Howick Pakuranga Chess Club

Welcome to the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club
Haseler Hall, below All Saints' Church, corner of Selwyn Road and The Glebe, Howick, Auckland, New Zealand.

Manukau City Council is the sponsor of the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club.
Millennium Hotels and Resorts is the sponsor of the nationwide chess Grand Prix tournaments.

Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club News

Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club News 13th June 2010 -
"Current Competitions" has now been updated with results from the Fairhurst Pawn Round 6, and pairings for Round 7 have been posted.
"Howick News" has been updated with notes on games from Round 6.

*** Next Tuesday 22nd June is Juniors versus Seniors, so please ask your parents to bake a cake!! Or get the supermarket to "bake" it for you.

Reminder: 5th - 9th July 2010 – NZ Junior Championship and NZ Junior Rapid, see "Tournaments".
Reminder: 12th - 16th July 2010 - Chess Enterprises NZ North Island Chess Championship, see "Tournaments".
Reminder: Wednesday 28th July 2010 - Auckland Girls Chess Championship, see "Tournaments".

Rules 25th May 2010 - "Rules" has been added, as there are still far too many players who assume that they can play their game at any time. That is NOT the case! If I encounter just one more misunderstanding of these rules I will cancel the arrangement. All members are to read this page.

World Chess Championship 9th May 2010 - World Chess Championship Match 21st April - 13th May 2010 in Sofia, Bulgaria - Viswanathan Anand vs Veselin Topalov. Follow the match on our "International 2010" page from Sunday 25th April (first game will be played on Saturday 24th April in Bulgaria, so we in New Zealand won't have the game until Sunday 25th April), one day later than originally scheduled. The Icelandic volcano has caused this delay. Last Thursday 15th April World Champion Vishy Anand took a flight from his home in Madrid, Spain to Sofia, Bulgaria. He and wife Aruna had a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, with an ongoing flight to Sofia the next day. No sooner had they landed in Frankfurt, however, that word went out that all further flights in and out of that airport were cancelled. This was due to an ash cloud which emanated from an Icelandic volcano and had drifted into European airspace. Slowly one airport after another was closed down, until on Friday all the major European airports, including all those in Germany, had come to a complete standstill. FIDE have approved a one-day postponement to allow Vishy Anand and his team to find a way to reach Sofia. Photo fide.com.
Grand Prix 2010 9th May 2010 - Latest Millennium Hotels and Resorts Grand Prix results and points have been posted.
Fees 9th May 2010 - Reminder for Membership Fees: Were due by Tuesday 30th March 2010. Please bring your CHEQUEBOOKS to pay on TUESDAY. Juniors please remind your parents! For the NEW fees click on "Fees".

Members 2nd May 2010 - The first anniversary of our Club founder Dr Richard Sutton passing away was 17th April 2010. Paul Spiller has unearthed two previously unpublished games of Richard, and I have now posted them on the "Members" page and "Games 2010" page. The details of when and where they were played, and at what events are unknown. For more click on the "Members" page and the "About Us" page. Photo otago.ac.nz.

Interclub 2010 14th April 2010 - Interclub Challenge Match vs Chess 4 Miracle results have been posted. Congratulations to Chess 4 Miracle for their win.
Vasily Smyslov 28th March 2010 - World Champion Vasily Smyslov passed away.

19th Melody Amber Blindfold & Rapid Tournament 26th March 2010 - Follow the Melody Amber tournament, organised by the Association Max Euwe in Monaco, one of the most prestigious chess events in the world. Photo amberchess2010.com.

Photos 2010 24th March 2010 - The Yee surprise night, with Juniors versus Seniors over a giant chess set. Many thanks to Manukau Institute of Technology for lending us the giant chess pieces, and to Spillers Hammer Hardware for lending us the giant chess board. For more click on "Photos 2010". Photo by Stan Yee.

Latvian Tournament 23rd March 2010 - Latvian Tournament results have been posted.
New Zealand Chess Federation Ratings 18th March 2010 - Latest quarterly New Zealand Chess Federation Active Ratings by Ranking.
Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club Ratings 18th March 2010 - Latest quarterly Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club Active Ratings by Ranking, extracted from the NZCF Active Ratings.
Trophy Winners 2009 7th March 2010 - Trophies and miniatures for 2009 being presented at the Annual General Meeting. Congratulations to the winners, especially to Ben Lim, who swept away four trophies, and to Andrew Janisz, a new member who has obviously settled in well at the Club.

