This year Kāpiti Chess Club took over the running of the NZCF Wellington Region Interschool Championships. This involved running three separate tournaments to find the top school chess teams across three divisions, Primary, Intermediate and Secondary. The leading schools go on to represent Wellington Region in the National Finals, to be held later this year in Wellington.

The event attracted a record turn out, with a total of 68 teams competing across all grades, and more than 280 students participating. The increase in popularity was largely driven by the growth in junior chess here on the Kāpiti Coast. Two years ago there were no Kāpiti schools represented, this year 13 teams, including a home school team, competed. In total, 14 Kāpiti Chess Club junior members had the honour of representing their school at these events. Congratulations to all of them, and special mention to Orlando Liu (Raumati Beach School) who won the Board 4 prize in the Primary division, with 5.5 points from 6, a great performance.

The T2 B-Grade tournament continued this week in the junior club. There was a win on top board for Ronan playing black against Milo, while Riki prevailed on board 2 against Alec C. With only one round to go Ronan is the clear leader with 4 points from 4 games, Alex T is only half a point behind in second place, followed by Noah, Riki and Tautua on 3 points each. In the A-grade. Isaiah and Daniel agreed a draw on top board with Roy taking down James on board 2. Going into the last round, Daniel leads Isaiah by a half point, followed by Brock, a further half point behind.

Our juniors shone at the Kāpiti Rapid, the Club’s blue ribbon event of the year. In a predominately adult tournament, Brock, Roy and James scored 3 points each to share equal first, with Daniel only a half point behind. This was a great achievement by all in their first FIDE rated tournament.

Picture L/R – James, Roy

Congratulations to Cohen Young who took out the 2024 Kāpiti Open last weekend with an impressive unbeaten 6 wins from 6.

It was a beautiful, crisp, cloudless June day in Raumati, and despite a number of late withdrawals due to the current Covid mini-wave in the region, the 30th running of this regional event drew a good field of 45 players.

In the A grade, key wins from Cohen over Layla Timergazi in Round 4 and Nicholas Winsley in Round 5 saw him unbeaten going into the final round, with chasers a full point behind. A loss could see both Layla and Nicolas catch him for first. However, all three won their final round clashes – to see them take out the placings in the A grade.

The B grade was also tightly contested, with three players sharing first on 4 points: Lucas Qu, Daniel Winsley and Abhinand Rajendran, with a further 4 players just half a point behind. Check out Lucas’s Round 2 win over past Open winner Michael Nyberg in the links.

The C grade was also well contested and saw a five-way tie for first. Congratulations to Brock Clement, Jin Tan, Zachery He, Roy MaKay and James Patterson. Great to see local Kāpiti juniors Brock, James and Roy in the placings.

Congratulations to David Paul who took home the Flora Paul Cup again as top placed Kāpiti Club member on 4½ points and 4th= overall along with past Kāpiti member Geoffrey Gunawan.

It was great to see a fantastic turnout of juniors – and some serious future talent. Age group winners were:
14+: 1st, Cohen Young2nd=, Ollie Archer and Luke Chang
10-13: 1st= Lucas Qu, Abhinand Rajendran
Under 10’s: John Hao, Vrajesh Ravi, Jacob He and Minh Long Le.

Special mention also of the new playing venue at Te Raukura, the Kāpiti Performing Arts Centre. This was a wonderful setting to play Chess, and our thanks go to the excellent and professional support staff that helped the day run smoothly. Special thanks also to local company Dark Horse Coffee who kindly sponsored us with some of their great product, and special thanks also to Kāpiti Coast District Council who provided us financial support for the event. And finally, many thanks to organiser and director Gordon Lyall, and his wife Andrea, and other club members that supported the event.

Full results can be found here
Photos and videos of the day here

The vega link above also has the pgn’s of all 36 games from the top 6 boards which were played on electronic boards kindly provided by the NZCF.

The Junior Club kicked off the T2 Competition, a 5 round Swiss tournament with 15m+5s time control. Although an individual event, the format is the same as the upcoming NZCF Interschool Championship, at which many of the Juniors will attend, while representing their schools. The T2 tournament is therefore in part, preparation for the Interschool event, to ensure our players are familiar with the rules and time format. In the A-Grade, 8 of the Club’s strongest platers are going head to head, while the B-Grade has 22 competitors. In the top match ups, Daniel got the better of James, reversing recent trends, Jingwei eventually broke down Devin’s stubborn defence, while Isaiah and Roy agreed a draw.

