2020 News Archive

Closing night Quiz – 9 December

The final event for 2020 was the prizegiving and Quiz on 9 December - The Bad Bishops team won the quiz - in the final round guessing three National MPs from the previous parliament whose names are also chess openings. The full list was English, King, Bishop, Reti and Barry! Thanks to Geoff Aimers for once again preparing a unique quiz.

Summer Rapid Open – 6 December

The Summer Rapid Open had an excellent turnout of 28 players, with players from Invercargil, Oamaru and Centra; Otago adding to the locals. Top seed was Quentin Johnson, followed by 2020 Otago Club Champion Ben Suazo, though the 2020 Otago U20 champion Qi Le Kong-Lim was clearly a player to watch.

The first games went mostly to seeding except Noah Oseki beat Edward Sarfas to win the upset bonus prize (a chocolate bar) of the round, and Shannon Davie was held to a draw by Corbin Fraser. One unusual event was the game Alex Tups - Philip Greenspoon, when after the game the players realised that Black (the winner) had started with an extra bishop instead of one of his pawns aftrr a 14th table had been hastily set up before the round (neither player had noticed during the game). A replay was required by the arbiter which was close but reversed the orginal result. In response to a protest, resort was made to the official rules, which indicated the replay result had to be upheld.

In round 2 Johnson and Riley Jellyman fout out a draw in a rook endgame, dropping both behind the leaders on 2/2. These included Oseki, who beat Denan Diep to record his second major upset vistory of the tournament, while Naser Tamimi toppled a seed in Rene Sterk. Another strong result was Davie's win over Sarfas and the toungest competitor Jonanathan Rapsey's win over Alf Loretan.

Round 3 thinned out the lead with Kong-Lim defeating Ben Suazo on board 1, while Oseki joined him on 3/3 logging yet another 'upset' with a convincing crush of Romer Suggate - we were staring to wonder if his rating was a little out of date! Johnson and Jellyman stayed in touch half a point back with wins over Tamimi and Davie respectively.

In Round 4 the leaders drew a hard-fought battle - this was yeat another upset for Oseki by teh way. Johnson and Jellyman both had wins, over Suazo and Suggate respectively, to join Oseki and Kong-Lim in the lead on 3½/4. Lining up behind them with a chance for first prize were Rene Sterk, Joe McKee and Cam Fraser on 3 points.

The final round saw the match-ups Johnson - Oseki on board 1 and Jellyman - Kong-Lim on board 2. Jellyman gambled that Kong-Lim didn't know a particular theoretical line in the French (French players always know the theory!) and lost material and soon the game. Johnson won a rook for his Catalan bishop against Oseki, but then carelessly played another combination that won a pawn but opened up all lines agains his weaked kingside. Oseki won first a piece then an exchange but missed a clinical finish. That allowed Johnson to fight on with 2 pawns for a piece. As time ran down then game was still in the balance until Johnson walked into a knight fork and resigned. That meant yet another upset prize for Oseki on top of first equal with Kong-Lim on 4½/5 and a performance rating of 2227! In the final game to finish the battle for third between Rene Sterk and McKee was a nail-biter with both players overlooking a mate-in-one for McKee at one point. Eventually Sterk's extra pawns prevailed in the Queen ending. Cam Fraser defeated Corbin Fraser (no relation) to grab a share of 3rd place on 4 points and nail down 1st in the U1500 grade. His opponent's total of 2½ was still good for 1st in the U100 grade. 2nd= in the U1500 grade was shared between Bob Clarkson, Julien Soler, Greg Familton and Oscar Lobb. 2nd= in the U1100 grade was shared by Zihan Fu, Alex Tups, Jonathan Rapsey and Matthew Sterk.

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The 2020 joint winners of the Westpac Trophy for the highest aggregate score over their best Seasonal Rapid tournaments were Romero Suggate and Joe McKee with an aggregate score of 7 points from their two results.

