Ranking  Name              Standard  (Change)  Rapid  (Change)
                           Rating              Rating

93       Mark Brimble      1945 ( -31 )              -
322      Grant Burrows     1466 ( 59 )               -
233      Scott Butland     1646 ( 2 )                -
70       Eachen Chen       2001 ( 114 )        1785 ( -3 )
286      George Chen       1540 ( -65 )        1529 ( 167 )
530      Jennifer Chen      829 ( new )         650 ( 69 )
462      Johnson Chen      1113 ( 74 )         1250 ( 87 )
125      Don Eade          1871 ( -12 )        1592 ( -21 )
519      Allen Fan          874 ( new )         898 ( 59 )
430      Cathy Fan         1205 ( -45 )        1234 ( 159 )
108      Hans Gao          1916 ( 0 )          1793 ( 39 )
85       Judy Gao          1953 ( -13 )        1619 ( -7 )
65       Nathan Goodhue    2013 ( -17 )        1979 ( -2 )
431      Paul Heaslip      1205 ( -9 )              -
243      Karl Holdo        1627 ( -60 )             -
488      Gavin Holm        1018 ( 29 )              -
107      Xhevdet Jashari   1917 ( new )             -
384      Lawrence Leow     1312 ( 53 )          964 ( -19 )
74       Bryan Latimer     1992 ( -21 )             -
420      Andrew Li         1231 ( -31 )        1225 ( 24 )
357      Jiapeng Li        1383 ( -17 )        1337 ( 43 )
75       Luke Li           1988 ( 212 )        1577 ( -41 )
154      William Li        1790 ( 202 )        1621 ( 31 )
514      Ivan Lin           895 ( -19 )         853 ( -6 )
441      Kevin Lu          1189 ( 9 )          1261 ( -4 )
178      Simon Lyall       1731 ( 102 )        1435 ( 9 )
208      Hugh McLeod       1698 ( -9 )         1555 ( -7 )
102      Ian McNally       1924 ( -10 )             -
268      Alan Merry        1578 ( new )             -
356      David Merry       1389 ( new )             -
463      Mike Merry        1113 ( new )             -
169      Andrew Michael    1747 ( -49 )        1666 ( -3 )
204      Philip Mukkattu   1705 ( -37 )        1583 ( 39 )
312      Ng Adrian         1489 ( new )             -
297      Ajit Pendharkar   1513 ( new )        1418 ( new )
73       Roger Perry       1997 ( new )             -
396      Brogan Powlesland 1284 ( 187 )             -
450      Tom Powlesland    1161 ( -23 )             -
15       Daniel Shen       2253 ( 9 )          1803 ( -155 )
675      Neil Sonnekus         -               1094 ( new )
8        Mike Steadman     2348 ( 13 )         2228 ( 5 )
276      Mike Steiner      1562 ( -69 )        1419 ( -2 )
378      Sean Tang         1324 ( -30 )        1340 ( 21 )
69       Edward Tanoi      2006 ( -1 )         1953 ( 73 )
113      Richard Taylor    1905 ( 4 )          1910 ( 16 )
269      John Tseung       1575 ( 19 )              -
94       Keith Ward        1943 ( 38 )              -
11       Bruce Watson      2306 ( -5 )         2251 ( -1 )
27       Bruce Wheeler     2152 ( -35 )        2070 ( -3 )
866      Bill Wu           1838 ( -3 )         1478 ( -10 )
191      Sharon Wu         1717 ( -5 )         1653 ( 5 )
127      Shirley Wu        1862 ( -9 )         1549 ( -49 )
288      Pat Young         1533 ( -5 )              -
457      Leo Zhang         1135 ( new )         868 ( 237 )
245      Paul Zhang        1624 ( 247 )        1458 ( -10 )

Results were:

Nathan Goodhue vs Bob Smith – Draw
Edward Tanoi vs Leo Guico – Win
Mark Brimble vs Brett Rider – Win
Hugh McLeod vs Jim Cater – Lose
Simon Lyall vs Viv Smith – Draw
Scott Butland vs Bruce Pollard – Win

Good results for several players on short notice and/or against higher ranked opponents.

After our victory against Papatoetoe a couple of weeks ago we are now on 2 wins from 2 rounds. If you are interested in participating in the Interclub (current grade or Future B Grade competition) plus talk to Edward Tanoi.

