The Autumn Cup is being played on Monday in April, May and June and consists of two Swiss Grades. It is Nationally Rated.
Round 6 PGN by Ewen Green
Commentary by Alex Nagorski
A Grade
Bruce Watson vs Alex Nagorski – White chose a modest opening variation. Black missed some chances to equalise in the opening. The game swapped down to a 4 knight endgame which appeared to be hard for Black. Black missed a couple of chances to create decent counter-play and got himself into a vice. 1-0
Paul Garbett vs Alphaeus Ang – Quite a sharp game despite it’s endgame emphasis. Black had some advantage that went to White as some point. Then after long maneuvering White’s advantage faded away gradually and the game was even. Black missed a chance to capitalise on White’s inaccuracy and cut the White’s rook off the game playing 40.Nf6! (leaving his own rook active). After some further swaps the game finished in a draw in pawn endgame. 1/2-1/2
Mike Steadman vs Paul Macdonald – Mike’s usual “deferred b4” yielded a good result. Black got a very cramped position missing some chances to strike in the centre to equalise. White built up an attack on the king side, Black tried to counter attack White’s king that stuck in the centre. Eventually White was faster at reaching opponent’s king. Black resigned facing a checkmate or losing the queen as alternative. 1-0
Felix Xie vs John Duneas – Black was ahead for the most of the game yet missed some chances capitalise in the midgame. When players reached move 36 the game was equal. Playing 41…Rd4? Black offered rook exchange which was a blunder. White missed a chance to use it by 42.Nf8+ Kg8(h8) 43.Rxd4 Bxd4 44.Nxg6 winning a pawn and gaining excellent winning chances. After some swaps the game finished in a dead draw rook endgame 1/2-1/2
Timothy Ha vs Allen Fan – After an equal start White rushed to open the position which Black managed to exploit. Then White lost exchange and was unable to recover. 0-1
Nigel Metge vs Abraham Deng – White had serious advantage from the opening. Then he tried to attack sacing his knight on g5. The sac was unsound as Black had some tactical resources based on checkmate threat. So White ended up one piece short and with no attack. After swapping down the pieces Black prevailed. An excellent achievement by the young player. 0-1
Boyuan Zhang vs Xinyang Liu – Very equal game until Black blundered some tactics. After several suspicious combos from both sides White came one piece up. So Black resigned 1-0
Virginia Milne vs Phili Park-Tamati – Black got initiative and kept the edge until the endgame. However, White missed a perfect chance to turn around the table and even win! That was possible playing the correct 39.Ke5! instead of the losing 39.Kc6?? Then White takes the Black’s g-pawn creating a more distant passer. White can win the e-pawn first if Black’s king goes for the h-pawn. You can see that White takes the g-pawn and has an extra tempo to reach the opposition on the q-side, which means the win. Instead of that Virginia made a wrong choice and lost the game. 0-1
Simon Lyall vs Joe Wang – White built up some pressure and won the exchange and the game afterwards. 1-0
Andrew Michael vs Euan McDougall – A seesaw game where chance tripped from one side to another many times due to both player mistakes. Finally Black got the edge and won the epic good knight vs bad bishop endgame. 0-1
Winston Weng vs Grant Burrows – Black won a pawn early in the opening and kept the tension throughout the game. White resigned facing loss of more material. 0-1
Anya Thurner vs Nathan Goodhue – Fairly even game in the beginning, even though White had some chances to play better and get advantage. Yet White managed to maneuver towards Black’s king and create serious threats. The tension peaked – on move 27 when White failed to find the best continuation for her attack. After the correct 27.Nf5! White threatens Nh6# 27…Rfe8 is the only way to prevent that. White could have continued 28.Qg5 Nd7 29. Nh6+ Kf8 30.Ng4 Nxf6 31.Qxf6 Bd4 32. Rxd4 exd4 33 e5 Qd8 34.Qh8+ Ke7 35.Qg7and I would leave this position to the reader to assess. Failing to keep the attack White got thrown back and couldn’t recover. 0-1
Kendrik Zhang vs Karl Holdo White kept some initiative at first but then weakened his king’s position. Trying to attack White forgot about prophylactics and got himself under a huge attack that cost him his queen. White resigned. 0-1
Arkadi Polyakevich vs Jeffrey Yu – White was pushing throughout the whole game. Black had a couple of chances to equalise but he missed them. White’s knights forked Black’s king and queen in the final attack. 1-0
Ajit Pendharkar vs Isabelle Ning – Black appeared slightly better from the opening. Then she allowed White’s cavalry to infiltrate her defence and get some materal. White kept the pressure until the end when Black faced a checkmate or more material loss. 1-0
Upsets in A Grade round 6
Abraham Deng beat Nigel Metge
Boyuan Zhang beat Xinyang Liu
Felix Xie drew with John Duneas
After 6 rounds the leader was Bruce Watson on 5 points. Just behind on 4.5 was Alphaeus Ang, Paul Garbett, Alex Nagorski and Mike Steadman
B Grade
Upsets in Round 6
Vincent Cai beat Yolanda Chang
Adam Macauley beat Lylea Po’e-Tofaeono
Leaders after 6 roudns were Jack Chen and Hugh Gao on 5.0 ahead of Scott Treanor and John Liu on 4.5