Chess matches delayed

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 42

Chess matches delayed

The weather and lack of organisation among some teams, especially in the A grade, prevented four matches from being played in “The Press” chess schools’ competition last week.

Burnside kept its prospects of qualifying for the round-robin premier, grade final alive when it drew, three-all, with the zone one leader, Christchurch A. It was two-all with two matches needing adjudication. Christchurch possibly sacrificed half a point on board two when its player incorrectly marked the positions and, although the Christchurch board three player had an extra piece, his rival was in a strong enough position to force a draw. The two teams to qualify from zone one will not be known until Hillmorton plays some of its deferred matches. Weather caused al key match between Christ-i

church B and Shirley to be postponed. In zone two, Ashburton and St Andrew’s gained their first half-points when they drew three-all. It was a contrasting contest; Ashburton won on the top three boards, St Andrew’s swept the bottom three. Heaton Intermediate’s successful run in the B grade came to an abrupt halt against Shirley B. Shirley won five of the six games and moved into second place — half a point behind the only unbeaten team, Bumside B.

Bumside, with strong players in the middle order, has won 22 of the possible 24 games, but it lost one match last week against Hornby. David Rooke’s win for Hornby on board one was his team’s first success in the tournament Bumside’s female player, Jacinta Buist, is unbeaten on the bottom board. | Fourth-round results:-

A grade.— Zone I: Christ-

church A 3. Bumside 3; Linwood 3j, Middleton Grange 2|. Zone II: Ashburton 3, St Andrew’s 3; Christ’s College sj, Papanui B grade.— Burnside 85, Hornby 1; Cobham Intermediate 3, Hillmorton B 3; Shirley B 5, Heaton Intermediate 1. Points.— A grade. — Zone I: Christchurch A 2 A (11), Bumside 1J (9), Hillmorton 1| (9), Linwood 1* (8 A), Cashmere 1 (51), Middleton Grange 0 (5). Cashmere and Hillmorton have two deferred matches; the other schools one each. Zone II: Christchurch B 3 (151), Christ’s College 3 (15J), Shirley 2 (10), Papanui 1 (6|), St Andrew’s j (9), Ashburton j (34). B grade. — Bumside B 4 (22), Shirley B 31 (18), Heaton 3 (15), Christ’s College B 2 (llj), Cobham II (10), Linwood B 14 (9), St

Margaret’s 1 (81), Papanui B 1 (6), Hillmorton B j (7), Hornby 0 (1).