2023 Otago Chess News

The final event for 2022 was the prizegiving and Quiz on 13 December - The competition was close and hard-fought as usual, with a sudden death playoff required again to determine the winning team. Thanks to Geoff Aimers for once again preparing a unique quiz.

This year's winner in the Standard Perpetual was newcomer Samuel Mitchell with +122, ahead of Oscar Lobb +106, while Jens Paulsen, continued to improve with +69. The Rapid Perpetual was narrowly won by Oscar Lobb on +82 points, just ahead of Ryan High second on +79 and and another new member Rogan-joe Sloan third on +65. Samuel Mitchell also took out the Blitz perpetual on +88 points. Another new member Oliver Lee was second on +68, with Quentin Johnson third on +64.

This victory enabled Johnson to take out the Blair Freeman Trophy for 2023, with an aggregate score from his three best results across the five tournaments of 18½/20 ahead of Ben Suazo on 16½/19 and Iain Lamont on 15½/20.

The Summer Rapid Open drew the largest field to date in one of these events with 42 players, forcing us to use the committee room for two boards and the Analysis room for one, for the first few rounds. Groups coming from Invercargill, Queenstown, Wanaka and Oamaru boosted the turnout, and Ross Black made it down from Christchurch. There is an excellent longer article by Tyne Grant in the second online magazine Aotearoa Chess, Vol. 1, No. 2.

2023-12-03 Otago Summer Rapid - Round 1 - boards 10-18 - photo Jeannine Tuffin

2023-12-03 Otago Summer Rapid - Round 2 - reading the draw - photo Jeannine Tuffin

2023-12-03 Otago Summer Rapid - Round 2 - boards 1-9 - photo Jeannine Tuffin

2023-12-03 Otago Summer Rapid - Round 3 - boards 1-9 - photo Jeannine Tuffin

2023-12-03 Otago Summer Rapid - Round 3 - board 9 - photo Jeannine Tuffin

2023-12-03 Otago Summer Rapid - Round 5 - board 1 - Jeannine Tuffin

Top seed was Alex Nedyhalov went through unbeaten to win on 5½ dropping only half a point to Quentin Johnson in round 5 when he relaxed for a move after winning a pice for two pawns and Johnson's counterplay was enough to secure a perpetual. Second was shared by Alexander Sun, who beat Johnson in the final round to finish on 5 points, along with Daniel Bell, who scored a notable sucess including an upset win over Richie Christie.

The U1500 Grade was shared by Raymond Yang, Tyne Grant and Scott Samuel on 4 points, with Samuel taking the U1200 prize. Second in the U1200 grade was Samuel Mitchell on 3 points.

Alex Nedyhalov's third win in this series gave him the winning aggregate score of 16/18 (top three results) to win the Westpac trophy for 2023. Next best were Ben Suazo and Atlas Kerr with 14 points.

This year's tournament was the usual FIDE-rated swiss, which was contested by 23 players, although only a few players played all six rounds. Secong seed Iain Lamont powered through the field with five wins and a half point bye in round 4 to win by a 1½ point margin on 5½/6. The only other inbeaten playe was Alexander Sun, who joined in round 3 after two half-point byes, won three games, including against the top seed Quentin Johnson in round 5, then missed the final round. He finished second equal with Johnson on 4 points, as did Oscar Lobb, who lost to the top two seeds but won all his other games. Ben Suazo was 5th on 3½after taking a half point bye in round 3, then losing to Lamont in round 5 and missing the final round due to illness. Oscar achieved a first FIDE Rating of 1659, while initial FIDE rating blocks were earned by Alexander, Samuel Mitchell, Oliver Lee and Janic Gorman.

Starting on 5 September with two grades, the second leg of the club standard championship was affected by the withdrawal of Jens Paulsen after playing two games. The players who missed games against him were awarded half points.

In the A Grade Quentin Johnson emerged the winner on 3½/5 ahead of Iain Lamont and Leo Malcolm second equal on 3 points. However Paulsen's 1½ points added to his lead from the first leg set a difficult target of 11 aggregate points in such an evenly matched field. Thus Paulsen finished second equal with Lamont on aggregate p[oints and these two share theSenior Championship for 2023. Malcolm's total of 9½ was after being promoted from the B Grade in leg 1 was a clear winning score for the Intermediate Championship by 2½ points over Hamish Gold.

The B Grade was won in seemingly in a stroll by Samuel Mitchell on 6/6. Despite Mitchell not performing well in leg 1, this result propelled him to the Junior Championship for 203 on an aggregate score of 6½, just ahead of Oscar Lobb on 6 points, when Lobb moved up to the A Grade but could only score half a point. second in the B Grade was Gold way back on 4 points, with Brent Southgate and David Reid sharing third on 3½.