Perpetual Handicap – 4 December

Last year's winner Ben Suazo wasn't able to repeat his success in the Rapid Perpetual, dropping the lead to Hamish Gold in the last rounds of the Club Rapid Championship. Gold took first on +79 points. Next was John Armstrong on +74, having had a good year in rapid. Suazo's third on +61 was still a fantastic result on the back of winning the trophy in the prior year. Ben was able to win the Standard Perpetual for the second time in a row, however. He clearly dominated a reduced programme in 2020, with a dominating score of +74. Malcolm Crack had his chance to take first place off Ben in the final round of the Richard Sutton Trophy, but had to settle for second on +46. Third was shared between Connor Gray and Brent Southgate on +37, after both did well in the Richard Sutton.

View the Perpetual Handicap 2020 progess and graphs

Richard Sutton Trophy – 2 December

This year's tournameht was more closely contested thans laste year, with a number of players capable of taking the trophy. Malcolm Crack faltered in round 1 with a loss to Brent Southgate and looked out of the running, while Connor Gray scored a notable upset over Terry Duffield. In round 2 Ben Suazo defeated Edward Sarfas and Quentin Johnson beat Hamish Gold to move to 2/2 along with Riley Jellyman, who beat Gray, and Southgate who beat Hildon Nisa. Suazo took the sole lead in round 3 with a win over Southgate. Johnson had a half point bye, while Jellyman had the down float to play Crack, who won. As last year, Suazo was paired against Johnson in round 4 with a half point lead, and the result was repeated with a win to Johnson, taking over the lead on 3½/4. Joining Suazo on 3 were Crack, who beat Sarfas, and Gold, who defeated Southgate, while Jellyman took a half point bye. In round 4 Johnson met some home prepapration from Crack in a Botvinnik anti-Meran and went down to a crushing attack. Suazo joined Crack in the lead with a win over Gold, but Jellyman's chances for first were scotched by a loss to Sarfas. Meanwhile Gray further demonstrated his improvemnet with a win over Southgate. In the final round Suazo won a pawn and then gradually overcame Crack to take first place on 5/6. Johnson beat Duffield to rake second on 4½. Crack was joined in third by Sarfas who beat Gold to finish on a respectable 4 points after some early setbacks. Suazo and Crack both gained a heap of FIDE rating points, as did Southgate, while Ryan Hgh and Connor Gray both gained first FIDE ratings from the event.

View the Vega files

Otago Under 20 (Junior) Championship – 31 October

A healthy field of 29 players turned out at the Otago Chess Club to contest the 2020 championship - all from Dunedin apart from Rogan-Joe Sloan (St Kev) from Oamaru. The pre-tournament favourites were Defending champion Alexander Sun (LPHS) as well as former champions Riley Jellyman (UO) and Max Lough (UO) plus Qi Le Knong-Lim (UO) who had played most of his junior chess in Australia. Many others were potentially in the frame given their form in previous tournaments, such as Martin Brook (JMC), Romero Suggate (Bayfield) and Liam Gonen (Home).

The first round largely went as expected, though Sun drew with Mathew Sterk (Home) in a repeat of his semi-Swiss gambit from last year, while Alison Latawan (Kav) lost Yakim Gonen (Home) upset, and Rogan-Joe Sloan went down to Tyne Grant (Balmacewen).

Round two saw a major result, with Suggate beating Lough in a repeat of last year. Kong-Lim had to defend after going an exchange down against Noah Oseki (OBHS), but won in the ending as the time limit approached. In round three top seeded Jellyman had to settle for a draw against Zishen Fu (LPHS) after being unable to generate chances with the Black pieces. Sun took a second draw – this time against Suggate.

Kong-Lim maintained a perfect score with a win over Paxton Hall (LPHS) and was joined on 3 points by Joe McKee (OP), who beat Liam Gonen.

Kong-Lim took sole lead in round 4 by defeating McKee to move to 4/4. He was closely followed on 3½ by Suggate and Jellyman, who defeated Zishen Fu and Lough respectively. These were followed by a large group on 3 including McKee, Sun, Oseki, Liam Gonen, Brook and Naoki Kozakai (Kings HS) who all won.

Kong-Lim beat Jellyman on board 1 to move to 5/5 when the latter was again unable to emerge with winning chances from the opening and then miscalculated his attempt to break out. Suggate stayed half a point behind with a win over Liam Gonen. McKee beat Brook stay in touch on 4, as Oseki, by beating Kozakai and Sun, with a win over teammate Zishen Fu. These players plus Jellyman on 3½ were the only ones left with chances to win with two rounds to go.