27th Linares Tournament 14th February 2010 - 27th Linares Tournament 13th - 25th February 2010. Can't read Spanish? You don't need to. Just click onto the link above to "International 2010" and then click on the link to the official website ajedrez.ciudaddelinares.es. Google Translation will automatically translate the Spanish to English. Six of the best super GMs do battle. Topalov is using this as his practice run for the World Championship match with Anand. The official presentation of the tournament was held at the headquarters of diario Marca in Madrid. The event was attended by the Director Mark D. Eduardo Inda, Mayor of Linares D. Juan Fernández and the president of the FEDA D. Javier Ochoa of Echagüen. Photo ajedrez.ciudaddelinares.es.
Books 13th February 2010 - The Gambit booklist has been updated with a few of the more recent titles. Don't know what to buy for his/her birthday? Buy a chess book! Write a happy birthday message on the first page, and every time they pick up the book they will remember you gave it to them. Don't know what book to buy them? Leonard McLaren has also introduced a Chess Book Voucher worth $60, which you can send as a gift.
Events 13th February 2010 - "Events" page has been REINSTATED.
NZ Champs 2010 13th February 2010 - New Zealand Chess Supplies 117th New Zealand Chess Congress results have been posted. IM Anthony Ker wins the tournament. All 417 games are now available as a pgn file.
Schedule 13th February 2010 - The Club Schedule for 2010 has been posted on the "Schedule" page, WITH a printable doc file.
Site Map 13th February 2010 - "Site Map" has been updated, to help with site navigation. There are 10 new pages, added to the existing 44 pages. "About Us" is a new page to tell you about our new status as an "incorporated charitable organisation". "HP 2009" archives our Club 2009 tournament results. "NZ Champs 2010" has the results of the 117th Congress. "Games 2010" has been set up for more exciting Club games this year. "Grand Prix 2010" has this year's Grand Prix rules and latest Grand Prix results and points. "Howick 2009" archives our Club news for 2009. "Interclub 2010" has been set up for more interclub battles this year. "International 2010" has been set up to link in with what is going on in international tournaments, and will cover the World Championship later this year. "Photos 2010" has been set up for more smiling faces this year, including trophy awards at our AGM. "2010 Results" has been set up to capture trophy winners for this year. Have a click around to familarise yourself with the website.
Tournaments 13th February 2010 - "Tournaments" page has been REINSTATED.
About Us 10th February 2010 - This is a NEW page, to tell you about our Club. We are now an "incorporated charitable organisation", so you can make donations and get receipts to claim a tax rebate. For more click on "About Us".

Last Tuesday 2nd February 2010 was the first Club night of our New Year and it promises to be a busy year. We are starting with a good muster of 55 Juniors in our Junior hour. Please all you Juniors be at the Club by 6.25 p.m. so we can start on time, and don't forget to bring your bar code tag. Those of you who have been steadily improving over the final months of last year have probably discovered that you play better chess when the room is quiet. Let us start this year with no noise, and above all, no intimidating or distracting your opponent.

We will have a busy year with about four or five inter Club matches in the planning stages, and hope to announce the dates of these in the next couple of weeks. They will be placed on this website.

The Eastern Suburbs Interschools' Teams Tournaments are planned to be held on 26th May 2010 for the Primary Schools' Round, and on 2nd June 2010 for the Intermediate Schools' Round. All those Club Juniors who are attending a school which has not participated before in these tournaments could approach your teachers and/or Headmaster to form a school Chess Club and get the school to take part in the future, if not now.

A friendly nudge to keen Parents and willing Senior members; you have observed by now that the computerised Junior programme is starting to run quite smoothly, and I am ready to form a team of you who are willing to take on the Junior hour on a rostered basis. The idea being that we can then really take steps to bring our Juniors up the Chess training ladder with leaps and bounds. With three, four or even five parents taking an active interest in our Juniors, and to be taught what the computer programme is all about, will give me the confidence that the future of our Club will be secure. Parents can be very valuable in this programme, because some of you already spend that time at the Club anyway. Please give me a ring or speak to me during Club nights any time. See the "About Us" page for more details, and to talk to Kees van den Bosch, Secretary, see the "Contact Us" page for contact details.