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 Paulsen & Lamont 11 points (Joint Senior Champions); 3 Johnson 10½; 4 Ben Suazo 10; 5 Malcolm 9½ (Intermediate Champion); 6 Gold 7; 7-8 Elliot Munro & Mitchell (Junior Champion) 6½; 9 Lobb 6; 10-11 Duffield & Qi Le Kong-Lim 5½; 12-14 Clarkson, Reid & Alexander Sun 5; 15 Southgate 4½.

The 2023 South Island Rapid Championship was held on Sunday 1 October at the Brydone Hotel in Oamaru, supported by the Oamaru Licencing Trust and the Bendigo Valley Sports & Charity Foundation. There is an excellent article on it in the new online magazine Aotearoa Chess, Vol. 1, No. 1. See the NZCF website: 2023 South Island Championship and live broadcast on lichess
Congratulations to Kendrick Zhang for winning the 2023 South Island Rapid Championship with 5½/6. Tying for secong on 5 points were Atlas Kerr, Alex Nedyhalov, Thomas Koentges, Nikola Mayrhuber and Jack McConnell. Kerr, Nedyhalov and Koentges share the South Island Rapid Champion title for 2023, while McConnell picked up the U1800 grade prize. Second in the U1800 grade was Artem Anikonov on 4½. The U1200 grade was won by Dion Wilson on 4 points, and second was shared by Abigail Rowe, Caleb McDonald, Charles Prebble and Abel van Booma, all on 3 points.

The 2023 South Island Championship ran from 27 to 30 September at the Brydone Hotel in Oamaru, supported by the Oamaru Licencing Trust and the Bendigo Valley Sports & Charity Foundation. There is an excellent article on it in the new online magazine Aotearoa Chess, Vol. 1, No. 1. See the NZCF website: 2023 South Island Championship and live broadcast on lichess
Congratulations to the 2023 South Island Champion, Eddie Lee of Invercargill. His score of 6½/8 was enough for sole first place ahead of Stephen Lukey, Kendrick Zhang and Matthew McNabb equal second on 6 points. The Under 2000 grade prize was shared by Rommel Ong, Atlas Kerr and Timothy Ha on 5½, while the Under 1650 grade was shared by Karl Holdo and Angelito Ingan on 5 points.

The fourth Blitz tournament was held on 27 September, with Ben Suazo winning on 5/5, followed by 2nd Iain Lamont on 4 and Rogan-Joe Sloan 3rd on 2½, Zhen Min Yee 2, Samuel Mitchell 1½ and Henry Chapman 0.

The Spring Rapid Open drew a large field with 30 players from around the South Island plus David Scott from Kapiti and WFM Nikola Mayrhuber, a German exchange student at Otago. Top seed was again Sasha Nedyhalov, the winner of the Winter Rapid Open in June. There were two grades: Open and U1500.

Results went mostly according to seeding in round one and two, except the unrated Prasanna Venkatesh holding Scott to a draw in round 1 and Mayrhuber losing to wily local rapid specialist Emmanuel Santiago on board 3 in round 2. The big results started in round 3 with just four players getting to 3/3: Nedyhalov, Iain Lamont, Quentin Johnson and Santiago, beatng respectively Altas Kerr, Ben Suazo, Romero Suggate and Scott. In round 4 Nedyhalov had the advantage agaisnt Johnson on board 1, but relaxed and Johnson sacrificed a rook for a winning counterattack. On board 2 Lamont eneded Santiago's winning run to join Johnson on 4/4. Joining Nadyhalov and Santiago on 3 points were Suazo, Kerr, Suggate and Leo Malcolm, beating Pierson Tobeck, Alistair Morgan, Greg Familton and Hamish Gold respectively. Mayrhuber was unable to win a KBN vs K ending against Edward Sarfas within the time limit so these two were a further half point back along with Scott. In round 5 Lamont outplayed Johnson on board 1 only to lose to a cheapo promotion trick at the last minute, leavingJohnson in the sole lead on 5/5. Nedyhalov made short work on Suggate on board 2 to stay in contention on 4 points with Lamont, as did Suazo and Kerr, beating Malcolm and Santiago respectively. Sarfas and Mayrhuber both advanced to 3½, beating Scott and Morgan respectively. In the final round Nedyhalov won quickly against Lamont on board 2 to get to 5/6. Johnson spoiled a good position against Kerr on board 1 and lost to Kerr's kingside assault, leaving these two tied for first with Nedyhalov. Suazo was able to join them by beating Mayrhuber on board 3. The U1500 Grade prize was won by Tyne Grant on 4 points, who upset Familton in the final round. Second in the grade was shared by Paul Gudoy, Ryan Zhou and Roam Penwarden on 3 points.
The next rapid open is the Summer Rapid on Sunday 3 December.