The penultimate round saw Kong-Lim ensure at least a share of first place by defeating his nearest rival Suggate. Sun defeated McKee to preserve a chance a point adrift. Oseki sacrificed an exchange for a vigorous king-side attack against Jellyman, offering his queen multiple times to enforce mate or a material advantage. Jellyman wisely declined all the offers and gradually beat back the attack after Oseki couldn’t find a way to convert or win back his material. Leading scores: Kong-Lim 6/6; Sun 5; Jellyman & Suggate 4½; McKee, Hall, Lough, Oseki & Liam Gonen 4.

The final round saw Kong-Lim secure outright first and the JJ Marlow Trophy with a draw to Sun to finish on an undefeated 6½/7. Sun was joined in second equal place on 5½ by Jellyman, who defeated Suggate. Next were McKee and Liam Gonen on 5 points, after defeating Hall and Zihan Fu (GSNS) respectively, while Lough-Oseki finished in a hard-fought draw. With Sun taking the U16 prize with Liam Gonen 2nd, that meant McKee took third place in the U20. The U13 grade was decided by Sterk beating Oliver Hobbs (OBHS) to finish on 4 points, while rivals Jonathan Rapsey (Home) and Zihan Fu lost. Second was shared between Zihan Fu and Raymond Yang (DNI) on 3½ points. The winning teams were U20: UO/OP (Jellyman, Lough & McKee) and U13: DNI (Geordie Stephenson, Yang and Amelio Kaloga). Best Girl was Alison Latawan and the Youngest competitor prize went to Rapsey.

View crosstable and team standings

Blitz Championship 3 – 21 October

On 21 October the third and final Blitz event for the inaugural Blair Freeman Trophy was held as an 11 player Swiss with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move. The tournament was won by Quentin Johnson on 7/8 with Edward Sarfas and Ryan High 2nd= on 6 points. As winner of all three events Quentin Johnson is the inaugural winner of the Blair Freeman Trophy for 2020.

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Club Rapid Championship 2nd leg – 14 October

This year saw the emergence of a two new contenders for top honours in the club events: Romero Suggate. Trailing Ben Suazo by a point after the 1st leg, he scored 5/6 to win the the 2nd leg and the Senior Rapid Championship Trophy, after Suazo only manged to score 3½ for 2nd place. Critical was the fact that Edward Sarfas and Roshan Gangani both lost 2-0 to Suggate but each won a game from Suazo. Hamish Gold took out first in the B Grade with 4½, but having missed the 1st leg he was not in line to win any trophies this year. Gangani's 1 point along with the A Grade bonus was enough to secure the Intermediate Rapid Championhip Trophy for 2020, ahead of Tery Duffield who was 2nd in the B Grade on 4 points. 3rd in the B Grade on 3½ was Brent Southgate, and this was enough for Brent to win the Junior Rapid Championship Trophy for 2020.

View combined Crosstable and Rating performances
View Grade Crosstables

South Island Rapid Championship 2020 – 10 October

The South Island Rapid Championship took place on 10 October on the back of the main event. However the appetite for rapid chess was high after the lockdown, and the entry of 26 players eclipsed the main championship. Ed Rains started as top seed, with Layla Timergazi next followed by Quentin Johnson, Richie Christie and Felix Xie, with not a lot to separate them. Many others were in contention.

The first upsets occurred in round 2 when Rains lost to Denan Diep, while Christie went down to English tourist trapped in NZ, Brent Perrin.

In round 3 Perrin showed it was no fluke by drawing with Timergazi, leaving the lead on 3/3 to Johnson, who beat Ben Suazo, and Xie, who beat Diep.

In the penultimate round Xie made no mistake on board 1 and beat Timargazi to arssure himself on a share of first place with a round to spare. With Johnson and Christie playing out a hairy draw in a rook ending, the only player with a chnace to catch Xie was Jellyman afetr he beat Perrin.

View Rapid Vega files for the final results.

South Island Championship 2020 – 9 October

The South Island Championship took place on 3 to 9 October at the Otago Chess Club. The field of 22 players was surprisingly healthy considering the event was almost called off due to Covid 19 restrictions, and only one player less than the last time it was held here. Thanks to generous support from the Dunedin City Council which covered arbiter Craig Hall's fee, the prize fund was able to reach $1700.

