Round 3 of the Autumn Cup saw large number of upsets in both grades. There is now only one player left on a perfect score in A Grade and just two leaders in B Grade.
Autumn Cup Round 3 PGN by Tim Ha, Alex Nagorski and Simon Lyall.
A Grade
Fan v Watson – A good start by White but he managed to get two pieces forked and quickly ran out of threats. He resigned with once Black swapped off his threatening pieces. 0-1
Nagorski vs Gong – Shortly out of the opening black found a tactic to line out 3 undefended white pieces (see diagram). But instead of a simple piece advantage Black took two pieces for his Rook. However White managed to create a passed pawn and then chewed up blacks pawns while black maneuverer to stop it. At the end with 3 pawns and a rook vs a Bishop, Knight and pawn white gave up his rook for the pawn leaving black short of material once he gave up a piece to stop white queening. Draw
Steadman v Macdonald – Black got better out of the opening with pawns and Knights in the centre having prevented White from getting out. A few moves later White resigned when he was faced with the loss of material plus a follow-up attack. 0-1
Duneas vs Morrell – Black was intent on an attack and fail to notice a white tactic that won a piece and more. He resigned when the trap was sprung. 1-0
Ang vs Oscar Qin – After a good start Black played a couple of passive moves and allowed White to make threats which black had to scramble to counter. Eventually he missed one and White picked up a piece. 1-0
Leo Zhang vs Sarah Yan – Black made a simple tactical mistake and lost a piece. White then swapped down to a Night plus 4 pawns vs 6 pawns. He scooped up enough of the pawns with the Night to Win. 1-0
Eade vs Goodhue – Black pushed his pawns in the centre and queen-side but after pawn chains locked together white tried and attack on the King side in the cramped position. Black missed a tactic which gave white an attack and then under pressure black got his queen trapped. 1-0
Lyall vs Jasmine Zhang – White made a mistake just out of the opening and lost two centre pawns. Black pressed her advantage to win. 0-1
Wells vs Caroline Yan – A standard opening follow by rooks and Queens maneuvering and threatening each other in the enter of the board. White pressed a little hard, made a couple of mistakes and got checkmated. 0-1
Jacobs vis Nicole Qin -After Black got off to a good start when made a few tactical mistakes and white picked up a pawn. However White missed a fork and lost a rook . 0-1
Ha vs Euan McDougall – Black had some problems in the opening and ended up a pawn down. White then started to swap down but black walked into a fork and resigned. 1-0
Aaron Wang vs Wu – Passive opening play by Black left White with a good attack early in the game. But he allowed it to peter out. Black was then a pawn up and started swapping. However he gave the pawn back and was left with nothing better than a draw. Draw
Steiner vs Peak – White resigned on move 10 after a miscalculation in the opening left Black a piece up.
Wayne McDougall vs Rodney Li – After An Italian Four Knights opening a a lot of standard looking swaps Black picked up a pawn. After he got 2 others his position was completely winning. 0-1
Burrows vs Milne – After a Quiet opening Black launched a dubious attack, however it payed off when White failed to defend a complex position correctly. 0-1
Andrew Michael vs Ward – After an even start White lost a piece. Black then had a strong attack but failed to find the correct winning lines. After Black gave up his piece for the attack White managed to swap down things down to a even position. Draw
Out of the 16 games in round 3 exactly half were upsets. with the biggest being Paul MacDonald beating Mike Steadman, Alex Nagorski drawing with Daniel Gong and Caroline Yan beating Clinton Wells.
With various byes and upsets combining Bruce Watson is now the only player on 3 points. He is followed by 6 players on 2.5
B Grade
B Grade also saw around half the games being upsets especially on the top boards.
- Tom Fu beat John Liu
- Winston Wng beat Ying Wang
- Toby Zhang beat Louie Wei
- Uday Jain beat Hugh Gao
Players in the lead are Tom Fu and Toby Zhang on 3 points with Felix Xie just being on 2.5.
Round 4
Provisional draws for round 4 are below, subject to byes etc.