A Grade

No Name            Result   Name            

 1 Russell Dive       :     Gawain Jones
 2 Robert Smith       :     Daniel Han
 3 Sue Maroroa        :     Michael Steadman
 4 Ralph Hart         :     Daniel Runcan
 5 Daniel Shen        :     Leonard McLaren
 6 Helen Milligan     :     Gino Thornton
 7 Alex Huang         :     Noel Pinic
 8 John Duneas        :     Judy Gao
 9 Roger Perry        :     Peter Stuart
10 Jeremy Browne      :     Eachen Chen
11 Ben Lim            :     Paul Garbett
12 Antonio Krstev     :     Edward Tanoi
13 Robert Gibbons     :     Hilton Bennett
14 Hans Gao           :     Caleb Wright
15 Don Eade           :     Ross Jackson
16 Paul Macdonald     :     Andrew Michael
17 Dean Zhao          :     Helmut Marko
18 Luke Li            :     Johari Halim
19 Wayne Power        :     Vivian Smith
20 Leo Guico          :     Philip Mukkattu
21 William Lynn       :     Xhuedet Jashari
22 Richard Taylor     :     Philip Hair
23 Chris Benson       :     Bill Wu
24 James Cater        :     Brian Liu       

B Grade

No Name                   Result   Name                  

 1 Harry Cui                 :     William (Xiang Wei) Li
 2 Karl Zhu                  :     Barry Hooton
 3 Winston (Yow-Jen) Yao     :     Henry Jiang
 4 Simon Lyall               :     Gary Judkins
 5 Leo Zhu                   :     Ron Collingwood
 6 Scott Yang                :     John Francis
 7 Michael Budd              :     Thomas Chen
 8 Jayaa Jayachanthiian      :     Stefan Kolev          

C Grade

No Name              Result   Name         

 1 Ajit Pendharkar      :     Paul Zhang
 2 Hao Jia              :     William Zhang
 3 Andrew (Geng) Li     :     David Rong
 4 Charles Law          :     Hristo Kolev
 5 Johnson Chen         :     Cathy Fan
 6 Brian Qi             :     Oliver Li
 7 George Wang         1:0    BYE          

Junior

No Name                   Result   Name               

 1 Olivia Dong               :     Kelvin Jin
 2 Crystal Zhu               :     Cedric Guico
 3 Richard Jiang             :     Alphaeus Ang
 4 Joy Qin                   :     Rocky Jiang
 5 Nicholas Huang            :     Leo Zhang
 6 Ryan Lee                  :     Izzah Halim
 7 Farhana Halim             :     Luke (Jintao) Wang
 8 Rodney (Xiang Rei) Li     :     Martin Zhu
 9 Arvin Lim                 :     Kevin Yi
10 Jennifer Chen             :     Allen Fan
11 Jason Zhang               :     Jack Sun
12 Campbell Wang             :     Spencer Sutton
13 Aiman Halim               :     David (Hua Ming) Li
14 Quynn Stead-Hill          :     Simon Wu
15 Kumaa Jayachanthiian      :     Leo Li
16 Daniel Gong              1:0    BYE 

A Grade

No Name              Result   Name

 1 Michael Steadman     :     Gawain Jones
 2 Russell Dive         :     Daniel Han
 3 Antonio Krstev       :     Robert Smith
 4 Ralph Hart           :     Peter Stuart
 5 Sue Maroroa          :     Leonard McLaren
 6 Daniel Shen          :     Ross Jackson
 7 Roger Perry          :     Noel Pinic
 8 John Duneas          :     Eachen Chen
 9 Paul Macdonald       :     Paul Garbett
10 Gino Thornton        :     Xhuedet Jashari
11 Helen Milligan       :     Johari Halim
12 Leo Guico            :     Hilton Bennett
13 Ben Lim              :     Daniel Runcan
14 Robert Gibbons       :     Bill Wu
15 Luke Li              :     Jeremy Browne
16 Vivian Smith         :     Judy Gao
17 Alex Huang           :     Caleb Wright
18 Hans Gao             :     Philip Hair
19 Andrew Michael       :     Wayne Power
20 Don Eade             :     Dean Zhao
21 Chris Benson         :     Philip Mukkattu
22 William Lynn         :     Edward Tanoi
23 James Cater          :     Helmut Marko
24 Brian Liu            :     Richard Taylor

B Grade

No Name                    Result   Name

 1 William (Xiang Wei) Li     :     Winston (Yow-Jen) Yao
 2 Barry Hooton               :     Harry Cui
 3 Scott Yang                 :     Ron Collingwood
 4 Leo Zhu                    :     John Francis
 5 Karl Zhu                   :     Michael Budd
 6 Stefan Kolev               :     Simon Lyall
 7 Henry Jiang                :     Thomas Chen
 8 Gary Judkins               :     Jayaa Jayachanthiian

C Grade

No Name              Result   Name

 1 Paul Zhang           :     Hristo Kolev
 2 Ajit Pendharkar      :     David Rong
 3 Andrew (Geng) Li     :     George Wang
 4 Hao Jia              :     Charles Law
 5 Brian Qi             :     William Zhang
 6 Oliver Li            :     Cathy Fan
 7 Johnson Chen        1:0    BYE

