Latest News

  • Subscriptions are now due and should be paid by 30th April. See here for more details.

    Great news for junior members! Commencing next Tuesday, 19th March, the Club will start at 7pm. The idea is to allow more time for juniors to play casual games and get some coaching, before their formal club matches. Gordon will be announcing more details on this soon.

    A reminder also that the annual Kapiti Rapid tournament is on the 25th May. More details to follow soon.

    This week saw Round 6 played in the John and Rose Kingston Memorial tournament with the competition really starting to heat up. Front runner Alistair masterfully put paid to David S’s Petroff, while fellow front runner Gordon also had a win over Geoffrey. Both retaining their position as joint leaders. Meanwhile, there were two closely fought battles, between Ross and Guy, and Brandon and David P looking to get back some of his winning form. Proving that chess blindness can sometimes be contagious, Ross prevailed in the end over Guy, after blundering a piece, only to have Guy reciprocate by setting up a helpmate. David v Brandon was quite a tussle until the 31st move when Brandon took a gamble, which didn’t come off, and it was downhill from there. Mark W, Valera and Savannah also all had wins resulting in a relatively crowded table (see here), and plenty to be decided in the final two rounds!

    Finally a reminder, following on from the Club Captain’s announcement, that we aim to start all games each week promptly at 7.45pm.

  • We had our AGM and a new Committee has been elected. Gordon Lyall has been elected President, Mark Summers (Junior Representative), Guy Burns (Vice-President), David Paul (Club Captain), David Scott (Secretary), Brandon Holman (Treasurer) and Ross Jackson (Committee Member). Fees remain the same and a new category of ‘unwaged’ has been introduced ($100). Full details Here

  • We have moved to our new premises in Bluegum Road, Paraparaumu Beach; and the venue is working well—plenty of room and good lighting. The AGM is this Tuesday 19 February; kickoff 8pm; see you there!

  • Last week was our first night of the new year and with around 50% of the club membership turning up, it was a reasonably good night for some friendly games and to get to know our new home!! It was particularly pleasing to see most of our Juniors turn up and if their enthusiasm continues, we may look to restarting the Junior training programme again after the AGM.

  • Kapiti Chess Club prize giving was held on our last night of the year—18 Dec—a great time was had. Gordon Lyall is now supreme Kapiti Champion (pictured below) and he ended up with the ordeal of playing all the members at the end of the evening. For further photos; including prize giving, click Here.

  • Club Championships decided!

    Club Championships are now over!
    The Winners are:

    A Grade and Club Champion – GORDON LYALL
     
    B Grade Champion  – DAVID SCOTT
     
    C Grade Champion – BRANDON HOLMAN
     
    Though the “A” and “C” grade titles had already been settled, there was much to play for in the “B Grade’ with David Scott leading by a half point from John Whibley and just a One point advantage from Mark Woodward.

     Being drawn against “A” grader Alan Winfield, David Scott was in for a tough game and his skill showed when he sacrificed a Rook for Knight which gave him strong counter play—sufficient for Alan to offer a draw, which, secured the B Grade title for David.

  • As our year draws to a close, remember we have prizegiving coming up next Tuesday to celebrate the year gone by. Remember to bring a plate of food and invite all your family / friends to come along.

    A new photo gallery has been put up with photos from 2018 club nights – click here to see it.

    Also, here is a short video where Valera explains how he sacrificed much of his material to checkmate Rick Lowe:

    See you all at the prizegiving!

  • We start off with a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to new member Brandon Holman, who after his win over Geoffrey Gunawan, secured the C Grade Championships with 8.5 pts. After a grueling 3 months we are finally down to the last round and though, along with Brandon, Gordon Lyall has taken out the A Grade and outright “Club Champion”, there are three players still in contention for the B Grade Championship. See our Results Page for more details.

  • Last photo of Rose Kingston, who sadly passed away today. Hardworking and loyal, Rose will be missed. RIP

  • Another four rounds of the Freebird (10+5) championship were held, to finish series one. Hamish brought along his pal, Jay, who is visiting from overseas. After emerging undefeated, Wellington player Ross Jackson seized first place by half a point despite some late arrivals. Since there are no byes in the second and third series, other contenders have a strong chance of catching up, such as Alan Winfield and Alistair McGowan, each only half a point behind. Among the juniors, Mark Summers caught up to Valera to claim first equal. Next week play begins on the second series, where the competition will only get fiercer! As always, full results are here.

    Further discussion was also held on our plans for the club championships – one compromise option could be to use a form of accelerated pairing. Club captain Lars Dobbertin-King will show the club what that would look like next week.