Author: Timothy Ha

Please find and check your name on our registration list

https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2021/wwwACCAutumnCup_regs/

No new names will be accepted unless you’ve missed out because of a communication error with the captain and you can prove that the captain is wrong. Thanks for your understanding.

There will be a round-robin of 8 players on top of the list, and two Swiss grades, B and C. If some of the top 8 can’t commit to 7 games, they’ll be moved down to the Swiss B-grade.

The top 8 at the moment are: (we’ll use May 1 ratings in the final grouping)

1	Ang, Alphaeus Wei Ern	NZL	FM	2265
2	Gong, Daniel Hanwen	NZL	FM	2242
3	Garbett, Paul A	NZL	IM	2239
4	Fan, Allen Chi Zhou	NZL	FM	2193
5	Steadman, Michael V R	NZL	FM	2157
6	Huang, Alex	NZL	CM	1988
7	Zhang, Jasmine Haomo	NZL	WIM	1954
8	Macdonald, Paul	NZL		1890

Please also note that the number of 85 players on the list means that on every particular night, anybody from the waiting list (we’ll publish the list soon when grades are done) cannot play if all others have turned up.

Euan McDougall and FM Alphaeus Ang shared 1st place in the Autumn Rapid. Both had one draw and five wins.

FM Daniel Gong (4 wins, 2 byes) and CM Alex Huang (5 wins, 1 loss) shared second on 5.0/6. Several players were on 4.5, with different paths to their results: WCM Isabelle Ning, Felix Xie, Joe Wang, Hao Tang, and Winston Weng.

• Isabelle Ning beat Alex Huang and WIM Jasmine Zhang, then later drew Euan McDougall (who was quite lucky to escape to a draw)
• Felix Xie had one upset draw with Philli Park-Tamati and lost to Alphaeus Ang
• Hao Tang drew Alphaeus Ang and beat Paul Macdonald
• Joe Wang beat Paul Macdonald and others, losing only one game to Alex Huang
• Winston Weng was away from chess, skipped rounds 1-3 and came back to win rounds 4-6.

Little debutants in the club, Leo Lian and Franklyn Zhang (brother of Jasmine) started slowly in rounds 1-3 (0.5 and 0) but got themselves two wins in rounds 4-6. They can play chess!

Vega page

Autumn Rapid tournament will resume this Monday, April 19.

In round 3 of the first rapid night, Alphaeus Ang was held to a draw by Hao Tang, and Felix Xie by Philli Park-Tamati. These four are on 2.5/3, with some people on 2.5 after playing only 2 games (0.5 byes in round 3).

Alex Nagorski, Euan McDougall, Isabelle Ning and Jasmine Zhang are on the perfect score of 3.0/3.

ANZAC weekender will happen on April 24-26, so the club will be closed on April 26, and will resume on May 3 for the start of the Autumn Cup.

Our club will not run casual chess Fridays on April 16, 23 and 30. Coach Wayne will be back on May 7, after the school holidays. If you’re keen to play online chess, we have the usual NZCF Friday night blitz on Lichess, please join the NZCF team to play. Make sure to specify your name and location so you can be added. Thanks!

https://lichess.org/team/new-zealand-chess-federation

Alphaeus Ang, Mike Steadman, Allen Fan, John Duneas, Alex Huang and Euan McDougall played for ACC last night and beat Howick-Pakuranga with a big score of 4.5-1.5. On board 6, Euan “should have lost”, but fought back creatively as always, and got a draw. Otherwise, the score would be closer.

Howick	1.5-4.5	ACC
FM Daniel Gong	0.5-0.5	FM Alphaeus Ang
FM Martin Dreyer	0-1	FM Mike Steadman
FM Ewen Green	0-1	FM Allen Fan
WIM Jasmine Zhang	0.5-0.5	FM John Duneas
CM Benjamin Lim	0-1	CM Alex Huang
Oliver Dai	0.5-0.5	Euan McDougall

“Kids’ team” Summit CC beat Papatoetoe also with the 4.5-1.5 score, and North Shore narrowly beat Waitakere, 3.5-2.5.

Interclub schedule and results of all teams will be posted round by round in this Google sheet (please bookmark it) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J0EeDJ3vWOr_6o8UhJly1fMwKt6PT8KZZ77CzrF1rdc/edit?usp=sharing

Next round is May 2, when ACC will face Papatoetoe.

Thanks, all, for playing in small groups after the Summer Cup has been cut short to just 3 rounds. The small rating groups made the tournament tougher, more alike to a round-robin tournament than a Swiss with match-ups of varying difficulty. Below are the results of all groups, you can find details on Vega pages under the group name.

