Perpetual Handicap 4 December
New member in 2019 Ben Suazo showed his real strength and easily won the Rapid Perpetual on +166 points. Next was Max Lough on +70, despite only playing for the first half of the year. Bob Clarkson's third on +54 underlined his great year, picking up the Rapid Junior Championship trophy. The Standard also went to Ben Suazo on an even more dominating score of +204. Alf Loretan's second place on +68 was the result of strong improvemnt in 2019, as was Shoji Fukushima's third on +52.
View the Perpetual Handicap 2019 progess and graphs
Richard Sutton Trophy 4 December
Top seed Quentin Johnson prevailed in this year's tournament. The key game was in round 4 when after taking a half point bye in round 3, Johsnon was paired against the leader on 3/3 and second seed Ben Suazo. Ben made a couple of inaccuracies in the opening against Johnson's Sicilian Defence to hand over the advantage and an eventual win. That took Johnson to the sole lead on 3½/4, which he defended with two more wins. Suazo was second on 4½, after being held in the final round to a draw by a determined Shoji Fukushima. He was followed by Edward Sarfas and new member Malcolm Crack on 4 points, both of whom lost to the top two players and won all their other games. New FIDE ratings were achieved by Suazo (1797), Crack (1787) and ALf Loretan (1556), while new member Connor Gray ahieved a 3-game block towrds his first rating.
View the Vega files including games
Summer Rapid Open 1 December
The Summer Rapid Open had a good turnout of 16 players. Top seed was former club champion Iain Lamont, with his main competition expected from local Ben Suazo and Denan Diep, who was up from Invercargill. Always dangerous in Rapid were Edward Sarfas and Hamish Gold while an unknown quantity was new member Malcolm Crack. Regular visitor Ross Black was also down again from Christchurch. The first round saw Crack lose to Jack Ta, while th other games went to seeding. In round 2 Lamont was held to a draw by Sarfas, while Suazo beat Black and Diep defeated Gold. Ta's run ended at the hands of Chan Kim, who joined Diep and Suazo in the lead on 2/2. Round 3 saw a draw on top board between Suazo and Diep. They were joined in the lead on 2½ by Sarfas, who beat Kim. Lamont went down to Gold, who lead the chasing pack on 2 with Crack and Black, who beat Ta. Diep claimed the sole lead in round 4 with a win over Sarfas to move to 3½/4, as Suazo lost to Crack drop off the lead. Crack was joined in the chasing pack on 3 points by Gold, who beat Black. Within striking distance on 2½ going into the final round were Lamont, who beat Aaron Nelson, Suazo and Sarfas. The final round saw Diep draw with Crack to ensure at least a share of first prize on 4 points. But Gold was held to a draw by Sarfas to finish equal second with Crack on 3½, joined by Lamont who beat Suazo. The under 1500 grade was won by Alexander Sun, who beat Black in the final round to finish on 3/5. Noah Oseki and Hildon Nisa shared 2nd in the grade on 2½ points.
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Crosstable
The 2019 winner of the Westpac Trophy for the highest aggregate score
over their best Seasonal Rapid tournaments was Ben Suazo with an aggregate score of 11
points from his three best results.
Club Rapid Championship 2nd leg 23 October
The withdrawal of Riley Jellyman from the second leg meant the A Grade was convereted to a double round-robin, with Quentin Johsonstarting with a large lead. He was given a strong contest by Ben Suazo, who won the 2nd leg with 6/8 but teh gap was too large to make up so Johnson's 5/8 was enough to take the Senior Rapid Championship Trophy for 2019. Hamish Gold took out first in the B Grade with 4½ to edge out his rivals for the Intermediate Trophy. While Bob Clarkson only required two games to assurehimself of the Junior Trophy as he had to default two rounds when unable to return quickly enough from the South Island Championship. His aggregate total of 9 points was still 1½ ahead of Brent Southgate, woho won the C Grade on 5/6.
