Author: Timothy Ha

Are you building a team for the Auckland Teams Arena? Have you ever heard about it? If not, please head here first – https://www.aucklandchess.nz/auckland-teams-arena/

One team already prepared their T-shirts and is offering them while inviting players. There were rumours about a girls’ team being formed, too. And some 2000+ players wanted to team up just to crush everybody else (and not play each other during the tournaments).

Everybody better team up soon, as it’s important for teams to be present in as many events as possible, to get a better total score at the end of the season. Players don’t have to play all events and can even change teams, but teams need to be organised soon before the first event on June 18-19.

More about the arena: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/auckland-teams-arena/

The page for teams to promote themselves: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/auckland…/2022-ata-teams/

CM Felix Xie won the blitz portion of the May Weekender (May 21-22, 2022) on 8.5/9 and finished the rapid portion with a perfect 9/9 score.

Blitz Vega and Rapid Vega / Event webpage / Photos by NZChessNews

The list of prizewinners (players with a higher score may be listed under a grade category if that won more prizemoney for them)

Open
	1st	26.5/27	CM Felix Xie
	2nd	24/27	FM Alphaeus Wei Ern Ang
	3rd	17.5/27	CM Alex Nagorski
Under 1800
	1st	19/27	Daniel Wang
	2nd	18/27	Daqi Mao
	3rd	16.5/27	WCM Isabelle Yixuan Ning
Under 1600 and Above 1400
	1st	17.5/27	Justin Zhide Wang
Under 1400 and Above 1300
	1st	13.5/27	Duncan McDonald
Under 1300
	1st	15/27	Mantra Bhatt

Detailed standing

Composite Standings			Blitz Rounds	Rapid Rounds	Total Rounds
			9	9	18
Open		CompositeRating	BlitzScore	RapidScore	CompositeScore
1	Xie, Felix	1951	8.5	9	26.5
2	Ang, Alphaeus Wei Ern	2172	8	8	24
3	Wang, Daniel	1614	6	6.5	19
4	Mao, Daqi	1633	6	6	18
5	Nagorski, Alex	1785	5.5	6	17.5
6	Wang, Justin Zhide	1483	5.5	6	17.5
7	Ning, Isabelle Yixuan	1688	6.5	5	16.5
8	Thornton, Giovanni A	2068	6	5	16
9	Wheeler, Bruce	2106	5.5	5	15.5
10	Ha, Huy Minh (Timothy)	1623	4.5	5.5	15.5
11	Gan, Emily	1413	5	5	15
12	Bhatt, Mantra	1243	5	5	15
13	Vital, Henry	1950	4.5	5	14.5
14	Mistry, Prashant	1874	4.5	5	14.5
15	Liu, William Rui	1448	4.5	5	14.5
16	Zara, Baraa	1522	5.5	4.5	14.5
17	Wells, Clinton A.	1767	4	5	14
18	McDonald, Duncan	1306	4.5	4.5	13.5
19	Zhang, Kendrick Botong	1573	3.5	4.5	12.5
20	Po`e-Tofaeono, Hunter	1448	4.5	4	12.5
21	Coates, Alex	1366	4	4	12
22	Somaraju, Sai Vivan	1343	4	4	12
23	Po`e-Tofaeono, Grayson	1381	5	3.5	12
24	Thurner, Anya	1348	4	4	12
25	Zhu, Yeqing	1294	4	4	12
26	Mei, Zihan	1070	4	4	12
27	Lobanov, Nikita	1022	3.5	3.5	10.5
28	Zhang, Tim Lifan	1213	3	3.5	10
29	Nimmakayala, Srirama	1125	3	3.5	10
30	Xu, Luna	1316	2.5	3.5	9.5
31	Bhatt, Daksh	1342	2	3.5	9
32	Lu, Xiahan (Luna)	0	3	3	9
33	Lau, Brillion Yan Jun	1285	3	2.5	8
34	Zara, Anas	1277	2	3	8
35	Smith, Scott R	1276	3.5	1	5.5
Under1800		Rating	BlitzScore	RapidScore	CompositeScore
1	Wang, Daniel	1614	6	6.5	19
2	Mao, Daqi	1633	6	6	18
3	Nagorski, Alex	1785	5.5	6	17.5
4	Wang, Justin Zhide	1483	5.5	6	17.5
5	Ning, Isabelle Yixuan	1688	6.5	5	16.5
6	Ha, Huy Minh (Timothy)	1623	4.5	5.5	15.5
7	Gan, Emily	1413	5	5	15
8	Bhatt, Mantra	1243	5	5	15
9	Liu, William Rui	1448	4.5	5	14.5
10	Zara, Baraa	1522	5.5	4.5	14.5
11	Wells, Clinton A.	1767	4	5	14
12	McDonald, Duncan	1306	4.5	4.5	13.5
13	Zhang, Kendrick Botong	1573	3.5	4.5	12.5
14	Po`e-Tofaeono, Hunter	1448	4.5	4	12.5
15	Coates, Alex	1366	4	4	12
16	Somaraju, Sai Vivan	1343	4	4	12
17	Po`e-Tofaeono, Grayson	1381	5	3.5	12
18	Thurner, Anya	1348	4	4	12
19	Zhu, Yeqing	1294	4	4	12
20	Mei, Zihan	1070	4	4	12
21	Lobanov, Nikita	1022	3.5	3.5	10.5
22	Zhang, Tim Lifan	1213	3	3.5	10
23	Nimmakayala, Srirama	1125	3	3.5	10
24	Xu, Luna	1316	2.5	3.5	9.5
25	Bhatt, Daksh	1342	2	3.5	9
26	Lu, Xiahan (Luna)	0	3	3	9
27	Lau, Brillion Yan Jun	1285	3	2.5	8
28	Zara, Anas	1277	2	3	8
29	Smith, Scott R	1276	3.5	1	5.5
Under1600 & Over1400		Rating	BlitzScore	RapidScore	CompositeScore
1	Wang, Justin Zhide	1483	5.5	6	17.5
2	Gan, Emily	1413	5	5	15
3	Liu, William Rui	1448	4.5	5	14.5
4	Zara, Baraa	1522	5.5	4.5	14.5
5	Zhang, Kendrick Botong	1573	3.5	4.5	12.5
6	Po`e-Tofaeono, Hunter	1448	4.5	4	12.5
Under1400 & Over1300		Rating	BlitzScore	RapidScore	CompositeScore
1	McDonald, Duncan	1306	4.5	4.5	13.5
2	Coates, Alex	1366	4	4	12
3	Somaraju, Sai Vivan	1343	4	4	12
4	Po`e-Tofaeono, Grayson	1381	5	3.5	12
5	Thurner, Anya	1348	4	4	12
6	Xu, Luna	1316	2.5	3.5	9.5
7	Bhatt, Daksh	1342	2	3.5	9
Under1300		Rating	BlitzScore	RapidScore	CompositeScore
1	Bhatt, Mantra	1243	5	5	15
2	Zhu, Yeqing	1294	4	4	12
3	Mei, Zihan	1070	4	4	12
4	Lobanov, Nikita	1022	3.5	3.5	10.5
5	Zhang, Tim Lifan	1213	3	3.5	10
6	Nimmakayala, Srirama	1125	3	3.5	10
7	Lu, Xiahan (Luna)	0	3	3	9
8	Lau, Brillion Yan Jun	1285	3	2.5	8

Autumn Cup A- and B- grades will be divided as 1300+ and U1300 FIDE. The FIDE- and NZCF-rated tournament is from May 9 to June 20, with a break on Queen’s birthday (please check NZCF calendars for the Trusts Open tournaments on that long weekend).

The top five boards of the A-grade will be broadcast live on https://aucklandchess.nz/live

Please use the following links to find your name, pairings before and results after each round (note that pairings are subject to change as players’ circumstances may change close to the time of the games)

• A-grade, aucklandchess.nz/vega/2022/wwwACCAutumnCupA/index.html
• B-grade, aucklandchess.nz/vega/2022/wwwACCAutumnCupB/index.html

The games start after a short announcement at 7 pm. Forfeit time is 30 minutes.

If you can’t make it to the game on time, please let us know (SMS is best) before 6:30 pm so we can re-pair players.

If you are sick, please let us know and do not visit the club.