Winners are:
Group 0: FM Alphaeus Ang and FM Allen Fan (shared)
Group 1: Hao Tang
Group 2: Daqi Mao
Group 3: Andrew Michael
Group 4: Baraa Zara
Group 5: Charles Lu
Group 6: Pranav Shenoy
Group 7: Virginia Milne
Group 8: Eden Oshri
Group 9: William Liu

Group 0

1,Ang, Alphaeus Wei Ern , 15002, 3:W, 5:W, 2:D
2,Fan, Allen Chi Zhou , 14853, 6:W, 4:W, 1:D
3,Xie, Felix , 16267, 1:L, 8:W, 7:W
4,Gong, Daniel Hanwen , 14934, 7:W, 2:L, 5:D
5,Steadman, Michael V R , 10201, 8:W, 1:L, 4:D
6,Zhang, Jasmine Haomo , 15218, 2:L, 7:D, 8:D
7,Huang, Alex , 13629, 4:L, 6:D, 3:L
8,Runcan, Daniel-Ioan , 14963, 5:L, 3:L, 6:D

Group 1

1,Tang, Hao , 17080, 4:D, 5:W, 8:W
2,McDougall, Euan , 15055, 0:H, 8:W, 3:W
3,Metge, J. Nigel , 10041, 0:B, 6:W, 2:L
4,Zhang, Kendrick Botong , 16276, 1:D, 7:D, 0:H
5,Nagorski, Alex , 16299, 8:D, 1:L, 6:W
6,Macdonald, Paul , 11740, 7:W, 3:L, 5:L
7,Ning, Isabelle Yixuan , 16360, 6:L, 4:D, 0:H
8,Wells, Clinton A. , 12482, 5:D, 2:L, 1:L

Group 2

1,Mao, Daqi , 17073, 6:W, 2:D, 5:W
2,Lyall, Simon , 10945, 8:+, 1:D, 0:H
3,Weng, Xintong (Winston) , 15853, 4:W, 0:H, 0:H
4,Lewis, Jordan , 14124, 3:L, 7:D, 6:W
5,Wang, Aaron Ziwen , 15174, 7:W, 6:L, 1:L
6,Park-Tamati, Philli , 16529, 1:L, 5:W, 4:L
7,Ha, Huy Minh (Timothy) , 16235, 5:L, 4:D, 0:H
8,Khawaja, Ahmad , did not play

Group 3

1,Michael, Andrew , 13776, 5:+, 2:D, 3:W
2,Jones, Stephen K , 14220, 9:W, 1:D, 6:W
3,Liu, Zikun Kenneth , 17039, 8:W, 4:W, 1:L
4,Deng, Abraham , 16325, 0:B, 3:L, 7:W
5,Sonnekus, Neil , 15007, 1:-, 0:H, 9:W
6,Sriram, A , 0, 0:H, 0:H, 2:L
7,Lee, Fergus , 15745, 0:-, 9:W, 4:L
8,Thurner, Anya , 16363, 3:L, 0:H, 0:H
9,Wang, Justin Zhide , 17324, 2:L, 7:L, 5:L

Group 4

1,Zara, Baraa , 16906, 7:W, 2:W, 0:H
2,Po`e-Tofaeono, Hunter , 17105, 6:W, 1:L, 4:W
3,Peak, Stephen , 15728, 4:D, 5:D, 8:W
4,Ravi, Narasimhan Lakshmi , 16064, 3:D, 8:W, 2:L
5,Chang, Yolanda , 16602, 8:D, 3:D, 0:H
6,Fan, Eric , 17030, 2:L, 7:W, 0:H
7,Bhatt, Daksh , 17096, 1:L, 6:L, 0:B
8,Burrows, Grant L , 11576, 5:D, 4:L, 3:L

Group 5

1,Lu, Charles , 16846, 7:W, 8:W, 3:W
2,Wang, Joe , 16554, 8:W, 0:H, 6:W
3,Treanor, Scott , 15377, 4:W, 5:W, 1:L
4,Zhu, David Junyang , 16672, 3:L, 7:D, 5:W
5,Chen, David , 0, 0:B, 3:L, 4:L
6,Tang, Tracy , 17091, 0:H, 0:H, 2:L
7,Somaraju, Sai Vivan Karth, 17206, 1:L, 4:D, 0:H
8,Bhatt, Mantra , 17061, 2:L, 1:L, 0:B