Junior

No Name                  Result   Name

 1 Kelvin Jin               :     Ryan Lee
 2 Richard Jiang            :     Leo Zhang
 3 Alphaeus Ang             :     Martin Zhu
 4 Jennifer Chen            :     Olivia Dong
 5 Allen Fan                :     Farhana Halim
 6 Jason Zhang              :     Izzah Halim
 7 Crystal Zhu              :     Luke (Jintao) Wang
 8 Kevin Yi                 :     Campbell Wang
 9 Kumaa Jayachanthiian     :     Rocky Jiang
10 Cedric Guico             :     Rodney (Xiang Rei) Li
11 Arvin Lim                :     Joy Qin
12 Nicholas Huang           :     Jack Sun
13 Daniel Gong              :     David (Hua Ming) Li
14 Aiman Halim              :     Simon Wu
15 Leo Li                   :     Spencer Sutton
16 Quynn Stead-Hill        1:0    BYE

The players are FM Mike Steadmann in the Open team and WCMs Eachen Chen and Shirley Wu in the Women’s team.

For more details see the Olympiad page on the New Zealand Chess website.

Over the weekend of 14th-6th of May the Wellington Open was held. The event was a 6 rounds ( 1 Friday night, 3 Saturday, 2 Sunday ) of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds with a single draw. Mike Steadman and myself from the ACC competed.

The field of 32 was very strong with GM Gawain Jones at the top, another dozen over 2000 rating and only 8 players under 1700 (and one of those was a provisional rating who played to 2000 ).

At a 1629 rating I was ranked 26th in the field so I wasn’t expecting to finish near the top but I got off to a good start with a draw and a win against players rated just over 2000 (although neither had much recent experience). However the next 2 rounds against similar strength players were both loses which bought me back to earth.

Meanwhile after 3 rounds Mike was on 3.5 after 4 rounds quickly chewing through a couple of lower rated players in around an hour and drawing with Russell Dive.

My two Sunday games were against players closer to my strength (only 200 points above and 32 below) both of which I managed to convert slight advantages into wins.

Mike’s games on Sunday were another win against a similar rated opponent (Mark Noble) and a Draw against GM Jones.

In the end I finished with 3.5 points from 6 games ( performance around 1950 ) and first prize in C grade ( 10th= overall ).

Mike ended up with 5 points ( 4 wins, 2 draws ) to get second equal overall with a performance around 90 points above his ranking.

The tournament was run quite well with a very nice venue of Turnbull House directly opposite The Beehive. Two games were lost due to cellphones ringing (after some confusion as to the rule) while a 3rd very strange game saw:

1. Whites cellphone rings. Black ignores this and play continues. The arbiter is out of the room and was not made aware of this at any point.
2. Play reaches an endgame with both players short on time.
3. Black is in a winning position with a queen, bishop and 4 pawns vs Queen and 4 pawns but decides not to swap queens
4. Play continues with black chasing white’s king. White’s flag falls but Black doesn’t notice
5. Both players are warned by the arbiter for not keeping their spreadsheets up-to-date
6. Black runs out of checks and White starts checking, he gets a passed pawn and takes whites bishop. White’s flag fell around 20 minutes previously (Black has around 5 minutes on his clock)
7. Black resigns in a lost position (on the board)
8. The arbiter (after consultation) declares Black the winner since he (the arbiter) was aware of White’s Flag falling before the score-sheets were signed.
9. Note that neither player was from Auckland.

I noticed that compared to Auckland tournaments, there were very few junior players (only around 4)

Prizes were as follows

Overall

1st= Mario Krustev and Gino Thornton  on 5.5 points
3rd= Leonard McLaren, Bruce Wheeler and Xhevdet Jashair  on 5 points
6th= Daniel-loan Runcan, Hans Gao and Edward Tanoi on 4.5 points

Grade 1 ( rating 1700 – 1850 )

1st= Jim Cater and Bob Mitchell on 4 points

Grade 2 ( rating 1400 – 1700 )

1st  Simon Lyall on 4 points
2nd William Li on 3.5 points

Grade 3 ( rating under 1400 )