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combined Crosstable and Rating performances
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Grade Crosstables
Club Championship 18 September
Despite winning all his game in the Club Championship this year, Ben Suazo did not achive a title. This was due to his missing the first round in the 1st leg and being placed in the B Grade, then retrospectively being classed in the Senior section due to being much stronger than the required maximum rating to qualify for the Intermediate title. That meant his 5/5 in the 2nd leg was not enough to overhaul Edward Sarfas' lead from the 1st leg, when the latter scored a solid 3/5 in the A Grade to win the Senior Championship for 2019. Defending champion Hamish Gold finished in a tie for 3rd with Geoff Aimers.
Shoji Fukushima's 2 points in the A Grade were enough to catch up with Bob Clarkson in the B Grade in the race for the Intermediate title, both finishing with an aggregate of 7 points, after Bob finished first equal with Alf Loretan in the B Grade with 4/6. This result was easily enough to qualify Alf for the Junior Championship for 2019.
The rules
mean that each grade starts with a base score
and/or a scaling factor, to allow performances to be roughly compared
between grades, based on the average rating of the field in each
grade. That allows players in different grades to compete for the
same trophy on roughly even terms. The final Championship totals
show the effect of these adjustments:
1 Sarfas 12 (Senior Champion); 2 Suazo 11; 3-4 Gold & Aimers 9½;
5-6 Clarkson & Fukushima 7 (joint Intermediate Champion); 7-8 Duffield &
Loretan 6 (Junior Champion); 9-10 Reid & High 5½; 11 Armstrong 5; 12 Southgate 4;
13 Clarkson Nisa 3½; 14 Kim 2.
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all crosstables
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A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View
B-Grade crosstable and rating performances
Spring Rapid Open 1 September
With 27 players mainly from Dunedin but two from Christchurch and 7 from Invercargill we were able to achieve a 5 round Tournament. We experienced a few delays at the start with assessing the rating of players unknown and took a little time so the first round got started by 1 pm. This delayed us right through the tournament and prize giving finished just before 8 pm. Apart from that the tournament was a success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
There was nearly an upset in round 1 when Gary McLean from Invercargill almost took out number one board David Weegenaar Who is top seed player from Christchurch. It was a very close finish but David won in the end. The upset in this round was R Gailik beating Edward Sarfas who was under pressure from sorting the rating issues before making the 1st round draw, but Edward rallied in later rounds. Ross Black from Christchurch beat Alf Loretan. Another upset was Denan Diep who beat Hamish Gold so a few players here to watch in the next rounds.
Round 2 was very clear cut and the only other surprise was Denan Diep taking on Riley Jellyman and winning, which placed Denan in a good position.
In round 3 again Denan had another good game against Otago Clubs very new and strong player Benedict Suazo.
Round 4 was notable for Hamish Gold losing to Romero Suggate but in Hamishs defence he did have to contend with spider opening... No not an opening but what happened here was a huge spider decided to get involved with the game and began crawling across the board to Hamish who cant abide spiders so a short adjournment was required while it was dealt with and ended up Romero and the spider winning.
The man to watch was Denan Diep again as he had a time wracked win against David Weegenaar and Gold recovered from the spider incident to have another win.
The final round was all on for Denan Diep but he was drawn to play Edward Sarfas who was now playing with more focus and was able to beat Denan in another time wracked finish where they had only seconds left and was an entertaining speed finish with lots of onlookers. Atlas Kerr held Benedict Suazo to draw to win the lower grade prize.
Here are the prize winners.
In the open section the first prize was shared by four players
Denan Diep - Elliot Munro David Wegeenar Edward Sarfas
Second was Benedict Sauzo
Under 1500 was shared between three players
Martin Brook Noah Oseki Hilden Nisa
Second was shared by Hamish Gold and Max Lough
Under 1200 was won by Atlas Kerr and second place shared between Juni augrigor
and Alexander Sun
The next rapid open is the Summer Rapid on Sunday 1 December.