If you’re going on vacation, please let us know in advance (email is best) and we’ll mark all the days you’re 100% not visiting the club.

Thanks and good luck!

Entries are now open for Auckland May Weekender 2022. Please register and pay online at https://newzealandchess.nz/auckland-may-weekender-2022/

This tournament is similar to the Rapid and Blitz ones in the Grand Chess Tour, only here we play 9 games of blitz first, on Saturday morning, then 3-4 rapid games on Saturday afternoon (depends on the pace if we can fit all those or not), then the rest on Sunday.

The 9 rapid games give you double points in the final standings. The maximum number of points is 27. Blitz time control is 3+2, rapid is 25+5. Rapid games are FIDE- and NZCF-rated. Blitz games are FIDE-rated only.

The top five boards will be broadcast at least for the rapid portion via https://aucklandchess.nz/live

Autumn Cup registration is open at ACC (FIDE-rated, NZCF-rated, six rounds).

If you want to register and cannot find your name here AutumnCupA/playersname.html and AutumnCupB/playersname.html, please use the form https://forms.gle/85L3dn1NwyJsra2h6

However, you don’t need to re-register if you used the previous registration form. We do have the data from there and will double-check and re-process if necessary.

You can also use the form if you want to register for later events in the year.

Philli Park-Tamati finished first in the 9-round Autumn Blitz at ACC. FM Daniel Gong came second, and Gino Thornton shared third with Jordan Lewis.

Final standings: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2022/wwwACCAutumnBlitz/standing.html

An honorary mention goes to Baraa Zara who beat FM Daniel Gong, the only player to upset the 2022 NZ Champ tonight 🙂

A short video: https://www.facebook.com/AKLChess/posts/7637513042955808
Some photos: https://www.facebook.com/AKLChess/posts/7637510329622746

The FIDE-rated blitz is happening on Monday, May 2, at 7 PM.

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

Please check your registration and let us know if something is wrong.

Important: if you can’t make it on the day, please let the captain know before 6:30 PM. Penalties apply to those who aren’t kind to the captain and fellow players.

Please use the following form to sign up for ACC membership in 2022 (payment information will be provided later at the club)

https://forms.gle/85L3dn1NwyJsra2h6

Previous form, now closed – https://forms.gle/kvSFPXwwDkW5Rg2g7

We start on May 2 with a FIDE-rated blitz (3’+2″) tournament of 9 rounds.

From May 9 to June 20 (with the exception of Queen’s birthday) we will hold the Autumn Cup, a classical chess tournament with a time control of 75’+30″. There will be two grades, most probably the cut-off rating will be 1400 FIDE.

In the form for sign-up, you can specify if you will play the blitz or both, or will join a later tournament instead. The full list of tournaments is on the Calendar page.

If you’re new to the club, make sure you fill out all details very carefully, as we’ll use that information to register you with NZCF and FIDE for rating purposes. If you’re a regular member, you can trust that the captain remembers you well 🙂 However, please make sure you enter the most up-to-date email and mobile phone numbers.

Thanks!

Auckland Chess Centre reopened on April 23-25, 2022 for the traditional ANZAC Weekender. A tournament of more than 30 players was won by CM Felix Xie on 5.5/6. Three players finishing a point behind on 4.5 were Hao Tang, Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono and Philli Park-Tamati. Especially, look at how Hunter survived against Isabelle Ning and CM David Cilia-Vincenti (use the Lichess link below).

Full standings are on Vega. The full list of prize winners is on the Results page.

Facebook photos: album 1 by NZChessNews, album 2 by AKLChess.

There was also a Lichess broadcast of top 5 boards each round.

With the exception of tenants who reside in Auckland Chess Centre, the following COVID-19 policies would apply to everyone entering the property:

1. Operating only in NZ Covid Protection Framework (Traffic Lights) Orange or Green. Closed in Red.

2. Masks that cover the nose and mouth must be worn by everyone at all times when indoors within the property of Auckland Chess Centre.

These COVID-19 policies are to meet or exceed NZ government recommendations in order to keep everybody at Auckland Chess Centre as safe as reasonably possible.

Additionally, current New Zealand government COVID-19 regulations or policies will also apply.

P.S.: Vaccine passes are not required.