The Club has definitely moved into the swing of online meetings. Weekly rapid and junior blitz arenas have proved popular, and the convenience of this format during lockdown has also seen a second weekly meeting set up on Friday nights. Last night’s comp saw 11 players battle out some 26 games and  1,356 moves, with Ross Jackson coming out on top at the end of the 90 minute arena. Results can be seen here.

The second week of the new online club meeting format looks to be working very well. Nine members joined in the fun, first with juniors battling out 30 minutes of 3+2 games in the Junior Blitz Arena, before joining others in the main Kāpiti Chess Club Arena for an hour of 5+2 games.  An action-filled night saw some nearly 30 games played, and lots of online chat (a noticeably different feature of this new format compared with normal over-the-board meetings). Congrats to Mark Summers who took out the Junior Blitz Arena, and to Ross Jackson, unbeaten in the Main Arena. Results can be seen here.

With the current unprecedented times, the Club has set itself up to meet online. The club is set up on lichess.org and can be found here. The new forum is open to Kāpiti Chess Club members and all chess enthusiasts within the Kāpiti-Horowhenua District.

The first online chess night was trialled this week, and after some initial hiccups, it went very well. Around half a dozen players battled out a flurry of blitz games, with lots of fun and chat. Congratulations to Geoffrey (aka ‘FreeNexus’) the winner on the night. Results of the night can be seen here.

This coming week (31 March), we will look to run a KCC Junior Blitz (3+2) for Juniors, from 7-7.30 pm, and another KCC All Blitz (5+3) from 7.30 pm for one hour, with casual games after that.

The Kāpiti Chess Club Committee has decided to cancel the next two club nights due to the Coronavirus.

The Government has taken unprecedented measures to protect all New Zealander’s from the Covid-19 and we fully support their efforts to restrict the spread of the virus. We therefore believe that it is in the best interest of the members, and our community, to suspend the chess club for at least two weeks.

The next scheduled club night will be 31st March, however, we will review the situation prior to this date and provide further updates via our website.

Second round of the Kingston Memorial tournament this week, and unlike last week, not all results went the way of the stronger player. One of our youngest players, Lucas Thompson grabbed a good win against the more experienced Rick Lowe, while Geoffrey Gunawan secured a draw against much higher-rated David Paul, and David Scott was able to get a point from Ross Jackson, albeit on time. After two rounds then, Gordon Lyall and David Scott lead on 2 points, but with six rounds left, there’s plenty of action yet to come.  More photos here.

The Club held its Annual General Meeting this week, including the election of Committee members as follows:  Gordon Lyall  (President),  Guy Burns (Vice-President), David Paul (Club Captain), David Scott (Secretary), Brandon Holman (Treasurer), Ross Jackson and Geoffrey Gunawan (Committee Members). Mark Summers was re-elected as Junior Captain. John Whibley was made a Life Member in recognition of his 30 year association with the Club. A range of other items were discussed, including  fees, finances, a constitution refresh, the calendar of events, regional tournaments, and marketing and promotion. Full reports from the meeting can be found here.

This week saw the second and final night of the Club’s fun annual  Freebird tournament, with four more rounds of  10 m + 5 s games. After 8 rounds, David Paul emerged victorious with 6.5 from 8, with David Scott second on 6. Top juniors were Geoffrey Guanawan on 5.5, and Mark Summers on 3.5. Congratulations! An Honourable Mention goes to new player to the club, Anthony Baker, scoring a creditable 4 from 8 on debut. Click here for full results.

Next week is AGM night, followed by casual chess as time permits. See you then.

Chess for 2020  got underway this week at the Kāpiti Chess Club with an enthusiastic turn out of current and past members, and several new visitors to the club. Welcome!

This week saw the start of the Freebird tournament played under a 10 m + 5 s time control, over two weeks.  At the half-way stage after four rounds, there is a crowded leaderboard with David Paul, Guy Burns, Geoffrey Gunawan and David Scott all on 3 points. See full results here.

Below: Play underway for 2020. For more club photos click here.

Chess for 2020 will start again at the Club on Tuesday 4th February. Non-members and members welcome! We will be starting the year with our Freebird tournament. This is a short, fun tournament run over two weeks with 4 games a night using a 10 m + 5 s increment time format.

The Club’s AGM will be held on Tuesday 18th February, with casual chess following, as time permits. Please contact the Club if you’d like more information. A provisional calendar of events for 2020 is available, and this will be confirmed after the AGM.

We cater for juniors as well as adults, so if you or your kids enjoy chess, come and check us out. 

