2015 Archive

Summer Rapid Open – 5 December

The final of the 2015 Seasonal Rapids drew a small field of 11 players, with Ross Black making the trip from Christchurch and Fitz Gerwitz trying his hand in the competition for the first time. Top seed Quentin Johnson duly finished first, with 5/5, but only after surviving tough battles. Vie-Liem Saw, Leighton Nicholls and Hamish Gold all had their chances to beat him, but the 30-30 time limit makes winning a won game particularly difficult and Johnson prevailed. Nicholls came second, wining all his other games to finish on 4 points. Third was shared by Ross Black, Naser Tamimi and Bob Clarkson on 3 points, with the latter two sharing the Under 1600 grade prizes, with Max lough just missing out after a good performace to finish on 2½.
The Westpac 30-30 trophy for 2015 goes to Quentin Johnson for the highest aggregate score over three of the four events.

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Perpetual Handicap championship – 2 December

At the end of the main 2015 competition the highest improvers on club ratings were:
Standard
1st Geoff Aimers +48
2nd Leighton Nicholls +43
3rd Naser Tamimi +39

Rapid
1st Riley Jellyman +82
2nd Terry Duffiled +71
3rd Max Lough +53

Richard Sutton Trophy – 2 December

This year for the first time the Richard Sutton Trophy was FIDE rated, which meant that stricter rules were applied for recording games and results and the Vega pairing system was used to comply with FIDE rules. The time limit was lengthened to 60 minutes plus 30 seconds per move from the start so as to meet FIDE requirements too. Top seed John Sutherland takes home the trophy for the first time, with a winning socre of 5½/6. He beat second seed Quentin Johnson in the third round to take the sole lead. After a draw with third seed, Leighton Nicholls in the fourth round, he was caught up by Geoff Aimers who also beat Johnson. Sutherland beat Aimers to re-establish the lead in round five, which he extended with a final round win over Naser Tamimi, while Nicholls and Aimers drew an eventful game to finish second on 4½ points and third equal on 4 points (with Johnson) respectively. Juniors Tamimi and Riley Jellyman both scored well with 3½ to share fifth.

View Tournment results and games in Vega

Club Rapid Championship 2^nd leg – 21 October

The second leg started badly for the leader John Sutherland, conceding a 2-0 defeat to his closest rival Quentin Johnson, who took over the lead. The latter held on to score 5½/6 to win the A Grade and the Senior Rapid Championship Trophy for 2015. Riley Jellyman having been promoted to the A Grade performed strongly to finish second on 3½ and his combined score easily earned him the Intermediate Rapid Championship Trophy. The B-Grade was dominated by Hamish Gold, winning on 5½/6 ahead of Vie-Liem Saw on 3½ and Terry Duffield on 3 points. Bob Clarkson, promoted from the C-Grade found the going tough on 0, but his combined score was still enough to take out the Junior Rapid Championship Trophy. Naser Tamimi cleaned up the C Grade convincingly with 7/8 (scaled to 5½/6) ahead of newcomers Ryan Lau on 3½ and Sean Lau on 3 points. In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicap of 6 points has been added to the A grade and 3 points to the B Grade show the overall standings after the second leg. The combined scores and final places are worked out in the Grade Crosstables below.

View combined Crosstable and Rating performances
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Transfer tournament – 23 September

Eight players turned up for this event, which was run as a double round-robin with four teams. Final scores: 1 Quentin Johnson & Ryan Lau 5/6; 2 Bob Clarkson & Sean Lau 4; 3 Leighton Nicholls & Max Lough 3; 4 Hildon Nisa & Vee-Liem Saw 0.

Club Championship – 16 September

After the second leg of the 2015 Club Championship, Quentin Johnson again won the A grade on 4/5, despite losing his final game to defending champion John Sutherland. Sutherland followed on 3½, having earlier lost to Leighton Nicholls and drawn with Geoff Aimers. Nicholls scored another solid 3 points, while Aimers also picked up rating points in finishing on 2½. Hamish Gold followed on 2 and David Reid found the going tough compared to the B-Grade, ending on 0.

The B grade was reduced to five players, and was jointly won by Brent Southgate and Bob Clarkson on 2½/4. Terry Duffield and Hildon Nisa tied for third on 2 points, both having been awarded a default against Riley Jellyman, who ended on 1 point having only played 2 games.

