Simon – Page 22 – Auckland Chess Centre

Winter Cup – Round 6

The second last round of the Winter Cup was today, all three grades have clear leaders that will be hard to catch.

A reminder that the Merv Morrison tournament is on Labour weekend ( Friday 21st to Monday 24th). You can still enter if you want of follow it via vega.
There will be no Chess on monday night the 24th of October
The Spring Cup is starting in November, please enter on the signup sheet at the Centre or via email or txt.

A Grade

Nathan Goodhue had a good game against Allen Fan but blundered a piece and resigned.

Alex Huang’s position got steadily worse againts Bruce Watson and he resigned when he was about to lose a piece. The computer does show a way to keep it although his position was still bad (so I’m not sure if he saw the tactic or not).

John Duneas played an inferior opening line agains Mike Steadman and went rapidly downhill from that.

Daniel Gong and Alphaeus Ang swapped to a draw.

B Grade

Tim Ha describes his game against Hilton Jacobs: ” We agreed last week that I will play English opening 1.c4 and he’ll play 1… e5. He continued with his plan around putting a piece on b3, by which he won Daniel Gong recently in a rapid game. I managed to resolve my positional weakness and won a pawn. But just as soon as I was going to win more pawns, I blundered a piece under a pin 🙁 However, Hilton took it with an illegal move (bishop jumping from f6 to c4), so he suggested a draw, which I gladly took. 🙂 The position IMHO was won for White, if I hadn’t made the last mistake. But the end was a happy and funny one.”

Alex Nagorski (playing Black) wrote these comments on his game against Done Eade: “Black fully equated the game. The Bishop sacrifice was a surprise. Intuition told me that the attack looked suspicious as all Black pieces are centralised. However, the surprise took its effect, and I failed to find the correct defence line which was 16…Kxh7 17.Ng5+ Kg8 18.
Qh5 Rfd8 and the king escapes. White gets 2 pawns for the piece, but Black is solid if not better. Analysing the game with Don, we agreed that the final mistake was 17… Bg4 whereas 17… Qxd4 had only a pawn down and allowed Black to fight much longer. ”

Richard Taylor commented on his game against Keith Ward “I beat Keith who played the Pirc which I feel is difficult to play as Black but is still good if handled well. But I knew that he always plays too quickly“. My review of the game was it had a lot of tactics and Keith missed some hard-to-see lines.

C Grade

Leader Bishop Everett beat Andrew Michael to keep his sole lead. Clinton Wells also won to be half a point behind on second by himself. Wins for Mathew Steadman, Xinyang Liu and Euan MacDougall leave them on third-equal another half point back.

The Vega Websites for the Winter Cup Are:

Links to the Schedule for A and B grade are on the 2016 Tournaments page.

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye. Please let us know as early as possible.

The draft draw for C grade is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

Winter Cup – Round 5

Bruce Watson is now ahead is A Grade although John Duneas has a game in hand. In B grade Alex Nagorski is 5 out of 5 while is C Grade Bishop Everett is just half a point ahead of 4 players.

Upcoming tournament at the Club is the Merv Morrison over Labour weekend ( October 21st to 24th). The entry form has more details
There is a signup sheet at the club for the Spring Cup with is the final tournament of the year.
Also a reminder than the NZ Chess Congress will be in Wellington in early January 2017. Go here for the entry form and entries so far.

PGN for Round 5 by Alex Nagorski

A Grade

Last week Danial Gong and Bruce Watson played a catchup game from round 3. Bruce picked up two pawns and then neutralized Daniel’s compensation. Towards the end Daniel picked up a piece and had a chance of a draw by perpetual check but missed one of the long series of moves and allowed the King to escape. Win for Bruce

Nathan Goodhue and Daniel Gong where fairly even for much of their game with Nathan ahead at the end and pressing hard. Unfortunately he made a blunder and resigned.

John Duneas got a very good position against Bruce Watson but Bruce managed to edge back and they settled for a draw.

Alex Huang and Allen Fan had a complex unbalanced position that eventually resolved itself to a draw.

B Grade

Tim states in his game (as Black) vs Richard Taylor: “Black equalised in the opening, then White gave a free pawn, so Black got a better position, but could not quickly implement a winning plan (25… Re6 and later Rf6 could work). Eventually, Black misplayed a tactical sequence, blundered a piece and went into endgame with 4P+R against 2P+B+R. Game drawn by agreement.”

Don Eade missed a few Winning chances (and came close to losing) against Keith Ward before the position swapped to a drawn endgame.

Paul MacDonald ended up with a bad bishop in a N+Ps vs B+Ps endgame against Alex Nagorski. Alex executed a well timed swap to pick up a passed pawn and win.

