2025 Auckland Open

The Auckland 2025 Open was held a week and a bit ago, on September 20 & 21. Here are the results and my memories of the event. Also the New Zealand Open approaches. This will be an in person / online tournament held in Auckland - or wherever you happen to be - on 22nd and 23rd of November . Details will be published soonish.

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The Auckland Open was advertised in a notification sent out well in advance, however we were late with the actual invitation - will people come?

They did 😀, 16 people in the Open division and 13 in Division 2. Not bad. There is also an interesting mix of new and “old” competitors.Some of the “old” players are actually pretty young, but they have played in many tournaments and feel like old friends.

Both divisions look like the winner will have a tough fight, there are half a dozen 5 & 6 dan players in the Open and division 2 has Linda, Will, Chris, Tianze, Howard and one or two others who are all solid Dan players. This will be interesting. 

Some people are late. It always happens, so we never get to start on time. Frustrating 😞 However by 9:30 we are underway.

Round 1: I'm playing Vincent who is quite strong and has a fantastic knowledge of Joseki - I must keep things simple! It's a decent game, though I feel behind all the way, especially after I thoughtlessly make a peek he ignores and takes the initiative. Interestingly Vincent said he thought I had the better opening - Maybe I should not be so pessimistic. We were slow, only one other game is still active - but it's only 11am, an hour before the scheduled end of the round. Maybe we don't need to start so early?

Results:

• In the open we have had one “interesting’ result. Young Kevin Liu, ranked just 1D beat 4D Gao Qiang. (Kevin really is young. He is not ‘old’ Kevin Lui who has been NZ champion many times). Other results were much as expected.

• In Division 2 Stepan Lapshev 4K, had a good win over Yan Peng Yu 1D. 

Lunch: Stephan Lapshev has organized lunch. Many thanks Stephan.The food looks very good, there are some treats his partner has made 😀 but it all disappears before I get there. Stephan orders a bucket of KFC so that no one goes hungry. 

Round 2: Everyone has finished lunch so we start a bit ahead of schedule. I'd rather forget this game. I was ahead, should have secured my side territory - but played a greedy move instead 😞. Gao Qiang punished me - and a later blindness lost me another 3 stones and sealed the game. A good lesson, that unfortunately I seem to have to have repeated every so often. 

Again we finish early and are further ahead of schedule. 

Results:

• In the open Kevin has had another win. So has Jerry, Bo-Sen, and Guohui. They are the leading group with two wins.

• In Division 2 Linda, Eric and Avery have two wins. Avery 5K, had a bye in the first round but followed that with a good win over Will. 

Round 3: I saw Li kaixuan and Du Shiyoung review their game. Wow, what a succession of fights and how well they managed again and again to save groups that got isolated. Impressive, my games are never that exciting.   

Results: 

• In the Open division Jerry beat Kevin and Bo-Sen beat Guohui. Top two. I’ll try to sit beside them tomorrow so I can spectate.

• In Division 2 the scheduling program kept the top two seeds apart. Linda beat Tianze and Eric beat Avery. Tomorrow morning they will play for top spot. 

4:30. Finished for the day. We advertised going out for dinner together tonight, but it's too early for dinner now. Almost everyone goes home, only a few of us are left, and we are not that keen on dinner. Cancelled - see you tomorrow.

Sunday. 

Better, we are only a little late this morning.

Round 4: I get my wish and a seat beside Jerry and Bo-sen. I’ll try to pay attention to my own game too! … It’s hard though, Jerry and Bo-sen’s game is very exciting and interesting. A peaceful start… Jerry gets thickness on the right. Bo-sen invades the left and Jerry trades territory for influence then pulls out three stones that seemed to be deep inside Bo-sen’s moyo. It looks like Bo-sen is in trouble - cut in two and one side not alive. But the cutting stones have not escaped as cleanly as I thought - now they are in trouble. Jerry saves them but some of his cutting stones must be sacrificed so now Bo-sen is strong and menaces what was Jerry’s thickness. Jerry ignores, attacking the bottom left. Bo-sen ignores, threatening to capture. A large exchange ensues - then my own game and other duties distract me so I miss the endgame.

I have a win. My second 🙂 But what was the result between Jerry and Bo-sen? A draw! Wow - I feel it’s a fitting result. Well done to both.

Other results:    

• In the Open Kevin, Vincent Preiss and Huiyi Shi have had their third win, putting them just half a point behind Jerry and Bo-sen. 

• In division 2 Linda beat Eric, to claim top spot. Chasing are Eric, Shucheng Shen and Will Gui with 3 wins each.

AGM: It has to be done - I’d rather be playing but let’s get started. This year I can sit back a little as I’m no longer one of the office holders. There is not really a lot of business apart from electing the new committee

• President: Yong Lei   (Jerry’s dad)

• Secretary: Corrin Lakeland

• Treasurer: Linda Hu

• Ordinary members: Li Kaixuan, Huiyi Shi (Janice), Colin Grierson, Tianze Wang (Edward), Stepan Lapshev

Full minutes of the AGM are here: 

Lunch: More goodies from Stepan’s partner. Many thanks! They were much in demand - all gone before I get there again ☹️ But there is plenty of food today. No need for emergency KFC.

Round 5: I have my best game of the tournament, against Li Kaixuan, It’s a loss by a few points but am happy with my play - mostly anyway.   

Results

• Open: Bo-sen wins while Jerry falls to Vincent and Kevin has another win. So Bo-sen is on top with Kevin and Vincent half a point behind.

• Division 2: Linda stays at the top by beating Shucheng. Eric is alone in second place with 4 wins and four people have 3 wins.

Round 6: We’ve had a default and two withdrawals in the open, so there is a bye. I take it so that I have time to organise certificates and prize money. We don’t want too long a wait between the last game and prizegiving. I watch Linda play Will Gui. The game is super peaceful, the spiritual opposite of Du and Kaixuan’s chaotic fight. One small, safe corner group each. One large group each. No invasions. Nothing cut off. No fighting. Not a single stone died. Will’s big group is bigger. Has Linda lost her lead? No, Eric has also lost, to Yang Peng. The tough competition has saved Linda.

Final Results

• Open: 

• Bo-sen beats Kevin and wins the tournament. Very well done!

• Vincent beats Huiyi to take second place. Also very good.

• Jerry’s half point puts him in third place, ahead of Kevin and Kaixuan. Well done Jerry.

• Division 2:

• Linda lost to Will, but stayed in top position thanks to Eric also losing. Very well done Linda. See you in the open next year 🙂

• Eric lost to Yang Peng Yu so he, Tianze, Will and YanPeng all have 4 wins - but Eric just holds onto second place with SOS

• Tianze is third, then Will then Yang. Great tournament guys

Prizegiving

Always a happy time - at least for the organiser because it means you have done it - baring the clean up anyway. Congratulating the winner and handing out the trophies etc is the purpose though and is also very good. Today we have cash and certificates instead of trophies and certificates as we have for the last few tournaments. I’m flying to Malaysia on Wednesday for a month’s holiday. Trophies, getting them engraved, then getting them to the winners would have been too hard. Enjoy the cash!

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for their patience and help in running the tournament - you made everything easy.

Thanks to everyone who stayed and helped clean up. It made the job so much easier, quicker and even fun.

Special thanks to Avery’s mum who washed the dishes and cleaned up after lunch on both Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks to Stepan for organising the lunches and special thanks to Stepan’s partner for the treats she made.

All my best wishes to you all
Colin Grierson 

 

Full Results

Auckland Open 2025

Auckland Open 2025 Div 2

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