The C grade was also a five player round-robin with some defaulted games. Naser Tamimi made no contest of it, coming first on 4/4. New members Sean Lau and Vee-Liem Saw shared second place on 2½, ahead of stalwart John Armstrong on 1 and Max Lough on 0, having defaulted to Saw and Armstrong.

Due to the defaults there were some extra games played that didn't count toward the final results but will be rated- there have been added to an alternative version of the B Grade below.

The overall aggregated points (scores scaled to be out of 5 and 2½ added for higher grades) for the club championship over both legs were:
1 Johnson 19 (Senior Champion); 2 Sutherland 17½; 3 Nicholls 16; 4 Aimers 14; 5 Gold 13; 6 Southgate 12⅛ (Intermediate Champion); 7 Reid 12; 8 Clarkson 10⅝; 9 Duffield 10; 10 Nisa 9⅜ (Junior Champion); 11 Jellyman 6¼; 12-13 Tamimi & Joe McKee 5; 14 Lough 3½; 15-16 3⅛; 17 John Calder 3; 18 Armstrong 1⅞.

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View A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View B-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View C-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View B-Grade crosstable and rating performances with extra games

Spring Rapid Open – 5 September

The Spring Rapid Open turned had a healthy field of 18 players, boosted by visitors from Invercargill, Queenstown and Christchurch. Top seed was Athula Majuwana Kankannamge, based on an estimated rating of 2000. This proved to be more than sufficient, as Athula won fairly comfortably with 5/5. Leighton Nicholls racked up his third consecutive score of 4/5 in these events to finish second, losing only to Athula and beating second seed Quentin Johnson with an excellent defensive game. Third on 3½ went to Rajat Khera, a student from Queenstown. His Indian Fide rating of 1333 looks to be a little out of date considering the strength of his play, but it qualified him to win the Under 1500 grade. Second under 1500 on 2 points was shared by Ted Nguyen of Invercargill, Hildon Nisa, Sean Lau and Bob Clarkson.
The next rapid open is the Summer Rapid on Saturday 5 December.

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Otago/Southland Junior Championship – 15 August

A healthy field of 23 players turned out at the Otago Chess Club to contest the 2015 championship. Defending champion from the previous two years Leighton Nicholls started as clear favourite, but there were many surprising results in this year's event. In round three Nicholls lost a close game to Riley Jellyman (OBHS) who then shared the lead on 3/3 with his two OBHS1 team mates Naser Tamimi and Sean Lau. In round 4 Sean Lau sacrificed a piece in a brilliant attack on Tamimi's king, and at one point could have forced mate by letting a rook be taken with check, but he missed the idea and lost. In round five Tamimi beat co-leader Jellyman to take the sole lead on 5/5 a point ahead of Nicholls, Jellyman and Ryan Lau (OBHS). In round 6, Nicholls rejoined the lead with a slow but sure defeat of Tamimi and these two were joined by a relieved Jellyman, who was on the point of resigning to Ryan Lau when the latter carelessly blundered a dead win into a loss. A point behind on 4/6 were Ryan and Sean Lau, along with the three leading contenders in the U13 grade, each having overcome an older adversary: Ethan Lau (Balmacewen), Martin Brook (Maori Hill) and Zishen Fu (Balmacewen) had respectively upset Max Lough (OBHS), Joe McKee (OBHS) and Daniel Wong (Kings HS). The final round saw a 'grandmaster draw' between Brook and Fu, taking advantage of the fact that their chief U13 rival Ethan Lau was paired against Nicholls on top board. Nicholls duly won this game, but not without overcoming strong resistance. he was joined in first place by Jellyman, beating Sean Lau when the latter left his queen en prise after a long day. The final game to finish was Ryan Lau – Tamimi, where this time Ryan was able to see his winning position through to the end.

First equal and joint winners of the JJ Marlow Trophy were Nicholls and Jellyman on 6/7 (players eligible for more than one prize were allocated only the highest value prize). Third equal were Tamimi and Ryan Lau on 5, with Ryan taking the U16 first prize. Second equal U16 were Sean Lau, Ethan Lau, Joe McKee and Ayoub bin Ahmad (Balmacewen) on 4 points. First equal U13 were Zishen Fu and Martin Brook on 4½. The winning team was OBHS1 (Riley Jellyman, Naser Tamimi & Seal Lau).