Photos 2009 6th October 2009 - Left, President Tony Booth presenting the Richard Sutton Cup 2009 to Ben Lim, with Henry Vital who tied for first equal but can't keep his hands on the Cup as he is a member of Papatoetoe CC. "Game of the Tournament" was Ben Lim vs Henry Vital, see "Games 2009". Right, Luke Li and James Lee, both of Somerville Intermediate, who were in the winning team at the Nationals held in Palmerston North on 26th-27th September 2009. The team was James Lee, Luke Li, Saissen Naicker and Leo Zhu. The cup is the Intermediate Schools National Trophy and the smaller one is a memento for the school to keep. Photos by Stan Yee.
FIDE Grand Prix - Pearl Spring 2009 22nd September 2009 - The sixth FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Nanjing, China 28th September - 9th October 2009.
Interclub 2009 22nd September 2009 - Interclub B Grade Rd 2 results have been posted.
FIDE Grand Prix - Jermuk 2009 21st September 2009 - The fifth FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Jermuk, Armenia 8th - 24th August 2009.
Australasian Chess Match of the Decade 19th September 2009 - GM David Smerdon (AUS) 2502 vs IM Puchen Wang (NZL) 2465. Player profiles, history and games. Now includes the epic match GM Murray Chandler vs GM Ian Rogers in 1986.
2nd Grand Slam Masters Final Bilbao 19th September 2009 - The winners of the Nanching Pearl Spring, Corus-Wijk aan Zee, Ciudad de Linares and M-Tel Masters-Sofia tournaments 5th - 12th September 2009.

Photos 2009 15th September 2009 - Left, President Tony Booth presenting the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club Championship Cup 2009 to Ben Lim. This is Ben's third consecutive title. Right, President Tony Booth presenting the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club Reserve Cup 2009 to joint winners Edwin Yip and Stefan Kolev. They are the first winners to have their names engraved on this new cup. Photos by Stan Yee. "Game of the Tournaments" was J Cater vs A Booth, see "Games 2009".
6th IGB Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 15th September 2009 - Final Rankings of the 6th IGB Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open are shown at this link. GM Negi Parimarjan (IND) 2590 is the 2009 champion. The tournament features regular New Zealand players WFM Helen Milligan, Paul Spiller and Hilton Bennett 21st - 28th August 2009.
British Champs 24th August 2009 - Features familiar friends to New Zealand shores GM Stuart Conquest and GM Gawain Jones. 26th July - 8th August 2009.
Interclub 2009 30th July 2009 - Interclub A Grade Rd 3 results and overall standings have been posted.
Oceania Zonal Open 13th June 2009 - Oceania Zonal Open 20th - 26th June 2009. Lots of New Zealand players have entered.
Westfield Pakuranga Junior Tournament 6th-7th June 2009 - Westfield Pakuranga Junior Tournament, Pakuranga, Auckland. 27 players played in the Final on Sunday and results have been posted.
Intermediate Schools Tournament 2009 6th June 2009 - Teams from Auckland Intermediate Schools have just finished their tournament and results have been posted.
Interclub 2009 26th May 2009 - Interclub "A" Grade dates and draw are now confirmed.
M-Tel Masters 2009 10th May 2009 - The international super chess tournament M-Tel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria. 12th - 23rd May 2009.
2009 Sydney International Open Chess Tournament 10th May 2009 - Features several Kiwis. 15th - 19th April 2009.
FIDE Grand Prix - Nalchik 2009 10th May 2009 - The fourth FIDE Grand Prix tournament is taking place in Nalchik, Russia 14th - 30th April 2009.
Russian Team Championship 5th April 2009 - XVI Russian Team Championship in Dagomys, Sochi. 4th - 10th April 2009.

Alexandra Kosteniuk and Susan Polgar 12th March 2009 - GM Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia, Women's World Chess Champion, and GM Susan Polgar of USA have been appointed to Co-Chairman of the Commission for Women's Chess. "It is impressive that we have managed to join the forces of all eight Women's World Champions since 1962 to today ..." Extract and photos from fide.com.
World Chess Challenge 27th February 2009 - World Chess Challenge in Sofia, Bulgaria 17th - 27th February 2009 - Veselin Topalov vs Gata Kamsky. "International2009" has their full profiles and each game.
27/02/09 Game 7: Well, another French Defence Tarrasch Variation from Kamsky, despite his lack of experience with it ... Topalov wins 4.5 - 2.5 and becomes the challenger for the World Chess Championship against the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand in April 2010.

Events 25th February 2009 - "Events" has now been updated with lots of goodies. A big thank you to those parents and seniors who brought along supper for our opening night with Grandmaster Hans-Joachim Hecht - a very successful night was had by all. Photo schachfestival.de.

                   
NZCF Patron Jim Benson with IM David Smerdon        IM Anthony Ker with NZCF Patron Jim Benson
          Photo by Helen Milligan                            Photo by Helen Milligan

NZ Championship and NZ Major Open 29th January 2009 - NZ Championship and NZ Major Open results have been posted. IM David Smerdon of Australia wins the tournament and IM Anthony Ker of New Zealand wins his 10th New Zealand Chess Champion title.
FIDE Ratings for New Zealand players 29th January 2009 - Latest quarterly FIDE (World Chess Federation) Active Ratings by Ranking January 2009 for New Zealand players.
Dresden Olympiad 28th November 2008 - Features the NZ mens' and womens' teams. 12th - 25th November 2008.

