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Club Champs underway
After 2 rounds in the 2025 Senior Club Champs, just Ross and David S remain unbeaten on 2, with a big chasing pack David P, Chris, Gordon and Stanley just half a point behind. There’s still 6 rounds to go, but it’s already shaping to be a close comp with few easy games. Round 1 saw Mikhael hold current Club Champ Gordon to a draw, while Brendan and Stanley’s draw showed how exciting endgame play can get. This week’s games ran mostly to form, but with David pipping Brendan with well-worked positional pressure on the kingside. Current results and standings here
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2025 Kāpiti Junior Chess Championship
The sixth running of the Kāpiti Junior Open and Schools Championship saw another great turnout, with 83 players along with parents and caregivers from all around the Kāpiti, Horowhenua and Wellington region filling the playing venue at Paraparaumu College. It was fantastic atmosphere as kids competed individually and as part of their school over four divisions, and for the best Kāpiti-Horowhenua school.
Congratulations to Thomas van der Hoorn and Luke Chang this year’s joint open Junior Championship winners. In the school age grade events, congratulations to Jack Gregory took out the Senior grade, Isaiah Heta the intermediate grade, and Miriyala Sreenikesh the Primary grade. This year’s School Trophy, awarded to the top performing Kāpiti or Horowhenua school, was won by Kāpiti College narrowly ahead of the Kāpiti home school team.
Full results and standings can be found by clicking on the vega links on the tournament page here. Photos from the day, including all prize-winners, can be found here.
The Kāpiti College team – 2025 Kāpiti junior championship school champions -
Chess Freestyle
Our annual Freestyle (aka Chess 960 or Fischer Random) tournament wrapped up this week. Congrats to Gordon who took out the event with 6½ from 8 ahead of Ross in second place on 6½. Final results here.
In Freestyle chess the starting positions of back rank pieces are randomised. There are 960 different possibilities of starting positions. This variant of chess aims to remove memorisation of opening theory, where players have to rely on their other skills from move 1. It has grown rapidly in popularity and significance, with now recognised world events involving the best players in the world. It is great fun, and can and does trip even experienced higher rated players. As well illustrated in this game from Round 3. Oliver (rated several hundred points lower than his opponent) shows how it’s done in just 5 moves.
1 .b4 b5
2 Bb2 Bb7
3. Nb3 Nc6
4. e4 Nxb4
5. 0-0-0 Nxa3 #
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Junior Rapid Decided
In the Champions Division, Stanley had a strong showing, scoring 7 points from 8 games and dropping only one game to James in Round 4. The battle for the minor placings was extremely close, with three players finishing on 6 points. On tie-break, Jingwei claimed second place, while Isaiah secured third.
Oscar M delivered a tremendous performance in the Challengers Division, effectively wrapping up the tournament with two rounds to spare. He finished on 7 points, losing only his final game to Ryder. Elia impressed with 6 points and just one loss, taking second place. Ryder had a strong second-half surge, winning his last four games to claim third.
It’s clear the standard is improving across the board—everyone is competitive and scoring wins. We’re excited to see what unfolds at the Junior Club Championship in Term 4!
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Freebird decided
The final leg of the Club’s annual 10+5 Freebird Cup tournament was decided this week. This tournament is played over three separate legs each of 8 rounds of 10m+5s games.
Congratulations to Gordon who cleaned up the third leg with an impressive unbeaten 8 from 8, followed by Lars on 6 and Stanley on 5.5.
When results from all three legs are combined, David P takes out the Freebird Cup again with 16.5 points, ahead of Gordon and Stanley on 15. He retains the Cup from last year, and has now held it eight times since it was first played for in 2011. Congratulations.
Finals results and standings here.
Next week we start our annual Freestyle (Fischer-Random) tourney.
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T3 Junior Rapid heats up
With two rounds remaining in the Champions division, Stanley and James share the lead on 5/6, closely followed by Jingwei and Isaiah on 4 points. It’s shaping up to be a tight finish.
In the Challengers division, Oscar M leads with a perfect 6/6 and a commanding two-point margin. Elia follows on 4 points, with Riki, Cassius, Oscar L, Ryder, Jordan, and Noah all on 3.5, battling for the minor placings.
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Winter Cup Decided
Ross won Series 2 of the Winter Cup unbeaten with 5/6, but David Paul secured the overall title by half a point ahead of Ross and Brendan. The event was decided in the final round, where Brendan, the leader going in, lost a complicated game. Congratulations to David on his strong performance. Final standings are available here.
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Winter Cup Series 1 decided
Congrats to Gordon and David P who take out the first leg of this year’s Winter Cup, with 4½ from 6. Stanley and Brendan were next on 4. Final standings are here.
There were few easy games this tournament, and the frontrunners were made to work hard at times, with a number of great close games with the rest of the pack that left the outcome up for grabs right up to the end.
Next week, we have a change of pace with a Blitz night, before heading back to series 2 for the Winter Cup.
Round 5: Stanley v Brett – Tim looks on
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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.
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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.
