RONPhos National Chess
Tournament (30JUN2017.USP.NR)
– Idorodoro me kababur Ouwak -
The 2017 RONPhos Handover day was earmarked by the Nauru government
as the launch date and event for the celebrations of Nauru’s 50th
Anniversary (of its Independence by January 2018). This launch was themed “Idorodoro me Kababur
ouwak” It means “fully immersed in a festivity spirit and unbridled dancing,
singing and feasting in jubilation” Well that’s my take of what it means and if
you think you can provide a better translation you may do so in the comments.
Independence day for Nauru was gained in 1968 and its golden Jubilee is a few months away, Yes look it up on Wikipedia or something, the story of Nauru’s history and her adventures through her annuls is quite fascinating, the Ronphos Handover also has a pretty interesting history, but this blog segment is about Chess and not Nauru history.
For NCF the Ronphos-Handover meant 1: Women’s open
tournament and 2: Novelty games at the National Carnival. NCF had decided to do
both on separate days. Friday 30th June for the Tournament and
Saturday 1st of July for some mini-blitz round robin matches during
the Carnival.
Our executive committee went about looking for sponsors to
eventuate its first ever Nauru Women’s Open FIDE Chess Tournament and sadly
came short due to the fact the fiscal year was closing and budgets for most of
our supporters were well spent with none to spare. Not only was the support required had fallen
short but also the number of interested Women to participate in the tournament
was less than three individuals (I know right? Where are our female
strategists?). Even the organising of venue failed. (Sounds bleak aye? Well it’s
not as bad as it sounds)
Anywho.. to tell a long story short.. Due to the lack of
Women stepping up to the challenge, NCF defaulted the tournament to a National Open
Championship. Yes, all challengers were welcome.
Venue: Not RONPhos training centre, they offered to provide the venue but communication deteriorated in terms of unforeseen
demand on the key people at Ronphos.
Although we were somewhat forgotten, the NCF was fortunate enough to have
good friends in high positions and Alamanda Lauti was one of them. The USP
patio as the tournament venue was approved by her without hesitation, in her
own words “When do you need it?.. The
Patio is Yours!”
NCF would like to thank Mrs Alamanda Lauti the Director for
Nauru USP for her kind support, a passionate individual dedicated in building
characters and moulding minds to become great.
She believes that Chess is one sport that provides mental discipline,
defines temperance and hones analytical thinking in developed players. Anyway
for more info on our good friend Alamanda..
look her up on Facebook or something,
the story of Alamanda and her contribution to society is another fascinating story
that would be worth your time, and we can write a lot here about her but this
blog segment is about Chess.
Friday 30th
June – USP Patio 5:30pm – Open National Chess Tournament.
The Tournament event commenced at USP Nauru, Patio, Aiwo,
6pm in a 5 Round Swiss Chess Pairing, 25min a side, no increments and it will
be a FIDE standard rapid chess ratings. Tournament ranking results will
contribute to the selection scores for the Olympiad Chess Championship 2018
Georgia.
The following images shows the Game results on each round
and the final ranking results.
ROUND 1
ROUND 2
ROUND 3
ROUND 5
FINAL RANK STANDINGS
I know, but its natural for you to feel indignant that Nauru is being massacred by
Myanmar (aka Burma) all over the chess board.
But!! at the same time you are also quite
glad that “there exists a player” pitted against our top elites, a player who
shows a class above our discipline, our patience and our will to win, because
It ultimately means that ‘if we are
to send players to the Olympiad in 2018.. then we have to go through Yarsir
first’.
The runner-up went to Thubalkain Dabuae. An incredible upset against
most active players as Thubalkain only woke up from his months of deep slumber in the
realm of Chess unleashing carnage against seasoned players including his brother, the
formidable Chess lord David Dabuae who suffered a massive blunder in his attack
and was consequently humbled into submission.
