- Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C1 Grade, C2 Grade, D Grade
- Draw Links: A Grade, B Grade, C1 Grade, C2 Grade
PGN for R4 A-C2 grades by Tim Ha and Ewen Green
A Grade
Hague vs Ang – A fairly quiet game until move 24 when White tries some tricks. A few moves later the computer says he is completely lost but Black misses the correct moves and the game is a draw.
Gong vs Garbett – A fairly even game, neither player really seemed to get ahead. Draw
Kulashko vs Steadman – White game up an exchange but got some pressure as compensation and won it back. Both players pushed pawns and threatened to promote but ended up swapped to a rook plus pawn endgame which they eventually draw.
Watson vs Duneas – A fairly even opening and then White got some pressure but Black managed to equalize and White game up the exchange. Black’s good position went downhill when White used his two bishops to push some pawns and Black ended up very cramped. Eventually Black game up a rook to prevent a pawn from promoting. 1-0
The grade has 3 players on 2.5 points and another 2 on 2.0, although Kulashko has a game in hand.
B Grade
MacDonald vs Nagorski (commentary based on that by Paul Macdonald, see the PGN for the whole thing) – The Opening transposed to a Slav-Reti setup (Slav with white fianchettoed on the King side). White dropped a Knight into e5 supported by 2 pawns and after some swaps the position was fairly even. Black swapped to opposite-coloured bishops and offered a draw but White decided to play on. An error by White ( 22 Qf3) gave Black some pressure, however, against White’s exposed centre pawn, although Black wasted some moves and may have left it too late to grab. The end of the game had White in a laying a trap, the correct move by Black would have given Black a better but slightly drawn endgame. Instead he played the wrong move and was left a queen down and resigned. 1-0
Goodhue vs Morrell – Black made a series of sub-par moves to leave White in complete control of the position. He eventually resigned shortly before White’s unstoppable steamroller started. 1-0
Jasmine Zhang vs Wells – A fairly even game until White trapped Black’s Queen. 1-0
Tony Wang vs Fan – Fairly even until Black got a big attack and picked up two pawns. White resigned when he was about to lose a rook. 0-1
Jasmine Zhang and Nathan Goodhue lead the Grade on 3 points, but 3 players are on 2.5
C1 Grade
Milne vs Lyall – After a series of bad moves (mainly by Black), White took a draw in a winning position (two pieces down but mate threats would have got them back) after just 14 moves. Draw.
Eric Wu vs Burrows – White was a little ahead and swapped everything down to a winning endgame – 1-0
Kozakevych vs Ward – An interesting move early on by White when he moved a pinned queen from d1 to e2 towards the pinned f3 Knight, but it seemed to nicely support e4. However, a swap-off of pieces allowed Black to equalize. Black got two pawns up and eventually swapped all the pieces to give himself the win. 0-1
Nicole Qin vs Song – White made some miss-timed swaps and opened up the position with her King in the centre. Eventually Black won a piece – 0-1
Kate Song is in 1st place on 3.5 with Keith Ward on 3.0 and Nicole Qin on 2.5.
C2 Grade
Peak vs Bishop – White played a little slowly and Black was slightly ahead for most of the game before breaking through around move 35. The players swapped down to an endgame where Black had and extra pawn and a Bishop vs a Knight. After Black missed a lot of chances (and White did an illegal move neither player noticed) the game was drawn.
Caroline Yan vs Jacobs – White won an exchange fairly early and Black resigned after she was about to win more material (and not because his phone went off as a few had guessed). 1-0
Eade vs Joy Qin – Fairly even until White got a tactic and won the Queen/Checkmate – 1-0
Ha vs Euan McDougall – Fairly even with both players aggressively swapping down to a single rook and 6 pawns by move 22. White made an ill-timed swap of rooks and left himself in a King and Pawn endgame where Black had a couple of spare moves to get opposition and break through.
Everett Bishop leads the grade on 3 points while 3 players are on 2.5
D Grade
At the top, Wayne McDougall is in the first place as the only player on 4 points. Three are on 3.5 however.
Major upsets were Felix Xei beating Gaurav Pahuja, Eric Liang beating Neil Sonnekus, Uday Jain beating Marcus Pooley and Oscar Qin beating Rodney Li.
A Draft D Grade Draw for Round 5 is below:
