Author: Simon

2019 Summer Cup – Round 3

Due to the number of games missed in A, B and C Grade. The placings are a little confused. Games are being caught-up however.

Draw: A, B, C (round-robin schedule)
Vega Links: A Grade , B Grade , C Grade , D Grade

PGN for Round 3 by Ewen Green

A Grade

Nigel Metge vs Allen Fan – White pushed a fawn pawn to h6 but black did a quick counter-attack and picked up an exchange. Another tactic missed by White allowed Black to pickup a full piece and White resigned. 0-1

Daniel Gong vs Alexei Kulashko – White tried an obscure move on move 3 of the Sicilian! After some exchanges and tactics Black had an extra Bishop for 3 pawns. However White was unable to hold the position. 0-1

Alphaeus Ang vs Mike Steadman – Black gave up a pawn in return for mobility and development. The computer liked White’s position but Black’s attack left little margin for error. White eventually made a mistake and settled for a perpetual check. Draw

Alexei Kulashko and Allen Fan both led on 2 points. Alexei has a game and hand as do other players

B Grade

Euan McDougall vs Clinton Wells – White made some dubious opening choices and gave Black a better position. Black kept up the pressure and won and pawn and then more material. 0-1

C Grade

Lewis Jordan vs Aaron Wang – White game up and early pawn and then black just put pressure on and swapped. Black resigned after losing an exchange etc. 0-1

Tim Ha vs Winston Weng – Black got in a better position into the opening but miscalculated a tactic and gave up his two bishops for a rook. White’s Bishops and Black’s underdeveloped pieces quickly decided the game. 1-0

Felix Xei vs Xinyang Liu – White got a good attack but missed the followup moves and allowed Black to escape. After some tacic the position looked drawn but black made a mistake and gave white the win. 1-0

Felix Xie is leading the grade on 3/3. However Akshay Sharma has 2 points with a game in hand

D Grade

Upsets in Round 3:

Thomas Zheng beat Huge Gao
Neil Sonnekus drew with Abraham Deng

3 players are leading on 3 points: Joe Wang, Philli Park-Tamati and Jeffrey Yu while 7 more players are on 2.5

2019 Summer Cup – Round 2

The 2nd round of the Summer Cup was played on the 18th of February.

Draw: A, B, C (round-robin schedule)
Vega Links: A Grade , B Grade , C Grade , D Grade

PGN of Round 2 by Tim Ha

A Grade

Nathan Goodhue vs Alphaeus Ang – The players steadily swapped pieces with no real advantage to either side. Draw

Mike Steadman vs Daniel Gong – White got a slightly better position but settled for forcing a repetition. Draw

Allen Fan vs Alex Huang – Black got a little ahead and won, although the computer is unimpressed. 0-1

B Grade

Caroline Yan vs Euan McDougall – A seesaw game. Fair even until White lost a piece but then she picked up some pawns a few moves later as compensation. Another mistake ended it however. 0-1

Don Eade vs Simon Lyall – White got better in the opening and Black tried a dubious pawn push. White was better but after some swaps Black came out a pawn ahead with a winning endgame. Black missed the best moves and settled for a draw due to lack of time. Draw

Paul Macdonald vs Jasmine Zhang – Black came out of the opening a little better. White tried and exchange sac but gained nothing and after White held off Black’s threats, she swapped down to a won endgame. 0-1

C Grade

Karl Holdo vs Felix Xie – White got a little lost in his opening and wasted a couple of moves allowing Black to advance pawns to cramp White’s position. Black got an unstoppable passed pawn and White resigned. 0-1

Xinyang Liu vs Tim Ha – After some unusual opening moves Black picked up a pawn with a tactic and White resigned soon after when the king was trapped. 0-1

Winston Weng vs Jordan Lewis – White got a better position but missed the best continuation and the position swapped down to a draw.

Aaron Wang vs Akshay Sharma – Black made a push on the queenside and White eventaully made a mistake defending. Black came out 3 pawns ahead and White resigned. 0-1

D Grade

Upsets for Round 2:

Ariel Patdu beat Dario Giuliani
David Zhu beat Philbert Zhai
Narasimhan Ravi beat Hugh Gao
Mike Steiner beat Austin Tama


2019 Summer Cup – Round 1

The Summer Cup was the first big night at ACC. We had nearly 80 players and only managed to fit them in due to the emergency fit-out of the new playing room (aka the “VIP Room”). Big thanks to Ian McNally who was helped by Bruce and Simon. We plan to get more permanent tables and chairs in there shortly.

Tournaments coming up:

Draw: A, B, C (round-robin schedule)
Vega Links: A Grade , B Grade , C Grade , D Grade

Round 1 PGN by Ewen Green

A Grade

Allen Fan vs Nathan Goodhue – White Sacked an exchange to gain passed pawns. 1-0

Alex Huang vs Alexei Kulashko (annotated by lichess) – A straightforward win for Black.

