NAPZ Chessfriends:
It’s been two months since our NAPZ Promotional Class Webserver Events were re-introduced to the North America Pacific Zone players. I would like to take this opportunity to pass on a special thank you to those participating in our events and to the volunteers who work behind the scene to help organize and run our tournaments. We hope to see many more new players in the months to come.
If you missed the announcement, the NAPZ offers three webserver tournaments – an Open Class tournament for those rated less than 1900, a Higher Class event for those rated 1900-2099 and a Master Class event for those rated 2100 or greater. A full description of each tournament is located in the “New Events” section on the ICCF webserver. Click “New Events” and scroll down to NAPZ or check the links here:
Open Class
Higher Class
Master Class
These events are open to all players from a North America Pacific Zone (Zone 3) country. If you are receiving this note, you are in Zone 3 and eligible to play in these events.
Winners of these tournaments are given an excellent opportunity to move up the rating ladder. A winner of an Open Class event qualifies for a Higher Class event, while a winner of a Higher Class event qualifies for a Master Class event. If you win two Master Class events you qualify for the opportunity to play in our NAPZ Championship and a path to a WCCC (World Championship) qualification.
Since the NAPZ events were re-instated two months ago, we started over 200 new tournament games. These include five Open Class, two Higher Class and three Master Class Promotional events. Two prior winners - Luen-wah Luk from Hong Kong, winner of NAPZ/WS/O/03 and Barnard Helman from the USA, winner of NAPZ/WS/H/01, qualified to higher rated events. Congratulations Gentlemen!
All our new events are still in the early phases; however, we do have a few highlights to announce:
NAPZ/WS/H/02 has just four games completed and we have two players co-leading with 1.5 points each – Mark Ellis and Richard Jenkins both from the USA.
NAPZ/WS/O/04 has 8 games completed with Phil Cook from New Zealand and Thomas Chromczak from the USA each scoring 3.5 points to-date. The half point came from a draw in their game against each other.
NAPZ/WS/O/05 – has 10 completed games and Fred Jarmuz from the USA is off to a fantastic start. Mr. Jamurz leads the event with a 5-0 score!
As soon as each event ends, I will send a reminder note to the winners regarding your qualification for the next rated class event. I will also make sure the DE Office and your National Federation are aware of your qualification so you may apply for a higher rated event whenever you are ready.
Entry for these events can be made through Direct Entry or through your National Federation. We’ll send out periodic reminders about these events, but in the meantime please don’t hesitate to sign up and talk up the North America Pacific Zone with your chess friends. Our tournaments are at 10 moves in 40 days and six new games can be a comfortable number of games to take on, especially in the opening when moves tend to arrive very quickly.
My best regards,
Dr. Glen Shields
NAPZ TO
P.S. Please feel free to contact me ( gshields2003 at hotmail dot com ) if you have a question about our tournaments, need assistance signing up for an event, or if you feel you have been waiting too long for an event to start.
