Auckland Chess Centre

Weekender OPEN – Rnd 5 Pairings, Rnd 4 Standings

Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | News | Comments Off

OPEN – Pairings – Round FIVE

Sunday 29/3/09 9.00AM

No Name                 Result   Name                

 1 Bob Smith (1)           :     John Mc Donald (4)
 2 Edward Lee (8)          :     Richard Stuart (13)
 3 Bruce Wheeler (5)       :     Antonio Krstev (9)
 4 Benji Lim (6)           :     Michael Steadman (2)
 5 Jeremy Browne (7)       :     Edward Tanoi (11)
 6 Richard Taylor (12)     :     Bob Gibbons (10)
 7 Caleb Wright (14)       :     Don Eade (15)

Standings after Round 4

Place Name                 Feder Rtg Loc  Score

  1   Bob Smith (1)                  2326 4
 2-3  Edward Lee (8)                 1931 3
      John Mc Donald (4)             2077 3
  4   Antonio Krstev (9)             1925 2.5
 5-7  Michael Steadman (2)           2287 2
      Richard Stuart (13)            1808 2
      Bruce Wheeler (5)              1997 2
8-12  Jeremy Browne (7)              1960 1.5
      Edward Tanoi (11)              1861 1.5
      Richard Taylor (12)            1813 1.5
      Benji Lim (6)                  1968 1.5
      Bob Gibbons (10)               1867 1.5
 13   Caleb Wright (14)              1738 1
 14   Don Eade (15)                  1725 0.5
 15   Gino Thornton (3)              2088 0  ( withdrawn )

Weekender U-1700 Rnd 5 Pairings

Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | News | Comments Off

Pairings – Round 5  Sunday 29/3/09 09.00AM

No Name                     Result   Name                         

 9 Hans Gao (15)               :     Bob Mitchell (3)
10 Mark Gilmour (2)            :     Leo Zhu (18)
11 Simon Lyall (14)            :     William ( Xiang Wei ) Li (19)
12 Michael Budd (12)           :     Pat Young (6)
13 Sean Tang (25)              :     Nicole Tsoi (11)
14 Johnson Chen (35)           :     George Chen (20)
15 Wayne Puepuemai (7)         :     Stefan Kolev (13)
16 Karl Zhu (10)               :     Neil Cruden (1)
17 Sandeep George (33)         :     Philip Mukkattu (4)
18 Leonides Guico (5)          :     Malo Puepuemai (9)
19 David Taylor (17)           :     Hugh Mc Leod (8)
20 Katy Qiu (26)               :     Judy Zhu (31)
21 Ivan Lin (34)               :     Kevin Lu (22)
22 Oliver Zhang (29)           :     Weber Wang (27)
23 Simon Wu (37)               :     Olivia Dong (32)
24 Cathy Fan (28)              :     Gavin Holm (21)
25 Ryan Lee (23)               :     Rodney ( Xiang Rei ) Li (36)
26 Andrew ( Geng ) Li (30)    1:0    BYE

Standings after Round 4

Place Name                          Feder Rtg Loc  Score

  1   Hans Gao (15)                           1268 4
  2   Bob Mitchell (3)                        1548 3.5
 3-6  Mark Gilmour (2)                        1570 3
      Simon Lyall (14)                        1274 3
      William ( Xiang Wei ) Li (19)           1164 3
      Leo Zhu (18)                            1249 3
7-13  Pat Young (6)                           1486 2.5
      Stefan Kolev (13)                       1290 2.5
      Michael Budd (12)                       1300 2.5
      George Chen (20)                        1162 2.5
      Sean Tang (25)                          989  2.5
      Nicole Tsoi (11)                        1317 2.5
      Johnson Chen (35)                       560  2.5
14-23 Neil Cruden (1)                         1671 2
      Hugh Mc Leod (8)                        1452 2
      Leonides Guico (5)                      1500 2
      David Taylor (17)                       1255 2
      Wayne Puepuemai (7)                     1453 2
      Karl Zhu (10)                           1345 2
      Malo Puepuemai (9)                      1402 2
      Sandeep George (33)                     700  2
      Judy Zhu (31)                           734  2
      Philip Mukkattu (4)                     1532 2
24-29 Olivia Dong (32)                        708  1.5
      Kevin Lu (22)                           1013 1.5
      Weber Wang (27)                         884  1.5
      Ivan Lin (34)                           631  1.5
      Oliver Zhang (29)                       836  1.5
      Katy Qiu (26)                           918  1.5
30-34 Gavin Holm (21)                         1039 1
      Ryan Lee (23)                           1000 1
      Rodney ( Xiang Rei ) Li (36)            500  1
      Simon Wu (37)                           482  1
      Cathy Fan (28)                          848  1
35    Andrew ( Geng ) Li (30)                 800  0