The sweet Miss Vandella Gadeanang is no sweet thing when it
comes to Chess, She is relentless and brutal with every move. She is the only
female chess player in Nauru that can slap around most men across the Chess
Kingdom. In her case “Chess Queendom”, she walked away with the third prize booty
leaving behind a trail of defeated men.
Congratulations Champions!! maintain your rule at the top and
beware, because there are many vengeful vows being muttered by the losers.. and they will
be coming for your thrones in the next tournament.
At this point NCF would like to mention our supporters who
have “come through” with in their sponsorship. It is with much relief that
their support was available.
Eigigu Supermarket Shopping Vouchers
DIGICEL – Phone
Credit Top-up Vouchers
NUC –
Power Kwh Top-up Vouchers
The above supporters have not failed to provide sponsorship
in the past 3 national tournament!! Awesome!! Tubwa kor Ouwak.
The Chess
Federation had to tap into the treasury to supplement the prizes with CA$H for our
champions. Tubwa NCF!!
The event concluded with all players invited to a banquet at
the Kasuo Restaurant, compliments of NCF, All enjoyed their fill and exchanged
appropriate words of usurping the title of champions.
Saturday 1st
June – Chess Novelty Games
The Carnival was on the way by 10am.. at the Aiwo Oval (aka tigers oval)
First the long boring speeches.. then the Marching bands.. Then power races.. The Wrestling.. The
tug-0-wars..
The cultural races.. Stage performances… Powerlifting.. Ball
sports.. and many other novelty games where T-shirts, Sweets and great prizes
were given to successful participants. Yep, it was a “full-on” exciting time for
locals.. but not as exciting as Chess!! In a little blue tent was the most
exciting activity of all, Minds ticking at over 5000mhz per second, analysing,
strategizing and taking calculated risks with every move, it was awesome!!
{Insert Image: Does anyone have any pics?? any pic of the carnival will do}
NCF was allocated one small tent and we were bent on offering
5 tournaments with sponsored vouchers from Utilities power and Digicel
Nauru. Unfortunately the chairs did not
arrive and the next best exciting thing was implemented.
Three chess boards was laid out on the single trestle, one
board had a 6 move puzzle on it, the second had a 4 move puzzle on it and the
third had either 1, 2, or 3 move puzzles laid out. Many young ones came about
and made their move, and many were sent away because they did not have the
genius we were looking for.
You should have been there, maybe you are the
genius we are looking for.
The smart ones who solved the chess puzzles walked away with
their novelty prizes, T-Shirts, Candies, complete NCF chess boards and a bright
smile on their face.
An hour after midday, the invitation challenge was announced
over the carnival microphone. The challenge was to beat NCF’s top players in a
single game of chess. The NCF top player would be allocated a 5 minute handicap
on the clock against 10 minutes for the challengers.
The prizes of digicel phone-credit top-up
vouchers, and NUC power top-up vouchers was awarded to each winner.
Out of every 3 challengers against NCF, one walked away with
a voucher of their choice, all smiles. NCF was quite
impressed with the players and have recorded each name andcontact details of all our winners, with a
warning that they will be notified of up-coming National Tournaments.
The Nauru Chess Federation decided that Tournaments should be held for Nauru at least every 2nd Month each year to provide a minimum of six national tournaments per-annum. The following Calendar was proposed and the RONPhos Women’s Open Chess Tournament was placed within the NCF national schedule.
1. January 31st – National Open -Nauru Independence Day
2. March 31st – National Open -Rubens Cup Chess Championship
3. May 17th – National Open -Nauru Constitution Day
4. July 1st –Womens Open / National Open -RONPhos Handover Day
5. Mid August (An event date is still under consideration with the NCF executive)
6. October 26th –National Team Open -Nauru Angam Day
For those interested to be in the tournaments, keep in mind that all national days are
earmarked by NCF as dates to implement Chess Championship Tournaments. Next on
the Calendar is Angam Day 2017.. so keep your skills honed and your eyes out
for the next national tournament. You may contact the Chess Federation at ricko.depaune@gmail.com for further info.
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