Otago Under 20 (Junior) Championship 24 August
A smaller than average field of 17 players turned out at the Otago Chess Club to contest the 2019 championship - all players coming from Dunedin. Defending champion Max Lough (OBHS) started as clear favourite, with his main competition expected to come from Martin Brook (Logan Park) and Under 13 champion from two weeks earlier Alexander Sun (LPHS), the corresponding top boards for their respective schools in the teams competition in June. Other potential winners from past form were Romero Suggate (Bayfield) and Liam Gonen (Home). However, seven rounds with the Rapid time limit of 25 minutes for the game meant there was plenty of room for upsets. The first round largely went as expected, though Sun drew with LPHS board 2 Paxton Hall in a minor upset, while Liam Gonen was upset by Nathaniel Millar-Coote (Kavanagh). Round two saw a major result, when Lough missed a winning combination on the way to a loss to Suggate. Brook defeated Zishen Fu (OBHS) to join Suggate in the lead, along with Noah Oseki (OBHS), who defeated Millar-Coote and Yakim Gonen, who upset Alison Latawan (Kavanagh) after getting the bye in round 1. In round three Suggate defeated Brook, to deal to his second major rival in consecutive rounds, joined in the lead by Oseki, who beat Liam Gonen. Lough's woes were compounded by a second defeat in a row, this time to Sun, who stayed just half a point behind the leading pair on 2½ ahead of a group on 2 points. Suggate took sole lead in round 4 by defeating Oseki to move to 4/4. Brook and Sun drew their game, so the latter joined Oseki in second place a point behind, along with Zishen Fu, who defeated Yakim Gonen, and Alison Latawan, who beat Linus Patterson. Brook stayed within range on 2½ along with Liam Gonen and Aaron Nelson, who drew their game. Fu broke the tournament wide open in round 5 by defeating Suggate, after the latter touched the wrong piece too soon and had to lose material. Sun joined thesetwo in the lead on 4 points by beating Latawan, but Oseki lost to Liam Gonen, who stayed half a point back with Brook, who beat Nelson. Meanwhile Lough stopped the rot with a win over Millar-Coote, to preserve mathematical chances of retaining his title. Sun defeated Suggate to stake a substantial claim on the trophy with a round to go, especially as Liam Gonen defeated the other joint leader Fu. Brook stayed in touch by beating Oseki, as dis Lough with a win over Latawan. Leading scores: Sun 5/6, L Gonen & Brook 4½, Suggate, Lough & Fu 4. The final round saw Sun secure outright first and the JJ Marlow Trophy with a win over Liam Gonen to finish on an undefeated 6/7. Lough beat Brook to finish a point behind, equal second with Suggate who won from Latawan. Fu was held to a draw by Hall, to finish tied for fourth on 4½ with Brook and Liam Gonen. With Sun taking the top prize, the battle for the U13 grade was decided when Linus Patterson (Home)beat Millar-Coote to finish top of the grade on 4 points. Second was shared between Millar-Coote and Nathan Mutch (Balmacewen) on 3 points. The winning team was Logan Park HS (Alexander Sun, Zishen Fu & Paxton Hall).
View crosstable and team standings
Otago Under 13 Championship 10 August
26 players turned out at the Otago Chess Club to compete in this year's championship. Only Theo Laws from Cromwell came from outside Dunedin. Top seed Alexander Sun (12, Logan Park HS) made no contest of the race for first - winning his first six games and offering a draw in the final round to finish on 6&12;, a full point ahead of his closest rival. Oliver Hobbs (12, OBHS) came second on 5&12; after losing to Sun in the fifth round. Three players tied for third place on 5 points: Linus Patterson (12, Home Schooled), Tyne Grant (11, Balmacewen) and Geordie Stephenson (11, DNI). Grant and Stephenson shared the Under 12 grade prize, while the Under 11 Grade prize was shared by Jack Ussher (10, Balmacewen) and Theo Laws (10, Cromwell) on 4 points. Youngest competitor Zihan Fu (8, George St) had a great tournament and only just missed out on a prize, drawing with Hobbs and beating much higher seeded players on the way to his 3&12; points. The Balmacewen team of Tyne Grant, William Parry (11) and Jack Ussher won the team prize with a total of 12 points.
