Watch this space for up-to-date news of chess events from the Otago region.
Blitz Championship 4 – 4 September
The fourth Blitz tournament was held on 4 September. New member Tony Chuwizoh showed he is a fiend at blitz, winning with 6½/7 ahead of Ben Suazo 2nd on 6 and Quentin Johnson 3rd on 5 points. Tyne Grant was 4th with 4 points, losing to the top three, but winning his other games. the Connors, Morrison and Gray were tied for 5th on 3 points followed by John Armstrong 2½, Terry Duffield and Alf Loretan 2, and Travis Turner on 1.
Spring Rapid Open – 1 September
The Spring Rapid Open drew a medium field of 20 players from Christchurch to Invercargill. Top seed was again Sasha Nedyhalov, joint winner of the Winter Open. There were two grades: Open and U1500.
Results went mostly according to seeding in round one, except the unrated
Roshan Ashraf beating Hamish Gold and the underrated Samuel Mitchell defeating Samson
Kazakov.
In round 2 Mitchell continued by beating 4th seed Tony Chuwizoh, and the
unrated Rishi Pavaskar beat Tim McPherson.
Round 3 saw a draw on board 1 between Tyne Grant and Nedyhalov, allowing Quentin
Johnson to take to sole lead on 3/3 after evetually winning a long game balanced
game against Ben Suazo, as Mitchell's run was finally stopped by Gold.
In round 4 Johnson beat Grant on board 1 after an error in a highly tactical
Budapest Gambit to move to 4/4. Nedyhalov beat Suazo on board 2 to stay half a point
adrift. Chuwizoh and Mitchell stayed in contention on 3 points with wins over Ross Black and
Mark Edwards respectively.
Round 5 saw Nedyhalov grind down Johnson in an ending
after sacrificing a piece, missing a clear win, but retaining a big time advantage.
Chuwizoh and Mitchell closed in on the lead beating Gold and Grant respectively, the
latter after Grant achieved a winning but complicated position from the opening
before losing his way. Suazo lost his 3rd game in a row to the unknown Avadhoot Brahme
while Edwards beat Travis Turner to contend for the U1500 grade.
Leading scores into the final round: Nedyhalov 4½, Johnson, Chuwizoh and Mitchell 4,
Gold, Black Brahme and Edwards 3.
In the final round Nedyhalov won against Chuwizoh on board 1 to win on 5½/6.
Johnson beat Mitchell on board 2 to take outright seond place on 5. Gold beat Black
and Edwards beat Brahme to join Chuwizoh and Mitchell in shared third place on 4 points.
The U1500 Grade prize was taken by Mitchell and Edwards.
The next rapid open is the Summer Rapid on Sunday 1 December.
Swiss Rapid – 7 August
The Swiss Rapid was played in an arena format this year, similar to the Allan Chang, since there is no trophy at stake. With a turnout of 19 players there was one very decisive winner: second seed Iain Lamont scored 5/5 to including a win over top seed Ben Suazo and two(!) wins over 3rd seed Quentin Johnson. Tied for second were Tyne Grant and Alexander Sun on 3½/4. Grant picked up a huge haul of rating points and jumped to the top of Rapid Handicap standings on the back of his performance. Johnson and Suazo finished tied for 4th on 3/5 with new member Travis Turner, whose only two losses were also both against Lamont!
View Crosstable and Rating performances
Cleland Trophy – 24 July
The Cleland Trophy had a good turnout of 27 players. The early leaders on 2½/3 were top seed Quentin Johnson and Alexander Sun after these two drew in round 3, along with Oscar Lobb, who beat Ben Suazo to join them afetr takking a half point bye in round one. second seed Iain Lamont started slowly with a draw in round 1 against Oliver Lee and a half point bye in round 3. Johnson beat Lobb and Sun beat Suazo in round 4 to stay tied for the lead on 3½. just behind them on 3 points were Lamont and Hamish Gold. In round 5 Lamont took the lead with a win over Johnson, joined by Sun who had a half point bye and Gold who beat Lee, all on 4/5, with Johnson trailing by half a point. Lamont beat Gold in the final round to win the event on 5/6 as Sun had a bye. Johnson beat Connor Gray to finish second on 4½. Third was shared by Gold, Sun and Tyne Grant, who beat Connor Morrison to join them on 4 points and gain a big haul of rating points.
