Game from the Upper Hutt Rapid

One club member who had a very good tournament on Saturday was Brian Nijman - he came equal first on 5/6, beating Scott Wastney along the way. Here he has annotated his final round game against Michael Nyberg for us - thanks Brian!

Sensational Result at Upper Hutt Rapid

I just witnessed something utterly remarkable at the Upper Hutt Rapid. With a field including the current New Zealand champion Scott Wastney, 12-times champion Anthony Ker, and New Zealand's only active grandmaster, Mark Noble, the 6-round Rapid was jointly won by the lowest rated player in the whole field, Vaibhav Sharma, with 5 points out of 6. He was listed at the competition with an extremely modest NZCF rating of 800 (I'm not sure where this figure came from, as he was not included in the last NZCF rating list). Vaibhav was last seen playing at Scott Wastney's Rapid in Johnsonville a couple of weeks back.

In the first round, as the lowest rated player in a field of 23, he got a one point bye. However, in the Swiss pairings in the rounds that followed, this one point does not seem to have been counted. This meant that he was paired against easier opponents than should have been the case. Still, this should not detract from his stupendous achievement - let's hope we will be seeing a lot more of this promising young player. The only game he lost was to our very talented 12 year old Layla Timergazi.

2 other players ended up with 5 out of 6 - Anthony Ker and Brian Nijman. Brian beat Scott, but lost to Anthony. Anthony drew with Scott and Mark and won his other games.

A view of Vaibhav's back - sorry, it's the only picture I've got!

The playing hall at HIBS

Ross is buying one of these for the club - yippee!

Layla Draws with IM at Hamilton Rapid

The only Wellington Chess Club player at the North Island Rapid championship in Hamilton last weekend was 12 year old Layla Timergazi. She finished equal 8th, with 4 out of 6. Her results included draws against Gino Thornton and veteran International Master Paul Garbett (currently ranked 7th in New Zealand), so this was a really good result. Congratulations Layla!

Full results can be found here:

http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/results.html

Club Rapid Begins Amidst Chaos!

There was a remarkably good turn-out for the first two rounds of the Club Rapid, considering the chaos outside, with bits of tree and rubbish bins flying about all over the place, roads blocked, electricity lost etc.
The top 3 players were always going to be missing these rounds, as Scott and Anthony had to play their Autumn Cup fixture, and Russell was still en route back from his sojourn in the Netherlands. Mark joined them in absentness, thus making the top 4 players all equally disadvantaged for the title - they will get 2 half point byes apiece.
My campaign started disastrously with losses against Bruce Kay and Bill Forster - no excuses really, I just played badly. You can see my rubbish against Bill on the Wellington Chess Club website.
So after 2 rounds there are five players on 100%, Michael Nyberg, Alan Aldridge, Ross Jackson, Al Nicholls and Bruce Kay. Congratulations to them, but obviously it is still early days, with 8 rounds to go. The real fun begins on Thursday, when the big guns join the chase.

Club Rapid 2013

Cross Table

No Name                 Rtg Loc  Total  1    2  

1  Nyberg, Michael          1965 2     24:W 12:W
2  Aldridge, Alan           1817 2     29:W 11:W
3  Jackson, Ross            1847 2     32:W  9:W
4  Nicholls, Al             1749 2     33:W 10:W
5  Kay, Bruce               1613 2     31:W 28:W
6  Nijman, Brian            2074 1.5   25:W  7:D
7  Miriyala, Rama Rao       1731 1.5   34:W  6:D
8  Forster, Bill            1965 1.5   28:D 31:W
9  Timergazi, Layla         1719 1     26:W  3:L
10 Brockway, Andrew         1636 1     27:W  4:L
11 Stoeveken, Peter         1641 1     30:W  2:L
12 Farrington, Lawrence     1738 1     35:W  1:L
13 Ker, Anthony             2376 1      0:D  0:D
14 Dive, Russell            2370 1      0:D  0:D
15 Wastney, Scott           2306 1      0:D  0:D
16 Van der Hoorn, Mark      2132 1      0:D  0:D
17 Wilkins, Mark            1927 1      0:D  0:D
18 Cunningham, Pat          1523 1      0:D  0:D
19 Pandey, Alok             1263 1      0:D  0:D
20 Bennett, Sarah                1      0:D  0:D
21 Gleeson, Richard              1      0:D  0:D
22 Ponnapalli, Valli             1      0:D  0:D
23 Wevita, Roshan                1      0:D  0:D
24 Veldhuizen, Matt         1512 1      1:L 35:W
25 List, Robert             1627 1      6:L 33:W
26 Sknar, Andrew            1403 1      9:L 34:W
27 Walters, Taina                1     10:L 32:W
28 Cook, John               1591 .5     8:D  5:L
29 Wight, Joshua            1193 .5     2:L 30:D
30 Mazur, Christian              .5    11:L 29:D
31 Sellen, Ian              1975 0      5:L  8:L
32 Theodosiou, Andreas      1292 0      3:L 27:L
33 Sknar, Andriy            976  0      4:L 25:L
34 Aumeier, Beate                0      7:L 26:L
35 Konakanchi, Karthik      891  0     12:L 24:L

