This round saw half-points and upsets loses on the top few boards to narrow up the field a little.
Games
Alexei Kulashko vs Bruce Watson – A fairly even game that swapped down to a drawn endgame. Draw
Daniel Gong vs Gordon Morrell – The players agreed on an draw on move 18 with Black is a slightly better position. Draw
Don Eade vs Nathan Goodhue – White got an attack against Black’s castled King and Black made a couple of mistakes. 1-0
Paul Macdonald vs Simon Lyall – Black sacrificed his Queen for some of white’s pieces but missed the correct follow-up move and didn’t get enough compensation. Black was eventually about to develop his pieces to take advantage of his extra material. 0-1
Alex Nagorski vs Virginia Milne – Black opened up her position which allowed White to get a fork and pick up a piece. 1-0
Philli Park-Tamati vs Clinton Wells – White played well and was better to even up to move 25. But on move 26 he lost a piece and Black swapped down to the endgame. 0-1
Mark Brimble vs Xinyang Liu – Black picked up a pawn but this allowed White to invade his position with 2 rooks and overwhelm Black with threats. 1-0
Keith Ward vs Euan McDougall – White pinned and under-defended piece and got a piece ahead. 1-0
Stephen Peak vs Toby Zhang – Black lost a pawn, then another, than an exchange and finally a Queen. 1-0
Oscar Qin vs Tim Ha – White castled into a pawn storm and spent the next few moves trying to defend against Black’s attack. White (on his 9th birthday) got out of it an exchange down. However made an error and lost a piece in the endgame under pressure. 0-1
Roy Seabrook vs Allen Fan – In a complicated tactical position Black picked up a couple of pawns and then managed to survive Whites counter-attack. Once White’s attack was stopped he resigned due to an imminent mate.
Ying Wang vs Andrew Michael – Black got careless and allowed his Bishop to be trapped and lost. White then was able to keep the pressure on until she won. 1-0
Upsets:
- Uday Jain beat Grant Burrows
- Tom Fu beat Aaron Wang
- Abraham Deng beat David Ansell
- Ying Wang beat Andrew Michael
- Kelvin Xiao beat John Liu
- Don Eade beat Nathan Goodhue
- Simon Lyall beat Paul Macdonald
Standing:
Bruce Watson and Alexei Kulashko are leading on 4.5 ahead of 6 players on 4.0 and 8 players on 3.5 with two roads to play.
Draft draw for round 6:
