Author: Timothy Ha

Our club will be open as usual. Please text the captain on Monday before 6:30 pm if you wish to skip a round. Thanks.

Registration is now open for the Auckland Teams Arena, September edition 2022, https://newzealandchess.nz/auckland-teams-arena-september-2022/ – dates are the 24th and 25th of September (Saturday and Sunday).

The entry fee is only 20 NZD for six FIDE-rated games over one weekend.

The August edition was won by The Knightmares (again!). Individual winners were Eric Minorov and Sai Somaraju who will get ATA hoodies.

The NZCF calendar doesn’t have any other FIDE-rated classical OTB weekenders in September, so this will be the only event available, in addition to Monday and Wednesday FIDE-rated club nights at the Auckland Chess Centre and North Shore Chess Club.

We started the 2022 ACC Club Champs with 75 players (44 names in A-grade and 31 in B-grade) and only one player forgot to contact the captain about missing Monday night, so there was only one forfeit loss in round 1!

Some players even notified us about their future schedule and got the 1/2 point byes pre-registered several weeks in advance.

We function all Mondays, including school holidays, so if you’re travelling or sick or cannot come on any Monday night, please let us know in advance or before 6:30 pm on Monday. Pairings are locked soon after that, and it’s frustrating when somebody travels during the city’s peak hours to the club and doesn’t get a game.

The FIDE-rated and NZCF-rated Club Champs (classical 75+30) will start on Monday, 29th of August. There will be two grades, A and B. The grade division has been done based on both ratings and recent performance.

Please check your name on the list and let the captain know if we’ve forgotten your name, or if you want to withdraw. Thanks.

https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2022/wwwACCClubChampsA/index.html

https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2022/wwwACCClubChampsB/index.html

It was another Nagorski — McDougall finale at an ACC club tournament, Spring Rapid this time, and with colours reversed compared to the recent Winter Cup.

Going into the last round, Euan McDougall was leading the tournament by half a point and needed only a draw, but Alex Nagorski beat him from an equal endgame position, being more precise in an “every Russian schoolboy knows” type of endgames.

The given position is when Alex spent 13 minutes of a 25+5 game to find a plan. The long think paid off. Yolanda Chang and Grayson Po’e-Tofaeono are two other players finishing second equal with Euan, ahead of Alphaeus Ang, Bruce Wheeler and Justin Wang who finished third. Both Yolanda and Grayson scored 3/3 in the last rounds.

Vega link with full results

DGT boards (round 4 is missing due to a technical problem)

ACC Spring Rapid will be held the next two Mondays, the 15th of August and the 22nd of August. It’s a FIDE- and NZCF-rated Swiss tournament, six rounds of 25+5 rapid chess.

We’ve removed some players who do not wish to play rapid. Please check your registration and let us know if we have forgotten you or if you want to skip this tournament.

The whole club will play in one grade – https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2022/wwwACCSpringRapid/

For a better experience, please let us know in advance if you will be late and want to skip the first round of the night, or if you require a bye in the third round. Three rapid games mean about 3 hours of play plus about 10 minutes between rounds to make the pairings.

Euan McDougall is the outright winner of ACC Winter Cup A-grade, with Philli Park-Tamati in second place. Hao Tang and Alex Nagorski shared third.

In the B-grade, the winner is Luna Xu. Sai Somaraju came second. Ayaan Vasudeva, Pranav Shenoy and Jerome Tao shared third.

We will start a 9-round Club Champs on the 29th of August. Before that, 15/8 and 22/8 are rapid nights. Please let the captain know in advance if you do not want to play 25+5 rapid (three games a night).

There is no Auckland Interclub tournament this year, but there’s still the Auckland Teams Arena (ATA), a series of two-day (one normal weekend) tournaments at ACC that you can join. ATA August will also be the only classical OTB weekender besides the NZ Seniors Champs this month.

ACC would like to invite other Auckland clubs to build teams and bring them for these fun team events. The entry fee is only 20 NZD for six FIDE- and NZCF-rated games. Even though we don’t offer prize money, there are more lasting things on offer like T-shirts for individual winners and teams, and a lot of team spirit. For the August event, we will also have outdoor lunch with pizza and drinks (weather permitting).

Note: teams can be of any size, as long as they won’t be more than half of the tournament list. The tournaments are run as individual Swiss events, but team members won’t be paired against each other. The team score is the sum of the top 4 scorers.

Register online here (team captains can register several players at once) https://newzealandchess.nz/auckland-teams-arena-august-2022/

The July edition of the Auckland Teams Arena will happen this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, July 23-24. Please register online at https://newzealandchess.nz/auckland-teams-arena-july-2022/

Don’t worry if you haven’t formed a team with anybody yet. We’ll find a team for you.

This weekender is different from others:

• runs on two days only, Saturday and Sunday, so easier to plan
• costs only 20 dollars (we only cover the NZCF and FIDE rating fees and small ACC venue costs)
• you can team up with somebody else and have added motivation for shared results

And you can still win the events individually, just like William Liu did in June, even though his team came last 🙂

More info about the Auckland Teams Arena is on the dedicated page – https://www.aucklandchess.nz/auckland-teams-arena/

Our Monday nights are continuing as usual.

Moreover, we’re running North Island Classical Champs from Friday 15/7 to Sunday 17/7, then Auckland Teams Arena on Sat-Sun, 23-24/7.

Come for more chess!

If you’re travelling during the holidays, please let the Captain know in advance. If you’re sick or cannot come for any reason, please text before 6:30 pm on the night. Thanks!