Club Championship Begins!

The main event of the year, the Club Championship, kicked off on Thursday. A rating of 2000+ is no longer a passport to the A grade, despite the absence of Arthur Pomeroy and Andrew Stone. Making their debut in the top grade this year are Ryan Winter (2129) and Robert Laking (2014), and they both got draws in the first round (against Layla and me respectively).

The B grade is also stronger than previously, boosted by Kapiti players Alan Winfield and Gordon Lyall, and also by fast improving younger players Michael Sole and Fabian Day. This means that traditional B-graders Andrew Brockway and Peter Stoeveken have been displaced to the Swiss, where they are amongst the favourites, along with Nathan Hall (rating 1863), 12 year old Caleb He (1823) and returning player Edward Tanoi.

There is no D grade this year. The 30 players not in the top 2 groups will play in a Swiss tournament to decide the C grade champion. This is because of the problem of non-attendance in the lower grades, which meant last year that the C grade was something of a fiasco. At least with a Swiss tournament, players whose opponents do not show up can be re-paired, unlike in a round robin tournament. Obviously it would be preferable if people turned up for their games.

Anthony and Russell are off representing New Zealand in the Batumi Olympiad, so their round one opponents, Michael Nyberg and Nic Croad, played their round three game early. Michael seemed to be holding, but Nic ground him down until Michael made a couple of errors, whereupon his position suddenly collapsed.

Game of the round was undoubtedly Forster v Nijman. Bill as white accidentally lost a rook in the opening (!), but it turned out that converting the win required a little bit of care on Brian's part.
Many thanks to Bill for providing annotations here.




Ryan had white against Layla, and was under pressure for most of the game. However pieces got swapped, and the game ended in a peaceful rook and pawn ending.

A Grade

Forster      1-0       Nijman
Winter   1/2-1/2    Timergazi
Laking   1/2-1/2    Sellen
R3:
Nyberg      0-1       Croad

B Grade

Mullan      1-0        Lyall
Day        1/2-1/2     Rossiter
Sole           0-1        Aldridge
Winfield 1/2-1/2     Benitez
Jackson      1-0        Chen

C Grade

No Name                  Loc  Total  Result   Name             Loc  Total

 1 Daniel Kibblewhite    1481 [0]      0:1    Andrew Brockway  1863 [0]  
 2 Nathan Hall           1863 [0]      1:0    Lars Stannard    1409 [0]  
 3 Nicholas Heyworth     1368 [0]      0:1    Caleb He         1823 [0]  
 4 Peter Stoeveken       1822 [0]      1:0    James Kierstead  1317 [0]  
 5 Karthikeyan Annamalai 1300 [0]      0:1    Edward Tanoi     1800 [0]  
 6 Lawrence Farrington   1763 [0]      1:0    Bobby Stannard   1298 [0]  
 7 Josh Langford         1291 [0]      ½:½    Hamish Dixon     1701 [0]  
 8 Michael Ashe          1623 [0]      1:0    Bruce Asher      1256 [0]  
 9 Kane Rodrigues        1000 [0]      0:1    Robert Hurndell  1551 [0]  
10 Samuel Darr           1481 [0]      1:0    Geoff Osborne    1500 [0]  
11 Sean Johnson          1099 [0]      0:½    Christopher Sole 1184 [0]  
12 Alexis Wevers         1795 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
13 Romeo Rabina          1695 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
14 Don Stracy            1649 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
15 Satwik Meravanage     1550 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
16 Dylan Frater          1509 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
17 Paul He               1507 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
18 Aiden Zhao            1236 [0]      ½:½    BYE                        
19 Lewis Carroll         1190 [0]      0:0    BYE