View crosstable and team standings
Club Rapid Championship 1st leg 7 August
The grades were set using the NZCF Rapid ratings at the end of July under the rules. Top seed Quentin Johnson had some lucky wins on his way to 5/6 and a point advantage over Riley Jellyman going into the second leg. Riley took the only point off Johnson, but dropped a game to Benedict Suazo, who was unlucky not to score against Johnson, when he touched his king while he had a rook en prise in a much better ending. In the B Grade 2nd seed Max Lough strolled to victory on 5/6 to earn promotion to the A Grade, only dropping one game to top seed Shoji Fukushima, who tied for second with Hamish Gold on 3 points. The C Grade was a 6 player single round-robin to accommodate the remaining players. Bob Clarkson stormed to a 5/5 victory followed by Terry Duffield on 4 points in second. Alf Loretan underlined his improvement this year with an excellent third on 3 points. In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicap of 4½ points has been added to the A grade, 2 to the B Grade and 0 to the C Grade, whose scores have had a 6/5 scaling factor applied and rounded to the nearest half point, showing the overall standings after the first leg. The handicaps are derived from the difference in expected score between the average NZCF rating of each grade.
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combined Crosstable and Rating performances
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Grade Crosstables
Cleland Trophy 10 July
The Cleland Trophy was wide open after two round this year, when 2nd seed Edward Sarfas lost in round 1 to David Reid and top seed Quentin Johnson was defeated by Ben Suazo in round 2. The three leaders on 2/2 were Suazo, Hamish Gold and Shoji Fukushima. These three then drew with each other over the next three rounds while defeating others. Sarfas continued to struggle, losing to Brent Southgate in round three, while Johnson drpped out of the event from round 4. That set up a thrilling final round with Suazo, Gold and Fukushima tied on 4/5 a point ahead of Sarfas, each facing a different player. Gold lost to a resurgent Sarfas to share third place with him on 4/6. Suazo was held to a draw by Terry Duffield to finish thrid on 4½. But Fukushima defeated Southgate to win outright and claim a Senior Trophy for the first time with an undefeated 5/6.
View Crosstable and Rating performances
Otago/Southland Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams Championship 2019 22 June
14 teams from 10 schools played for the fifteenth annual Otago Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams' Championships at Kavanagh College gymnasium. There was no representation from Southland this year as they held their own competition in Invercargill.
Balmacewen A made no contest of the Intermediate grade, beating all six of the other teams in the grade to secure first place with a round to spare, finishing on 7/7 match points (25/28 game points). The battle for second place was incredibly close beween Port Chalmers, Tahuna A, DNI and Balmacewen B. In the end Port Chalmers and Tahuna A ended tied on 4½ match points and 17 game points - edging out the other two teams on 4 points after DNI narrowly lost 2½-1½ to Bamacewen B in the final round. That meant an exciting blitz playoff, as the two teams in 2nd place had also drawn their individual match 2-2. Port Chalmers swept to vistory 4-0 in the playoff to finish 2nd, leaving Tahuna A third.
Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Tyne Grant (Balmacewen A) 6½/7, Fen McIntosh (Port Chalmers) 5/7, Hasan Sheikh (Tahuna A) 4½/7; Board 2: Will Parry (Balmacewen A) 6½/7, Jack Ussher (Balmacewen B) 6/7, Joseph Chen (Kavanagh) 4½/7; Board 3: Naoki Kozakai ((Balmacewen A) 6/7, Jayden Lewis (Port Chalmers) 5/7, Jeremy Frei (Tahuna A) 5/7, Leo Nichols (DNI) 5/7; Board 4: Nathan Mutch (Balmacewen A) 6/7, Max Goldsmith (Port Chalmers) 4½/7, Brent Manangan (Kavanagh) 4½/7.
