NZ Championship

Mark Van der Hoorn of Wellington needed to win his last two games if he was to have any chance of winning the 109th NZ Chess Championship. Instead, he lost to Candidate Master Anthony Dowden of Otago and International Master Anthony Ker of Wellington was therefore able to increase his lead with his draw to Martin Haag. This means that IM Ker can now be declared 109th NZ Chess Champion with one round yet to play.

With Dowden's win, there is now a three-way tie for second place. Shared for second place is Martin Haag of Germany, who has scored an impressive five points from his last six games, and Mark Van der Hoorn, as mentioned above.

Apart from Dowden's win, there were only two other decisive results. Brian Jones of Australia rightfully defeated Matthew McNabb, but Leonard McLaren has a surprising win over the former five-time NZ champion FM Paul Garbett. Perhaps a draw would have been the fair result.

The six drawn games have given a number of players in the New Zealand Championship the opportunity to score for a share in the prize money in the last round.


NZ Major Open

Michael Turner and Jacek Wojnar have made comeback wins in round 10. Whether that is enough to catch Barry Martin-Buss with only one round to go remains to be seen.

Today, Martin-Buss had a decisive result which has put him in clear first position. Cummings-Donaldson, and Goodhue-Nijman, ended in draws. Cummings, the former co-leader with Martin-Buss, is now solely in second place. Turner, Donaldson, and Jacek Wojnar are all in 3rd equal place.

Arie Nijman had a draw today but significantly for him John Pakenham had a loss. That means that Nijman (6.5/10) is half a point ahead of John Pakenham (6/10) of Auckland. Peter Fraemohs (Canterbury), Alan Aldridge (Wellington), and Don Stracy (Wellington) are in 3rd place in Grade 1 with (5.5/10) points.

For the Junior prize, that of a chess computer donated by Business Distributors Limited, Marciej Wojnar is the firm favourite with an even score. Shatalin is at -1, Fernando and Thornton now at a -2.

With a win today, Brendan Reedy from Canterbury is now again sole leader in the Grade 2 division. Atkinson and Fernando drew their games whilst Keeling and Webber lost theirs. One round to go!


 

 
 
Results and Pairings: