Mr. William Edward Mason of Wellington is once again New Zealand Chess Champion after taking clear first place in the title tourney held at Auckland at the turn of the year, an event whose game scores have only recently reached our offices following a long voyage by sea. This latest triumph represents the fifth such victory for Mr. Mason, equaling the record of Mr. Richard J. Barnes. Mr. Mason, with 11 points scored from 14 games played in the 15-man round-robin tourney, finished a full point clear of a trio comprised of Mr. Barnes, former two-time Champion Mr. Arthur W.O. Davies, and last year's Championship play-off participant Mr. Alfred Gyles, each with 10. Mr. Gyles' fellow competitors from the 1913 play-off, defending Champion Mr. John C. Grierson and Mr. Edwin Hicks, fared rather less well this year, the former scoring 6 1/2 points to claim 9th place and the latter finishing in 14th position with a score of 3.
The complete standings were as follows:
William E. Mason 11; R.J. Barnes, A. Gyles, A. Davies 10; F. Kelling 9 1/2; E.J. Miles 8 1/2; E. Dodds 8; E. Saverne 7; J. Grierson 6 1/2; P. Stewart 6; H. Myers 5; H. James, H. Wingfield 4; E. Hicks 3; S. Moore 2 1/2
We have as yet not found time and leisure to examine all the games played in the tournament. For the present we offer two victories by Mr. Mason, the Champion, with the promise of more Antipodean chess to come in the days ahead.
Here Mr. Mason surprises Mr. Hicks with a Queen sacrifice in a heavy-piece endgame:
And here the offer of a Rook leads to the immediate resignation of Mr. Severne:
No comments:
Post a Comment