Author: Timothy Ha

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

We are back to Level 1 and can play chess in our club on Monday, March 15! Congratulations!

The Summer Cup was initially planned to run in 7 rounds, but we lost four weeks due to Covid lockdown levels, and three remaining weeks won’t be enough to compete and determine a winner in the Swiss format. Therefore, our club will divide the 80 registered players into 10 groups, each will compete in a 3-round, 8-player Swiss.

If you can’t come on any of these days, March 15, 22 or 29, please let us know and you’ll get a half-point bye. That also means somebody might be left without a game from their group, but that’s currently the reality of what we have.

Hopefully, life will get back to normal for the FIDE-rated rapid tournament and the Autumn Cup after this. Thanks for your understanding!

Auckland will still be on Level 2 next Monday, so we’ll meet online for another tournament. This time it’ll be a Swiss tournament with the rapid 10m+5s time control. Since March 8 is International Women’s Day, there’ll also be a small celebration. At the end of the tournament, a random player (but not the top 3 finishers) will get a prize in form of a ForwardChess e-book or a Chessable course, either written by Judit Polgar or about her games and chess career.

Please register in the NZCF team on Lichess to play, and here’s the tournament link – https://lichess.org/swiss/MBwaXphe

The tournament starts at 7:30 pm on March 8, 2021. Please register and come at about 7:15-20 pm, as it’s Swiss and, unlike Lichess arenas, you’ll forfeit several games if you’re late.

GM Gawain Jones from the UK is giving a simul to ACC players on March 25 (Auckland will hopefully be on Covid level 1 by then). There are 25 seats only, so please notify Timothy Ha and we’ll put your name on the registration list below. Thanks.

If you want to prepare against Gawain, check his games in the Trusts Open 2010 in Auckland, where he won 6 out of 6, or his win of Tata Steel Challengers 2017 in Wijk aan Zee (and participation in the Tata Steel Masters 2018), or his games on chessgames.com

The current list of players (max 25) participating in the Simul – tentative start time 6:30 pm on Mar 25. Ratings are provided to help GM Gawain 🙂

1. Po’e-Tofaeono, Hunter (1490)
2. Po’e-Tofaeono, Grayson (1212)
3. Zhu, David (1346)
4. Lewis, Jordan (1623)
5. Zhang, Kenny (1809)
6. Ning, Isabelle (1808)
7. Xie, Felix (2082)
8. Yu, Weiyang (1150)
9. Thurner, Anya (1553)
10. Mao, Daqi (1729)
11. Park-Tamati, Philli (1639)
12. Holdo, Karl (1613)
13. Treanor, Scott (1362)
14. Willoughby-Ansell, Xxavier (1367)
15. Deng, Abraham (1531)
16. Sonnekus, Neil (1536)
17. Wang, Justin (1605)
18. Vasudeva, Ayaan (1235)
19. Somaraju, Sai Vivan Karthikeya (1377)
20. Lakshmi, Narasimhan Ravi (1458)
21. Zara, Baraa (1470)
22. Taha, Shereif (1183)
23. McClory, John (1204)
24. Patdu, Ariel (1422)
25. Yu, Zachary

ALL seats taken.