Tomas Midr beat Hilton Jacobs. He missed a mate in 2 at one point but we don’t have a completed scoresheet.

C Grade

A draw by Bishop Everett was enough to keep his lead in C grade. However there are 4 players just behind him.

The Vega Websites for the Winter Cup Are:

Links to the Schedule for A and B grade are on the 2016 Tournaments page.

The draft draw for C grade is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

Winter Cup – Round 4

All Grades are now seeing some players pulling out ahead. However in A and B there are several unplayed games while in C Grade things are still very close.

Upcoming tournament at the Club is the Merv Morrison over Labour weekend ( October 21st to 24th). The entry form has more details
Also a reminder than the NZ Chess Congress will be in Wellington in early January 2017. Go here for the entry form and entries so far.

PGN for Round 4 by Alex Nagorski

A Grade

Nathan Goodhue and Alex Huang played a long game (in time if not moves) before agreeing on a draw.

Bruce Watson and Alphaeus Ang swapped down to a Q+3P vs RN+4P endgame (Bruce had the Queen). Bruce managed to pick up all 4 pawns and avoid Alphaeus’ traps

Daniel Gong never seem to get into the game against Mike Steadman and resigned once Mike was in a winning endgame position.

John Duneas, Bruce Watson and Mike Steadman lead the grade but several games are unplayed.

B Grade

Tim Ha on his game against Tomas Midr: “We castled opposite sides and it was equal at first, but I was slower in attack and finally lost to the powerful bishop pair and pawn storm from Tomas”.

After an unusual Opening (which I’m sure I’ve seen him play before) Hilton Jacobs was equal with Alex Nagorski before losing a piece to a tactic and resigned after getting into zugzwing in the endgame

Paul MacDonald struggled in the opening against Keith ward before picking up an exchange via a tactic and then a dominant position.

Alex leads the grade by half a point from Paul but they meet in round 5.

C Grade

Bishop Everett beat Seifi Pouya to take the sole led. Clinton Wells and Euan MacDougall are just half a point behind him however.

Round 5

The Vega Websites for the Winter Cup Are:

Links to the Schedule for A and B grade are on the 2016 Tournaments page.

The draft draw for C grade is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

Winter Cup – Round 3

Round 3 of the Winter Cup saw a lot of byes due to players being out of town at the NZ Junior and Inter-schools events in Palmerston North. Other players were on Holiday.

A Big reminder to let me (Simon) know if you are not goign to be playing. This week 4 players didn’t turn up without notification. Ryan Dukeson, Jain Uday, Isaac Yuan and Robin Boudot. They all got zero points and will get the same in Round 4 round unless I hear from them.
Upcoming tournament at the Club is the Merv Morrison over Labour weekend ( October 21st to 24th). The entry form has more details
Also a reminder than the NZ Chess Congress will be in Wellington in early January 2017. Go here for the entry form and entries so far.

PGN file for Winter Cup round 3

A Grade

Only two games were played in A Grade. The top game saw Nathan Goodhue play a Dutch as black against Mike Steadman. Mike (who often players the Dutch himself) played 3. h3 and 4. g4 so quickly get things out of book at the expense of leaving himself with a cramped and strange looking position. Nathan unfortunately missed a tactic and lost his Queen for two pieces

John Duneas slowly strangled Alex Huang until Alex’s position collapsed.

B Grade

Don Eade had a led out of the Opening against Tim Ha. Tim resigned after losing an exchange.

Richard Taylor got behind a little against Paul MacDonald and under time pressure his position got worse.

Keith Ward launched an aggressive attack against Hilton Jacobs which the computer judged to be optimistic. Hilton defended correctly except for one move which left Keith with a chance of a draw. Keith missed the strange looking drawing move and the alternatives were much worse.

Alex Nagorski took advantage of Tomas Madr’s passive opening and generally dominated the game although the computer saw several missed chances to finish it early. Eventually Alex found one of them and won.

C Grade

Only 2 players ( Bishop Everett and Seifi Pouya) are now on a perfect score.

The Vega Websites for the Winter Cup Are:

Links to the Schedule for A and B grade are on the 2016 Tournaments page.

Winter Cup – Byes due to Holidays

Rounds 3 and 4 of the Winter Cup take place during the school holidays. At the same time various events like the Schools Championship and North Island Championship are taking place in Palmerston North.

The following are known byes. Players are in C grade unless noted. Please let me know ASAP if there are updates.