On 30 August the third Blitz event for the Blair Freeman Trophy was held as a 9 player Swiss with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move. The tournament was won by top seed Iain Lamont, dropping only half a point to Ben Suazo to score 5½/6. Quentin Johnson was second on 5 and thrid was shared by Suzo and Henry Chapman on 3½.

The second leg involved promotions and demotions between grades accoring to the rules, but with The winner of the B Grade in leg 1 Greg Familton not taking part, the A Grade was the same as the first leg and the C and D grade were merged.

The A grade was not completed due to Jens Paulsen withdrawing with two games to play against Leo Malcolm. However, as the championship trophies were already decided regardless of the results of these games it had no detrimental affect. Ben Suazo won the A Grade on 4½/6, but this proved not enough to overhaul Quentin Johnson's lead from the first and Johnson won the Senior Rapid Championship for 2023 with and aggregate score of 17½ over the two legs. Suazo was secong on 16 aggregate points and Malcolm was third on 13½ with two games unplayed.

The B Grade was jointly won Hamish Gold and Ryan High tying on 4/6, which was enough for High to take out teh Junior Championship trophy on an aggregate scoe of 10 points. Rogan-Joe Sloan's score of 2/6 with two games defaulted was still enough to win the Intermediate Championship trophy for 2023 on an aggreate score of 10½ points. Bob Clarkson finished 4th on 1 point, only taking a point off Gold.

The C Grade was again a six-round swiss, with many players entering late or withdrawing. Zhe Min Yee won on 4/6 after starting with two half-point byes.There was a big pile-up for second place on 3 points featuring Oscar Lobb, Issey Gray, Brent Southgate, Oliver Lee, John Armstrong, Alf Loretan and Henry Chapman.

In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicaps of 3½ and 1 point have been added to the A and B grades and show the overall standings after the both legs. The handicaps are derived from the difference in expected score between the average NZCF rating of each grade.

A large field of 40 players turned out at the Otago Chess Club to contest the 2023 championship - mostly from Dunedin with players also coming from from Invercargill and Oamaru. The large number of players meant that the number of rounds would be reduced to six in order to stay on schedule. The pre-tournament favourites were past champions Romero Suggate (17, UO) and Alexander Sun (16, LPHS). These two were expected to be pushed by Leo Malcolm (18, UO), Oscar Lobb (19, UO), Martin Brook (17, UO) and Has Barbaranda (17, James Hargest) and Henry Le (13, Trinity), the winner of last years' U13 championship, along with many others with the potential to upset the favourites.

The seeding, which was mainly based on age groups, lead to many upsets form the first round onwards. A key result from round 1 were Hasanli Hewa Barbaranda (13, James Hargest) holding Sun to a draw, while all the other favourites won, except Lobb, who had taken a half point bye.

Round 2 saw defending champion Suggate lose to Joseph Butson (15, Home), while Le defeated Martin Brook and Tyne Grant (15, LPHS) went down to Conor Kerr (11, DNI).

Round 3 thinned out the leaders on 3/3 to just three players: Malcolm beat Naoki Kozakai (15, LPHS) on board 1, Ramon Quennell (15, LPHS) defeated Alison Latawan (18, UO) and Has Barbaranda beat Butosn on board 3. Luke Woo (16, OBHS) vs Le was a draw on board 4, while Kerr was defeated by Lobb on board 5. Meanwhile Suggate was handed his second loss on board 6 by Sun to effectively drop out of the race, as did Martin Brook, in losing to Joseph Chen (14, OBHS) on board 7.

The top board match-up in round 4 between Has Barbaranda and Malcolm resulted in a win to Malcolm who took the sole lead on 4/4, as Sun defeated Quennell on board 2 to lead teh chasers on 3½, joined by LObb, who defeatet Woo on board 3 and Le who defeated Latawan on board 4.

Round 5, the penultimate round, saw Malcolm beat Lobb on board 1 to ensure at least a share of first place on 5/5, as Le-Sun was a draw on board 2. Joining these two on 4/5 were Has Barbaranda, who beat Sasandiu Kiwulegedara (13, James Hargest), Butson, who beat Kozakai, Quennell, who beat Roam Penwarden (13, JMC) and Aidan Dixon (15, LPHS) who defeated Kerr.

