Second-tier round-robin championship introduced

Press, 11 February 1988, Page 32

Second-tier round-robin championship introduced

By

MICHAEL ROCKS

The most significant change to the format of the national chess congress was the introduction of a second tier round-robin championship. Formerly the premier reserve was run as an 11round Swiss system* competition. However, the 1987 annual meeting of the N.Z.C.A. voted to change the tournament to a 12-person round-robin and introduce a new Swiss style tournament called the major open. The rationale behind the change was to provide those players on the fringes of championship selection with a stronger level of competition. ' _ The first winner of the new style premier reserve competition was Leonard McLaren, of Wellington. The two Canterbury representatives, Peter McKenzie and Stephen Lukey, seeded second and fourth respectively, both began disastrously. After six rounds they had picked up only 3y 2 points (from a possible 12) between them. Thoughts of winning the reserve and qualifying for next year’s championship in Dunedin were quickly substituted for ways to limit the damage to their national ratings. Quite simply, the lack of strong local competition for players outside Auckland and Wellington will now become more apparent under the new congress structure. One pleasing feature of the premier reserve was the low incidence of drawn games (28 per cent compared with 56 per cent in the championship). This is probably , due to the greater range of playing strength and the lack of established reputations. The following two miniatures (decisive games of less than twenty-five moves) were played in the recently completed national chess congress. National championship: NIMZO-INDIAN DEFENCE White: Anthony Ker. Black: Robert Smith 1, d 4 Nf6 2, c 4 e 6 3, Nc3 Bb4 4, e 3 ,C 5 5, Bd3 Nc6 6, Nf3 Bxc3ch 7, bxc3 d 6 8, e 4 e 5 9, h 3 h 6 10, 0-0 b 6 11, Qe2 0-0 12, dxes dxes 13, Nel Ba 6 14, Nc2 Nas 15, Ne 3 Qd7 16, f 4 Nhs 17, Nfs exf4 18, Qxhs

Solution to the previous problem: Key 1 Kg 3 (there is no direct threat, White simply waits for Biack to make a move) 1 ... Nc7 2 Qxc7 mate 1 ... Nb 6 2 Qa3 mate 1 ... B-any 2 Qxbs mate Try 1 Kxg4? BcBch! 2? (Note: a move that very nearly solves a problem but fails to a single Black defence is called a Try. It is usual to put a question-mark after a White try and an exclama-tion-mark after the Black refutation.) Successful letter problems are difficult to make as predetermined places for the pieces put enormous constraints on the composer. Most examples have rather weak play, but they are composed

Qxd3 19, Rxf4 BcB 20, Ne7ch Kh7 21, Rf 6! Resigns. Premier reserve: QUEEN’S GAMBIT ACCEPTED White: Ralf Hart. Black: Leonard McLaren 1, d 4 d 5 2, c 4 dxc4 3, Nf3 Nf6 4, Bgs Bg4 5, Nc3 e 6 6, e 3 Be 7 7, Bxc4 0-0 8, 0-0 Nbd7 9, Qe2 e 5 10, dxes Nxes 11, Rfdl QcB 12, Rd 4 Bxf3 13, gxf3 Qh3 14, Rf 4 Nhs 15, Rh 4 Nxf3 16, Qxf3 Qxf3 17, Bxe7 ReB 18, Bds Qfs 19, Be 4 Qes 20, f 4 Qxe7 21, Rxhs h 6 22, Res QfB 23, Resigns. *The Swiss system can cope with virtually any number of players and any number of rounds for any activity for which there can be at least three results: win, draw or loss. In each round, players should have opponents on as closely similar scores as possible. As a tournament progresses, players with high scores meet each other as do players with low scores. The method is somewhat similar to a knockout tournament except that all competitors play through to the end of the event. The system is also used for some bridge and draughts events. Canterbury Chess Club News. The Club meets every Wednesday in the Clubroom, 227 Bealey Ave. The formal club programme begins on Wednesday, March 2. For further details contact the tournament secretary, Mr Stephen Lukey, ph. 228-281. The all-Canterbury championship held in December was won by Michael. Hampl with si/ 2 points from 6 games. In second place was Stephen Lukey with followed by Michael Turner with 4 points. • * * Final Standings in the Robert Jones Investments premier reserve championship: 1. L. McLaren (W) 2. G. Spencer-Smith (A) 3. P. Spiller (A) 4. P. Hawkes (W) 5. P. McKenzie (C) 6. R. Hart (A) 7. B. Carpinter (W) 8. S. Lukey (C) 9. F. Foster (W) JO. P. Dunn (W) . IE D. Cooper (PN) 12. Z. Frankel (W)

and published in the party spirit. This problem appeared in the London Transport chess magazine, hence the letters LT. The study this week is by the Czechoslovakian, Jindrich Fritz, and was composed in 1965. White is to play and draw. The solution will appear in the next chess column.

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