CHESS CONGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 25679, 31 December 1945, Page 7

CHESS CONGRESS

FIVE ROUNDS COMPLETED TWO YOUNG PLAYERS IN LEAD (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 30. With five rounds played in the victory chess congress, the championship leader is J. D. Steele, a 21-year-old Wellington player, who is half a point ahead of M. Stewart, a 17-year-old Canterbury player, and T. Lepviikman (Wellington), who was runner-up in last year’s championship at Auckland. Only one match, that between Wade and Kelling, has not been completed. Chief interest in the adjourned games completed yesterday afternoon was in that between Lepviikman and Abbott. The latter early overlooked the strength of a defensive move by his opponent and resigned shortly afterwards. It was Abbott’s second loss of the tourney. In the morning he had a similar lapse against Wade, losing a piece and resigning. Following are the championship points, with adjourned games in parentheses:— Steele, 44 points. Stewart and Lepviikman, 4. MoNabb and Abbott, 3. Wade, 24 (1). Gyles, 2-|. Mrs Abbott, 24. Kelling, 1 (1). Darwin. 1. Hardy, 1. McGilvray, 0. A key game in the championship is that between Wade and MoNabb, which will be played to-morrow morning. Other games will be: Lepviikman v. Hardy, .McGilvray v. Stewart, Mrs Abbott v. Gyles, Abbott v. Kelling, Darwin v. Steele. The leaders in the major open tourney, with adjourned games in parentheses, are Wood (Wellington) 4. Sim (Palmerston North) 3}, Miss Hollis (Auckland) and Henderson (Wellington) 3, Mitchell (Canterbury) 24 (1), Webling (Wellington) 24 (1), Godtsehalk (Wellington) 24In the first class tourney, Webb (Canterbury) is unbenten with three wins. Woolley (Canterbury) has three wins and a loss. •