Junior Club News

  • NZCF Certificates & Badges Awarded

    The New Zealand Chess Federation (NZCF) runs a badge scheme which takes students through the fundamentals of the game in level 1, through to advanced topics in level 4. Junior coaching at the Club is based on the NZCF curriculum, and since the junior Club was established, more than 100 certificates have been issued. In term two we had great pleasure in awarding further certificates which highlights the progress the members are making. Four students achieved NZCF Leve1 certificates and badges (Pawn), nine achieved Level 2 (Knight) and a further two achieved Level 3 (Bishop). Fantastic effort and great progress, congratulations to all.

  • Junior members compete at NZCF Interschool championship

    A number of junior members recently had the honour of representing their school at the recent NZCF Wellington Region Interschool Championship. The Kapiti Horowhenua region sent 9 teams to the event, and 14 of our junior members represented their school. Notable performances included 3rd place for Levin in the Intermediate division which was the most competitive section with 23 teams competing. Individually, Jingwei Xu representing Raumati Beach School, had a great tournament in the Primary division, where he shared the board 1 prize with 5 points from 6. Congratulations to all.

  • End of Term Prizegiving (08/04/25)

    In the final junior club meeting of term 1, medals were presented to the winners of both the Open & Challengers division of the T1 Rapid event. In the Open division, James and Stanley both scored  4.5/6, however James edged Stanley on tie-break to take the silver medal, with Stanley collecting bronze. Isaiah with an unbeaten performance of 5.5/6 deservedly took the gold. This was an excellent individual performance and Isaiah only dropped a 1/2 point when he received a bye in round 6.

    In the Challengers Division, Oscar M and Charlotte won tough matches in the final round to put them on 4 points and elevate them to a share of third place and the bronze medal, while Orlando won an impressive 5 games to take silver. Gold went to Alex T who had a great tournament and was unbeaten on 5.5/6 to the take the top spot by a slim 1/2 point margin.

    There was also a fun blitz team event, and after 3 rounds of frantic chess, the team of James, Josh, Elia, Ryan & Juneau took home the prizes.

     

  • Isaiah remains only unbeaten player (18/03/25)

    Isaiah remains the only player on full points after four rounds with his win with the white pieces against the ever improving Tautua. There were also good wins for James and Stanley who remain a point behind the leader with two rounds to go. In the Challengers Division, Alex T took down the tournament leader Orlando on top board. There were good wins for Riki, Ryan, Lachlan and Oscar M. With two rounds to go Alex T leads by a half point from William, Orlando and Riki.

    Photo: James v Devin

  • Junior T1 Rapid reaches halfway mark (04/03/25)

    The junior T1 Rapid competition reached the halfway mark with 3 rounds completed. In the Open Division, Isaiah continued his winning form with a good win with the black pieces on board 1. Tautua and Devin, on board 2, were unable to create any imbalance and a draw was a fair result. There were good wins for James, Stanley, Josh and Maximus. Isaiah remains the only player on maximum points but there are 6 players in the chasing pack only one point behind.

    In the Challengers Division, Orlando had a good win on top board, and he remains the only unbeaten player with 3 points. He is closely followed by Alex T and William, who are only 1/2 point behind, with a further 6 players on 2 points. There is still lots to play for!

  • First junior tournament of the year gets underway

    The first tournament for the juniors got underway last Tuesday. The event is a 6 round Swiss format with two divisions, the Open section with 15 registered players and the Challengers division with 20 registered players. Both divisions have a 10+5 time format. In the Open section, Junior Club champ  James squandered a good position against Isaiah who scrambled well under time pressure. Devin with the white pieces had a good win against Jingwei, and there were wins for new members Stanley and Lachie.  In the Challengers section, there were good wins for Charlotte, Alex C, Alex T and Orlando. It’s early days so still everything to play for!

  • Juniors take on Club Champion

    The second night of junior chess was a fun night with the highlight, a simultaneous match with 11 juniors playing the current senior Club Champion (Gordon). Despite some challenging and complex games, Gordon managed to hold his own against all players. There were some strong performances by Tautua, James, Stanley, Isaiah and Tal who held out the longest.

  • Final night of the year

    The final night of Junior Chess was a fun night which started with a chess themed quiz. The quiz was tough but the En Croissant team of James, Alex T, Charlie, Devin, Oscar M, William and Oscar L, took home the prizes after a tense tie breaker! The highlight of the evening was the prize giving. NZCF Badges and Certificates were awarded to James, Lucian, Maxilus, Tal and Josh. The presentation to the new junior Club champions followed. In the Challengers division, Manahi received the bronze, Tautua the Silver, and Ronan received the gold medal and the Challengers Cup. In the Open division, Roy took the bronze and Isaiah the silver. James took gold and received the Junior Club Championship trophy for 2024. The Most Improved Player was awarded to Oscar M, who showed a big improvement in his results from the beginning of the year. He finished the year strongly with an impressive 5th place in the Challengers Championship. The Player of the Year award was a tough decision, which could have gone to several players. Ultimately it was awarded to Isaiah, who was on the podium in all 3 internal competitions this year, and who won the Intermediate section at the Chess Power Horowhenua regionals earlier in the year. Congratulations to all. However, no one went home empty handed as all members received Christmas goodie bags… happy holidays.