A fun final night of the year for the Kapiti Chess Club this week, where members, family and friends got together to celebrate the year with some food, casual chess, including the traditional Club Champion simul against club members, and of course the main event,  the formal prizegiving awards for the year. Click here to see photos from the night.

Congratulations again to all our winners, and thanks to all our members for a successful 2019 year. See you in 2020!

The final round of the Club Championships was played this week, and we now have confirmed winners for 2019. Congratulations to the champions in each of our grades.

Gordon Lyall backed up his win from last year to retain the A grade title for another year, half a point ahead of Ross Jackson. Geoffrey Gunawan takes out the B grade, having shown some impressive improvement over this year. While amongst the younger ranks, Mark Summers has also been in great form and despite missing three rounds,  takes this year’s C grade winning all but one of his games.  This link here features a nice win of his from Round 11.  Full final results of the 2019 Kapiti Chess Champs can be found here.

That now wraps up formal games at the Club for this year. Next week is prizegiving, supper and the traditional club simul against the Club Champion. Please bring some food, and friends and family are very welcome too.  See you there!

In this post, we go back 30 years to September 1989, when New Zealand FIDE Master Johnathan Sarfati visited the club at their Kapiti College clubrooms to give a talk and play a simul against club members. Sarfati at the time was one of New Zealand’s leading players, including having won the 1987/88 New Zealand Championship.

One of our current members, John Whibley was even there and is shown playing below. No records remain of the results, including if any club members were successful in their game. John also declines to say whether he won or lost!

Johnathan followed this up in April 2003 with a repeat visit to the club, this time playing an 11 game  simul, and winning all 11 games blindfolded!! Here is an account of that event from former member and club champion Earl Roberts (Chess from behind a blindfold, from NZ Chess 29(3) 2003, page 23). He returned again in February 2016 for another simul, winning 9 from 10.

If you are interested in seeing other photos of the early KCC club days from the late 1980’s and 1990’s click here.  We’d like to develop this history further, so if you have any photos, articles or stories you’d like to contribute to our club’s online history, we’d love to hear from you.

In what potentially might be the deciding game for the club champs this year, the two front runners met this week in Round 10 m, with Gordon Lyall winning in good form over Ross Jackson to take a half point lead with 2 rounds to go. With the rest of the pack not now able to overtake, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens for these top two places in the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Gunawan firmly sealed the B-grade with a win over John Whibley, and in the C grade, Valera Bonyushkin upset current front runner Mark Summers to close up the gap in the leading pack. Going into the final two rounds, there are four potential winners. Mark has 7 points from 10, Hamish Lester has 5.5, and Valera, Rick Lowe and Liam Parkes are just half a point back on 5.

Watch this space to see who will come out on top.

Full latest results here.

Round 9 of the Club Champs this week saw Ross Jackson and Gordon Lyall both come away with wins,  and with 7.5 and 7 points respectively, and three rounds to go, they now have an almost unassailable lead over the chasing pack back on 4.5 points.  In the B grade, Geoffrey Gunawan cemented his name on the Ab Borren Trophy with a win (well done Geoffrey!), while in the C grade, Mark Summers continued his great form of late with another win to take his total to 7 from 9, and a step closer to getting his name on the Gufeld Trophy. See all the latest results here.

Below: In the longest game of the night this week, David Scott and Guy Burns face off again in tight battle (see game here).

The competition for the best Kapiti Chess Club players for 2019 moved into Round 8 this week, with some interesting and close fought battles on Tuesday night.

On top board, Ross Jackson and David Paul fought out a close draw, while Gordon Lyall defeated Geoffrey Gunawan on board two. Guy Burns eventually overcame Brandon Holman in an endgame with rook and pawns, with each side queening. John Whibley and David Scott (with only 1 NZCF rating point  separating them), fought out an interesting game, with David not being able to capitalise on his early space and activity against some good defensive, equilizing, then attacking play from John to eventually win.

At the two thirds stage of the competition (8 rounds), Ross currently leads the A grade,  just half a point ahead of Gordon, with David Paul and Guy in third, a further point and a half behind. In the B grade Geoffrey leads of Brandon, but with 4 rounds to play. 

In the C grade, Mark Summers has now established a clear lead ahead of the rest of the pack with a nice win over Rick Lowe this week. Hamish Lester is second, leading a tight chasing pack with Rick, Liam and Valera.

Full results are here. With four rounds to go, and every place still up for grabs, there promises to be  are some great match ups ahead.

This week the club took a break from the serious chess of the recent Club Championships for a final night of fun Blitz. In fact, this was the third of three nights played over the year that go towards the Club’s Blitz Cup. Players play with 3 minutes each, plus 2 seconds added per move, and games go on until everyone’s gone home or no more pairings can be made.