Members 26th November 2008 - Clive Wilson, an active and founding member of our Club since 1976 passed away on Friday 21st November 2008 at the South Auckland Hospice after fighting a brave battle with cancer. Clive loved the game of chess and was very sad when he became too sick to play. His name is on a number of chess trophies. The family are holding a celebration of Clive’s life on Thursday 27th November 2008 at 11am to be held at Lambert Fountain Memorial Chapel, corner Wood and Elliot Streets, Papakura and would welcome past and present chess members and associates who would like to attend. We would be grateful if you could let everyone know of Clive's funeral on Thursday. Patricia Wilson, Andrew Wilson, Ian Wilson, and Anne Wilkins. Photo by Stan Yee.

Interclub 2008 23rd November 2008 - Interclub "B" Grade final results. Pgn file, all results and standings are now posted.

Anand - Kramnik World Championship Match 14th - 29th October 2008 30th October 2008 - Anand 1/2 Kramnik 1/2 in Round 11, score Anand 6.5 Kramnik 4.5. Vishy Anand retains the World Chess Championship title. Congratulations Vishy Anand, and this will silence the doubters who said winning the title in a tournament was not the traditional and fair way. Do you know where chess really originated from? See "Links" Anand. Want to listen to a post match video? See "Links" ibnlive. Photo by Torsten Behl.

World Youth Chess Championships Vung Tau Vietnam 29th October 2008 - Features our very own Katy Qiu. 19th - 31st October 2008.
Interclub 2008 23rd July 2008 - Jenkins Trophy Challenge, North Shore vs Howick-Pakuranga results and all games as a "pgn" file have been posted, and Board 1 game Ralph Hart vs Martin Dreyer.
Games 22nd June 2008 - Incredible game 13th May 2008 from 2nd ENCI Limburg Open, Round 6: GM Gawain Jones (2522) vs IM Puchen Wang (2397), kindly supplied by Paul Spiller.
Magistral Ciudad De Leon 2008 2nd June 2008 - Magistral Ciudad De Leon in Leon, Spain. 29th May - 2nd June 2008. Invitational tournament with Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexey Shirov and Francisco Vallejo-Pons.

Gifted Kids Programme 31st May 2008 - Gifted Kids Programme (GKP) was held this Thursday 29th May at our premises. The Gifted Kids organiser, Gail, arranged the BBQ. Leonard McLaren was the facilitator. It was a six round Swiss with 10 minutes each on the clock. There were about 60 kids there. Photo by Craig Blaxall.

New Zealand Seniors Chess Championship 2008 29th April 2008 - New Zealand Seniors Chess Championship 2008 was held 25th-27th April 2008 in Hamilton. Joint Seniors' Champions 2008 are Peter Stuart and William Lynn. 3rd place Wayne Power. Joint under-1600 winners were Nigel Cooper, David Capper, and our very own Tony Booth. He was also 4th= overall. Top female Vivian Smith. seniors2008 (doc file) seniors2008 (pgn file)
Second Sunday Puchen GM Rapid 17th April 2008 - IM Puchen Wang cleaned everyone up in the "A" Tournament with 6/6. He has had a very successful tour of France, Hungry, and Australia, and was having a well earnt break at home before embarking to Spain. All the best Puchen. For those that want to make donations to Puchen see further below on this Homepage.
9th Ciudad de Dos Hermanas 29th March 2008 - For the ninth consecutive year, ICC is hosting the annual Internet Chess Tournament "Ciudad de Dos Hermanas" 2008. 28th March - 5th April 2008.

Leonard McLaren becomes a New Zealand Master 18th March 2008
Leonard McLaren receiving his New Zealand Master Certificate from New Zealand Chess Federation President Paul Spiller. Photo by Stan Yee.

Remuera Junior Chess Club - Queen of chessboard 29th February 2008 - "Girls do just as well as boys, and, I think better."
Paul Spiller elected President, Jim Benson elected Patron 19th January 2008 - Paul Spiller, stalwart of the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club, was elected as the President of the New Zealand Chess Federation at the Annual General Meeting on 19th January 2008. Jim Benson, another longstanding Club member, was elected the Patron. This is a double-first for our Club. Howick and Pakuranga Times "Howick player becomes NZ chess leader".
Tribute to Bobby Fischer 9th March 1943 - 17th January 2008 18th January 2008 - I had just come home after round 6 of the New Zealand Major Open on Friday 18th January 2008 and saw the news - Bobby Fischer had passed away.

Club Schedule

Problem

R Ponomariov vs J Smeets, Amber Tournament 25th March 2010.

Black to play and draw.

Solution to Problem

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