View crosstable, rating info and team standings

Thematic tournament – 5 August

The Evans Gambit Accepted (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4) was decided as the thematic opening – after a recent GM game in the ODT. Eight players contested the round-robin with a blitz time control of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds per move, as the four A Grade players from the rapid championship had to finished postponed games instead. Naser Tamimi proved most amenable to the highly tactical positions that arose and finished first on 5½/7, ahead of OBHS teammates Riley Jellyman second on 5 and Joe McKee third on 4½. Final scores: 1 Naser Tamimi 5½/7; 2 Riley Jellyman 5; 3 Joe McKee 4½; 4-5 Sean Lau & Max Lough 4; 6 Hildon Nisa 3; 7 Bob Clarkson 2; 8 John Armstrong 0.

Club Rapid Championship 1^st leg – 5 August

A return to the two-leg format this year saw top seed John Sutherland take a 1 point lead over Quentin Johnson after scoring 5/6 in the A Grade. Defending champion Leighton Nicholls wasn’t able to take points off the top two but but won both his games against Hamish Gold to avoid relegation. The B-Grade was closely fought, with Riley Jellyman emerging the winner on 4/6 to earn promotion to the A Grade ahead of Vie-Liem Saw and Terry Duffield on 3 points. Naser Tamimi started badly but won his final two games to finish on 2. The C Grade was won convincingly by 2^nd seed Bob Clarkson on 4½/6 with Hildon Nisa taking second on 3 points ahead of Brent Southgate 2½ and John Armstrong 2. In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicap of 4 points has been added to the A grade and 1½ points to the B Grade show the overall standings after the first leg. The handicaps are derived from the difference in expected score between the average rating of each grade.

View combined Crosstable and Rating performances
View Grade Crosstables

Otago/Southland Primary-Intermediate Individual Championship – 1 August

A healthy field of 23 players turned out at the Otago Chess Club to compete in this year's championship. Top seed Ethan Lau (12 – all ages are as at 1 January 2015, Balmacewen), made no contest of the race for first - winning all seven games to finish two points ahead of his closest rivals. Four players tied for second place on 5 points: Zishen Fu (11, Balmacewen), Zhi Yuan Qi (11, John McGlashan), Martin Brook (9, Maori Hill) and Jared Lau (9, Maori Hill). First and second in the under 10 & under grade was shared by Martin Brook and Jared Lau ahead of Will Orchiston (10, George St Normal) and John Mengel (9, Maori Hill) in third equal on 4 points. The Balmacewen team of Ethan Lau, Zishen Fu and Ayoub bin Ahmad (11) won the team prize with a total of 16 points – just ahead of the Maori Hill team (Martin Brook, Jared Lau & John Mengel) on 14 points.

View crosstable and team standings

Cleland Trophy – 8 July

The Cleland Trophy was truncated to five rounds this year, as the first round coincided with the serious floods in South Dunedin and travelling by vehicle was not recommended. In the end Quentin Johnson retained the trophy finishing on 4/5 after having to miss the final round. Four players could have caught him in first place with a win in the final round, but John Sutherland and Brent Southgate drew with each other, Bob Clarkson lost to Geoff Aimers, and Leighton Nicholls also missed the final round to play in the North Island Championship. Sutherland, Southgate and Aimers finished in joint second place on 3½. Southgate improved his rating, as did John Armstrong. In fact all the 'veterans' gained rating points, showing that declining strength is far from inevitable after 65! New members Sean Lau and Vie-Liem Saw both recorded solid results in their first club tournaments.

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Otago/Southland Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams Championship 2015 – 27 June

17 teams from ten schools played for the eleventh annual Otago Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams' Championships at Dunedin North Intermediate School last month. Defending champions Balmacewen A once again finished first in the Intermediate section on 26½/28 ahead of Tahuna Normal A second on 19 and Cromwell College A third on 18 points.

Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Ethan Lau (Balmac A) 7/7, Zhi Yuan Qi (John McGlashan A) 7/7; Board 2: Ayoub Ahmad (Balmac A) 6½/7; Board 3: Zishen Fu (Balmac A) 7/7, Luke Geddes (DNI A) 6/7; Board 4: Peter Hills (Tahuna A) 6½/7, Cathy Zeng (Balmac A) 6/7.

View Intermediate crosstable
View Intermediate individual scores

The Primary section saw a tense battle between defending champions George St Normal A and former champions Maori Hill. Maori Hill emerged the victors on 32½/40, half a point ahead of George St A in second place with St Joseph's Cathedral School third on 19 points.

Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Martin Brook (Maori Hill) 9½/10, Felix Townsend (George St A) 6½/10, Jack Murphy (George St B) 6½/10; Board 2: Will Orchiston (George St A) 9/10, John Mengle (Maori Hill) 7/10, Patrick Craft (St Josephs) 7/10; Board 3: Jared Lau (Maori Hill) 10/10, Aaron Nelson (George St A) 8/10; Board 4: Sheon Luxmanan (George St A) 8½/10, Peter McNab (Maori Hill) 6/10.

View Primary crosstable
View Primary individual scores

Thanks to Dunedin North Intermediate School for providing the venue once again.

Otago/Southland Secondary Interschool Teams Championship 2015 – 13 June

Eight teams from six schools played for the eleventh annual Otago Secondary Interschool Teams' Championship at Otago Boys' High School earlier this month. Competing for the first time were teams from Mt Aspiring College from Wanaka, St Kevins' College from Oamaru and Columba College, the only girls' school this year.

The hosts' A team added to their recent string of victories in this competition. They were held to a 2-2 draw by the Logan Park High School A team, but were otherwise dominant, conceding only one drawn game to Mt Aspiring. OBHS A finished first on 25½/28, ahead of Logan Park A second on 20½ and the OBHS B team third on 19 points. Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Ben Clayton (LPHS A) 7/7, Riley Jellyman (OBHS A) 6/7; Board 2: Naser Tamimi (OBHS A) 7/7, Ryan Lau (OBHS B) 6/7; Board 3: Ruairi Griffen (LPHS A) 6/7, Max Lough (OBHS A) 5½/7; Board 4: Joe McKee (OBHS A) 7/7. Thanks to Otago Boys High School for providing the venue once again.

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View individual scores

Winter Rapid Open – 6 June

The Winter Rapid Open turned out to have an unfortunate clash with two FIFA U20 World cup games being played at the Dunedin Stadium, so had a lower than usual turnout of 13 players with several regulars preferring to watch the soccer. Unlike the Autumn Rapid, this time games went mostly with the form book, but the competition was fierce and no one was able to dominate. The top three seeds, John Sutherland, Quentin Johnson and Leighton Nicholls each lost one game to each other and finished in a tie for first place on 4/5. Ross Black was having an excellent tournment, but missed his chance to join the prizewinners when he lost in the final round to Malaysian post-grad student at Otago, Vee-Liem Saw. These two finished in a tie for 4^th on 3 points along with Riley Jellyman, Hildon Nisa and Max Lough, who shared the U1500 grade prize.
The next rapid open is the Spring Rapid on Saturday 5 September.

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Swiss Rapid – 27 May

The Swiss Rapid saw an interesting final two rounds. Top seed John Sutherland was cruising on 4/4, when he unexpectedly had to play late entrant and returning member Naser Tamimi in round 5. It seems that that the final two rounds were paired based on an identity confusion between Naser on 0/0 and Terry Duffield, who was on 3/4. Naser beat John in the upset of the tournament, while Terry had an a comparatively easy draw for the last two rounds. The final result was a three-way tie for first on 5/6 between Sutherland, Duffield and Leighton Nicholls, followed by Max Lough on 4 and Joe Mckee on 3½. Notable among the final results was the large number of rating points gained by junior members, Lough, McKee, Jellyman and Tamimi at the expense of the rest.

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Shuffle tournament – 6 May

With many players still finishing games from the club championship, only six took part in the shuffle chess tournament. Random starting positions and a 5 minutes 3 seconds Bronstein time limit made for great fun and some interesting results. Unfortunately two players had to leave and defaulted their last round games, which had an impact on the final standings: 1-2 John Sutherland & Riley Jellyman 4/5; 3-4 Leighton Nicholls & Joe McKee 3; 5-6 Max Lough & Hildon Nisa 1.

Club Championship – 6 May

After the first leg of the 2015 Club Championship, Quentin Johnson leads the A grade on 5/5. Defending champion John Sutherland trails by a point, followed by Leighton Nicholls, whose three wins gained him a bunch of rating points. Then came Geoff Aimers on 1½, Hamish Gold on 1 and Terry Duffield on ½.

