News

2021’s calendar of Auckland Chess Centre is up.

With most people traveling or attending the New Zealand Congress in Palmerston North early January, the club will resume on Jan 18.

Please also note: the new club captain is Timothy Ha. During the next few weeks please send Tim your contact details via Facebook or email timothyha at gmail or text via phone O21-O88O-1O35. Please state the following information:

• your name (and your child’s name, if you’re a chess parent) as registered with either FIDE and/or NZCF
• the mobile number for text messages during club nights, so you can inform Tim of your absence (or your child’s) and he can recognise you

Thanks!

First several weeks of 2021:

• Jan 18 — a casual night
• Jan 25 — 9 rounds of 3+2 blitz, FIDE-rated
• Then two back-to-back weekenders, held at ACC!
  Jan 30 – Feb 1, Auckland Anniversary Weekender (3 days, 6 rounds of 90+30 classical, FIDE-rated)
• Feb 6 – Feb 8, Waitangi Weekender (3 days, 6 rounds of 90+30 classical, FIDE-rated)
• Friday, Feb 12, is when the casual nights with coach Wayne McDougall will resume
• And Feb 15 is the start of the NZCF-rated Summer Cup.

See you soon in 2021!

https://www.aucklandchess.nz/monday-chess-night/calendar/

Our new Friday Casual Chess attracted a few more players in it’s second week. The last day for 2020 is on December 18th so come along if you are interested in some casual games.

Final night for the Monday Chess the 21st of December. Currently plans are:

• Annual General meeting of ACC
• 2020 Prize giving
• Pizza and some drinks
• A casual tournament of non-standard chess.

Club Champs Round 8

Vega Link

Tournament leader Bruce Watson beat second place Nigel Metge. Timothy Ha also beat Daqi Mao to go into outright second. Wins for both Tracy Tang and Hao Tang saw the Father and Daughter share 3rd place.

The final round will likely see Bruce Watson playing Tim Ha for 1st place, Bruce has the advantage of a half point and a small rating difference. There are a large group of players on 6 and 5.5 that could share 2nd or 3rd.

Upsets in Round 8

Ayaan Vasudeva beat Eric Fan
Baraa Zara beat Philli Park-Tamati
Charles Lu beat Grant Burrows
Daksh Bhatt beat Scott Treanor
Narasimhan Lakshmi Ravi beat Jordan Lewis
Hunter Po`e-Tofaeono beat Winston Weng
Tracey Tang beat Anya Thurner

A reminder that we now have a casual evening on Fridays for those people who wish to play chess outside the usual Monday tournament. All ages are welcome and it will be run on the 10th and 17th of December before taking a break till February.

On Saturday the 6th of December the Papatoetoe Rapid was held. ACC players who did well were:

A Grade: 1st equal Alphaeus Ang and Daniel Gong, 2= Paul Garbett
B Grade: 1st equal Tim Ha

There was also a Junior Rapid on the Sunday that was won by Alphaeus Ang.

Club Champs Round 7

Vega Link

Three players Daniel Runcan, Nigel Metge and Bruce Watson went into the round sharing the lead on 5 points. A draw on the top board between Daniel and Nigel allowed Bruce to go into the lead with a Win.

We also had some new players in the tournament with David Chen and Utkarsh Shah starting and Tyleah Po’e-Tofaeono and Philli Park-Tamati back after breaks

Bruce Watson now leads the tournament with just two rounds left. He is half a point ahead of Daniel Runcan, Nigel Metge and Timothy Ha.

Upsets in Round 7

Zihao Lin beat Paul Kane
Charles Lu beat Anderson Chen
Anya Thurner beat Philli Park-Tamati
Tracey Tang beat Stephen Peak
Yolanda Chang drew with Simon Lyall
Tim Ha beat Alex Nagorski

Hi everyone,

Tonight on December 5th, we will finish off the year with our Saturday Night Junior Chess for this year. It’s been a very hectic year and I’m glad everything worked out for most of us. Next year we will resume at the start of February.

For those of you who are interested in playing more chess in December can play on Friday Night Casual Chess, which is dedicated to more complete beginners to beginners for adults and kids alike. This is held at the Auckland Chess Centre from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Wayne McDougall will be running that event for another two weeks this year. Please see the post about Friday Night Casual Chess for more details.

Thank you for all those who came along to our evenings. We had many very interesting and close games during this year. Our evening is still considered quite casual, with a bit more competition from strong kids and a stepping stone towards to the tougher Monday Night Chess.

Happy holidays!

Alexander

We are please to announce Friday Casual Chess, which will start on 6:30pm on Friday the 4th of December 2020.

Friday Chess is intended for people of all ages to come along and play casual games. You can play your friends or we will try and pair you up with other players around you skill level.