View Crosstable and Rating performances
Blitz Championship 3 – 10 July
On 10 July the third Blitz event for the Blair Freeman Trophy was held as a round-robin with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move with just 6 players, as many were away at the South Island Championship. Former member Robert Wansink returned to show he had lost none of his blitz skills, winning with 5/5 ahead of Iain Lamont and Ben Suazo on 3½.
Otago Primary and Intermediate Interschool Teams Championship 2024 - 15 June
17 teams from 15 schools played for the twentieth annual Otago/Southland Intermediate Interschool Teams' Championships at Trinity College Library. The ten Intermediate and seven Primary teams competed in a single tournament this year with separate prize sections. There was considerable overlap in strength between the two grades.
DNI A the defending champions started as clear favourites in the Intermediate section, especially given the absence of any teams form Balmacewen this year. George Street A was clear favourite in the Primary once again. Critical matches took place form the very first round with John GcGlashan and George St A drawing 2-2 in their match and past winner, James Hargest losing 3-1 to Stirling, while Maori hill upset Trinity College 2½-1½. After the second round only four teams had won both matches: DNI A, Oamaru Intermediate, Kaikorai Valley College (KVC) and Broad Bay/Portobello. The first two faced each other in round 3 and fought to a 2-2 draw, while Broad Bay/Portbello were also held 2-2 by Kaikorai Valley College. Thus all four teams still shared the lead on 2½ match points along with John McGlashan and George St 1, who had both won in rounds 2 and 3. In round 4 DNI A beat Broad bay/Portobello convincingly 4-0 to stay in the lead on 3½ match points, as did George St 1 over KVC. Oamaru Int kept pace with a 3-1 win over John McGlashan. Meanwhile George St 2 were moving up to 3 points with a win over Stirling. Round 5 saw a major upset as DNI A went down 3½-½ to George St 1. Oamaru Int beat George St 2 3-1 to stay joint leaders with George St 1 on 4½ match points. Staying in contention on 3½ with DNI A were John McGlashan, who beat Broad bay/Portobello 4-0, and KVC, who beat St Clair Primary 3½-½. Round 6 saw Oamaru Int take the sole lead on 5½ with a 3-1 win over George St 1. DNI A crushed KVC 4-0 to join George St 1 trailing by a point going into the final round, along with John McGlashan, who beat DNI B 3-1. George St 2, who beat Broad bay/Portobello 3½-½ were next on 4 points. KVC, Queenstown Primary and Stirling formed the next group on 3½. The final round saw Oamaru Int make no mistake to win the Intermediate trophy on 6½ match points (23 game points) with a 4-0 sweep of Stirling. In the battle for second between DNI A and John McGlashan, John McGlashan prevailed 2½-1½ to get to 5½ match points (18½ gp) to take outright 2nd place, as George st 1 was held to a 2-2 draw by George St 2. That meant Georget St 1 took the Primary section on 5 match points (18½ gp), DNI came 3rd in the Intermediate section on 4½ match points (18½ gp) and George St 2 were 2nd in the Primary section on 4½ match points (17 gp).
View
Primary and Intermediate crosstable
View
Primary and Intermediate Full Crosstable with individual scores
Leading Intermediate individual scorers were Board 1: Caleb McDonald (Oamaru) 6½/7, Marcus Ng
(DNI A) 6/7, Luca Ryan (Trinity) & Mareo Spijkerbosch (Queenstown) 5/7;
Board 2: Tomide Adebowale (John McGlashan), Yahya Mir (Oamaru) 5½/7,
Stanley Hammond (DNI A) 4½/7;
Board 3: Fynn Still (Oamaru) 7/7, Tarn Elder (John McGlashan) & Blake Friedrich (DNI B) 6/7;
Board 4: Max Wilson (James Hargest) 6/7, Michael Nguyen (DNI B) 5½/7, Santiago Fernandez Perez
(DNI A) 5/7.