The 6th and final round saw Malcolm make no mistake to defeat Quennell and win the 2023 U20 championship on 6/6. Le-Has Barbaranda on board 2 was a draw, allowing Sun to claim sole second place on 5 points by defeating Dixon on board 3, as Butson lost to Wo on board 4. Lobb beat Suggate to claim a share of third on 4½ with Le, Woo and Has Barbaranda. Henry Le aslo won the U16, while second equal on 4 points were Naoki Kozakai, Tyne Grant, Ramon Quennell, Joseph Butson, Aidan Dixon and Roam Penwarden. First in the U13 section on 3½ was Eshaan Atre (DNI), with second equal U13 on 3 points shared by Zihan Fu, Conor Kerr, Misha Zernov (12, James Hargest) and Othika Hewa Barbaranda (7, Salford). Hasanli Hewa Barbaranda was the best female on 3½ points and the Best Team was once again LPHS 1 (Sun, Kozakai and Grant).

21 players turned out from Invercargill and throughout Dunedin at the Otago Chess Club to compete in this year's championship. Seedings were based mainly on ages but in a field of young players it is experience that counts. Players expected to do well were Zihan Fu (12, LPHS), Conor Kerr (11, DNI), who finished 2nd and 3rd last year. Samantha Coleman (10, SGHS), having competed played in several open events, was also one to watch.

The age upsets began in round 1 - Samantha Coleman beat Esaan Atre (12, DNI) would later prove to be the most significant result. In round 2 the upsets continued: Marcus Ng (11, DNI) beat Thisun Kuruppuarachchi (12 OBHS), Anderson Scott (10, Maori Hill) beat Bilal Ahmad (12, Balmacewen) and most significantly Samantha Coleman beat pre-tournament favourite Zihan Fu. In round 3 on board 1 Conor Kerr defeated Samantha Coleman to end her streak. Scott joined him on 3/3 with a win over Zhiqing Li (11, DNI), as did Ng, wh beat Jacob Christie (11, Tahuna). In round 4 Kerr assumed the sole lead on 4/4 with a win over Ng. Scott was not able to join him as he lost to Fu on board 2. Joining the chasing pack on 3 points were Samantha Coleman, Atre and Dean Coleman (7, St Theresa's), who beat Zhong, Li, and Carlin Summerfield (11, Balmacewen) respectively. Round 5 was the penultimate round, as time constraints ruled out a 7th round. In a big upset Atre beat his DNI teammate Kerr on board 1, to throw the tournament open. Joining these two in the lead on 4/5 were Fu, who beat Ng, Samantha Coleman, who beat Scott, and Dean Coleman, who defeated Mark Luthar (12, Tahuna).

The sixth and final round had the pre-tournament favourites Fu-Kerr meeting on board 1, Atre-Dean Coleman on board 2, with Samantha Coleman having the downfloat to play Christie on board 3, having already played Kerr, Fu and Atre. As in last year's final round Fu defeated Kerr to claim a share of first place on 5/6. Atre prevailed over Dean Coleman to join him, as did Samatha Coleman, after defeating Christie to make it a three-way tie for first. Samantha also won the U11 section. Second equal U11 on 4 points were Dean Coleman and Anderson Scott after deafeating Summerfield.

The Swiss Rapid was again a short four rounds this year, but with a turnout of thirteen players, this was ample to provide a decisive winner. Leo Malcolm won all four games to take first place on 4/4. Jens Paulsen provided the greatest challnge - also winning his first three games, but losing to Malcolm in the final round. He was joined in second place on 3 points by Ryan High, who lost to Malcolm in round 2 and won all his other games. The top two seeds Quentin Johnson and Ben Suazo both lost games early to drop out of contention. Johnson to Paulsen in round 2 and Suazo to Malcolm in round 3. They drew their game in the finalround to finish tied for fourth on 2½.

The Cleland Trophy had a good turnout of 24 players. Top seed was Quentin Johnson but half-point byes in rounds 1 and 3 meant he would have to score almost perfectly to win. A draw with Ben Suazo in round four was enough to take him out of contention. the early leader was Oscar Lobb, who won his first three games including a round 1 win over past winner Jens Paulsen, before taking a half point bye in round four. He then had to face Suazo and Johnson in the final two rounds and lost both games. Suazo's vistory in round 5 gave him the sole lead, which he held by defeating Paulsen in round 6 to finish on 5/6. Johnson was second on 4½ and Hamish Gold took third on 4 points. Oscar Lobb finished tied for fourth on 3½ with Paulsen and Rogan-Joe Sloan, two points above his expected score - gaining a haul of rating points.