Group 6

1,Shenoy, Pranav , 16674, 0:B, 5:W, 2:W
2,Po`e-Tofaeono, Grayson , 17167, 3:W, 6:W, 1:L
3,Leach, Alan , 17168, 2:L, 7:W, 5:W
4,Feng, Sophia , 17295, 6:L, 8:W, 0:H
5,Vasudeva, Ayaan , 17248, 8:W, 1:L, 3:L
6,Wang, Ying , 15865, 4:W, 2:L, 8:L
7,Ray, Charlotte , 16662, 0:H, 3:L, 0:H
8,McClory, John , 16731, 5:L, 4:L, 6:W

Group 7

1,Milne, Virginia , 10862, 3:W, 4:W, 2:W
2,Brooker, William , 0, 8:W, 6:W, 1:L
3,Mironov, Eric , 17399, 1:L, 8:W, 7:W
4,Yu, Weiyang , 17377, 7:W, 1:L, 6:D
5,Ma, Michael , 16326, 6:D, 7:L, 8:+
6,Xiao, Lucas , 16617, 5:D, 2:L, 4:D
7,Steiner, Michael , 11692, 4:L, 5:W, 3:L
8,Wang, Xipeng (Max) , 17478, 2:L, 3:L, 5:-

Group 8

1,Oshri, Eden , 16827, 5:D, 6:W, 2:W
2,Nimmakayala, Srirama Vikh, 17185, 7:+, 4:W, 1:L
3,Yue, Annie , 17064, 8:W, 0:H, 0:H
4,Zhou, Adele , 17082, 0:B, 2:L, 5:W
5,Kane, Paul , 17398, 1:D, 8:+, 4:L
6,Xiao, Maxwell , 16618, 0:H, 1:L, 8:+
7,Hughes, Mike , 0, 2:-, 0:-, 0:-
8,Liu, Lanjun , 17122, 3:L, 5:-, 6:-

Group 9

1,Liu, William Rui , 17424, 4:W, 3:W, 2:W
2,Tao, Junqing Jerome , 17344, 5:W, 6:W, 1:L
3,Zhang, Franklyn , 16913, 7:+, 1:L, 6:D
4,Sheng, Ethan , 17046, 1:L, 5:+, 0:H
5,Ellis, Roderick , 0, 2:L, 4:-, 0:B
6,Tai, Ethan , 0, 0:-, 2:L, 3:D

Friday casual, Saturday Junior and Monday club night will not happen during the Easter break of April 2-5. The club will be closed. Thanks! Happy Easter!

Auckland Chess Association has announced that the Interclub matches will have two grades in 2021. The time control for A and B grade is 75m+30s. Matches are held on Sunday nights (of the dates below), 6:30 pm, at Alexandra Park, Lyell Creek Lounge (upstairs).

A Grade (NZCF 1800+) – 11 April, 2 May, 16 May, 30 May, 20 June, 27 June

Round 1: Howick-Pakuranga – Auckland; North Shore – Waitakere; Summit – Papatoetoe

Round 2: Auckland – Papatoetoe; Waitakere – Summit; Howick-Pakuranga – North Shore

Round 3: North Shore – Auckland; Summit – Howick-Pakuranga; Papatoetoe – Waitakere

Round 4: Auckland – Waitakere; Howick-Pakuranga – Papatoetoe; North Shore – Summit

Round 5: Summit – Auckland; Papatoetoe – North Shore; Waitakere – Howick-Pakuranga

B Grade (NZCF under 1800) – 4 July, 25 July, 3 August, 15 August, 12 September, 19 September, 26 September

Junior Interclub: 31 October

Lightning Interclub: 14 November

Please let the captain know if you want to play in the Interclub matches, especially because the A-grade team has to be announced before April 10. Thanks.

We need 6 main players plus 6 reserves for each team. Let’s win again 🙂

A-team so far (rating values are NZCF)

• Ang, Alphaeus (2393)
• Steadman, Mike (2307)
• Fan, Allen (2287)
• Duneas, John (2266)
• Thornton, Gino (2201)
• Huang, Alex (2126)
• Nagorski, Alex (2012) – reserve
• McDougall, Euan (1963) – reserve
• Ning, Isabelle (1947) – reserve
• Park-Tamati, Philli (1898) – reserve

B-team (we need to defend our trophy, could be 4th year in a row)