Leading Primary individual scorers were Board 1: Jonas Robertson (St Clair) 5/7, Alex Lai
(George St A) 4½/7;
Board 2: Noah Harvey (Maori Hill), Angus Slabbert (George St 1) &
Ray Zhang (George St 2) 4/7;
Board 3: Anna Ma (George St 2) 5/7, Nixsyn Harbrow (Macandrew Bay A) 4½/7, Daniel Ji (St Clair)
3½/5;
Board 4: Laxmithaa Rasakanthan (George St 1) 7/7, Muhammad Hadeed Khizar (George St 2) 5/7.
Thanks again to Daniel Kelly and Trinity College for providing the great venue.
Winter Rapid Open - 9 June
The Winter Rapid Open drew a healthy field of 26, with a players from Christchurch, Oamaru
and Invercargill adding to the Dunedin contingent. Top seed was Sasha Nedyhalov, with
Quentin Johnson the Autumn Rapid winner expected to give him the most competition. There
were two prize grades: Open and U1500. The first round saw one minor upset - Greg Familton
was held to a draw by John Tran from Canterbury. In round 2 Connor Morrison scored a big
upset over 5th seed Alexander Sun, while Paul Gudoy held Jonno Christie to a draw and Alex Lai
defeated Scott Samuel. No-one was left on a perfoect score after round 3: the top two
boards Nedyhalov-Malcolm and Ismail-Johnson ended in hard-fought draws, while Morrison
was defeated on board 3 by Jonno Christie. Gudoy continued with another upset - defeating
Familton to join the leders on 2½/3.
In round 4 Nedyhalov won quickly over Jonno Christie, and was joined in the lead on
3½/4 by Johnson, who ended Gudoy's run. Leo Malcolm overcame Azim Ismail in
the battle between 4th and 3rd seeds to join the leaders. Tyne Grant drew with Sun to record a
minor upset, and Hasanli Babaranda beat Alf Loretan to score a bigger one.
Round 5 saw Johnson put up surprisingly little resistance to Nedyhalov on board 1. Malcolm
scored a victory over John Whelan to stay tied with Nedyhalov on 4½/5. The players
still witha chance of an Open prize joining Johnson on 3½ were Ismail, who beat Pratik Jadhav,
Sun, who beat Tran, Gudoy, who beat Grant, and Jonno Christie who beat Geordie Stephenson.
Gudow was leading the U1500 grade by half a point from Morrison.
The U1500 Grade prize was shared by Gudoy and Tran, who beat Hasanli Babaranda to catch
up with him on 3½.
The next rapid open is the Spring Rapid on Sunday 1 September.
Club Rapid Championship - 5 June
25 players contested the first leg of the club rapid championship for 2024. The grades were set using the NZCF Rapid ratings under the rules.
The A grade regulars, Quentin Johnson and Ben Suazo, were outseeded by Iain Lamont, while Leo Malcolm as 4th seed completed a very strong grade. The results were very close, with the final winner decided by the last game. Suazo edged into first place on 4½/6 ahead of Johnson on 3½, Lamont 3rd on 2 ½ and Malcolm 4th on 1½ points.
The B Grade was won convincingly by Alexander Sun, who won all his games to finish on 6/6. Oscar Lobb was the best of the rest 2nd on 3½ with Janic'Gorman 3rd on 1½ and new member Mike Weeks having a tough time on 0/4. Terry Duffield was a late starter so was put in his own grade between B and C, playing some players from each. He scored 1/6.
The C Grade was even closer than the A Grade and the result was only decided by tehe final game. Top seed Ryan High had to play his final two games against Terry Duffield becasue Fu Qiang Sun was unavailable. His two victories took him to the top of the grade with 4/6, ahead of Tyne Grant 2nd on 3½ and Hamish Gold 3rd on 2½. Fu Qiang was 4th on 2 points after completing 4 games.
The D Grade was a six-round swiss, and first was went to new member Jonno Christie on 5/6. His only loss was to top seed Brent Southgate, who tied for 2nd on 4 points with Connor Morrison and Bob Clarkson.
