News

CM Isabelle Ning won the 2024 Merv Morrison Memorial with a score of 5.5/6 ahead of a big group of strong players. FM Alphaeus Ang finished second on 5.0/6. CM Kendrick Zhang, CM Alex Huang, Daqi Mao, Matthew Ashton (Hawkes Bay) and Swiss player Hassan Roger Sadeghi all shared 3rd place on 4.5/6.

The Merv Morrison Cup for U1800 players was shared between Daniel Winsley, Brogan Powlesland, Timothy Ha, Martin Zhou and Ryan Hwang. Only some were available for photos, and Daniel certainly had the best pictures with the trophy!

New Zealand Chess News has many photos from the event — please use the links https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=NZChessNews&set=a.977618974397094 and https://newzealandchess.nz/merv-morrison-memorial-2024/ for all information about the event.

Hi everyone, we started to form a collection of lecture recordings (three and counting) from our ACC Junior Club tutorial sessions. All available on YouTube. We decided to put it into a single playlist (updateable). Check out our latest recording:

Auckland Chess Centre Junior Club Term 4 Lesson 2 What is Strategy? – CM Alex Huang (Oct 25th 2024): Link

Full Playlist: Link

The playlist has been added to our Junior Club page.

Have a great weekend!

Hi everyone, a friendly reminder we are running The ACC I Love Chess Rapid Tournaments (November Edition) on Sunday 10th November. This is the last one for this year, and we are running it on a Sunday, while avoiding the December holidays where people may have their own family plans. We have added an additional prize for Best U200 for this tournament, as we will transition into a new format for next year. Once again I would like to invite you all to play at our event. As usual, it is open to all junior players from our Auckland Chess Centre, juniors from The Sky Dragon Chess Club, students of I Love Chess and all invited players.

The ACC I Love Chess Rapid Tournament (October Edition)
Date: Sunday 10^th November 2024
Venue: Auckland Chess Centre, 17 Cromwell Street, Mt Eden
Restrictions: Juniors only (Under 18)
Rounds: 6 rounds, NZCF Nationally rated
Time Control: 15+5
Schedule: Tournament starts at 9:30am and to finish by 1:45pm **
Cost: $20 per player

Entry Form: Link
Entries: Link

**Please note that last time our tournament finished slightly later at 2PM (than the advertised 1:30PM), but only one game was still fighting on by around 1:45PM. Players can go once they finish their last game, without waiting for prizegiving if they wish to.

If you would like to register, please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks.

Regards,
Alex Huang
National Arbiter & Tournament Organiser

We are running our junior club this week on Friday. This is due to the Merv Morrison Memorial chess tournament running this weekend at our chess centre.

Hi guys, we are starting our Junior Club next week on Saturday 19th October. The schedule for term 4 has been created. We have a new sign up link for this term.

Schedule & Info: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/junior-club/
Sign up (via Trybooking): https://www.trybooking.com/nz/UKA

The 2024 Club Champs is almost over, with rounds 8 and 9 today and next week. The registration for the Spring Cup (7 rounds, NZCF-rated only, Oct 21 – Dec 9) has started.

Please check your registration at https://www.vegaresult.com/vega/2903 — we emailed club players the TryBooking registration address.

Hi everyone,

It’s been so long since the time we used to run junior rapid chess tournaments here at the Auckland Chess Centre, before the year 2020 when COVID hit us. In July 2024 last school holiday, I have rebooted an entirely new series of junior chess tournaments called ‘The I Love Chess Rapid Tournaments’. At first the idea is just to invite all of my chess students (and invited players) to see how many would be interested, and run the tournament as a training ground. It was a last minute decision, as I only planned the tournament about a week or two prior. We had around 30 entries and the kids really enjoyed it. One kid she told me at the end of the tournament: “Alex, I think you should run more chess tournaments”. I believe she is right. For those interested, here are the results from The I Love Chess Rapid July: https://www.vegaresult.com/vega/index.php?id=4024

I would like to invite you all to come along to play at our junior chess tournament starting on Oct 4th.

The ACC I Love Chess Rapid Tournament (October Edition)
Date: Friday 4^th October 2024
Venue: Auckland Chess Centre, 17 Cromwell Street, Mt Eden
Restrictions: Juniors only (Under 18)
Rounds: 6 rounds, NZCF Nationally rated
Time Control: 15+5
Schedule: Tournament starts at 9:30am and to finish by 1:30pm
Cost: $20 per player

Entry Form: Link
Entries: Link

If you would like to register, please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks.

Regards,
Alex Huang
National Arbiter & Tournament Organiser

Hi everyone, our junior club is run on Friday (instead of Saturday) this week. There will be a video recording of our session, so don’t worry if you will miss it. The topic this week is ‘Rook and Rolling’.

Hi guys, for our junior club this term. There are two sessions that run on a Friday this term (instead of a Saturday). There is one coming up this week, Fri 23rd Aug (5pm to 6:15pm). The topic is on “Racing Pawns”. There will be a recording available online for those who missed it.

Once again, our schedule can be found on our website: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/junior-club/

Two ACC Chess Weekends (ACW) are being held soon at the Auckland Chess Centre:

August ACW, 24-25 of August
September ACW, 7-8 of September

The events are run on normal two-day weekends. Games are FIDE- and NZCF-rated, time control is 60+30 (classical), so you can play up to 3 games a day (you can also take many byes).

Register online via TryBooking here https://newzealandchess.nz/auckland-chess-weekend-august-2024/