by Swiss Perfect (TM)  www.swissperfect.com

Anthony Defeats Scott to Take Autumn Cup 2013

The final game in the Autumn Cup was a closely fought battle between the top two players in New Zealand. NZ Champion Scott Wastney slipped up at the end, allowing the queens to be exchanged, with Anthony's king being able to get to the scene of the action faster than Scott's. Here is the cross table, and the game.

Autumn Cup A Grade - Round 5

Cross Table

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Ker, Anthony
2425
4.5
*
1
1
½
1
1


2
Wastney, Scott
2453
3
0
*
0
1
1
1


3
Van der Hoorn, Mark
2180
2.5
0
1
*
1
½
0


4
Nijman, Brian
2218
2.5
½
0
0
*
1
1


5
Forster, Bill
2088
1.5
0
0
½
0
*
1


6
Stone, Andrew
2008
1
0
0
1
0
0
*

3 Autumn Cup Games

Just for historical reasons here is Mark against Scott from Thursday, Scott's first defeat of the year. Also my games from the last two weeks, neither of which are works of genius, but have entertaining bits to them.

Johnsonville One Day Rapid

Scott Wastney writes:

Everyone won at least one game.  Sam Merton had to leave after 4 rounds, so I gave him 2 half point byes to finish.

I took a half point bye in round 5 so everyone else got a game, then Andreas volunteered to take a half point bye in the last round so he could get home early.

The stand out result for the juniors was 9 year old Karthik’s 3.5 points.  Winning against Andreas, Josh Wight, Vikas Shenoy and a draw against Peter Stoeveken.

Some luck was involved when he swindled Josh:

One Day Rapid 16th June 2013 - Round 6

Cross Table

No Name                 Feder Rtg Loc  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6  

1  Wastney, Scott                 2306 5.5   12:W  9:W  2:W  5:W  0:D  3:W
2  Jackson, Ross                  1847 5     20:W 11:W  1:L  7:W  4:W  5:W
3  Stone, Andrew                  1903 4     14:W  4:D  5:D 11:W  6:W  1:L
4  Brockway, Andrew               1636 4     15:W  3:D  6:D 13:W  2:L  8:W
5  Timergazi, Layla               1719 3.5   18:W  8:W  3:D  1:L  7:W  2:L
6  Farrington, Lawrence           1738 3.5   16:W  7:D  4:D  8:D  3:L 12:W
7  Cunningham, Pat                1523 3.5   13:W  6:D  9:W  2:L  5:L 11:W
8  Veldhuizen, Matt               1512 3.5   17:W  5:L 18:W  6:D 12:W  4:L
9  Stoeveken, Peter               1641 3.5   19:W  1:L  7:L 18:W 10:D 13:W
10 Konakanchi, Karthik            891  3.5   11:L 20:W 12:L 16:W  9:D 19:W
11 List, Bob                      1627 2.5   10:W  2:L 14:W  3:L 13:D  7:L
12 Brearton, Josh                 1379 2.5    1:L 19:W 10:W 14:D  8:L  6:L
13 Sharma, Vaibhav                     2.5    7:L 16:W 19:W  4:L 11:D  9:L
14 Li, Henry                      1376 2.5    3:L 15:W 11:L 12:D 16:D 17:D
15 Merton, Sam                    1011 2      4:L 14:L 16:L 17:W  0:D  0:D
16 Wight, Joshua                  1193 2      6:L 13:L 15:W 10:L 14:D 18:D
17 Su, Winston                         2      8:L 18:L 20:W 15:L 19:D 14:D
18 Zeng, Jacky                    1149 1.5    5:L 17:W  8:L  9:L 20:L 16:D
19 Shenoy, Vikas                  1130 1.5    9:L 12:L 13:L 20:W 17:D 10:L
20 Theodosiou, Andreas            1292 1.5    2:L 10:L 17:L 19:L 18:W  0:D

