Tourney will decide new chess champ

Press, 26 December 1985, Page 24

Tourney will decide new chess champ

By 808 SCHUMACHER A new national chess champion will be found when the last round of the 12-day tournament is completed at Burnside High School on January 8. Vernon Small, of Christchurch, who won the title in Wellington last January — his fourth success since his initial triumph in 1980 —

will not defend the cham-

pionship. It will be an important tournament for the country’s leading players. For the first time, the Wellington-based New Zealand TSiess Association has

decided that the top four finishers will automatically earn selection in the New Zealand team for the world chess Olympiad in Dubai next near. That decision will mean only one player can be added by the selectors and that person will certainly be Small, New Zealand’s most accomplished player. Work commitments have prevented Small playing in the championship, but he will be available for the world event. The New Zealand association has made another deci'sion which has not been

greeted with enthusiasm by several players. For only the second time, the tournament will be played on a Swiss system involving 24 players, instead of the accepted format for the premier grade — 12 players meeting in a roundrobin contest.

The chess ratings of the field vary by more than 400 points, the top seeds for the Robert Jones Investmentssponsored championship being two Aucklanders, Ortvin Sarapu and Paul Garbett, Phillip Clemence, of Wellington, and Roger Nokes. or Christchurch.

Sarapu, a multiple titleholder, did not compete on the last occasion, but the international master is always a man to be respected. Garbett, an erratic player at times, was equal third last January, after winning the title in 1984 and sharing it the previous year. In the absence of Small, Nokes, a world Olympiad representative, and Adrian Lloyd could well keep the championship in Christchurch.

Nokes shared the national title with Small and Sarapu in 1981 and has been placed fourth and sixth in his other

appearances. Lloyd, a former South Island champion, was runner-up to Small in the last national championship. Jonathon Sarfati might prove troublesome. The young Wellington player has finished equal third for the last two years and starts the tournament as holder of both the North Island and South Island titles.

Wellington has a sixpronged junior attack and all are promising players, the best of them possibly being Anthony Ker, the national junior champion.