The first Peter Stuart Memorial Open was held in Auckland over the weekend 25-26 August 2018. The event, held for over 40 years as the North Shore Open, has been renamed to commemorate a stalwart of the NZ chess world.
In what is a record for North Shore Chess Club’s annual tournament, 92 players took part, with foreign-registered participants from Malaysia, Canada, Romania, Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, China, the Netherlands, and Sri Lanka.
All three sections were FIDE-rated, as part of our policy to facilitate FIDE ratings for our juniors. 1st= in the Open were FM Michael Steadman (NZ) and Evan Capel (Malaysia). A close third was FM Ben Hague (NZ), who will be fighting hard for his final IM norm and title at the Olympiad in a few weeks’ time, having registered a 2400+ rating.
A special prize, sponsored by Olympian Stephen Lukey, was awarded for the best upset result by someone playing 1.c4 as white. This was always Peter’s favourite (perhaps only!) opening. It was won by Winston Weng with a draw against an opponent over 500 points higher rated.
Full results, and all the games from the top section, can be found on North Shore CC’s website www.northshorechess.org.nz