Pics from the Johnsonville Rapid

The first two taken on my son's compact Canon. Thanks to Matt Veldhuizen, as usual, for the portraits down the page - an excellent job especially considering the difficult lighting conditions in the hall. Click to enlarge.

The venue - Johnsonville Masonic Centre

Freemasonry meets chess..

Pat vs Ross

Ross vs Scott

Two young hopefuls

Andreas challenged

Autumn Cup Catch-Up Night

The Autumn Cup is all over apart from one crucial result - Anthony and Scott have to decide who takes the A grade title next week. Sensationally, the bar has been lowered for Anthony, as Mark outplayed Scott in their catch-up game, despite arriving so late that he only had 39 minutes left on his clock when he sat down to play. Now Anthony only needs a draw in the last game to take the title.
This was Scott's first defeat of the year.
 In the other catch-up game Brian beat Bill quickly when Bill blundered in the opening.

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Ker, Anthony
2425
3.5
*
 
W
D
W
W


2
Wastney, Scott
2453
3
 
*
L
W
W
W


3
Van der Hoorn, Mark
2180
2.5
L
W
*
W
D
L


4
Nijman, Brian
2218
2.5
D
L
L
*
W
W


5
Forster, Bill
2088
1.5
L
L
D
L
*
W


6
Stone, Andrew
2008
1
L
L
W
L
L
*

I took the B grade title as Michael was, I think, trying too hard for the win. Lots of errors in this game, I might annotate it and put it up later.
There was a four-way tie for second place in this grade! Alok played a nice tactic against Ram and gained a decisive advantage in the other catch-up game, but went horribly wrong in the resulting rook-and-pawn ending, and got beaten despite being a pawn up.

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Sellen, Ian
2041
4
*
D
D
W
W
W


2
Jackson, Ross
1959
2.5
D
*
W
D
D
L


3
Aldridge, Alan
1991
2.5
D
L
*
W
L
W


4
Miriyala, Rama Rao
1938
2.5
L
D
L
*
W
W


5
Nyberg, Michael
2044
2.5
L
D
W
L
*
W


6
Pandey, Alok
2015
1
L
W
L
L
L
*

The C group was already decided, with Peter Stoeveken the winner. Philip Rossiter had a good win over Jonathon Whittle on Thursday, putting him on equal second with Bruce Kay.

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Stoeveken, Peter
1898
3.5
*
L
W
D
W
W


2
Kay, Bruce
1804
3
W
*
L
D
D
W


3
Rossiter, Philip
1820
3
L
W
*
L
W
W


4
Brockway, Andrew
1836
2.5
D
D
W
*
D
L


5
Hewson, Michael
1848
1.5
L
D
L
D
*
D


6
Whittle, Jonathon
1775
1.5
L
L
L
W
D
*

In the D group, Lawrence needed a win to catch up with Don Stracy for the title. He didn't manage this however - in fact he was lucky not to lose, as Matt missed a winning tactic on the 28th move. So Don gets to keep the title to himself

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Stracy, Don
1729
4
*
W
L
W
W
W


2
Farrington, Lawrence
1754
3.5
L
*
W
D
W
W


3
List, Robert
1665
3
W
L
*
W
L
W


4
Veldhuizen, Matt
1556
2.5
L
D
L
*
W
W


5
Cook, John
1614
2
L
L
W
L
*
W


6
Perera, Imalka
1688
0
L
L
L
L
L
*

Pat Cunningham outclassed everyone in the E grade - he should probably have been playing in the grade above, especially as the D grade contained one player who only showed up for one game. I suspect his rating will be a bit higher than 1431 in the next rating list. Of the many newbies in this group the outstanding player was Roshan Wevita, who won all his games apart from the one against Pat.