• Ravi, Narasimhan Lakshmi (1765) (tbc)
• Deng, Abraham (1744) (tbc)
• Chang, Yolanda (1742) (tbc)
• Wang, Joe (1734) (tbc)
• Peak, Stephen (1688)
• Zara, Baraa (1665) (tbc)
• Sriram A (1621) (tbc)
• Treanor, Scott (1618) (tbc)
• Burrows, Grant (1579) (tbc)
• Gao, Hugh (1550) (tbc)
• Sonnekus, Neil (1509) (tbc)
• Chen, David (0)

Junior team (quite far to plan, but there’s some interest already)

• Yue, Annie

Lightning team

There was no surprise in the top group of the now 10-group, 3-round Summer Cup. Four FMs came and won their games against non-FMs. Only FM Daniel Gong confessed that he’s forgotten how to play classical chess after such a long hiatus, and his game vs CM Alex Huang finished very late. All other groups also had tough matches, uncharacteristic for the first round of a Swiss, as the small rating groups placed people closer to their equals.

Special note: if you registered for the Summer Cup and forgot about it due to the four weeks of Covid lockdown, please let Tim Ha know if you’re still going to play, March 22 and 29. Thanks!

Vega: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2021/wwwACCSummerCup_0/ (links to groups 1-9 are in the main menu)

Tentative round 2 pairings are also online (subject to change depending on people’s presence on the day).

List of groups and player names: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/2021/summer-cup-10-groups-listed/

As announced before, since we have at most 3 rounds remaining for the Summer Cup (we can’t shift the FIDE-rated tournaments), we are dividing the 80 players who have registered into 10 groups, from 0 to 9. Each group will have 8 players, who will compete in a mini-Swiss of 3 rounds. On the night of each round, if an odd number of players are missing in a group, somebody will get a full point bye, without a game. If an even number of players are missing, we’ll attempt to repair the rest.

See you on Mondays, March 15, 22 and 29! Good luck to all, and let’s hope we’ll have more normal length tournaments after this one.

Players can find their group and links to Vega pages below — you can also click “Pairings” to see the tentative pairing for round 1 of each group. All Vega pages of all groups are interlinked, use the main menu to navigate them.

Group 0

1 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Ern
2 Gong, Daniel Hanwen
3 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou
4 Steadman, Michael V R
5 Xie, Felix
6 Huang, Alex
7 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo
8 Runcan, Daniel-Ioan

Group 1

1 Macdonald, Paul
2 Wells, Clinton A.
3 Zhang, Kendrick Botong
4 Ning, Isabelle Yixuan
5 Nagorski, Alex
6 Metge, J. Nigel
7 McDougall, Euan
8 Tang, Hao

Group 2

1 Mao, Daqi
2 Ha, Huy Minh (Timothy)
3 Weng, Xintong (Winston)
4 Lyall, Simon
5 Park-Tamati, Philli
6 Wang, Aaron Ziwen
7 Lewis, Jordan
8 Khawaja, Ahmad

Group 3

1 Liu, Zikun Kenneth
2 Wang, Justin Zhide
3 Michael, Andrew
4 Sriram, A
5 Thurner, Anya
6 Jones, Stephen K
7 Sonnekus, Neil
8 Deng, Abraham

Group 4

1 Peak, Stephen
2 Po’e-Tofaeono, Hunter
3 Burrows, Grant L
4 Zara, Baraa
5 Ravi, Narasimhan Lakshmi
6 Fan, Eric
7 Chang, Yolanda
8 Bhatt, Daksh

Group 5

1 Chen, David
2 Somaraju, Sai Vivan Karthikeya
3 Bhatt, Mantra
4 Treanor, Scott
5 Lu, Charles
6 Wang, Joe
7 Zhu, David Junyang
8 Tang, Tracy

Group 6

1 Wang, Ying
2 Leach, Alan
3 Vasudeva, Ayaan
4 Feng, Sophia
5 Po’e-Tofaeono, Grayson
6 McClory, John
7 Shenoy, Pranav
8 Ray, Charlotte

Group 7

1 Xiao, Lucas
2 Yu, Weiyang
3 Milne, Virginia
4 Brooker, William
5 Ma, Michael
6 Wang, Xipeng (max)
7 Steiner, Michael
8 Mironov, Eric

Group 8

1 Hughes, Mike
2 Oshri, Eden
3 Xiao, Maxwell
4 Liu, Lanjun
5 Nimmakayala, Srirama Vikhyath
6 Kane, Paul
7 Yue, Annie
8 Zhou, Adele

Group 9

1 Sheng, Ethan
2 Ellis, Roderick
3 Liu, William Rui
4 Tao, Junqing Jerome
5 Newman, Nicholas
6 Zhang, Franklyn