News

On Monday, Sep 27, 7:30 pm we will do a Swiss rapid 10+5 again – https://lichess.org/swiss/CF5EfoAC – don’t join in advance if you are not sure you’ll make it in time, to not forfeit the first game.

On Friday, Oct 1, 7:30 pm we will have another NZCF team battle between 10 or more teams (if your team is not listed and you want to be added, please contact @TimothyHa on Lichess. Thanks).

Team battles are Lichess arenas, so you can join in advance to show interest, then come play any time between 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm on Friday. The link is https://lichess.org/tournament/iObqxXug

On Monday, Sep 20, 7:30 pm we will do a Swiss rapid 10+5 again – https://lichess.org/swiss/7fhbrL68

And, to celebrate FM Mark Noble becoming a Joint World Champion in correspondence Chess960 on the ICCF, next Friday we’ll play Chess960

Friday, Sep 24 – https://lichess.org/tournament/4FMwCcdX – arena from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm, when you join, pause or quite any time in between.

Note: in Swiss tournaments please join 5-15 mins before the start if you’re unsure you can make it in time, to not forfeit the first-round game when you joined too early in advance. In arenas you can join in advance, then come and play, join or quit any time.

The Wellington Chess Club won another team battle with 13 teams and 123 players on Friday, Sep 10 – lichess.org/tournament/Tb18loph. Several NZ champions and co-champions participated, including IM Anthony Ker, FM Nic Croad, FM Ewen Green, FM Alexei Kulashko, Gino Thornton and Gordon Morrell.

The lottery for a random participant (a Chessable course, “The Best Chess Moves of All Time”) was won by Noah Oseki from Otago.

Next Friday we’ll try an 11-round blitz Swiss tournament when strong players from different clubs would be able to compete with Wellington stars even if their teams could not do the same during the recent team battles – lichess.org/swiss/O0P29h6q

And on Monday we’ll have another 6-round Swiss of rapid 10+5 chess – lichess.org/swiss/gLMtKpGN – please come and play!

Online NZCF chess for the week:

Monday, Sep 6, 7:30 pm, six-round Swiss of 10+5 rapid – https://lichess.org/swiss/ckqScfu6 – this is a Swiss tournament, so please join 5-15 mins before the start if you’re unsure you can make it in time, to not forfeit the first-round game when you joined too early in advance. If you’re not in the NZCF team yet, please make sure you meet all the requirements on the team page for joining.

Friday, Sep 10, 7:30 pm, Team Battle of 3+2 blitz, more than 10 teams – https://lichess.org/tournament/Tb18loph – please join this team battle in advance to show interest. Play for your club or the NZCF team. If you want to add your local NZ club, please contact @TimothyHa. Thanks.

Last Monday night was a success when players played 15+10 chess until midnight. However, that schedule was quite tough for many, so this coming Monday we’ll be playing 10+5 rapid chess only, not 15+10.

Please join us (the tournament is open to all NZCF team members) – https://lichess.org/swiss/gxo9iBct on Monday, Aug 30, 7:30 pm.

This is a Swiss tournament, so please join 5-15 mins before the start if you’re unsure you can make it in time, to not forfeit the first-round game when you join too early in advance. If you’re not in the NZCF team yet, please make sure you meet all the requirements on the team page for joining.

We can’t meet in the club on August 23 for the second part of the Spring rapid tournament, but we can play together in an online tournament at 7:30 pm with each other and players from other NZ towns.

Please join the NZCF team on Lichess and play at the address https://lichess.org/swiss/gkOVDT5A – a five-round Swiss tournament of 15+10 rapid chess. You can join late, pause or quit any time you want.

At the end of the tournament, a random player will get a Chessable course on visualisation.

It’s lockdown level 4 and no OTB chess for a while again… Auckland Chess Centre will reopen when Auckland is on level 1. There’ll be no casual Friday nights, no junior Saturdays, and alas, no Monday night tournaments either.

Since we won’t have OTB chess for about two weeks, we invite everybody to play online on Friday, Aug 20, at 7:30 pm. This time it will be a Swiss tournament, 11 rounds of 3+2 blitz. At the end of the tournament, a prize will be drawn with a random winner, so everybody has a chance! It will be a Chessable course by Vladimir Kramnik or Judit Polgar, the winner chooses from the two courses offered by us.

Lichess does allow late-joins, pausing and quitting the tournament, so you have some flexibility with time, too.

The tournament link is https://lichess.org/swiss/SqMtxPRx (you have to be a member of the NZCF Lichess team to play, please read the instruction on https://lichess.org/team/new-zealand-chess-federation to join).

We have changed the format of the 2021 Club Champs, Aug 30 – Nov 1. As we cannot guarantee a stable round-robin for 10 players of the A-grade, the grade will be converted to a 20-player Swiss (and probably the captain will have to take leave whenever there’s an odd number of players in the A-grade).

The full list of registrations is here, with the top 20 moving to A-grade before August 30:

https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2021/wwwACCChampsB/

Registration is closed for the ACC two-day, six-round, NZCF- and FIDE-rated rapid chess tournament on August 16 and 23. No new registrations will be accepted. The only exception is if you played in the Winter Cup but forgot to register for this one.

Please check your name here: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2021/wwwACCSpringRapid/playersname.html

Congrats to all winners of the Winter Cup A/B/C grades!

• A Grade – 8 Player Round Robin
  1st Alex Huang, 2nd Mike Steadman, 3rd= Daniel Runcan, Paul Macdonald
• B Grade – Swiss for players rated >= 1400
  1st Alphaeus Ang, 2nd Simon Lyall, 3rd= Hao Tang, Rauen Le Grange, Joe Wang, Guy John Davis
• C Grade – Swiss for the rest of the club
  1st Mantra Bhatt, 2nd William Rui, 3rd= Annie Yue, Ayaan Vasudeva, Srirama Nimmakayala