126th New Zealand Chess Congress, Open Championship 2019

[CivicChessMan]

Day 2 of the NZ Rapid. Round 6 has been played. Johnson Li continues his outstanding form with a win over Alex Wohl (AUS) to move to 5 points. He is joined by Bob Smith who dented Russell Dive's hopes of a ninth title with a win. Anthony Ker is the only player on 4.5 after his win against Stefan Gottuk (GER). The clash of the GMs resulted in victory for Timur Gareyev. In round 7, GM Papin (RUS) plays Smith, Li vs Leonid Sandler (AUS) and the clash of the NZ champions, Dive and Ker.

[CivicChessMan]

In round 7, Anthony Ker defeated Russell Dive to leapfrog ahead of his rivals to 5.5 points. Ker has half a point lead over Johnson Li and Bob Smith who both lost and Ralph Hart who won his game. Ker plays GM Papin in round 8. Other critical games are Smith vs Li and Hart vs Laurens Goormactigh (BEL),

[Alana]

NZ Blitz event is live http://view.livechesscloud.com/24fe9...0-f9fe016c2bc4

[CivicChessMan]

A good result for Anthony Ker in round 8 with a draw against GM Vasily Papin. Ker moves to 6 points but he now has company after Ralph Hart won vs Laurens Goormactigh (BEL). Bob Smith and Johnson Li drew their game to remain half a point behind. They are joined by David Notlley and Sravan Renjith, both of whom are still unbeaten after 8 rounds. Round 9 sees Ker up against the toughest of opponents in tournament leader, GM Timur Gareyev while Hart plays Notley, Li vs Renjith and Leonid Sandler vs Smith.

[CivicChessMan]

GM Tinur Gareyev has won the NZ Rapid tournament with 8.5 points after he defeated Anthony Ker in the last round. He finished one and a half points clear of three players, including the new NZ Rapid title winner, Ralph Hart. Hart won the title with a win over David Notley. Congratulations . In a surprising second place for the NZ title is Sravan Renjith with 6.5 points. He was undefeated with 4 wins and 5 draws. GM Gareyev was the only other unbeaten player. Renjith won his last round game against Johnson Li. On 6 points, Anthony Ker and Russell Dive.

[samantha]

McLaren had an obvious one move win against Johansen at one point of the game.

Actually it was at two moments,as the position on Chess 24 , was repeated twice.However,there WAS a data input error which any intelligent viewer would've suspected.(the live feed on the board failed).Leonard played 17,(and 19) Ke3.( and,offered a draw upon the second repetition.) 17.Kd3?! of course I would have played 17.....Rd7 M.Baron also made a strange remark re my win against Kanan.Perhaps M.Baron needs to bring more critical thought to this forum.

[Capablanca-Fan]

24 January 2019—NZ Lightning Championship, Auckland

1st GM Timur Gareyev (USA) 9/9
2nd Romie Guerra (Phillipines) 7.5/9
3rd Evan Capel (Malaysia) 7/9
4th FM Johan Goormachtigh (Belgium) 6.5

None of these were eligible for the title; the top placing Kiwis were six of the ten players who tied for 5th on 6 points (along with GM Vasily Papin):

IM Paul Garbett, Sravan Renjith, Ralph Hart, FM Daniel Gong, Nigel Metge, and FM Bob Smith.

[Adamski]

Great to see my friend Nigel Metge (he once stayed at my home) playing again in NZ and co-winning a title (albeit blitz) after many years based in the Middle East.