Played Wednesday 23 May 2012.

There was an important clash in round 3 between Yash Narayan and Dave Misileki in which Dave won. After Dave also winning round 4 this left him on top with 4 wins. Yash also won his 4th round so he is still in touch with 3 point in second. There are a few players on 2 points – Paul Postma, John Worn, Solomon Lefe’e and William Lefe’e. It is worth noting that Solomon and William missed the first 2 rounds so they have won all the games they have played.

This Wednesday will be the final 2 round and then on the 6 June we will begin the Winter Cup. I will tell you more about this after the conclusion of the Handicap Tournament.

Here’s what our Papatoetoe junior chess players have to say about coming to Chess Club each week:

“Great mood, great people, great time”    Ethan

“From learners to winners!”   Keanu

“Chess is the best, never forget”    Kaea

“Where you experience chess”   Ujinder

“Come here.  Be winners!”    Marquese

“Welcome to the chess club, enjoy the game of chess, deserve awards, there are lots of trophies you could win”   Anusha

“Chess Club is about having fun when you play people”   Jershan

“Chess Club is the best in the world”    Benjamin

“The kingdom of chess”   Ryan

“A great place to learn and play chess”   Arul

“Chess is the name of the game”   Arul

“Where learning begins”    Daniel

“If you want to learn chess come to the chess club”    Arav

“Not many people have learnt this fun and brain-challenging game, now is your chance”    Ashton

These are their entries in the Junior Motto Competition which was held in November 2011.

The winning mottos were those of Keanu (1st) and Ethan and Daniel (=2nd), who each received a chocolatey prize.

A big thank you  to all juniors who submitted an entry!!

On Wednesday 16 May we played the first 2 rounds of the Handicap. This tournament is 25 + 5 with a material deficit for handicapping unless the rating gap is more than 250. In this case the higher rated player has a time deficit along with a material deficit.

After the 2 rounds we have 2 players on 2 points – Yash Narayan and Dave Misileki. We have 2 more evenings i.e 6 rounds for this tournament but anyone is welcome to join round 3 and 4 on Wednesday 23 May.

We revamped the handicapping criteria this year to try to fix last years problem where often the handicapped player had virtually no chance of competing. The games I saw looked close and could have gone either way which is what a handicap tournament should acheive most of the time. Any feedback on this is welcome.

Sorry I have been off air for awhile.

Just to catch up, the final round (round 5) of the Autumn Cup was played on the 2nd May. John Worn won outright on 4.5 point followed by Paul Postma and John McRae on 3.5 points.