Congratulations to the clear winner on the night, Gordon Lyall, with a perfect 7 wins from 7. Second was David Paul on 6, followed by Guy Burns on 5. Top Juniors were Geoffrey Gunawan and Valera Bonyushkin on 3.

And so, combining results with the earlier two Blitz nights, the overall joint winners of the 2019  Blitz Cup are Gordon Lyall and David Paul. Congratulations to both! Full results here.

Below: After the successful introduction of the NZCF Juniors Badge Scheme earlier in the year, the juniors were at it again this week being tested on their chess knowledge to see if they can gain their next level badge. Good luck!

We’re half-way through the 2019 Kapiti Chess Championship. 

There’s been some great match-ups and after six rounds, Ross Jackson is currently leading the A grade with 5 points, ahead of 2018 Champion Gordon Lyall on 4.5. Guy Burns is currently third on 3.5, including an early round upset over past champion David Paul. Geoffrey Gunawan, on 3 points,  is currently ahead of Brandon Holman for B grade prize. 

There’s much interest and action in the C Grade tournament which this year has been separated from the A and B grades in an attempt to reduce  mismatches and make it more enjoyable for  members. After 6 weeks, Mark Summers and Hamish Lester are joint leaders on 4.5, followed by Liam Parkes on 3.5. However, with an encouraging growth in new junior members and visitors in recent weeks, the front runners will need to be on their toes for the final half of the champs.

Latest results can be found here.

The club has a short break next week with the third and final round of the Blitz Cup. The second half of the Club Champs with the final 6 rounds will follow this.

There was a great Round 6 match between Brandon and Gordon. Brandon showed some great competitiveness against the much higher-rated Gordon, taking him to the last game of the night to finish. In the end, there was excitement and elation as he announced mate, only to be followed by dismay when he realised  he was already in check, and in fact heading to a lost position a few moves later. See this game here.

A very successful Wellington Junior Chess Open was held on Saturday 21st September at Amesbury School, Churton Park. In total, 70 competitors aged 5 to 18 years competed, and 25 schools within the Wellington region were represented, including Paraparaumu College, Kenakena and Raumati Beach schools from Kapiti. The event was organised by the Northern Suburbs Social Chess Club for Kids and co-hosted by Kapiti, Wellington & Upper Hutt Chess Clubs.

Two of our club members, Geoffrey Gunawan and Liam Parkes competed in the tournament, and big congratulations to Geoffrey who took first place in the college section.  

Back at the club this week, Round 2 of the Club Championships saw some great match-ups, with Ross Jackson prevailing over Gordon Lyall, and Guy Burns upsetting David Paul, and David Scott winning against John Whibley. The B-grade clash saw Brandon’s brave piece-sac-for attack v Geoffrey not quite work out, and in the C-grade, Mark Summers made it 2 from 2 with a lovely kingside mate against Rick Lowe. See the latest results here.

Below: KCC members Geoffrey Gunawan and Liam Parkes competing in the Wellington Junior Chess Open, 21 September 2019.

The 2019 Kapiti Chess Club Championship kicked off this week. This year the competition is being played as two tournaments, a combined one for A and B grades, and one for the C grade. Winners will receive the Tom Powell Trophy, the Ab Borren Trophy and the Gufeld Trophy  for A, B and C grades respectively.

Round one saw all games go to the higher rated player, although many were made to work for their wins. After Round 1, Gordon Lyall, Ross Jackson and David Paul head the A/B grade, while Rick Lowe, Mark Summers and Hamish Lester head the C grade. Full results can be found here.

Will last year’s Club Champion, Gordon Lyall being able to retain his title? or will traditional club trophy hogger David Paul get it back?  With a strong junior contingent this year, the C grade also promises to be an exciting closely-fought event. Stay tuned.

Above: Savannah Edwards and Liam Parkes battle out a draw in Round one of the Club Champs, played 17 September 2019.

Last weekend, five Kapiti Club members (Guy Burns, Gordon Lyall, Geoffrey Gunawan, David Paul and David Scott) played in the Wellington Rapid, a tournament hosted by the Wellington Chess Club at the their club rooms [photos below].

This was a fun day, with six rounds played under a 25 + 5 time format. While none of the squad hit any of the major prize money, overall we came out with a pretty reasonable performance. Full results can be found here.

Meanwhile at the club this week, we saw a fun night of Blitz chess, with eight rounds of fast and furious chess. Coming out on top was Gordon Lyall with a perfect 8 from 8, followed by the two Davids on 6, and Guy Burns on 5. 
Next week sees the start of the Club’s main event on its calendar, the Club Championship.