Autumn Cup E Grade - Round 6

Cross Table

No Name                Rtg Loc  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6  

1  Cunningham, Pat         1431 6     11:W  6:W  4:W  2:W  8:W  5:W
2  Wevita, Roshan               5     12:W  3:W  9:W  1:L  4:W  8:W
3  Sknar, Andrew           1388 4     13:W  2:L 12:W  4:L  6:W  9:W
4  Theodosiou, Andreas     1303 3.5    5:W  7:W  1:L  3:W  2:L  0:D
5  Lim, Aidan                   3.5    4:L 11:W  0:D  6:W 13:W  1:L
6  Wight, Joshua           1269 3     14:W  1:L  7:W  5:L  3:L 11:W
7  Walters, Taina               3      8:W  4:L  6:L 11:W  9:L 12:W
8  Sknar, Andriy           952  2.5    7:L 13:W  0:D  9:W  1:L  2:L
9  Facchini, Fabrizio           2.5    0:D 10:W  2:L  8:L  7:W  3:L
10 Bennett, Sarah               2.5    0:D  9:L 11:L 14:W 12:L 13:W
11 Aumeier, Beate               2      1:L  5:L 10:W  7:L 14:W  6:L
12 Konakanchi, Karthik     922  2      2:L 14:W  3:L 13:L 10:W  7:L
13 Carey, Bruce                 2      3:L  8:L 14:W 12:W  5:L 10:L
14 Lim, Simon                   1      6:L 12:L 13:L 10:L 11:L  0:W

Results

No Name                Total  Result   Name               Total

 1 Lim, Aidan          [3.5]    0:1    Cunningham, Pat    [5]  
 2 Sknar, Andriy       [2.5]    0:1    Wevita, Roshan     [4]  
 3 Sknar, Andrew       [3]      1:0    Facchini, Fabrizio [2.5]
 4 Aumeier, Beate      [2]      0:1    Wight, Joshua      [2]  
 5 Konakanchi, Karthik [2]      0:1    Walters, Taina     [2]  
 6 Carey, Bruce        [2]      0:1    Bennett, Sarah     [1.5]
 7 Lim, Simon          [0]      1:0    BYE                     
 8 Theodosiou, Andreas [3]      =:=    BYE                     

Autumn Cup Round 5

Nearly finished the Autumn Cup - next week we have catch up games in groups A-D, and round 6 in Group E, which is a Swiss tournament. There are some important games still to be played in the A grade, which will decide if Scott Wastney or Anthony Ker is the 2013 champion. The Wastney-Ker match will take place during the first week of the next club tournament, the Club Rapid, on 20th June.
Congratulations to Peter Stoeveken, winner of group C. This is the only group for which we so far have a definitive winner! I can win group B if I draw with or win against Michael Nyberg on Thursday. Don Stracy may get caught in group D if Lawrence can win his last game.
Pat Cunningham has looked exceptional in the E group, but he can still be caught if he loses and Roshan Wevita wins.

For games, I can't do better than to refer you to Bill's excellent analysis here:

http://www.nzchessmag.com/wellingtonchessclub/

Remember, if you want to receive all the games by email, please ask to be added to the distribution list (free to club members)

Here are the tables:

Autumn Cup A Grade - Round 5

Cross Table

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Ker, Anthony
2425
3.5
*

D
W
W
W


2
Wastney, Scott
2453
3

*
W

W
W


3
Nijman, Brian
2218
1.5
D
L
*
L

W


4
Van der Hoorn, Mark
2180
1.5
L

W
*
D
L


5
Forster, Bill
2088
1.5
L
L

D
*
W


6
Stone, Andrew
2008
1
L
L
L
W
L
*

Results

No Name                  Result   Name         

 1 Wastney, S (3)          1:0    Stone, A (6) 
 2 Forster, B (4)          0:1    Ker, A (2)   
 3 Van der Hoorn, M (5)    1:0    Nijman, B (1)

