2022 New Zealand Championship

The 129th New Zealand Championship is running from the 2nd to the 12th of January 2022. The event is being held at Riccarton Park, Christchurch and has a total prize fund of $10,000.The Championship event has attracted a field of 24 players, with FM Nic Croad the number one seed. Two time champion Croad is hoping to finish ahead of 2nd seed IM Anthony Ker (14 times winner!) and IM Russell Dive (7 times winner). The field also contains a number of young challengers, including FM Daniel Gong, CM Felix Xie and WFM Vyanla Punsalan.
Alongside the Championship is the Major Open, New Zealand Junior Championship, and a number of other supporting events. A link to the tournament standings can be found at https://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/calendar.html while live coverage of the championship games is at https://view.livechesscloud.com/#b49f1b2f-6dca-4235-8b79-50a189a8bac8

The first round did not see any major upsets, although the top seed Nic Croad was held to a draw by CM (and WFM) Helen Milligan. On the other hand the next few seeds had a lot less trouble, as shown by this game from Anthony Ker.

Ker,Anthony - Punsalan,Viyanla [B13]
2022 New Zealand Championship (1), 02.01.2022

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 g6 6. Bf4 Bg7 7. Nd2 Nf6 8. Ngf3 Nh5 9. Be3 Qd6 10. O-O O-O 11. Re1 Nf4 12. Bb5 Ne6 13. Nb3 f5 14. c4 f4 15. Bc1 Kh8 16. cxd5 Qxd5 17. Bxc6 bxc6 18. Bd2 g5 19. h3 a5 20. Rc1 Rb8 21. Bxa5 Rb5 22. Bc3 Nd8 23. Rxe7 g4 24. hxg4 Bxg4 25. Qd3 Rg8 26. Ne5 Bh3 27. Qxh3 Bh6 28. Ng4 f3 29. Qxh6 1-0