In the combined cross table below the inter-grade handicaps of 5, 3, 2½ and 1½ points have been added to the A, B, BC and C grades, 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 2 – 5 June
On 5 June the second Blitz event for the Blair Freeman Trophy was held as a 7 player round-robin with a time limit of Bronstein 5 mins plus 3 seconds delay per move. The tournament was jointly won by Quentin Johnson and Terry Duffield on 6/7. Johnson won their individual game but conceded draws to Alexander Sun and Alf Loretan, while Duffield won all his other games. Sun was third on 5½ and new member Connor Morrison did well to finish 4th on 4 points in his first blitz event.
Graham Haase Memorial - 8 May
The Graham Haase Memorial 2024 chess tournament had a great turnout with 27 players taking part including several new members. third seed Benedict Suazo tok a half point bye in round 1 to finsh a championship game. He then went on to win his four remaining games to win with an impressive score of 4½ out of 5, a point clear of the field. His chief opposition came from Alexander Sun, who was in the joint lead until the final round when he lost to Suazo. Along with Sun on 3½ in joint second place were new member Mike Weeks, and Hamish Gold. Weeks drew with Sun and also lost to Suazo, winning his other games, while Gold was unbeaten on with two wins, two draws and a half point bye.
View Crosstable and Rating performances
Club Championship – 10 April
The first leg of the 2024 Club Championship was affected by a number of absences with some games unable to be completed in the A Grade.
Top seed Quentin Johnson secured first place in the A Grade with a 5/5 sweep. The other players to complete all their games at this stage are Samual Mitchell, who finished with a respectable 1½/5 in his first A Grade, and Oscar Lobb who was unlucky to score 0/5 as he had several wining positions on the board, but came unstuck in the conversion. After Iain Lamont forfeited his las two games, Ben Suazo was second to Johnson on 4/5 and Leo Malcolm third on 3/5.
The B Grade tournament was very closely contended among three players who emerged from the large pack: new member Tyne Grant, Hamish Gold and Ryan High. High made the early running with four points from the first four rounds. Meanwhile in round 1 Grant drew with Terry Duffield while Gold took a half point bye, so these two were chasing from the start, and met each other in round four, with a drawn result leaving them a point behind High. Then in round 5 Grant defeated High and Gold beat Connor Gray to leave the three leaders tied on 4/5 going into the final round. An exciting final round saw Gold beat High to move to 5/6 and Grant survive a strong attack from Janic Gorman to win and tied for first with Gold. Alf Loretan hung on to draw a lost ending against Gray to tie for third with High on 4 points.
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
View
A-Grade crosstable and rating performances
View
B-Grade crosstable and rating performances
Autumn Rapid Open - 3 March
Read the great article by Tyne Grant in Chess Aotearoa Vol 2 No 2.
The Autumn Rapid Open drew a small field by recent standards of 21, with only Rommel
Ong and Juni Aguilar coming from outside Dunedin. Top seed was Alex Nedyhalov, followed
by Ben Suazo, Aguilar and Quentin Johnson with a sizeable rating gap to the rest of the field.
There were two prize grades: Open and U1500. Results went mostly according
to seeding in the first two rounds except returning player Geoff Lambourne lost to Samson Kazakov,
in round 1 while Naoki Kozakai beat Conor Kerr in round 2.
Round Three saw Johnson upset Nedyhalov on board 1 after he sacced a pawn to open lines to
Nedyhalov's uncastled king. On board 2 Aguilar beat Suazo to join Johnson on 3/3, as did Ong,
who beat Lambourne on board 3.
Round 4 saw a quick win from Johnson on board 2 against Tyne Grant, when the latter didn't
notice a pawn move had discovered check and touched a knight that could only stop check by
sacrificing itself. The game Aguilar-Ong on board 1 was in the balance to the end when
Aguilar mistakenly allowed Ong's queen to invade down the c-file and hoover up pawns. Nedyhalov beat Kazakov to stay close, while Oscar Lobb upset Suazo, Kozakai upset Emmanuel Santiagand Pratik
Jadhav upset Otago University student Nurul Zakaria, all to join Nedyhalov on 3 points.
In round 5 johnson won a pawn against Ong and was liely winning until he fell into a trap
and lost the exchange - the ending was drawn leaving these two tied for the lead on 4½/5
with one round to play. Nedyhalov closed to half a point by beating Kozakai on board 2, while
Jadhav upset Aguilar on board 3 to join Nedyhalov on 4 points. Santiago did not show for his
game with Lobb on board 4, so having awarded Noah Wilson the bye for the round, he was
substitued to to play Lobb, who won to join the chasing group on 4 points.