An excellent turnout of 17 teams from ten schools played for the ninteenth annual Otago/Southland Secondary Interschool Teams' Championship on Saturday 24 June in the Logan Park High School Library. The large numbers from Dunedin, Invercargill, Oamaru and Queenstown meant the competition had to be reduced to six rounds to fit within the scheduled time.

Match Points with Game Points as a tie-break meant once again that the result was in contention right to the last round. Only two teams won their first two matches: top seed Logan Park A and 4th seeds OBHS 1. Absent last year, 3rd seeds James Hargest A drew their first match 2-2 with Logan Park B, while second seeds Kings HS A drew their second round match 2-2 with OBHS 2. In round 3 the two teams on 2 match points, Logan Park A and OBHS 1, squared off for another 2-2 draw, which allowed Kings HS A, James Hargest A and OBHS 2 to catch up and share the lead on 2½ match points. In round 4 when LPHS A defeated OBHS 2 3-1, while James Hargest A beat Kings HS A by the same score, as did OBHS 1 over DJCA mixed team, leaving all three teams tied for the lead on 3½ match points, with Logan Park B just behind on 3 points. In round 5 the critical results occurred: on table 1 James Hargest A eked out a 2½-1½ win over OBHS 1, while the LPHS A nd B teams fought to a 2-2 standstill. That meant a thrilling final round match up between the leaders James Hargest A on 4½ against LPHS A on 4 points, need a match win to overtake them. In the end, the result was another closely fought 2-2 draw, allowing James Hargest A to take first place on 5 match points (and 16 game points) and the right to represent Southland at teh national finals. OBHS 1 managed a narrow 2½-1½ victory over LPHS B, to tie with LPHS A on 4½ match points and both also had 16 game points. That meant a blitz playoff was required to decide the Otago representative as the two teams had also drawn their individual match. Logan Park convincingly won the playoff 4-0.

Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Hasnula Hewa Babaranda (James Hargest A) 5½/6, Sam Kelly (Trinity) 4½/6, Luke Woo (OBHS 1), Paul Gudoy (Waitaki NHS), Conor Kerr & Hasan Sheikh (Kings HS B) 4/6;
Board 2: Joseph Chen (OBHS 1) 6/6, Henry Le (Trinity) 5½/6, Hasanli Hewa Barbaranda (James Hargest B) 5/6;
Board 3: Tyne Grant (LPHS A), Raymond Yang (Kings HS A), Haru Kuroe (Wakatipu High School A) & Zihan Fu (LPHS B) 5/6;
Board 4: Ben Nguyen (OBHS 2) 6/6, Forrest Lung (James Hargest A) & Micah Duckles (LPHS C) 5/6.

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

Otago/Southland Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams Championship 2023 - 17 June

15 teams from twelve schools played for the nineteenth annual Otago/Southland Intermediate Interschool Teams' Championships at Trinity College Library. The five teams in the Primary grade voted to compete in a separate tournament from the Intermediate teams this year, so it was divided into two events held concurrenty: A double-round-robin of eight games for the Primary teams and a seven round swiss for the Intermediate teams.

Primary Grade
George Street Normal And B teams started the clear favourites for this event and so it proved, with a total of three games lost to other teams than each other between them. Anderson Scott on board 1 of Maori Hill managed to win one of his games against Alex Lai of GSNS A and one of his games against Lachlan Laird of GSNS B. Edwin Dent on board 4 of Maori Hill was the other player to win a gme again the top seeds beating Louis Ha of GSNS B in one other their games. Otherwise it was all one way traffic, with both GSNS teams recording 4-0 sweeps against Knapdale school and Abbotsford School.

The key match up came in the final two rounds when the George Street teams were paire together. In the first match the B team scored a notable upset victory 2½-1½ with wins on boards 2 and four and a draw on board 1. However, the George Street A team took swift revenge with wins on boards 1, 2 and 4 in the return match to secure a 3-1 victory and first place on 7 match points and a countback of 27½ game points. George Street B took second on 7 match points and a countback of 25½ game points. The other teams were much more closely matched: Third went to went Maori Hill on 2½ match points, ahead of Abbotsford on 2 match points and then Knapdale on 1½ match points.

Leading individual scorers were Board 1: Alex Lai (George St A) 6½/8, Anderson Scott (Maori Hill) 6/8, Lachlan Laird (George St B) 5½/8;
Board 2: Ruthren Senthil Rumar (George St A) & Blake Friedrich (George St B) 7/8, Lucy Williams (Knapdale) 3½/8;
Board 3: Connor Toms (George St A) & Henry Orchiston (George St B) 7/8, Kano Gough (Maori Hill) 3½/8;
Board 4: Emersyn McElligot (George St A) 7/8, Louis Ha (George St B) 6/8, Jadyn Martyn (Knapdale) & TJ Maihi (Abbotsford) 3/8.

