Author: Timothy Ha

How to register for ACC Monday nights in 2024

Happy New Year! ACC calendar for 2024 is now up, and we have opened registrations for Monday nights on TryBooking – click here.

The club will start with a FIDE-rated blitz tournament on Feb 5, Waitangi Blitz. It’s free to register. Summer Cup will start on Feb 12 and costs 20 NZD to play in (see below).

All the usual rules of conduct apply — notify the captain via email/SMS/Messenger before 6:30 pm to not forfeit your game. Games are FIDE-rated and NZCF-rated (except for the Spring Cup at the end of the year, which is only NZCF-rated), so every Monday is a round of an official chess tournament.

Our club has a limit of 80 seats, so please show courtesy by NOT registering for an event if you know you’ll skip 3 rounds or more due to exams or travel. That will help other people get to play at ACC, which is arguably the best training ground for keen chess players in Auckland, both kids and adults.

We priced our club tournaments at 20 NZD each, and by paying for separate events you may save some money compared to paying an annual fee of 120 NZD like in previous years (we won’t collect the 120 NZD amounts anymore). This also allows more players to fill the club when there are absentees.

The full list of Monday night tournaments is below (see Calendar for more details). Each tournament, except for the Waitangi Blitz, costs 20 NZD (all rounds).

  • Waitangi Blitz (one night)
  • Summer Cup (7 rounds)
  • Autumn Cup (7 rounds)
  • Autumn Rapid (two nights, 6 rounds)
  • Winter Cup (9 rounds)
  • Club Champs (9 rounds)
  • Spring Cup (7 rounds)

Have a good chess year ahead!

Club AGM Minutes, Dec 18, 2023

Auckland Chess Centre’s Annual General Meeting took place on 18/12/2023

Meeting opened 7.03
Approximately 25 members present
No minutes are available from the last meeting.
Apologies from Nigel Metge

Nominations opened:

President: Bruce Wheeler
Vice President: Leo Baker
Treasurer: Mike Steadman
Secretary: Keong Ang
Club Captain: Timothy Ha

General Committee:
Jacob Barry
Karl Holdo
Brogan Powlesland

Nominations closed without contention.
Accepted en bloc

General business:
John McClory – Thanks to the people who decipher scores, and request players to take notation more carefully.

Meeting closed 7.09

ACC won the Auckland Interclubs in A-grade, B-grade, and Junior!

Congratulations to our teams who performed really well in the Auckland Interclubs this year.  Back in August, on Sunday 20/08 we won the A-grade on tiebreaks after tough matches with Summit and North Shore.

On Saturday 28/10 we won the Junior (rapid) Interclubs comfortably, with two teams from ACC which came first and second ahead of North Shore and Summit.  It’s been 7 years since the last time we won the Junior Interclubs.  This year we had a very solid group of players born in 2009 and 2010 and some younger stars like Daqi 🙂

And on Sunday 29/10 our team drew with Summit to win the B-grade tournament!

Well done, and thanks to everyone who played for ACC!  It’s a long list, but you can find the names in the detailed pairings on the following pages (click each round)

A-grade, https://www.vegaresult.com/orion-trn/www2252/pairs1.php
B-grade, https://www.vegaresult.com/orion-trn/www2496/pairs1.php
Junior, https://www.vegaresult.com/orion-trn/www2666/pairs1.php

We still have one more event, the Blitz Auckland Interclubs in December, and we’ll probably have two teams playing there, A and B.  We’re the defending champion for that event.

Two ACC teams, A and B, which came first and second in the Junior Interclubs

FM Alphaeus Ang is the 2023 Club Champion!

Alphaeus finished the tournament on 8.5/9, conceding only one draw to Everett Bishop. Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono and Everett Bishop came second on 6.5/9. On six points and third equal are Clinton Wells, Isabelle Ning, Kenneth Liu, and Yolanda Chang. Full details on Vega.

Congrats!

Next Monday our club is closed for the traditional Labour Day weekend event, the Merv Morrison Memorial (21-23/10). See you on Oct 30 for the Spring Cup.

ACC won the Auckland Interclubs A-grade!

It was an intense last round of the 2023 Auckland Interclub A-grade competition. ACC prepared a surprise for North Shore by bringing multi-time NZ and ACC club champion, FM Alexei Kulashko, to play on board 1, but NSCC brought their best team (when Daniel Wang was just board 5!) and beat ACC 4-2. However, ACC won the tournament on game points, with ACC, NSCC, and Summit all on 8 match points (SU beat NSCC, ACC beat SU, and NSCC beat ACC; all three won against other clubs). The tournament saw no draws — all matches were decisive. More on https://www.vegaresult.com/orion-trn/www2252/rankteam5.php

We’d like to thank all 12 players who played for ACC — FM Alphaeus Ang, Daqi Mao, WCM Isabelle Ning, Alan Winfield, Yolanda Chang, Jordan Lewis, Timothy Ha, Winston Weng, Sarah Sun, Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono, CM Alex Nagorski, and FM Alexei Kulashko. A special mention goes to WCM Isabelle Ning who won all five games in five appearances (including the important point in the last match), and FM Alphaeus Ang who scored 4 points in five games, with no losses. Team chess is great! Now let’s prepare for the B-grade Interclubs, junior Interclubs, and blitz later this year.