In the final round Nedyhalov was first to finish of the leaders, beating Suazo on board
3 to get to 5 points. on board 1 Johnson gradually overcame Jadhav to reach the winning score
of 5½/6. The board 2 game Ong-Lobb went right to the wire, eventually reaching an
opposite-coloured bishop ending with Ong holding an extra pawn. However he rashly put his king
and bishop offside in an attempt to win in Lobb's time trouble and lost two pawns and the game.
Thus Lobb shared second place with Nedyhalov on 5 points, while Ong was left alone in 4th on
4½. In the balttel for the Grade prizes, Kozakai was beaten by Aguilar, allowing
Grant to take 1st on 4/6 by beating Conor Kerr. Sharing 2nd U1500 on 3 points were Kozakai,
Kazakov, Kerr (all the "K's"), Aidan Dizon and Wilson (after adding back his forgone bye
from round 5).
The next rapid open is the Winter Rapid on Sunday 9 June.
Allan Chang Memorial – 21 February
The Allan Chang 10 minute hourglass tournament had a turnout of 24 participants over the two weeks. The trophy goes to the largest upset (based on club rapid rating difference January 2024). The unusual time limit can encourage reckless play and plenty of upsets, but there were generally fewer this year, with most going to younger underrated players.
Oscar Lobb retained the trophy he had also won last year by recording the biggest upset on the first night with a win over visiting player Timothy Schulte (difference 126 club rapid rating points). New member Jacob Christie was perhaps unlucky, as he chalked up a string of upset victories over Tyne Grant (100), Oliver Lee (93), John Armstrong (79) and Geoff Lambourne (85), but none quite as large as Oscar's. However he gained bundle of NZCF rating points and leads the perpertual rapid on +53 on the back of his performance. His taally of 4 points from 5 games was the second best, equal with Schulte, with only Quentin Johnson's tally of 6/7 ahead of them.
View Crosstable and Rating performances
2024 Otago chess club AGM – 7 February
Terry Duffield stood down as President and Alf Loretan was elected as the new President.
Geoff Aimers replaced Alf as Vice-President and Ben Suazo was nominated to take over
as club captain outside of committee. Brent Southgate was voted to stay on as Secretary
(in his absence). Quentin Johnson was elected Treasuer, pending the committee co-opting a
new Treasuer at a later date, and stayed on as Director of Junior Play.
Bob Glass took on the role of Financial Reviewer and remained as Patron. Iain Lamont,
Samuel Mitchell and Tyne Grant were elected as committee members and
Terry Duffield is Past President.
2024 Subscriptions were increased by $5 from 2023: Ordinary $135, Unwaged $115 and Junior $70. Subs are now due and can be paid to the Otago Chess Club (Inc), Westpac A/C 03-0905-0169820-00.
The 2024 committee comprises:
President: Alf Loretan; Vice President: Geoff Aimers; Secretary: Brent Southgate; Treasurer: Quentin Johnson; Director of Junior Play: Quentin Johnson; Past-President: Terry Duffield; Club Captain: Ben Suazo (outside Committee); Committee members: Iain Lamont, Samuel Mitchell and Tyne Grant; Financial Reviewer: Bob Glass; Patron: Bob Glass.
The Draft Calendar for 2024 was discussed, and was adopted subject to a shift to accommodate the South Island Championship in July.
Blair Freeman Blitz 1 - 31 January
The first Blitz tournament for the 2024 Blair Freeman trophy took place on 31 January and had a turnout of 18 players. Top seed Alex Nedyhalov won with 6½/7, drawing only to Tyne Grant in round 5. 2023 Trophy holder Quentin Johnson was second on 5½, losing to Nedyhalov and drawing with Iain Lamont, who finished third on 5 points. Grant and Ben Suazo finished tied for 4th on 4½.
View the final crosstable.
President vs Vice President - 25 January
The opening event for 2024 was the traditional President vs Vice President match on 24 January. This year Alf Loretan's Vice President's team narrowly defeated Terry Duffield's President's team 4½-3½.