Intermediate Grade
Balmacewen Blue and James Hargest were the starting favourites in the the Intermediate section based recent years' results and they duly won their first round matches. However in round 2 the DNI team narrowly took out the top seeds Balmaceewen Blue 2½-1½. The was followed by a 2-2 draw between the leaders DNI and James Hargest in round 3, allowing Tahuna A to catch the leaders on 2½ match points. James Hargest drew 2-2- with Tahuna A in round 4, to let DNI take the sole lead with a 3-1 defeat of Balmacewen Red. Meanwhile Balmacewen Blue fell off the pace with a 2½-1½ loss to Tahuna B. They bounced back inround 5 with a convincing 3½-½ over Tahuna A to ruin their chances of catching the leaders. Meanwhile both DNI and James Hargest had wins over St Mary's Mosgiel and Trinity College respectively to maintain first and second places. In round 6 DNI beat Tahuna A 3½-½ to take a half point lead into the final round over James Hargest, who crushed Balmacewen Blue 4-0. With all the leading teams having now played each other, the final round was something of a formality with convincing by all the leading teams being paired with teams on lower scores. DNI beat John McGlashan 4-0 to secure first place and the right to represent Otago at the national finals on 6½ match points. James Hargest defeated Tahuna B 3½-½ to finish clear second on 6 match points and win the right to represent Southland at the national finals. The contest for thirs was much closer with three teams winning their final match to finish tied on 4 match points and had to be separated by total games points: Balmacewen Blue 17½ were third, Balmacewen Red 16 came fourth and Tahuna A 14½ finished fifth. Leading Indivdual board scorers were hard to determine as DNI initially mistook how to play with a reserve and mixed their board order fo the first few rounds, so the total scores shown are not necessarilty the games of that player.

Thanks again to Daniel Kelly and Trinity College for providing the great venue.
The Daily Encourager published an article on the popularity of chess with young people, based in Dunedin, with photographs from the event.

The Winter Rapid Open drew a very healthy field of 34, with a players from Oamaru and Invercargill, and Artem Anikonov from Christchurch adding to the Dunedin contingent. Top seed was FM Mike Steadman, based in Queenstown, with last year's winner Sasha Nedyhalov expected to give him the most competition. With a large field there were three prize grades: Open, U1600 and U1300. Upsets abounded form the first round, with third seed Atlas Kerr losing to local junior Geordie Stephenson and 4th seed Quentin Johnson doing likewise to Conor Kerr. They continued in round 2 with Emmanuel Santiago defeating 6th seed Richie Christie, John Whelan beating 8th seed Rick Loos, and Stephenson continuing his run be beating 9th seed Anikonov. Stephenson continued in round 3 by drawing with 7th seed Thomas Koentges to stay undefeated. Meanwhile Conor Kerr beat Loos to show his round 1 result was no accident. This round saw the leading group thinned to just three players: Steadman, Nedyhalov and Ben Suazo on 3 points, with Stephenson and Koentges following on 2½. The round 4 top board clash between on the top two seeds Steadman-Nedyhalov ended in a draw. That allowed Suazo to take the sole lead on 4/4 by ending Stephenson's dream run, with Steadman and Nedyhalov half a point behind. Koentges drew with Johnson with a nice stalement trap to lead a chasing group on 3 comprisng Christie, Hamish Gold and Anikonov. The fifth and penultimate round sorted out the main final placings: Nedyhalov defeated Suazo on board 1 to take over the lead on 4½/5, as Steadman on board 2 went down to Christie. Koentges beat Gold to stay in contention with Chritie and Suazo on 4 points, but Anikonov was held to a draw by Liam Alcock, so dropped off the pace. The final round saw Nedyhalov defeat Koentges on board 1 to secure first place outright on 5½/6. Board 2 Suazo-Christie ended in the a win to Suazo to take clear second place on 5 points. Stead beat Anionov on board 3 to take what proved to be clear third on 4½.The U1600 Grade prize was shared by Emmanuel Santiago, Daniel Bell, Oscar Lobb and Tyne Grant on 4 points. The U1300 Grade prize was shared by Paul Gudoy and Benjamin Roberts on 3 points.
The next rapid open is the Spring Rapid on Sunday 3 September.