Wayne McDougall will on site to pair up players and he can also teach beginners at chess how to play.

More Details on the Friday Casual Chess webpage.

We had several new players in Round 6. Shiyan, Elianor, Becky and Jerome all played for the first time and Ying Wang decided to start playing again.

A reminder that there are several tournaments coming up. The NZ Seniors Starts this week, The Papatoetoe Rapid is on December 5th and Howick has a tournament on December 20th. Plus there are 2 Junior tournaments during December. More details in the NZ Chess Calendar.

Club Champs Round 6

Vega Link

Once again there were a large number of upsets. The top two on boards 6 and 7 were Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono beating Nathan Goodhue and Tracy Tang beating Richard Taylor.

A Draw on board one means 3 players are now in first equal on 5 points. Bruce Watson, Daniel Runcan and Nigel Metge. Another 5 players are just half a point back on 4.5. So with 3 rounds left the result is still in doubt.

Top Upsets in Round 6

Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono beat Nathan Goodhue
Tracy Tang beat Richard Taylor
Ayaan Vasudeva beat Virginia Milne
Baraa Zara beat Andrew Michael
Mike Steiner drew with Grant Burrows
Philbert Zhai drew with Neil Sonnekus
Alan Leach drew with Kenny Zhang
Eric Fan beat Scott Treanor
Don Eade drew with Daniel Runcan

A reminder that the Summit Rapid is coming up this weekend. It will be at Alexandra Park on Sunday November 22. The NZ Seniors Champs will be at the Chess Centre starting on Thursday November 26th. More information about both events (and others coming up) is on the NZ Chess Calendar.

Club Champs Round 5

Vega Link

After taking an early bye Bruce Watson finally caught up to leader Daniel Runcan, but managed only a draw. This leaves Daniel in the joint lead with Nigel Metge with both on 4.5.

Upsets in Round 5.

There were 13 upsets this round. The top were:

Adele Zhou beat William Liu
Sophia Feng beat Jordan Lewis
Eric Mironov drew with Neil Sonnekus
Weitang Yu beat Charles Lu
Stephen Peak beat Anderson Chen
Daniel Runcan drew with Bruce Watson
John McCory drew with Grant Burrows

Most players have now payed their subscription. A reminder to everyone else that $100 will cover 2020 and 2021.

Club Champs Round 4

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A win for Danial Runcan gives him the outright lead with 4/4 . However he’ll likely be rewarded by being paired with Bruce Watson in Round 5. Four players share 2nd place on 3.5 points: Bruce Watson, Don Eade, Tim Ha and Nigel Metge.

Further down the boards there were a large number of draws.

Upsets in Round 4

Eric Mironov beat Virginia Milne
Adele Zhou beat Victor Coen
Annie Yue beat Paul Kane
Lakshmi Ravi drew with Richard Taylor
Stephen Peak drew with Clinton Wells
Baraa Zara drew with Anderson Chen
Eden Oshri beat Ali Karaambayev
Mike Steiner beat David Zhu
Alan Leach drew with Daqi Mao
Yolanda Chang drew with Abraham Deng
Daksh Bhatt beat Eric Fan
Anya Thurner drew with Lewis Jordan
Mantra Bhatt drew with Grayson Po’e-Tofaeono

A reminder that subscriptions are now overdue. Cost is $100 which covers 2020 and 2021. Mike Steadman will be at the Club on Monday the 8th of November to collect fees. People who don’t pay may be unable to continue playing.

Club Champs Round 3

Vega Link

Once again there were several upsets and the competition is still very open. Only 3 players are still undefeated: Daniel Runcan, Hao Tang and Don Eade. Just behind them on 2.5 are seven players including top seed Bruce Watson.

Upsets in Round 3

Max Wang beat Paul Kane
Weiyang Yu beat beat Lucas Xiao
Ayaan Vasudeva drew with Scott Treanor
Adam Ali drew with Andersen Chen
Stephen Peak drew with Richard Taylor

The 2020 Junior Interclub was played on Sunday the 1st of November.

Results

Thank you to all the players and parents for coming along. We ended up with 5 teams playing among the 21 teams in the competition.

ACC Team A was 3rd
ACC Team C was 5th
ACC Team D with 9th
ACC team B was 12th
ACC Team E with 19th

Information for players

A quick summary of what is happening.

• Start time is 9:30am (please arrive a few minutes earlier)
• Finish time probably around 4pm
• Lunch break around 12:30pm
• Location is Lyell Creek room at Alexandra Park.
• Players must be born on or after January 1st 2006
• 4 players per team (one reserve allowed)
• Time Control 15m + 10s
• 5 rounds (based on last year)

Please let Simon Lyall know via text if you are running late or unable to play and tell Simon once you have arrived. There will probably be close to 80 players involved from all clubs so it’ll be a little busy.