CHESS CONGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 25676, 27 December 1945, Page 7

CHESS CONGRESS

GYLES DEFEATED IN FIRST ROUND (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 26. The defeat of A. W. Gyles (Wellington), a former New Zealand titleholder, by M. Stewart, a young Canterbury player, was one of the features in the first round of the championship matches in the victory chess congress, which was opened in the memorial dining. hall .at Christ’s College to-niglij;. Stewart created a very favourable impression by his displays in his first championship congress at Auckland last year. Stewart exploited his opponent’s rather cramped game with a strong king6ide attack. Gyles endeavoured to extricate himself from his position with a counter-attack on the queen side, but was unable to avoid a heavy, material loss and resigned on the twentysixth move.

H. R. Abbott (Canterbury), who is participating in his first congress since winning the championship in Auckland in 1936-37, outplayed H. A. McGilvary, a young Dunedin player, in an interesting game. The remaining championship games were adjourned. R. G. Wade, the present champion, is two pawns up against J. D. Steele (Wellington), Mrs H. R. Abbott (Canterbury) is a' pawn up against L. J. Darwin (Canterbury), and T. Lepviikmann (Wellington) has a similar advantage against EVIL Selling (Wellington). ; H. (McNabb and J. L. Hardy, both of Wellington, have an even game. In the major open N. S. Henderson (Wellington) beat R. A. Godtschalk (Wellington), and B. S. Wood (Wellington) drew with W. E. Moore (Canterbury). The following games were adjourned:—Miss Hollis (Auckland) v. ■Mrs Golding (Canterbury), J. L. Mitchell (Cartterbury) v. Mrs Short (Auckland), E. J. Denys .(Canterbury) v. L. Sim (Palmerston North), F. Vincent '(Canterbury) v. J. K. L. Webling i (Wellington). • Results in the first-class tourney were:—W. J. Bevis (Otago) beat A. J. Golding (Canterbury), F. Newsome (Canterbury) beat L. Cook (Palmerston North), S. J. Webb (Canterbury) beat S. Hollander (Canterbury), J. H. Woolley (Canterbury) beat A. E. Summers (Wellington). Byes: W. Pearse (Temuka) and L. C. S. Pope (Wellington). ■