The A grade had two regulars, Quentin Johnson and Ben Suazo, and two new additions: Jens Paulsen who had fought his way up the ratings to appear in the A grade for the first time having started in the C grade last year, along with new member this year Leo Malcolm. The results were much starker than the ratings would have suggested, with Johnson winning with 6/6. Suazo and Malcolm shared second on 3 points and Paulsen scored 0, after struggling to convert good positions into points under the rapid time control.

The B Grade was won convincingly by Greg Familton, who after trading wins with Oscar Lobb won all his other games to finish on 5/6. The other players were bunched together far behind, with Lobb and Terry Ffield tied in second on 2½ and Hamish Gold trailing on 2 points.

The C Grade went undecided until the end when it was deemed Issey Gray would not be able to catch up missed games so these were converted into defaults to be consistent with the two losses to Brent Southgate on the opening night. That meant Rogan-Joe Sloan won the grade with 5/6, ahead of Bob Clarkson on 4 and Southgate on 3 points.

The D Grade was a six-round swiss, and first was shared by Ryan High and Zhe Min Lee on 5/6. High won their individual game but also has a half-point bye and a final round draw to ALf Loretan. Third was William Smith on 4 points and 4th was shared by stalwart John Armstrong along with new member Oliver Lee on 2½.

In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicaps of 5, 2½ and 1½ points have been added to the A, B and C grades, showingthe overall standings after the first leg. The handicaps are derived from the difference in expected score between the average NZCF rating of each grade.

On 7 June the second Blitz event for the Blair Freeman Trophy was held as a 14 player Swiss with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move, though two withdrawals after round 1 cut the firled to twelve. The tournament was jointly won by top seeds Ben Suazo and Quentin Johnson on 6½/7. These two drew with each other and won all their other games. Iain Lamont was 3rd on 5 points and Samuel Mitchell and Rogan-Joe Slaon shared 4th on 4. Ian Repia scored a notable 3½ for 6th as he played both the winners.

The Graham Haase Memorial 2023 chess tournament equalled its biggest turnout with 29 players taking part including several new members. It ended with Jens Paulsen continuing his great year so far, taking the top spot with an impressive score of 4½ out of 5, a point clear of the field. Paulsen had a fantastic performance, with a draw with Oscar Lobb in the first round then winning his last four games against some tough opponents. Quentin Johnson led throughout, but a draw to Iain Lamont in round four followed by a loss to Paulsen in the final round meant he finished in a tie for second with Lamont, Naser Tamimi, Hamish Gold, and Leo Malcolm on 3½ points. Paulsen and Tamimi had notable rating gains (Naser returning to the club after a couple of years hiatus), along with Lobb, William Smith and John Armstrong.

The 2023 University of Otago held its annual Inter-College Chess Teams competition on Sunday 23 April at the College of Education staffroom. Studholme 1 were the champions this year with a score of 9/10.

The first leg of the 2023 Club Championship was affected by a number of absences with seveal games still to finish in the A and B Grades.

Update: Greg Familton withdrew his remaining games after commitmnets prevented him finishing so byes were awarded t his opponents to be consistent. That menat Jens was first on 4½, while the other places are yet to be decided withone games remaining to be played.

Elliot Munro left no doubt in the B Grade with a picket fence 5/5, followed by Leo Malcolm on 3/4 with game to play, though he could still be caught by Hamish Gold or Alexander Sun depending on the remaining games.

Update: Alexander Sun won his remaing two games to overtake Gold and Malcolm and finish 2nd on 3½. Leo Malcolm was third on 3 and Hamish Gold finished 4th on 2 points. Terry Duffiled was 5th on 1½ while Brent Southgate ruined some winning positions on his way to 0 points.

The C Grade tournament report courtesy of ChatGPT with some minor editing: Ezekiel Stewart emerged as the clear winner with a score of 5 out of 6 points. He played excellent games throughout the tournament and defeated his opponents with ease, with just one loss to Ryan High. Ryan High came in equal second place with 4 points, dropping a game to Issey Ess and missing the final round. Oscar Lobb shared second on 4 points, losing only tow Stewart and High. Bob Clarkson finished fourth with 3½ points, while Issey Ess and David Reid shared the fifth place with 2½ points each. Alf Loretan and Samuel Mitchell tied for the seventh place with 2 points each, while William Smith, John F Armstrong, Rogan-Joe Sloan, and Oliver Lee rounded up the rest of the standings.
Overall, it was a competitive and exciting tournament, and congratulations to Ezekiel Stewart for winning promotion to the B Grade in the second leg!

