Apologies for the delay at getting this edition out. Reminder of the upcoming events:
- The Papatoetoe Rapid on Saturday December 2nd
- The Papatoetoe Junior Rapid on Sunday December 3rd
- The New Zealand Chess Congress tournaments on January 1st to 12th 2018 in Palmerston North. Late Entry fees apply from the 1st of December
Details about all the above tournaments are on the New Zealand Chess calendar page.
- Vega page for the Spring Cup
- Spring Cup Round 4 by Ewan Green with Help from Tim Ha
Games
Bruce Watson vs Ben Hague – White sacrificed a Knight for two central pawns and then Black had to give the piece back a few moves later leaving White will ahead. 1-0
Allen Fan vs Alexei Kulashko – A very long game. White looked like he might be able to hold a draw in the endgame but a couple of inaccurate moves allowed Black into his position. 0-1
Xingyang Liu vs Paul Macdonald – Annotated by Paul in the PGN – White went astray in the opening and was two pawns down, a few moves later he lost a piece by allowing a fork and resigned. 0-1
Keith Ward vs Daniel Gong – White got a good position out of the opening with a strong centre and well developed pieces. But he made a couple of errors in the endgame and lost his advantage instantly. 0-1
Alphaeus Ang vs Eric Wu – Black brought his queen out early and allow White to get a tactic which won two pieces. 1-0
Simon Lyall vs Alex Nagorski – Black was better most of the game which swapped down to a Bishop and pawn endgame. White made a mistake and lost a pawn to give Black the winning position but the game swung back again as White Queened with check. However White was unable to find the winning tactic and settled for a perpetual check. Draw.
Gordon Morrell vs Nicole Qin – White exploited errors in Black’s defence to pick up and exchange and then gradually win another pawn to bust open Black’s position. 1-0
Nathan Goodhue vs Aaron Wang – 1. b4 strikes again. White used two central bishops to boss Black’s pieces around. He trapped a bishop and went a piece ahead. Swaps were followed by checkmate. 1-0
Louie Wei vs Roy Seabrook – 1. d5 Nf6 2. f4?! ended up leaving white with a cramped position. Black looked comfortable but lost a key pawn and then another. An aggressive counter-attack by Black was unsuccessful. 1-0
Mark Brimble vs John Liu – Black mixed up his opening lines and got in trouble has white kicked his Queen around. He survived but lost a pawn and then resigned after losing a rook to a tactic. 1-0
Clinton Wells vs Uday Jain – Black had good opening but soon went downhill. 1-0
Joy Qin vs Philli Park-Tamati – White was in a good position but allowed a tactic which gave Black a mate threat. White resigned at the imminent loss of material. 0-1
Tom Fu vs Don Eade – White tried a nice attack but it was not enough and Black’s counter-attack against his exposed position left White soon to be mated. 0-1
Virginia Milne vs Abraham Deng – Black had a good game but allowed White to get two rooks on the seventh which put White enough pawns ahead to win. 1-0
Winston Weng vs Stephen Peak – Black picked up a couple of pawns and then piled on a big attack. 0-1
Erica Hi vs Tim Ha – White had a good start but lost a piece. 0-1
Upsets in Round 4:
Philli Park-Tamati beat Joy Qin (850 points rating difference!)
Louie Wei beat Roy Seabrook
Bing Kui Yu beat Wayne McDougall
Rosa Ryu beat Leo Li
Jacob Chai beat James Liu
Standing after Round 4:
1st= Bruce Watson and Alexei Kulaskho on 4/4
3rd= Danial Gone and Alphaeus Ang on 3.5
A large number of players on 3