Daniel Gong vs Alphaeus Ang – Black got his pieces stuck on the wrong side of a pawn-chain while White attacked his King. Black’s last minute tricks were unsuccessful. 1-0

B Grade

Jasmine Zhang vs Don Eade – After a sharp position with many pieces threatening each other White came out with QBB v RRB . But she made a couple of mistakes and allowed Black to even the position. Draw

Simon Lyall vs Clinton Wells – A Rusty Black used up a lot of time and allowed White to get some pressure. After a couple of mistakes he resigned. 1-0

C Grade

Aaron Wang vs Karl Holdo – After a long game Black got ahead and into a winning endgame. But he took a draw due to lack of time. Draw

Lewis Jordan vs Xinyang Liu – After a long game Black was winning with 5 pawns to one and a rook each. Unfortunately that pawn was passed and he defended incorrectly. 1-0

Tim Ha vs Felix Xie – Black picked up and exchange for a pawn and then was able to win a pawn by squeezing White. He then swapped back the exchange for a winning King and pawn endgame. 0-1

D Grade

Major Upsets:

Ethan Liu beat Uday Jain
Vincent Cai beat Neil Sonnekus
Jack Chen beat Ariel Patdu
Jacob Yuan beat Abraham Deng
Yolander Chen beat Grant Burrows
Kelvin Xiao beat Virginia Milne


2019 Summer Cup – Draw for Rd1

The first round of the Summer Cup is on February 11th. The Provisional Draw for grades A, B and C is linked below.

For D grade we had a large number of entries so are short of space. We are setting up some temporary tables but it is possible some players may have to wait to start their games. Due to lack of space no further entries will be accepted.

A reminder that if you are in D grade and unable to play on a Monday you must txt Simon (or inform Ying Wang) before 6:45pm. If you do so you/your child will get a half point bye. If you don’t inform ahead of time then you will get zero. People who regularly don’t notify absences may not be able to enter events.

If you are in a Round Robin grade you are expected to arrange an alternative day with your opponent and then inform Simon.

Draw for round 1 of the Summer Cup:

2019 Blitz

The Summer Cup starts on the 11th of February. We are close to full and any entries received after Feb 5th are not guaranteed a place.

February 4th was the first night back for Auckland Chess Centre in 2019. Due to Chinese New Year we didn’t fill up but we had 45 people playing in the Blitz Championship

This year the Blitz Championship counts towards the Club Rapid Championship[1] . Each point in the blitz will count for half as much as a point in the two club rapids

The Blitz results in Vega

The night was dominated by Alexi Kulashko who won 8 games in a row and only dropped gave up a draw in the final round for a final score of 8.5

Blitz Winner Alexei Kulashko (right) playing 3rd-place Alex Nagorski

Second place was Euan McDougall (who gain 100 FIDE ratings points in January) with 7.5 while Alex Nagorski was 3rd on 7 points.

We had several new players at the club. David McNeil from the US was visiting for the evening. Nigel Metge and Ajit Pendharkar both return to regular play. While Michael O’Callahan, Eden Oshri plus Grayson, Tyleah and Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono were all starting out.

More photos are online

[1] – Several people were concern that the cup should now be called “The Blitz and Rapid Championship” or similar. They are invited to buy (and have engraved) a new cup ?

Entries for Blitz and Summer Cup

We are now taking entries for the first two events of 2019

The Blitz will be on February 4th and is a 9 round 3m+2s event. Note that this close to Chinese New Year so check to make sure you don’t have something already planned. Points in this will go towards the Club Rapid Championship.

The Blitz event is in Vega

On February 11th we will have the first main tournament for 2019. The Summer cup will be 3 round-robin grades plus a Swiss. All will be Nationally rated.

Vega Links: A Grade , B Grade , C Grade , D Grade

Note: To decide on entry to grades in the Summer Cup, Players will be ranked by February FIDE rating. The grades people are currently listed in is a draft.

January 21st Simul Cancelled

Due to a clash with the NZ Chess Champs the Simil at the Club on the 21 st of January has been cancelled.

Instead the first event for 2019 will be on the Blitz Championship on February 4th.

Entries for The Blitz and Summer Cup will be up soon.

Spring Cup 2018 – Round 7

December 17th will be the final Club night for 2018. Planned activities are:

  • Prize giving
  • Pizza
  • AGM
  • A Rapid tournament for 2-person teams.

The last round of the Spring Cup saw fewer draws and upsets than previous rounds.