Round 3 – Monday the 26th of September

Aaron Wang
Daniel Gong – A Grade
Ying Wang
Leo Li
Alphaeus Ang – A Grade
Allen Fan – A Grade
Oliver Picken
Wayne McDougall
Euan McDougall
Jordan Lewis
Kenny Zhang
Samuel Sajch
Hugh Gao

Round 4 – Monday the 3rd of October

Leo Li
Allen Fan – A Grade
Oliver Picken
Samuel Sajch
Ryan Dukeson – zero points
Jain Uday – zero points
Isaac Yuan – zero points
Robin Boudot – zero points

Winter Cup – Round 2

This week was round 2 of the Winter Cup. It is still a little early to see who is winning but we have some interesting games. A reminder that School Holidays (and some events in Palmerston North) start next week so please let me know if you want byes. Thank you to all parents who filled out the slips. I’ll put out a post later this week with the byes list.

Results from Round 2

PGN file by Alex Nagorski

A Grade

John Duneas and Nathan Goodhue player a wild game which John won

Alex Huang gained a huge advantage over Alphaeus Ang but failed to find the correct combination & swapped to a KQ v KRBN endgame which Alphaeus was able to hold.

Allen Fan beat Daniel Gong after being ahead for most of the game. This was the upset of the round since Daniel is 200 points higher rated than Allen.

Bruce Watson ended up with in an endgame with King and 6 pawns vs Mike Steadman’s King, bishop and 3 pawns. Mike took a draw. The computer thought he probably could have won with best play, but a single mistake could have been fatal.

B Grade

Alex Nagorski Turned a slight advantage in a drawish endgame into a win against Tim Ha. I’d also like to acknowledge the players to putting in 14 moves of mainstream opening in contrast to the “innovations” from the rest of A and B grade.

Hilton Jacobs made one little miscalculation against Richard Taylor and the game was quickly over.

Paul Macdonald was ahead on his game against Don Eade but Don managed to escape with a draw.

C Grade

Oscar Qin won on move 6 with Scholars mate

The Majority of upsets were draws but Euan McDougall beat Andrew Michael (273 pt different) and Shawn Hui beat Erica Hu (272 pt diff).

There are seven players on 2 points and 12 on 1.5.
The Vega Websites for the Winter Cup Are:

Links to the Schedule for A and B grade are on the 2016 Tournaments page.

I will publish a draft draw for C grade ones I process the byes for round 3.

Winter Cup – Round 1

The Winter Cup began on September 12 with 72 players across 3 grades. There are 8-player A and B Round-Robin grades and 56 platers in a C-Grade Swiss. This is probably close to the maximum number of players the club can hold.

Notices:

School Holidays start on the 26th of September and many younger players will be away (some that the Chess events in Palmerston North). Please make sure you let us know what days you will miss in advance. Letting us know means you get a half-point bye and also that another player doesn’t miss out on a game waiting for you.
The final round of the B-grade Interclub was played on on Sunday the 25th of September. The ACC team ( Tim Ha, Scott Treanor, Stephen Peak, Nicole Qin, Wayne McDougall and Aaron Wang) drew with the North Shore (3 wins each). Thank you to these players plus Eric Wu and Pouya Seifi for taking their time out on Sundays to play for the club.
Unfortunately this year out Interclub teams only managed 4th (out of 4) in the competition. First place was taken by Papatoetoe for the first time ever.
Some photos from the B Grade Interclub are online: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3.

Results from Round 1

PGN file by Alex Nagorski for round 1

A Grade

Watson vs Goodhue saw opposite side castling and both sides playing pawn-storms. After some aggressive play the dust cleared and Watson was significantly ahead.

Mike Steadman deployed his 1. b4 against Allen Fan obtained equality but lost the exchange. He resigned in a difficult but perhaps not totally lost position.

In an Interesting unbalanced game John Duneas followed a gambit and obtained 3-4 pawns for a bishop against Alphaeus Ang. After much to-and-fro John Won.

B Grade

After a slow start Paul MacDonald crunched up Tim Ha

Don Eade and Hilton Jacobs played a very long (92 move) game with Don eventually winning.

Richard Taylor had some problems against newcomer Tomas Madr but eventually got a little ahead before settling for a draw

Alex Nagorski playing an interesting game where he swapped pieces and slowly worsened Keith Ward’s pawn structure until when all the pieces were gone he had a winning King and pawn endgame

C Grade

Upsets on boards 2 and 3 saw Eric Wu draw with Rishit Patel and Simon Lyall draw with Oscar Qin. Further down the table Tom Fu beat Giles Elias.

The Vega Websites for the Winter Cup Are:

Links to the Schedule for A and B grade are on the 2016 Tournaments page.