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Intermediate crosstable
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Intermediate Full Crosstable with individual scores
The Primary section was a closely fought two-way battle for first between defending champions George Street Normal School A and the fast-improving Grants Braes A. These two teams dominated, defeating all other rivals in the field of seven and drawing their mutual match 2-2, thius both ending on 6½/7 match points. Grants Braes A took the title an account of their superior Game points score of 24/28 compared to George St A's 22/28. Close behind in third place were George St B on 5 match points (20 GP) having only lost matches to the leading two teams and won their others.
Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Ethan Then (Grants Braes A) 7/7, Isaac Thomas (George St A) 5/7, Yakim Gonen (Mixed Team) 5/7; Board 2: Gregor Watts (Grants Braes A) 7/7, Brody Mattocks (George St B) 5½/7, Erin Mitchell (Mixed Team) 4/7; Board 3: Adrian Prasath (George St A) 7/7, Anthony Lambert (Grants Braes A) 6/7, Otto Morrison (George St B) 5/7; Board 4: Alexander Jansen van Vuuren (George St A) 6½/7, Zihan Fu (George St B) 5½/7, Mouhammad Ali Taha (Grants Braes A) 4/7, Chris Gray (Grants Braes B) 4/7.
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Primary crosstable
View
Primary Full Crosstable with individual scores
Thank you to all the participants for making it a great day of chess and a special thank you to Daniel Kelly and Kavanagh College for providing the excellent venue.
Otago/Southland Secondary Interschool Teams Championship 2019 15 June
A healthy twelve teams from seven schools played for the fifteenth annual Otago Secondary Interschool Teams' Championship on Saturday 15 June. Southland held their own competition this year, which meant the three teams that travelled up last year stayed home. SHEAF Home schooling were a welcome new addition to the usual competitors, and the hosts for the first time were Logan Park High School in their Library.
The switch to Match Points with Game Points as a tie-break in 2019 to decide the championship meant that the result was in contention right to the last round. Previous years these had been the other way round, but were changed to the standard system required by the NZCF this year. OBHS A team defended their title once again, with a very convincing 7/7 match points (25½/28 game points) over the seven rounds. But after losing to OBHS A in round 3, John McGlashan A kept the competition alive by winning all their other matches, eventually finishing in deserved 2nd place on 6 match points (21½). Things might have been closer as the head-to-head match was won 3-1 by OBHS A, with the sole JMC A win going to Martin Brook on first board over Max Lough. A second win in that match would have tied on match points overall. Third place went to the hosts Logan Park HS A on 5 points (20). No less than five teams finished on 3½ match points, with game points determining the final placings. The top three teams qualify for the South Island finals in Ashburton on 4 September, while OBHS A go on to the national finals in Palmerston North on 28-29 September.
Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Martin Brook (JMC A) 6/7, Max Lough (OBHS A) 5½/7, Alex Sun (Logan Park A) 5/7, Aaron Nelson (OBHS C) 5/7; Board 2: Ethan Lau (OBHS A) 7/7, Oscar Lobb (JMC A) 5/7, Xing Zhang (Logan Park B) 5/7, Zack Hibbert (Logan Park C) 5/7; Board 3: Noah Oseki (OBHS A) 7/7, Paxton Hall (Logan Park A) 6/7, Harrison Biggs (JMC A) 5/7; Board 4: Sam Thompson (OBHS A) 6/7, Lindsay Dowden-MacKay (Logan Park A) 5½/7, Caleb Oakley (JMC A) 5½/7, Gianni Munro (OBHS B) 5/7.