Matthew McNabb started his defence of the title rather poorly with a loss in round 1 to Dan Dolejs, after allowing a dangerous counterattack. While another contender Riley Jellyman had to recover to draw against Winston Weng after squandering an opening advantage, and Ross Jackson lost a pawn and the gaem against Michael Ashe.

In round 2, top seed David Cilla Vincenti beat Richie Chritie to move to 2/2. He was matched by Edward Rains, who ground out a win over Edward Sarfas, and Quentin Johnson, who misplayed the opening but benefitted from a fatal error from Denan Diep. Ben Suazo beat Ashe to join them, as did Felix Xie, who beat Dolejs, the other giantkiller from round 1. Jellyman-McNabb was pairing neither would have wanted, but Jellyman's rust ruined another excellent position on the way to a loss.

In round 3 Cilla Vincenti - Johnson was drawn, as was Suazo - Jackson. That allowed Rains to seize the sole lead on 3/3 with a picturesque mate against Xie.

Round 4: Cilla Vincenti - Rains fought out a draw in a rook endgame, but Johnson missed his winning chance with the wrong pawn capture against Suazo, so the leading places were unchanged. McNabb came back into contention, joining the group half a point behind Rains by beating Richie.

In round 5 McNabb's Caro-Kann was employed to beat Rains and take over the lead on 4/5. Cilla Vincenti beat Suazo to join him, but Johnson went down to Xie. Jellyman beat Gold to join Rains and Xie on 3½.

In the battle between the leaders in round 6, Cilla Vincenti's Dutch went all wring against McNabb who won convincingly to take a half point lead in to the final round. Jellyman inflicted a second loss in a row on Rains to lead the chase, along with Xie, whose superior pawn structure proved enough to win an instructive Rook ending over Suazo.

The final round saw a quick draw offer on board 1 from Xie, which McNabb accepted, guaranteeing at least a share of 1st place and the South Island title. The only player who could catch him was Jellyman, but his Benko didn't go well against Cilla Vincenti, who went on to win. That meant McNabb defended his title, winning with 5½/7. 2nd= on 5 points were Cilla Vincenti, Xie and Romero Suggate, who won long ending against Jackson to take the U2000 grade ahead of Denan Diep on 4. The U1800 grade was shared by Winston Weng and Kendrick Zhang on 3½.

View Championship Vega files for results and games and also

Club Championship – 16 September

Ben Suazo took a half point lead over Edward Sarfas and Hamish Gold into the second leg of the club championship. His task of defending tha lead to win his first Senior Championship title was made a little easier when Gold failed to enter the tournament on the first night and had to play in the B Grade after a half point bye. In the key game Suazo beat Sarfas to extend his lead. However, the top seeds did not have it all their own way as new member Romero Suggate won against both Suazo and Sarfas, though also lost games to Terry Duffield and Brent Southgate. Ryan High, who was promoted after winning the B Grade in the first leg perfomed solidly with wins over Duffiled and Southgate, but lost his other games. Suazo scored 4/5 to win the A grade and take the Senior Chammpionship. Sarfas and Suggate were next on 3 points. High's 2 point were enough to win the Intermediate Championship thanks to the 1½ bonus for playing in the A Grade.

The B Grade turned into a close contest between the two players playing down from the A Grade in the first leg: Hamish Gold and Bob Clarkson. They drew their individual game and both finished on 4/5 to win the B Grade. David Reid had a strong 3½ points to finished third. New memeber Roshan Gangani scored a solid 3 points aloinbg with ALf Loretan, who has been steadilty improving this year. Hildon Nisa's 2½ point were enough to win the Junior Championship for 2020.

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 Suazo 11 (Senior Champion); 2 Sarfas 9½; 3 Gold 9; 4 High 8 (Intermediate Champion); 5 Southgate 7 ; 6-8 Loretan, Reid & Nisa (Junior Champion) 6½; 9 Duffield 6 ; 10 Clarkson 5½; 11 Suggate 4½; 12 Gangani 3; 13 Nelson 2½; 14 Gray 2; 15 Hamilton 0.