The draft draw for C grade is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

Winter Cup – B Grade Schedule

Pairings and schedule for the 2016 Winter Cup B Grade

ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 1  - Sep 12
=====================================================
1 = 1 Macdonald, Paul      -   8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
2 = 2 Eade, Don            -   7 Jacobs, Hilton J    
3 = 3 Taylor, Richard      -   6 Madr, Tomas         
4 = 4 Ward, Keith          -   5 Nagorski, Alex      


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 2  - Sep 19
=====================================================
1 = 8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth -   5 Nagorski, Alex      
2 = 6 Madr, Tomas          -   4 Ward, Keith         
3 = 7 Jacobs, Hilton J     -   3 Taylor, Richard     
4 = 1 Macdonald, Paul      -   2 Eade, Don           


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 3  - Sep 26
=====================================================
1 = 2 Eade, Don            -   8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
2 = 3 Taylor, Richard      -   1 Macdonald, Paul     
3 = 4 Ward, Keith          -   7 Jacobs, Hilton J    
4 = 5 Nagorski, Alex       -   6 Madr, Tomas         


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 4  - Oct 3
=====================================================
1 = 8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth -   6 Madr, Tomas         
2 = 7 Jacobs, Hilton J     -   5 Nagorski, Alex      
3 = 1 Macdonald, Paul      -   4 Ward, Keith         
4 = 2 Eade, Don            -   3 Taylor, Richard     


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 5  - Oct 10
=====================================================
1 = 3 Taylor, Richard      -   8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
2 = 4 Ward, Keith          -   2 Eade, Don           
3 = 5 Nagorski, Alex       -   1 Macdonald, Paul     
4 = 6 Madr, Tomas          -   7 Jacobs, Hilton J    


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 6  - Oct 17 
=====================================================
1 = 8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth -   7 Jacobs, Hilton J    
2 = 1 Macdonald, Paul      -   6 Madr, Tomas         
3 = 2 Eade, Don            -   5 Nagorski, Alex      
4 = 3 Taylor, Richard      -   4 Ward, Keith         


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - B Grade : Round 7  - Oct 31
=====================================================
1 = 4 Ward, Keith          -   8 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
2 = 5 Nagorski, Alex       -   3 Taylor, Richard     
3 = 6 Madr, Tomas          -   2 Eade, Don           
4 = 7 Jacobs, Hilton J     -   1 Macdonald, Paul

Winter Cup – A Grade Schedule

Pairings and schedule for the 2016 Winter Cup A Grade

ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 1 - Sept 12
=====================================================
1 = 1 Watson, Bruce R      - 8 Goodhue, Nathan 
2 = 2 Steadman, Michael V  - 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 
3 = 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 6 Huang, Alex 
4 = 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 5 Duneas, John 


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 2 - Sept 19
=====================================================
1 = 8 Goodhue, Nathan      - 5 Duneas, John 
2 = 6 Huang, Alex          - 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er
3 = 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou  - 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 
4 = 1 Watson, Bruce R      - 2 Steadman, Michael V 


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 3 - Sept 26
=====================================================
1 = 2 Steadman, Michael V  - 8 Goodhue, Nathan 
2 = 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 1 Watson, Bruce R 
3 = 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 
4 = 5 Duneas, John         - 6 Huang, Alex 


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 4 - Oct 3
=====================================================
1 = 8 Goodhue, Nathan      - 6 Huang, Alex 
2 = 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou  - 5 Duneas, John 
3 = 1 Watson, Bruce R      - 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er
4 = 2 Steadman, Michael V  - 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 5 - Oct 10
=====================================================
1 = 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 8 Goodhue, Nathan 
2 = 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 2 Steadman, Michael V 
3 = 5 Duneas, John         - 1 Watson, Bruce R 
4 = 6 Huang, Alex          - 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 6 - Oct 17 
=====================================================
1 = 8 Goodhue, Nathan      - 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 
2 = 1 Watson, Bruce R      - 6 Huang, Alex 
3 = 2 Steadman, Michael V  - 5 Duneas, John 
4 = 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er


ACC Winter Cup 2016 - A Grade : Round 7 - Oct 31
=====================================================
1 = 4 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 8 Goodhue, Nathan 
2 = 5 Duneas, John         - 3 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 
3 = 6 Huang, Alex          - 2 Steadman, Michael V 
4 = 7 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou  - 1 Watson, Bruce R

Winter Cup Starts tomorrow

A follow-up to the post from a few days ago. I’ve confirmed the draft A and B Grade fields.

We have also had some extra entries for C grade which now has 53 player. This means we will be tight for boards and people must let me know when they will not be playing.

Vega pages for the Winter Cup (Some using new Vega formatting).