The B grade was a round-robin this year and still has one crucial game to finish before the final standings are decided. The current standings (out of 5 unless otherwise stated) are Brent Southgate leading on 4, followed by David Reid on 3½/4, who is having a great tournament. Then comes Joe Mckee on 2½/4, Bob Clarkson on 2½, Max Lough on 1 and John Calder on ½.
Update 13 May: Reid won his adjourned game against McKee to leapfrog Southgate and finish first on 4½/5.

The C grade was a three-player double round-robin, with extra games against spare players to provide the two unrated newcomers with additional rated games - the results of these were ignored for the standings. Hildon Nisa won convincingly on 3½/4, followed by Riley Jellyman on 2 and John Armstrong on ½.

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View A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View B-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View C-Grade crosstable and rating performances

Blitz tournament – 18 March

The Blitz went largely to seeding, apart from juniors Joe Mckee and Riley Jellyman underlining their strong performances in the Alan Chang.
Final scores: 1 Johns Sutherland 10/10; 2 Quentin Johnson 8; 3 Leighton Nicholls 7; 4-6 Shanon Davie, Joe McKee & Riley Jellyman 6; 7 Hamish Gold 4; 8 Max Lough 3; 9-10 John Armstrong & John Calder 2; 11 Bob Clarkson 1.

Alan Chang Memorial – 11 March

The Alan Chang 10 minute hourglass tournament saw very tough competition for both the tournament victory and the Alan Chang Trophy for the biggest upset. Joe Mckee established a strong claim on the latter in the first round by defeating second seed Quentin Johnson. However this effort was eclipsed by club newcomer Riley Jellyman in round four, when he defeated top seed John Sutherland. That put Jellyman in the joint lead with Sutherland, Johnson and Leighton Nicholls. In the final round Sutherland won against Nicholls, while Jellyman drew with Shanon Davie and Johnson had a bye. So Sutherland won in the end on 4/5 ahead of Jellyman second on 3½ and Nicholls, Johnson, Davie and Geoff Aimers sharing third on 3 points. Jellyman and McKee pocketed many rating points for their efforts.

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Autumn Rapid Open – 7 March

The 2015 Seasonal Rapids to determine the winner of the Westpac 30-30 Trophy began with the Autumn Rapid. 15 players turned out on Saturday afternoon, headed by top seed Quentin Johnson and second seed Leighton Nicholls. Upsets abounded throughout, with the younger players showing the older guard a thing or two. Johnson was lucky to draw in the first round with Joe McKee, who repeated moves in a superior position having earlier missed a clear winning line. But this was surpassed by vistories by Riley Jellyman's over Cantabrian visitor Ross Black and Ethan Lau over Bob Clarkson. Black's woes continues in round two when McKee claimed a 3-fold repetition draw in a pawn ending that was winning for his opponent had he found the right plan. Nicholls took the sole lead in round 3 by defeating Hamish Gold. Meanwhile Ethan Lau inflicted another upset, this time on John Armstrong. In round 4 Johnson defeated Nicholls in a sharp game to take over the lead. Mckee had another draw – this time with Gold. Jellyman upset Clarkson and Ross Black conceded another upset defeat – this time to Max Lough. The final round saw Johnson see off a determined attack by Jellyman to claim first place on 4½/5. Nicholls beat Wolfie Martin with precise endgame play to take second on 4 points. McKee beat Clarkson to finish third n 3½, and take first in the under 1500 grade. Naser Tamimi upset Gold to finish on 3 points along with Jellyman and Lough - these three sharing the second under 1500 grade prize. Ethan Lau's round one win proved to be the biggest upset against stiff competition, winning him the upset prize.
The next rapid open is the Winter Rapid on Saturday 6 June.

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2015 Otago chess club AGM – 12 February

Geoff Aimers stood down as Club President and was replaced by Bob Clarkson. The 2015 committee comprises:

President: Bob Clarkson; Vice President: Brent Southgate; Secretary: Leighton Nicholls; Treasurer: John Sutherland; Director of Junior Play: Quentin Johnson; Past-President: Geoff Aimers; Committee members: Terry Duffield; Auditor: Bob Glass; Patron: Bob Glass.

Opening Night – 28 January

The format for the traditional Presidents vs Vice Presidents match was stretched to accommodate the nine players who showed up to compete. A triangular match of three teams of three players, each playing on two boards simultaneously at a time limit of Bronstein 20 mins plus 10s per move took place. Final scores Presidents team 2/6, Past President 5½, Secretary 1½.