Thank you to Logan Park High School and John Major for providing the excellent venue.
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crosstable
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full scores with game points
The Winter Rapid Open drew a healthy field of 24, boosted by a strong
group of Invercargill players, with top seed David Weegenaar down from
Christchurch. In round 2 former club member Jacob Feenstra drew with
Edward Sardfas, showing he was a contender, while Weegenaar, Hamish Gold,
Atlas Kerr, Ben Suazo and Juni Aguitar made it to 2/2. In round 3 Weegnenaar
defeated Gold, Suazo beat Kerr and Aguitar beat Feenstra, somewhat controversially
after the latter made an illegal move and was forfeited. Round 4 saw Weegenaar
stay in the lead on 4/4 with a win over Aguitar, joined by Suazo, who beat
Sarfas. Staying on contention with Aguitar on 3 points were Kerr, who beat
SHoji Fukushima, Phil Coleman with a win over Gold, and Martin Brook, wo defeated
Alexander Sun. The tournament was decided in a tense final round battle on board 1
between the leaders. It went down to the wire in a rook endgame, with Suazo finally
ending Weegenaar's run and taking firat on 5/5. Second on 4 points was shared by Weegenaar,
Kerr, who beat Coleman, and Aguitar who beat Brook. The U1500 grade was won by Kerr, with
2nd shared by Gold and Lewis Kim on 3 points. The U1400 grade was won by Aguitar, with
Coleman and Brook 2nd equal on 3 points.
The next rapid open is the Spring Rapid on Sunday 1 September.
Swiss Rapid 30 May
The Swiss Rapid was shortened to four rounds this year to accommodate the Graham Haase memorial. That meant that top seed Quentin Johnson and Benedict Suazo fresh from winning the Graham Haase could tie for first on 3½/4 without playing each other. Both drew with the dangerous Max Lough who also defeated Hamish Gold on his way to a tie for third with Gold on 3 points.
View Crosstable and Rating performances
Graham Haase Memorial 15 May
The inaugural Graham Haase Memorial was added to the calendar this year by squeezing up some existing tournaments, and will be a regular feature from now on. A five round Swiss with a Fischer 60mins plus 30s per move time control, it was particularly closely fought with many upsets. Form player this year, Edward Sarfas lost in the first round to junior Max Lough, while top seed Quentin Johnson lost to Hamish Gold in round 2. It looked as if second seeded Riley Jellyman, returning to club play after a break for University studies, was going to run away with the trophy after amassing 4/4, defeating Gold in round 3 and having already beaten Benedict Suazo in round 1. The latter was one of the chasers going into the final round, having inflicted a second defeat on Johnson in round 4 - the others being Sarfas and Gold. But a promising position and then an extra pawn against Sarfas in the final round eventually was squandered in time-trouble and a loss for Jellyman. That meant Sarfas caught him in a three-way tie for first place on 4/5, as did new member Suazo, who beat Gold.
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Club Championship 11 April
After the first leg of the 2019 Club Championship, Edward Sarfas leads the A grade on 5/5 after upsetting top seed Hamish Gold and second seed Geoff Aimers. Gold is a point behind having won all his other games, while Geoff Aimers is next on 3. In a clear division between the top and bottom of the grade, Terry Duffield, Max Lough and Shoji Fukushima all finished on 1 point, having each lost to the top three and then won a game off one of the other two.
The B & C grade was convincing won by new member Benedict Suazo, who missed the first round, then scored 4/4. Suazo earns promotion to the A Grade for the second leg. Bob Clarkson finished second on 3½/5, losing only to Suazo and drawing with top seed Brent Southgate. David Reid finished third on 3 points, while there was a big tie on 2½ between Hildon Nisa, Alf Loretan, Ryan High and new member Lindsay Dowden. John Armstrong was next on 2 points, while Southgate found the going tough, losing three games to finish on 1½, followed by Noah Oseki on 1 point.