Autumn Cup B Grade - Round 5

Cross Table

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Sellen, Ian
2041
3
*
D

D
W
W


2
Jackson, Ross
1959
2.5
D
*
D
W
D
L


3
Nyberg, Michael
2044
2.5

D
*
W
L
W


4
Aldridge, Alan
1991
2.5
D
L
L
*
W
W


5
Miriyala, Rama Rao
1938
1.5
L
D
W
L
*



6
Pandey, Alok
2015
1
L
W
L
L

*

Results

No Name             Result   Name           

 1 Nyberg, M (3)     .5:.5   Jackson, R (6) 
 2 Pandey, A (4)       :     Miriyala, R (2)
 3 Aldridge, A (5)   .5:.5   Sellen, I (1)  

Autumn Cup C Grade - Round 5

Cross Table

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Stoeveken, Peter
1898
3.5
*
L
D
W
W
W


2
Kay, Bruce
1804
3
W
*
D
L
D
W


3
Brockway, Andrew
1836
2.5
D
D
*
W
D
L


4
Rossiter, Philip
1820
2
L
W
L
*
W



5
Hewson, Michael
1848
1.5
L
D
D
L
*
D


6
Whittle, Jonathon
1775
1.5
L
L
W

D
*

Results

No Name              Result   Name           

 1 Stoeveken, P (3)    1:0    Whittle, J (6) 
 2 Hewson, M (4)      .5:.5   Kay, B (2)     
 3 Brockway, A (5)     1:0    Rossiter, P (1)

Autumn Cup D Grade - Round 5

Cross Table

No
Name
Loc
Total
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6


1
Stracy, Don
1729
4
*
L
W
W
W
W


2
List, Robert
1665
3
W
*
L
L
W
W


3
Farrington, Lawrence
1754
3
L
W
*
W

W


4
Cook, John
1614
2
L
W
L
*
L
W


5
Veldhuizen, Matt
1556
2
L
L

W
*
W


6
Perera, Imalka
1688
0
L
L
L
L
L
*

Results

No Name               Result   Name             

 1 List, R (3)          1:0    Stracy, D (6)    
 2 Veldhuizen, M (4)     :     Farrington, L (2)
 3 Cook, J (5)          1:0    Perera, I (1)    

Autumn Cup E Grade - Round 5

Results

No Name           Total  Result   Name                Total

 1 Sknar, Andriy  [2.5]    0:1    Cunningham, Pat     [4]  
 2 Wevita, Roshan [3]      1:0    Theodosiou, Andreas [3]  
 3 Carey, Bruce   [2]      0:1    Lim, Aidan          [2.5]
 4 Wight, Joshua  [2]      0:1    Sknar, Andrew       [2]  
 5 Walters, Taina [2]      0:1    Facchini, Fabrizio  [1.5]
 6 Bennett, Sarah [1.5]    0:1    Konakanchi, Karthik [1]  
 7 Lim, Simon     [0]      0:1    Aumeier, Beate      [1]  

Cross Table

No Name                Rtg Loc  Total  1    2    3    4    5  

1  Cunningham, Pat         1431 5     11:W  8:W  4:W  2:W  6:W
2  Wevita, Roshan               4     12:W  5:W  7:W  1:L  4:W
3  Lim, Aidan                   3.5    4:L 11:W  0:D  8:W  9:W
4  Theodosiou, Andreas     1303 3      3:W 10:W  1:L  5:W  2:L
5  Sknar, Andrew           1388 3      9:W  2:L 12:W  4:L  8:W
6  Sknar, Andriy           952  2.5   10:L  9:W  0:D  7:W  1:L
7  Facchini, Fabrizio           2.5    0:D 13:W  2:L  6:L 10:W
8  Wight, Joshua           1269 2     14:W  1:L 10:W  3:L  5:L
9  Carey, Bruce                 2      5:L  6:L 14:W 12:W  3:L
10 Walters, Taina               2      6:W  4:L  8:L 11:W  7:L
11 Aumeier, Beate               2      1:L  3:L 13:W 10:L 14:W
12 Konakanchi, Karthik     922  2      2:L 14:W  5:L  9:L 13:W
13 Bennett, Sarah               1.5    0:D  7:L 11:L 14:W 12:L
14 Lim, Simon                   0      8:L 12:L  9:L 13:L 11:L