Vega Links:  A Grade , B Grade

2018 Spring Cup R7 PGN by Ewen Green with help.

A Grade

Paul Garbett vs John Duneas – White came out of the opening better and Black failed to contain him. 1-0

Michael Steadman vs Alex Huang – Black was even to better until he allowed White a tactic which won a piece or two. 1-0

Bruce Watson vs Paul Macdonald – After some swaps, White got a nice position where he could make threats and Black had to scramble to counter them. Eventually White broke though and Black resigned. 1-0

Nathan Goodhue vs Lewis Jordan – A fairly even position until Black tied up a rook defending a pawn. White was then able to seize an open file which was enough to create a win. 1-0

Clinton Wells vs Allen Fan – Both players gave up a Kingside pawn in front of their castled Kings and then simultaneously built up an attack/defense. However, White made a miscalculation and was quickly lost. 0-1

Simon Lyall vs Caroline Yan – White gave up a pawn and then ran low on time and made a serious of bad moves. 0-1

Don Eade vs Alex Nagorski – White miscalculated a tactic and lost a piece. He tried some complications to recover but lost another. 0-1

Akshay Sharma vs Timothy Ha – The players went into a sharp opening line but came out fairly even. Some chances were missed by both sides in a very tactical middle game. Black finally made an error and White ended up material which he was quickly able to improve more. 1-0

With Paul Garbett’s win in the last round he pulled ahead of Alphaeus Ang and Daniel Gong (both overseas) to win by himself on 5.5 points.

2nd equal on 5 points was Daniel, Alphaeus and Mike Steadman.

B Grade

Jeffrey Yu vs Virginia Milne – White looked a little lost in the opening and then Black made a mistake and White was a piece up. But White then wasted a few moves, failed to develop and let Black mount a winning attack! 0-1

Sarah Yan vs Stephen Peters – Some tactics in the opening but the players swapped down to an even rook and pawn endgame. Black however made a mistake and lost a pawn and it was over. 1-0

Aaron Wang vs Lakshmi Ravi – The players swapped down to an endgame. Black was better but missed the winning move and the game was drawn.

Arkadi Polyakevich vs Mike Steiner – The players swapped down but White came out a pawn ahead. Under pressure Black made a mistake and White got a passed pawn. 1-0

Andrew Michael vs Abraham Deng – White Sacrificed a piece for an attack but failed to find the correct followup (or settle for a perpetual). Black swapped Queens and the attack faltered. The players then had a very tactical position. Finally Black swapped down material and then got a win. 0-1

Upsets in Round 7

Vincent Cai beat Pattani Priyanshu
Eugene Wang beat Toby Zhang
Lakshmi Ravi drew with Aaron Wang
Uday Jain beat Joe Wang

Winner of B Grade was Virginia Milne on 6 points (a Swiss Gambit).
Second was Sarah Yan on 5.5 points
Third equal on 5 were Jeffrey Yu, Arkadi Polyakevich and Boyuan Zhang.

Spring Cup 2018 – Round 6

Just two more weeks of Club to go this year.

Vega Links:  A Grade , B Grade

2018 Spring Cup R6 PGN by Tim Ha.

A Grade

Alphaeus Ang vs Daniel Gong – White had a better position at times but was unable to exploit it and the players swapped to a Draw.

Paul Garbett vs Ben Hague – Black mounted an attack on White’s King. White defended well but decided to take a draw rather than continue. Draw.

Bruce Watson vs Mike Steadman – White game up a pawn in return for a great outpost Knight. But he failed to find the best continuation and his advantaged petered out in a sharp position. Black managed to force a perpetual check. Draw.

Nathan Goodhue vs Alex Huang –  White allowed a couple of holes in his position. A mistake allowed Black to exploit them and get a couple of rooks on the 7th. 0-1

Paul Macdonald vs Allen Fan –  See Paul’s extensive annotations of this game in the PGN. A sleepy Black got ahead but made a couple of major mistakes that game White a mate. 1-0

John Duneas vs Don Eade – White sacrificed a piece for an attack but allowed White to wiggle out in a complex position. White then swapped a couple of attackers and picked up another piece. 1-0

Tim Ha vs Jordon Lewis – Black put white under pressure but white managed to hang on. However White sacrificed a rook for an attack that turned out not to be sound. Black found a nice tactic to win a couple of moves later. 0-1

Ha vs Lewis. Black to play

Alex Nagorski vs Simon Lyall – Black picked up an early pawn and the players went into some sharp tactics. Black emerged an exchange up and was able to consolidate his lead. 0-1

Upsets in Round 6:

Simon Lyall beat Alex Nagorski
Paul Macdonald beat Allen Fan

Three draws on the top three boards just further squeezed the field. Three players are on 4.5 and 2 more on 4 points.

B Grade

Stephen Peters vs Virginia Milne – White got lost in his (gambit!) opening and then resigned after losing a piece. 0-1

Arkadi Polyakevich vs Jeffrey Yu – White lost a piece in an opening trap and was unable to recover. 0-1

David Ansell vs Boyuan Zhang – Black was better though most of the game. After White gave up a piece for two pawns Black had little trouble mopping up. 0-1

Isabelle Ning vs Aaron Wang – White mounted an early attack on Black’s King which looked dangerous. But she feel into a pin and lost an exchange. 0-1

Upsets in Round 6:

Lakshmi Ravi beat Hugh Gao
Erica Hu beat Priyanshu Pattani
Jeffrey Yu beat Arkadi Polyakevich
Boyuan Zhang beat David Ansell

Jeffrey Yu and Virginia Milne now lead the grade on 5 points. 3 other players are just behind on 4.5