The rules mean that each grade starts with a base score and/or a scaling factor, to allow performances to be roughly compared between grades, based on the average rating of the field in each grade. That allows players in different grades to compete for the same trophy on fair terms. The Championship totals in the link below show the effect of these adjustments.
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all crosstables
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A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
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B&C-Grade crosstable and rating performances
Autumn Rapid Open 10 March
The Autumn Seasonal Rapid went off very well with numbers down from previous tournaments but possibly due to the change in day to Sunday. Also I didnt get the time to contact the Invercargill club who would probably have been very interested but will make sure they know for the Winter Rapid and we also have more time to advertise.
So we had 14 players in all whose rating ranged from 1800 down to 700 and 5 rounds played. We classed then into two areas the first top down to 1300 and 2nd under 1200 with prizes in both categories.
Rnd. 1 - was played with no surprises apart from Hamish Gold drawing with Romero Suggate and this cost Hamish a placing by the time the tournament was over. The other notable game was Riley Jellyman playing black against Hilden Nisa which was drawn out to 52 moves with a rook and pawns each but Riley was able to capitalise on pawn placement to win.
Rnd. 2- The upset here was Shoji Fukushima with white beat Edward Sarfas and Edward struggled to regain the loss of tempo for the tournament. (Note that Edward was also working the draws whilst playing which I think does have a bearing on play)
Rnd. 3- Again Riley won as black against Edward Sarfas in a very short game of 25 moves. The other notable game was Oscar Lobb white beat Shoji Fukushima.
Rnd. 4- Bob Clarkson had a close run game with white against Nasser Tamimi where fortunes changed in quick succession and Bob going to a piece down then equalising to go down a piece again and equalising again to finally end up with pawns and the likelihood of Naser promoting but Bob ran out of time in the end.
Rnd. 5- Shoji with Black beat Hamish Gold, and Oscar Lobb beat Bob Clarkson which put losing players out of contention for prize money.
So final results and prize distribution is as follows:
open
1st Riley Jellyman
2nd - Jinge Li
U 1200
1st = Oscar Lobb / Noah Oseki
2nd = Romero Suggate / Hildon Nisa
The next rapid open is the Winter Rapid on Sunday 9 June.
Allan Chang Memorial 27 February
The Allan Chang 10 minute hourglass tournament was truncated to three rounds this year to make room for the Graham Haase memorial tournament. The justification at teh AGM was that the winner of the Chang trophy was almost always decided in teh first round, as that was when the biggest upset usually occurred and the rest of the event was something of an anticlimax. This prediction was borne out in 2019 with Alf Loretan securing the trophy via his first round win over Brent Southgate. Although there were other upsets, none came close to this.
View Crosstable and Rating performances
2019 Otago chess club AGM – 13 February
Bob Clarkson stayed on a President for another year, as did Max Lough as Treasuer. Leighton Nicholls stood down as Secretary after several years of excellent service and was replaced by Brent Southgate. Geoff Aimers took over as Vice President from Brent. Subscriptions remained the same as 2018. The 2019 committee comprises:
President: Bob Clarkson; Vice President: Geoff Aimers; Secretary: Brent Southgate; Treasurer: Max Lough; Director of Junior Play: Quentin Johnson; Past-President: N/A; Committee members: Terry Duffield, Edward Sarfas, Shoji Fukushima and Alf Loretan; Auditor: Bob Glass; Patron: Bob Glass.
The Calendar for 2019 was altered to shorten the Allan Chang Memorial to three rounds to make room for a new Graham Haase memorial of five rounds. The 1st leg of the Club Championship was brought forward into the gap. The Seasonal Rapids were moved to Sundays this year for convenience of ensuring the could be run. Bob Clarkson, Max Lough and Edward Sarfas have undertaken to direct them.
Quentin Johnson was elected a Life Member of the club for his services to the club as Treasurer and Junior Development Officer.