View all crosstables
View A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View B-Grade crosstable and rating performances

Cleland Trophy – 28 August

The Cleland Trophy was contested online on Fridays this year due to the chnages tot he calendar forced by Covid19. the format was a kind of round-robin with six rounds and seven players. Ben Suazo won the trophy with 6/6, followed by Edward Sarfas on 5 points.

View Crosstable and Rating performances (not eligible for NZCF rating)

Otago/Southland Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams Championship 2020 – 8 August

13 teams from nine schools played for the sixteenth annual Otago Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams' Championships at Kavanagh College Library. Although James Hargest sent two teams up from Invecargill this year, numbers were down to three teams in the Primary section due to a Covid-created timetable clash with the Chess Power event held in Dunedin two days earlier. Therefore the decision was made to combine both grades in a single event with separate prizes.

Defending Champions Balmacewen A were favourites, but were given a rude shock in the first round when they were held to a 2-2 draw by the Balmacewen B team. Kavanagh were also held to a 2-2 draw by George St Normal, though was less clearly an upset despite George St being in the Primary section. Oamaru Int was also held 2-2 by the Home school team playing in the Primary section.
In round 2 Tahuna A took the sole lead with a narrow 2½-1½ win over DNI A. Four teams moved into second on 1½ match points: Balmacewen A, Kavanagh, Balmacewen B and George St.
In round 3 Kavanagh took over the lead by defeating Tahuna A narrowly 2½-1½. Joining then on 2½ match points were Balmacewen A, who beat George St 3-1, and Balmacewen B, who won against DNI A 2½-1½.
In round 4 the hosts Kavanagh stayed in front with a 3-1 win over Balmacewen B. Balamcewen A dispatched Tahuna A 4-0 to set up a show-down between the two leading teams in round 5. A full point back with Balamacewen B were Oamaru, who beat DNI A 3-1, and George St who won by teh same score against James Hargest A.
Round 5 finally saw the favourites Balmacewen A take the sole lead on 4½ with a convincing 3½-½ victory over Kavanagh. Keeping up with Kavanagh in second place were Oamaru, who took down George St 3½-½, and Balmacewen B, who beat James Hargest B 3-1. That meant that for the first time George st lost the lead in the Primary section, to the Home team, who beat DNI B 2½-1½ to move half a match point ahead on 3 points.
Round 6 saw Balmacewen A beat Oamaru 3½-½ to move to 5½ match points. Kavanagh stayed in touch a point back with a 4-0 win over the Home School team. But the Balmacewen B team was held 2-2 by James Hargest A, so fell a further half point back going into the final round. George St reclaimed the lead in the Primary section with a 2½-1½ win over Tahnuna A, joining Oamaru on 3½ match points.
The Final round saw the top teams paired down the table, having payed all the nearby teams. Balmacewen A retained the Intermediate Championship title with a 4-0 sweep of DNI B to finish on 6½ match points. Hosts Kavanagh secured clear second place and their best ever result with a similar 4-0 win over James Hargest B, ending on 5½. In the contest for third place Balmacewen B and Oamaru came to a 2-2 standstill, which left Balmacewen B in third on 4½ match points, ahead of George St, who finished on the same score after a 3-1 win over Tahuna B, by virtue of countback: 16½ game point to George St's 16. George St's result easily took the Primary section, finishing 1½ points clear of the Home team.

Leading individual scorers were Board 1: (Int) Tyne Grant (Balmac A) 7/7, Geordie Stephenson (DNI A) 7/7, Ethan Then (Kavanagh) 6/7, (Prim) Matthew Sterk (Home) 4/7;
Board 2: (Int) Will Parry (Balmac A) 6½/7, Joseph Chen (Kavanagh) 6/7, Amelio Kaloga (DNI B) 6/7, (Prim) Thisun Kuruppuarachchi (George St) 3½/7;
Board 3: (Prim) Jack Phillips (George St) 5½/7, (Int) Noah Wilson (Balmac B) 5½/7; Jack Ussher (Balmac A) 5/7, Peter McIntyre (James Hargest A) 5/7;
Board 4: (int) Luca Rogers (Oamaru Int) 6½/7, Dina Veituna (Tahuna B) 5½/7, Aidan Dixon (Balmac A) 4½/7, Hasanli Barbaranda (James Hargest A) 4½/7, (Prim) Randika Dassanayake (George St) 4/7.

