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