The Autumn Rapid Open drew an excellent field of 30, with a players from Invercargill, Whakatipu HS in Queenstown and Artem Anikonov coming down from Christchurch. Top seed was Ben Suazo, though a feeling that many players were underrated in the field was soon bourne out. There were three prize grades: Open, U1600 and U1200, with a number of the ratings estimated or based on chess.com or lichess ratings. Results went mostly according to seeding in the first two rounds, except Raymond Yang held Leo Malcolm to a draw, while Yurri Viray beat Daniel Bell, while in round 2 Matt Williams inflicted an upset loss on Richie Christie.
Round Three saw Artem Anikonov defeat top seed Ben Suazo on board 1, while Qi Le Kong-Lim vs Quentin Johnson on board 2 was a draw after mutual blunders. Rogan-Joe Sloan picked up an upset win over Hamish Gold, and Daniel Bell lost a second upset to a Whakatipu HS student, this time to Haru Kuroe. That left just two players on 3/3: Anikonov and 4th seed Atlas Kerr, with Johnson, Kong-Lim and Malcolm half a point behind.
In round 4 the board 1 clash resulted in a win to Anikonov over Kerr. Malcolm beat Johnson ob board 2, while Kong-Lim inflicted a second loss on Suazo. That left Anikonov in the sole lead on 4/4 with two rounds to go, just ahead of Kong-Lim and Malcolm on 3&frca12; with a large group on 3 points.
Kong-Lim gound Anionov down in along minor poice endgame to take over the sole lead on 4½/5, since Malcolm was beaten by Kerr on board 2. Joining Anikonov and Kerr on 4/5 with a chance for first place were Christie, who beat Gary McLean and Jens Paulsen who beat Matt Williams. Bell had yet another upset inflicted on him - this time by Yang.
The critical games in the final round were Kong-Lim - Chritie on board 1, Anikonov-Jens Paulsen on board 2 and Kerr-Johnson on board 3. Qi Le won to stay in clear first and win the event on 5½/6. Paulsen overcame Anikonov to finish second on 5, equal with Kerr, who beat Johnson. Malcolm beat Edward Sarfas to finish alone in 4th place on 4½ just off the podium.
The U1600 Grade was shared by Hamish Gold, Emmanuel Santiago and Conor Kerr on 4 points.
The U1200 Grade was shared by Leo Devlin, Haru Kuroe and Yurri Viray on 3 points.
The next rapid open is the Winter Rapid on Sunday 11 June.

The Allan Chang 10 minute hourglass tournament had a turnout of 19 participants. The unusual time limit delivered plenty of upsets, with the trophy going to the largest (based on club rapid rating difference January 2023).

Oscar Lobb recorded the biggest upset of round 1 with a win over Terry Duffield (Difference 109 club rapid rating points), and then bettered it two games later by beating Greg Familton (145 points). This proved to be the biggest upset in the event despite Oscar not playing the second night, so the trophy went to Oscar. Ben Suazo accummulated 6½ points from eight games to lead the scores, ahead of Quentin Johnson on 6/7 and Romero Suggate 5/7. New membebr Leo Malcolm joined in the second week and scored a handy 3/4 including a final round win over Johnson.

Terry Duffield was re-elected as the President. Edward Sarfas stood down as Vice President and club Captain. Alf Loretan was elected to both roles. Brent Southgate stayed on as Secretary and Noah Oseki was re-elected as Treasurer. Quentin Johnson stayed on as Auditor and Director of Junior Play. Bob Glass remained as Patron. Jens Paulsen and Greg Familton were elected as committee members and Geoff Aimers is Past President.
A new version of the Club Constition was adopted to update the rules in line with coiming legislation concerning incorporated Societies.
2023 Subscriptions remained the same as 2022.

President: Terry Duffield; Vice President: Alf Loretan; Secretary: Brent Southgate; Treasurer: Noah Oseki; Director of Junior Play: Quentin Johnson; Past-President: Geoff Aimers; Club Captain: Alf Loretan; Committee members: Jens Paulsen, Greg Familton; Auditor: Quentin Johnson; Patron: Bob Glass.

The Draft Calendar for 2023 was not discussed, so must remain the Calendar until further notice.

The first Blitz tournament for the 2023 Blair Freeman trophy took place on 1 February and had a turnout of 12 players. Romero Suggate won with 6/7, losing only to Jens Paulsen in round 4. Top seed Iain Lamont shared the lead until the final round, but a loss to Alexander Sun meant he was second on 5 points, with Sun third on 4½. Paulsen finished in a tie for fourh with Pratik Jadhav and Quentin Johnson on 4 points.

The opening event for 2023 was the traditional President vs Vice President match on 25 January. This year Terry Duffield's President's team triumphed 4-2 over Brent Southgate's Secretary's team.

2023 News Archive