    Photo: Congrats to James, the Kāpiti Junior Club Champion for 2024. More photos of the evening quiz and prizegiving for both juniors can be found here.

    In the seniors we also held our annual prizegiving for the year – Ten trophies for events played over the year were awarded. Congrats to Gordon who took out the Club Champion trophy, and to Ross who takes out the Glenys Mills Grand Prix trophy for best overall performance over the year. All the winners and runners-up can be can be found here.  After prizegiving everyone adjourned to a nearby local for some very enjoyable drinks and pizza (photo).  More photos can be found here.

    That’s it for the 2024 year. It’s been an enjoyable,  active and successful year. Thanks to everyone who supported the Club during the year. See you in 2025. 

  • Club Champs decided

    Junior Club
     
    In the final round of the Junior Club Championship, Devin and Josh played an interesting game, in which Josh won with a clever mating trap. On board 2, title challenger Isaiah fought off an aggressive early attack by Jingwei to take the full point. However this was not enough to catch tournament leader James, who won with the white pieces, despite a valiant effort by his opponent Lucian. By the narrowest margin, James held on to be the Junior Club Champion for 2024, edging out Isaiah by only 1/2 a point, with Roy picking up third place.
     
    In the Challengers Division, things came to a head in the last round with the two front runners meeting on board 1. Tautua playing black needed a win while Ronan, playing white, needed only a draw to secure the title. Ronan who has been in great form throughout this tournament, maintained his high level of play and held off a strong challenge from Tautua to win the Challengers Division. Tautua held on for second place, while Manahi took a deserved third place. There were also good performances from Orlando, Oscar M and Alex T, all on 4 points from 6, just outside the medals.
     
    There was also NZCF Level 2 awards for William, Tautua, Oscar M, Milo, Riki, Elia, Alex T & Lachlan (photo).

    Senior Club

    It was an exciting finish to the Senior Club Champs this week. Most games were long and close fought battles – despite the difference in ratings between some of the players. David S pushed Gordon hard and even had a good advantage in the endgame, but unable to see a way to make progress, and offered the draw which was enough for Gordon to secure first place outright and get his name of the Tom Powell Cup for Club Champion for the sixth time. Congrats. David P was also made to work hard for his win against Brandon, where again much of the game was fairly even.  He finishes runner-up. Other chasers, Guy and Ross fought out another close game, again with both halving the point., but enough for Ross to finish third. In the B-grade (for players under a 1600 NZCF rating),  our newest member, Mikhael faced our longest-serving member John in another close contest,  eventually prevailing to secure the Ab Borren trophy for the B grade champion. Congrats. Final results and standings here.

    Nest week is our final night of the year, quiz and prizegiving for the Juniors, and prizegiving and social night for the seniors. See you there.

  • Club news 27-11-2024

    In the Junior Club
     
    The penultimate round in the junior club championship saw an upset on board 1, when tournament leader James lost an exiting game to Isaiah (photo). Isaiah playing white entered a winning endgame but had only 47 seconds on the clock, while James had 8 minutes. Despite the pressure of the clock, Isaiah held his nerve and converted the win. There were also good wins for Roy, Jingwei and Tal. With one round to go the standings have narrowed at the top. James is still the front runner with 4 points, closely followed by Isaiah and Roy, both on 3.5. 
    In the Challengers Division, tournament leader Ronan maintained his good form with a win over Noah. Tautua on board 2 keeps up the challenge with a win with the white pieces against Elia. There were also good wins for Manahi, Ryder, Oscar M, Alex T, Ana and Chester, while Orlando and Arlo agreed a draw on board 4. Heading into the last round, its a two horse race with Ronan on 5 points, half a point ahead of Tautua. The race for bronze is tight with Manahi and Ryder leading the chasing pack. It’s set up for a nail-biting finale to the season in both junior divisions.
     
    In the Senior Club
     
    Round 6, the penultimate round of the Club Champs saw no upsets, with the stronger rated player in each match-up coming away with the win. Gordon (on 5½ from 6), David P and Ross (both on 4½) had wins over Mikhael, Guy, and Lars respectively, and now emerge as the only remaining contenders for the title with one round to play.  Stay tuned to see if Gordon can secure his fifth title, or if a last round loss sees the other two catch him for a three-way share of the Tom Powell trophy. Results and standings here.