tournament – with its distinctive chess board trophy – were played this week. Gordon and Levi lead on 3 points, with David and Ross close behind on 2½. The rest of the pack also close behind. With 4 more rounds to go, still too close to call at this stage. Current results and standings here. And great to see another fantastic turnout of kids and parents this week at junior club.

The first two rounds of the annual Leo Eichholtz competition were played this week. Three players Lars, David and Ross are leading on 1½ points each, with almost all the rest of the pack following on 1. It’s still anybody’s at this stage with 6 more rounds to go, over the next three weeks. See the current standings here.

Congrats to Levi who took out the Freebird Trophy last week, with an impressive 7½ from 8, with Gordon second. See final standings here.

Meanwhile the Junior Club saw another great turnout this week, with 25 kids, and quite a few parents along for some chess fun. 

It was the first week of competition in the Senior Club this week, with the first leg of annual Freebird Trophy kicking off. After 4 rounds Levi leads unbeaten on 4, with Gordon in second, and Lars third. Current results here. The final four rounds will play next week. Also, another great turnout at the Junior Club this week, with some new faces as well.

This year’s Kāpiti Open is on Saturday 27 May at the Clubrooms. This year it will be both FIDE and NZCF rated and will follow its usual format of 6 rounds of 25m+5s games. Hope you can make it. More details, including how to enter, on the NZCF website here: https://newzealandchess.co.nz/calendar.html

It was a welcome start to 2023 for the Kāpiti Chess Club this week. Fantastic to see a record turnout of kids and parents on the opening night of the Junior Club, which promises well for junior chess on the Coast this year. The Senior Club also kicked off with a great AGM, followed by some casual chess. For those interested, the minutes of the AGM can be found here, along with our Annual Report on the 2022 year. Next week sees the start of our annual Freebird tournament.

The Kāpiti Chess Club will resume for 2023 on Tuesday 7 February. Junior Club runs from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, with the Senior Club starting at 7:30pm. The Club meets at the Salvation Army Rear Hall, 41 Bluegum Rd, Paraparaumu. 

All welcome. If you have questions about the Club, please contact us at 029 905 8045 or at gordon.lyall@outlook.com

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.

The final junior competition of the year is a team event, with 4 players on each side. The format simulates an inter-school match and gives the juniors experience in this format, as they look forward to representing their respective schools in the new year. There is also the added pressure of playing with chess clocks! After 2 rounds Team Magnus and Team Giri are joint first place with 5.5 points each, followed by Team Naka (3) and Team Beth (2). It promises to be a close and exciting conclusion to the tournament next week, on the last club night of 2022. 

Meanwhile, senior club played its final night of the year this week, but not its final event – with a BBQ get together and prizegiving scheduled for this Sunday.

How is my team doing? Juniors check to see results. More Club photos here.

It was test time at the Junior Chess Club, with 7 students sitting their NZ Chess Federation Level 1 Badge (Pawn) and 5 students sitting Level 2 (Knight). Level 1 covers chess fundamentals, basic checkmates and etiquette. Level 2 introduces the special moves in chess, checkmate & stalemate patterns, as well as pawn promotion. Good luck to all…

Another school, Paraparaumu Beach, has signed up for the “Chess in Schools” program. PBS plan to start their school chess club after the holidays. They already have a strong core of good players, with 3 of their students, members of the Kapiti Junior Chess Club. This takes the number of schools who have committed to the Chess in Schools program to a total of seven!

Next week is the final night of the year for the Senior Club, with the final night for the Junior Club on the 13th.

We have a new Club Champion for 2022, or more accurately two Champions! Congratulations to Levi Paxton and Ross Jackson, joint winners of the A grade and the Tom Powell Memorial Trophy. Both scored 6 points from 7, with 5 wins and two draws each. The Ab Borren trophy for B grade Champion is also shared this year, with Andrew Brockway and Andy Hicks joint winners on 4 points. Final results and standings can be found here. 

The penultimate round of the 2022 Club Championship was played this week. Round 6 saw Levi win against Andrew, Ross win against David, and Andy win against Geoffrey. With one round to go next week, it’s pretty much now just a two-horse race between Levi and Ross, both on 5 points going into Round 7 next week. See current standings here.

The game of the week was Andy against Geoffrey. Andy playing white continuing some good form of late with a nice win over the higher-rated Geoffrey. See the annotated game here. This puts him in third place going into the final round next week, and with an outside chance of sharing the Championship should both front-runners lose next week. 

Meanwhile, in the Junior Club we had our biggest turnout ever, with 19 kids playing, with some very keen ones playing well beyond their normal finishing time!