Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Independence Day - Tournament

2017 Independence Day Tournament

Independence day celebrations was in full swing, Flag raising ceremony, Parade marching and Guard of honor General salute and inspection. It was followed by Island wide clean up competition, Community color light display competition, Nauruan wrestling, Cross fit championship, fishing and a galore of other activities including whats important to us.. CHESS!!

It was a full week of hard core battle at the usual venue Nauru College. Sponsored only by the Nauru Govenment and JHSS company, Taiwan and Digicel Nauru.

NCF President Ricko Depaune organised a double knock out elimination tournament filtering through only the polished players into the round robin bouts.

This time however, the clock was placed on the table for any of those still maneuvering the battle grounds above the allocated time. After the allocated time has expired (1-1/2 hours in a game play), 10 minutes was given to each player where they will need to defeat their opponent before their own 10min runs out.

The total lot of 17 players were halved by the end of the elimination rounds and the eligible players were given their program for the week, listing their opponent, time and place for each.  One round was played each day in the round robin. 8 players and 7 rounds.

The Scores


    The Championship goes to David Dabuae!!
    NCF President presents the cash prize and top-up bonus from Digicel


   Yarsir Collects the Runner up prize!


Jed Selu is one of the old greats, still reaping the benefits of his chess prowess


   Andrew made a fatal move causing a collapse of his defenses under Yarsir relentless seige.


   Yarsir Under heavy seige that could cost him his queen in a single move.


Jed's Kingside was ripped open with a passed pawn now pinning down his knight        


   Chris defence was formidable, but collapsed under the clock in the end game.


    Alofa defended against Atta's relentless attacks and forced a draw.

(Edit) The final top total round robin scores went to Yarsir and David. Both these players have shown that they were the cream of the crop on that day at with 6 wins each and one loss.

There needed to be a tie-breaker!!  This part of the tournament was fast and furious with an allocated 10 minutes to each player on the clock, it starts from the first move, the tie breaker is a three round match for most scores. This means the total game will never be any longer than 20 minutes.  Yarsir finished off David in less than 8 minutes in the first game.

David had to step outside for a bit to catch a bit of the local island breeze and to calm his nerves. Yarsir waited patiently at the table when David returned for the second game. David won after using up all his time on the clock with a check mate and only 3 seconds to spare.  He confidently overwhelmed Yarsir in the final game and was declared the 2017 Independence Day Chess Tournament Champion.  

After receiving the awards, the champion bought lunch for all (thanks David).

More updates to be posted.. but for now enjoy.

OUR SPONSORS
We extend our appreciation to our supporters and donors who made this event possible. Digicel, Taiwan, JHSS and The Nauru Sports Department. Tubwa kor!!


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