View Primary and Intermediate crosstable
View Primary and Intermediate 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.

Blitz Championship 2 – 5 August

On 5 August the second Blitz event for the inaugural Blair Freeman Trophy was held as a 13 player Swiss with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move. The tournament was won by Quentin Johnson on 8/8 with Ben Suazo 2nd on 7 points and new member Romero Suggate again proving extremely competitive in 3rdd on 5½.

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Otago/Southland Secondary Interschool Teams Championship 2020 – 1 August

A record fifteen teams from eight schools played for the sixteenth annual Otago/Southland Secondary Interschool Teams' Championship on Saturday 1 August. Because of Covid 19 the competition was held later in the calendar than usual. Southland were not able to hold their own competition this year, which meant three teams travelled up to the Logan Park High School Library, the same venue as last year. The relief after lock down made the atmosphere even more friendly and social than usual.

Match Points with Game Points as a tie-break meant once again that the result was in contention right to the last round, but in fact the critical match turned out to be in round 2. Defending champions OBHS A went down to Logan Park HS A 3-1, who won on the top two boards and drew the others. After that Logan Park A convincingly defeated its main rivals to retain their one point lead going into the final round. OBHS A kept pace, though only just beat the strong John McGlashan A team 2½-1½ in the 5th round. In the final round OBHS A won 4-0 against Kings HS X to put the maximum pressure on the leaders. Logan Park were taken right to the edge of defeat in their match with James Hargest A. The final reulst was 2-2 with two wins apiece and that was ennough for Logan Park A to keep their lead and finish in 1st place on 6½/7 match points. OBHS A were 2nd on 6 match points, despite amassing 22½ game points to LPHS A's total of 22. 3rd went to John McGlashan A on 5 match points, with their otal of 20 game points showing how closely matched the top three teams were. Logan Park A qualify for the national finals in Mt Maunganui on 26-27 September.

Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Alex Sun (Logan Park A) 6½/7, Noah Oseki (OBHS A) 5½/7, Martin Brook (JMC A) 5/7, William Knight (Waitaki BHS) 5/7; Board 2: Oscar Lobb (JMC A) 6½/7, Ethan Lau (OBHS A) 5½/7, Oscar Lobb (JMC A) 6½/7, Nathan Mutch (Logan Park B) 5/7, Damil Kebekbayev (Kings HS Y); Board 3: Paxton Hall (Logan Park A) 6/7, Cam Fraser (Kings HS Z) 6/7; Richard Wang (OBHS A) 5½/7, Anna Scott (Southland Girls HS) 5½/7; Board 4: Aaron Nelson (OBHS A) 6/7, Nathaniel Millar-Coote (OBHS B) 6/7, Zack Hibbert (Logan Park C) 5½/7.

Thank you to Logan Park High School and John Major for once again providing the excellent venue.

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View full scores with game points

Club Rapid Championship 1st leg – 29 July

The grades were set using the NZCF Rapid ratings under the rules.

Bob Clarkson started in the A Grade after a string Rapid year in 2019, but was forced to drop out after the first round. Ben Suazo dominated the rest taking teh grade on 5/6 ahead of new memeber Romero Suggate on 4 and Edward Sarfas on 3 points.

The B Grade was run as a six round Swiss, and resulted in a convincing victory for another new memeber Roshan Gangani on 5½/6, a poimt ahead iof Terry Duffield in 2nd on 4½. The competition was very close with the next five players bunched together within a point of each other.

In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicap of 3 points has been added to the A grade, 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.

View combined Crosstable and Rating performances
View Grade Crosstables

Blitz Championship 1 – 8 July

On 8 July the first Blitz event for the inaugural Blair Freeman Trophy was held as a ten player Round Robin with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move. The tournament was won by Quentin Johnson on 9/9 with new member Romero Suggate proving extremely competitive in 2nd on 8 and Ben Suazo 3rd on 7 points.

View Crosstable

Club Championship – 1 July

The first leg of the 2020 Club Championship was interrupted by the Covid 19 Level 4 lockdown on 19 March but resumed on 17 June after the Graham Haase Memorial and Swiss Rapid were cancelled for 2020 and the Cleland Trophy converted to an online event.

Ben Suazo leads the A Grade on 4/5 after dropping one game to defending champion Edward Sarfas, but winning the rest. Edward in turn dropped a game to Hamish Gold and both these players drew with Brent Southgate to finish tied in second place on 3½. Southgate had a strong event to finish 4th on 3 points.

The B grade was won by Ryan High on 4½/6, just ahead of Hildon Nisa on 4 points, with Alf Loretan and John Armstrong tied for 3rd on 3½. Thus Ryan earned promotion to the A Grade for the 2nd leg.

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.

View all crosstables
View A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View B&C-Grade crosstable and rating performances

May/June online Rapid – 30 June

Following on from the April online rapid another event was started in May on the Otago Chess Club Team page on lichess with the format one game each Wednesday night as a ten player round robin. The event was won by Ben Suazo on 7½/8 equal with Iaian Lamonth on 7½/9 though Ben didn't get to complete his final game against Hildon Nias before the event was abandoned once normal playing conditions resumed.

View Crosstable and Rating performances

April online Rapid – 30 April

The Covid 19 lockdown forced the club to suspend its normal calendar for several months and play went online instead. From 1 April and online rapid event took place on the Otago Chess Club Team page on lichess with the format two games against each opponent each Wednesday night. The event was won by Ben Suazo on 5/8.

View Crosstable and Rating performances

Autumn Rapid Open – 8 March

The 2020 Autumn seasonal rapid held on Sunday 8th March was run without any problems. It was a close run finish for first place between the top three but Malcolm Crack came through with an unblemished record of 5 wins from 5 games so a deserved win for him. Followed closely by Joe McKee and Romero Suggate with 4 out of 5. Fourth place was shared between Edward Sarfas and Ben Suazo. In the under 1600 Hamish Gold was first, followed by young Artem Anokovna who played really well and in third place was Arthur Chia. The under 1300 was won outright by Romero Suggate with 4 wins followed by Adrian Smith-Beech and in third place Martin Brook. Upset Prizes also went to Artem Anokvna for a draw against lewis Kim and a win against Bob Clarkson. Sophia Witham who was the only player to arrive from Invercargill received an upset prize for drawing with Bob Clarkson. Mention in despatches was also made at the prize giving with upsets by Joe McKee who beat Ben Suazo and by Romero Suggate who beat Edward Sarfas. It was great to see Ross Black down from Christchurch again to participate in this tournament which has now for quite a number of years unfortunately he had to cut short his round 4 game and default round 5 because of time pressure to get back to Christchurch. It was the same with Sophia Witham also missed her last round with needing to catch the bus back to Invercargill but was great effort from her to get here for the tournament.

The next rapid open is the Winter Rapid on Sunday 7 June.

View Crosstable

Allan Chang Memorial – 26 February

The Allan Chang 10 minute hourglass tournament found a unique winner in just three rounds - Geoff AImers scored 3/3 to finish clear first. As always the trophy was decided in the first round, with Lewis Kim defeating top seed Ben Suazo to claim the biggest upset. Although there were other upsets, none came close to this.

View Crosstable and Rating performances

2020 Otago chess club AGM – 12 February

Bob Clarkson stayed on a President for another year, as did Brent Southgate as Secretary and Geoff Aimers as Vice President. Max Lough stood down as Treasurer to pursue his studies in 2020 and was replaced by Alf Loretan. Bob Glass remained as Patron, but stood down as Auditor and was replaced by Quentin Johnson. Shoji Fukushima resigned from the committee for 2020 and was replaced by honorary member Lisa Oseki. Subscriptions remained the same as 2019. The 2020 committee comprises:

President: Bob Clarkson; Vice President: Geoff Aimers; Secretary: Brent Southgate; Treasurer: Alf Loretan; Director of Junior Play: Quentin Johnson; Past-President: N/A; Committee members: Terry Duffield, Edward Sarfas and Lisa Oseki; Auditor: Quentin Johnson; Patron: Bob Glass.

The Calendar for 2020 was accepted with no changes for 2020 with the committee to draft changes for 2021.