Latvian Rapid 25 + 5 organised by Howick Pakuranga Chess Club

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | News | Comments Off

A Grade

A very pleasing result for the club as all the prizes were won by Chess Centre members. Mike Steadman and Bruce Watson were co-winners with 5 points (from 6) followed by Ewen Green (4.5pts) making a comeback after a few years of fulltime coaching. And rounding up the grade prizes was our very own former member Daniel Han making one of his frequent visits to Auckland tournaments. Sharing the grade prizes with him (and also on 3.5pts) were other Centre members Richard Taylor (who is never far away from the prizemoney) and Edward Tanoi who managed to reverse a form slump from his last Rapid tournament in February.

Steadman and Watson were deserving winners after consistent top performances although Steadman had more than an element of luck when after Watson declined his draw offer Steadman surprisingly managed to win a tight and exciting endgame. Mike also benefitted from a curious incident in the penultimate round against Green when partway through the game Mike noticed that his clock was running while he was waiting for Ewen’s next move. Ewen assumed he had accidentally pressed Mike’s clock and therefore ‘wasted’ 3 or 4 minutes of Mikes time. Invaluable in a rapid game. After numerous apologies and some efforts to correct the issue, play resumed. However, subsequent play saw Mike’s position gradually worsen and he gratefully accepted Ewen’s draw offer, who was perhaps feeling guilty and somewhat responsible. In fact, the real culprit turned out to be Tanoi who in the next board (and focussed intently on avoiding a loss to Wayne Power) had made a move and accidentally pressed the wrong clock! Edward realised afterwards that something was amiss when soon after the incident, Wayne made a move and went to press the clock but Edward’s time was already ticking! Fortunately, it all ended well. Nobody lost in that round and even Edward (after winning the exchange and then blundering 3 pawns and then a piece) managed to reverse his fortunes by swindling a stalemate from an unfortunate and bemused Power.

The Latvian tournament is a very popular with juniors and the A Grade had a turnout of 20 players with good representation from the strong North Shore club, and the Chess Centre with young Leo Zhu making his debut. There was also the usual good support from outside of Auckland with Caleb Wright making the trip up from Tauranga and Hilton Bennett and Daniel Han from Hamilton. Other familiar faces included Bob Smith, John McDonald and local club members Benjamin Lim and NZCF President Paul Spiller.

All in all, a generally well run tournament held literally in good spirits with frequent singing filtering through from the church service in the next room.

The next tournament will be our very own inaugrual Auckland Chess Centre Weekender starting on Friday night 27th March to Sunday 29th March. All Centre club members who register before Friday gets a chocolate fish from Mike Steadman! So turn out and support the club’s own tournament and support New Zealand chess!

March 2009 NZCF Ratings

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | News | Comments Off

The latest New Zealand Chess federation Ratings have been published. Below are the ACC players. The big gainer was Daniel Shen who picked up 102 rating points and jumps from 36th to 20th. Judy Gao is also up 34 points and 9 places.

ACC players at Bay of Plenty Rapid

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | News | Comments Off

On Saturday February 28th several members of the Chess Centre braved the wet and windy conditions to play in the Bay of Plenty 25′+5″ in Mt. Maunganui.

In the A-Grade Club regular Gino Thornton scored a perfect 6 out of 6 to win 1st prize while Micheal Steadman was 2nd-equal with 4.5 points. Further down the field Neil Cruden scored 2.5 points which placed him ahead of several higher rated players.

In the B-Grade Simon Lyall finished in mid-field with 3/6 including one win when his opponent’s cellphone rang.

Full results are on newzealandchess.co.nz