In the Senior Club, round 1 of the Kingston Memorial (played with a 55m + 5s time control) saw all games go to the higher-rated player, but not without some stiff competition from their lower-rated opponents. Results here.

The 30th Kāpiti Rapid Open is just two weeks away.  This event is open to all levels and ages, with prizes over several grades, including junior prizes, and will be at a great venue at Te Raukura ki Kāpiti, the Performing Arts Centre in Paraparaumu (see photo). All the info is here, or email us here.

Great to see so many kids getting involved with chess at our Junior Club, with current membership now around 30, ranging from ages 4 or 5 up to college age. The focus is on fun, participation, as well as competition and teaching new skills. Definitely some promising talent on display, and who knows, maybe even some budding future national chess stars. 

Meanwhile our new training sessions continue to attract a mix of junior and seniors, with the lesson this week, amongst other things, looking at space advantage.

In the senior club, Rounds 5 and 6 of the Winter Cup have started to sort out the playing field. Top-seeds Gordon and Ross run first and second, while a win over Ross in Round 5 sees Guy in clear third place. A large chasing bunch, a point behind, can hope for a third placing at best going into the final rounds next week. Current results here.

Photo: Ewan shows Milo and Jingwei a interesting fun variant of Chess called ‘Choss’. 

It was great to be hosted again this week by the Upper Hutt Club in a return interclub friendly match in their clubrooms at HIBS in Trentham. As per the format last year, players from each team played two rounds of 25m+5s games against the same opposing club player, one as white, one as black. It was another enjoyable night of friendly competition, and great to have a change of scene and to play to against some new faces. We warmly thank Tony and the Upper Hutt Club for  hosting us, which included some nice pizza at the mid-match break. For the record, Upper Hutt took out the honours this time, winning 7 to 5.  Results can be found here.  Geoffrey had a nice game in Round 1, which can be found here.

Normal club night followed the next night with Rounds 3 and 4 of the Winter Cup. Plenty of action and interesting results. The two unbeaten David’s clashed in Round 3, a game which went to the wire with seconds on each clock. David P was a pawn up for much of the game, but David S managed to hold off a strong  attack on the kingside and gradually convert down to a winning endgame. Unfortunately, he was not able to repeat in the following round against Ross after losing on time in a won position. After four rounds, Ross and Gordon lead on 3½, followed by David S and Guy on 3, and with several chasers on 2, there’s still plenty to play for in the upcoming rounds. Results here.

The 2024 Winter Cup tournament began this week. After two rounds, both David’s share an unbeaten lead on 2 points, followed by Ross and Gordon who drew their Round 2 game with each other. Great to see junior club members James, Tal and Daniel playing up in the senior club this week and competing well. Daniel had a win over John D, while James was unlucky not to score from a winning position against David S who escaped in the time scramble. Results and standings here. 

Next week, we look forward to an interclub match away with the Upper Hutt Club, and Junior Club recommences for Term 2.

Congrats to long-time club stalwart John Whibley, who pulled one out of the bag this week in the first night of the second leg of the Freebird Cup. After four rounds, John sits first equal on 3, picking up wins over past club champion Levi, and over Guy and Ross, all rated notably higher. He shares the lead with David Paul who dropped just two half points, against David Scott and Brandon. David P brings 7 points from the first leg played back in February so will go into next week’s final four rounds as clear favourite. But as usual, there are several close chasers and potential final winners. Current results and standings here.

The Junior Club had a casual chess night this week, followed at the end with a prizegiving to the winners of the Term 1 tournament that finished last week. Congrats to (from left to right in the photo)  Isaiah (bronze), James (silver) and Daniel (gold).

It was an exciting finale to the opening junior club tournament of the year. On top board, tournament leader Daniel was under pressure against Jingwei, who launched a dangerous kingside attack. However, Daniel defended accurately and ultimately triumphed. He took out clear first place with 5½ points from 6. James edged out Roy to take 2nd place on 5 points, and Isaiah also finished on 5 points and takes 3rd place on tie-break. Just outside the medals were Devin, Jingwei and Roy all on 4 points. Congratulations to all players in what was a very competitive event.  In the seniors, there was a good turnout and lots of fun for our first Blitz night of the year. 

Photo: Daniel and Jingwei shake hands after their epic battle.