1st  David Rong on 4 points
2nd Hristo Kolev on 2.5 points

Final Placings

Place  Name                    Grade   Rtg     Score

1-2    Krstev, Mario (4)               2123    5.5
       Thornton, Gino (2)              2230    5.5
3-5    Mc Laren, Leonard (1)           2258    5
       Wheeler, Bruce (3)              2187    5
       Jashari, Xhevdet (7)            1907    5
6-8    Runcan, Daniel-Ioan (10)        1870    4.5
       Gao, Hans (6)                   1916    4.5
       Tanoi, Edward (5)               2007    4.5
9-13   Cater, Jim (11)         G01     1815    4
       Rong, David (24)        G03     1272    4
       Eade, Don (9)                   1883    4
       Mitchell, Bob (14)      G01     1770    4
       Lyall, Simon (18)       G02     1629    4
14-18  Tsoi, Nicole (17)       G01     1730    3.5
       Taylor, Richard (8)             1901    3.5
       Li, Luke (13)           G01     1776    3.5
       Charamova, Evginia (15) G01     1762    3.5
       Li, William (19)        G02     1588    3.5
19-23  Kolev, Stefan (22)      G02     1436    3
       Ng, Adrian (20)         G02     1500    3
       Burrows, Grant (23)     G02     1404    3
       Michael, Andrew (12)    G01     1796    3
       Mukkattu, Philip (16)   G01     1742    3
24     Kolev, Hristo (26)      G03     1148    2.5
25-29  Pendharkar, Ajit (21)   G02     1500    2
       Qiu, Katy (25)          G03     1183    2
       Chen, Johnson (28)      G03     1039    2
       Zhang, Leo (27)         G03     1100    2
       Ang, Alphaeus (30)      G03      700    2
30     Li, Rodney (29)         G03      750    1

1    Leonard Mc Laren (1)    :    Gino Thornton (2)
2    Bruce Wheeler (3)       :    Mario Krstev (4)
3    Xhevdet Jashari (7)     :    Don Eade (9)
4    Jim Cater (11)          :    Hans Gao (6)
5    Edward Tanoi (5)        :    Nicole Tsoi (17)
6    Richard Taylor (8)      :    Daniel-Ioan Runcan (10)
7    Luke Li (13)            :    Bob Mitchell (14)
8    Philip Mukkattu (16)    :    Simon Lyall (18)
9    Adrian Ng (20)          :    David Rong (24)
10    Evginia Charamova (15) :    Hristo Kolev (26)
11    William  Li (19)       :    Ajit Pendharkar (21)
12    Johnson Chen (28)      :    Andrew Michael (12)
13    Grant Burrows (23)     :    Leo Zhang (27)
14    Alphaeus Ang (30)      :    Katy Qiu (25)
15    Rodney Li (29)        1:0    BYE
16    Stefan Kolev (22)     0:0    BYE

Place  Name                    Grade    Rating    Score 

1-2    Thornton, Gino (2)             2230    5
       Krstev, Mario (4)              2123    5
3-4    Mc Laren, Leonard (1)          2258    4.5
       Wheeler, Bruce (3)             2187    4.5
5-7    Jashari, Xhevdet (7)           1907    4
       Cater, Jim (11)          G01   1815    4
       Eade, Don (9)                  1883    4
8-13   Runcan, Daniel-Ioan (10)       1870    3.5
       Gao, Hans (6)                  1916    3.5
       Tanoi, Edward (5)              2007    3.5
       Tsoi, Nicole (17)        G01   1730    3.5
       Taylor, Richard (8)            1901    3.5
       Li, Luke (13)            G01   1776    3.5
14-18  Rong, David (24)         G03   1272    3
       Mukkattu, Philip (16)    G01   1742    3
       Lyall, Simon (18)        G02   1629    3
       Ng, Adrian (20)          G02   1500    3
       Mitchell, Bob (14)       G01   1770    3
19-22  Li, William (19)         G02   1588    2.5
       Kolev, Stefan (22)       G02   1436    2.5
       Charamova, Evginia (15)  G01   1762    2.5
       Kolev, Hristo (26)       G03   1148    2.5
23-28  Burrows, Grant (23)      G02   1404    2
       Qiu, Katy (25)           G03   1183    2
       Pendharkar, Ajit (21)    G02   1500    2
       Michael, Andrew (12)     G01   1796    2
       Chen, Johnson (28)       G03   1039    2
       Zhang, Leo (27)          G03   1100    2
29     Ang, Alphaeus (30)       G03    700    1
30     Li, Rodney (29)          G03    750    0

1       Gino Thornton (2) : Mario Krstev (4)
2     Xhevdet Jashari (7) : Leonard Mc Laren (1)
3 Daniel-Ioan Runcan (10) : Bruce Wheeler (3)
4            Hans Gao (6) : Edward Tanoi (5)
5      Richard Taylor (8) : Jim Cater (11)
6    Ajit Pendharkar (21) : Don Eade (9)
7     Andrew Michael (12) : Simon Lyall (18)
8            Luke Li (13) : William ( Xiang Wei ) Li (19)
9       Stefan Kolev (22) : Bob Mitchell (14)
10   Philip Mukkattu (16) : Adrian Ng (20)
11        David Rong (24) : Nicole Tsoi (17)
12     Grant Burrows (23) : Evginia Charamova (15)
13          Katy Qiu (25) : Leo Zhang (27)
14      Hristo Kolev (26) : Alphaeus Ang (30)
15      Johnson Chen (28) : Rodney Li (29)