News

The Spring Rapid was held over 6 rounds across two nights ( the 20ths and 27th of August). Time control was 25+5 and there was a single grade for the whole club (just over 70 players).

This year was notable for the larger than usual number of players taking a half point bye in the 3rd and 6th round. Less than 20 players out of the field of 70 played all rounds.

After three rounds only Alexei Kulashko and newcomer Stephen Peters were on 3 points. Alexei won in their game in round 4 but lost to Ben Hague in round 5.

Going into round 6, there were 3 players on 4.5 ( Ben Hague, Mike Steadman and Alphaeus Ang) but they all went home and took half point byes.

Alexei Kulaskho, Philli Park-Tamati and Boyuan Zhang were the only ones on 4 points but Alexei also took a bye.

That left Philli Park-Tamati (ranked 29th) and Boyuan Zhang (ranked 44th) to play on board one for a chance at 1st-equal. Both had upset higher rated players.

The result was a win for Philli after a close endgame.

Biggest upsets in Spring Rapid (with rating difference)

Yolanda Chang beat John Pakenham  618
Lakshmi Ravi beat Bill Undy   581
Charlotte Wen beat Winston Weng  537
Jordan Lewis beat Nathan Goohue  489
Wayne McDougall beat Alex Nagorski  461
Sylvia McDougall beat JC Mullage   426
Tracey Liu beat William Undy  414

Final Results

1st= on 5 points: Mike Steadman, Alphaeus Ang, Ben Hague, Philli Park-Tamati

5th= on 4.5 points: Alexei Kulashko, Danial Gong, Allen Fan and Jordan Lewis

 

The 2018 Auckland Chess Centre Club Champs is across 9 rounds in June though August. The A and B grades were 10 player round robins while the C grade was a Swiss ( with just over 60 players). All Grades NZCF rated while the A and B grades are FIDE rated.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C Grade

A Grade

1st and Club Champion 2018: Alexei Kulashko

2nd: Ben Hague
3rd: Daniel Gong

B Grade

1st: Nathan Goodhue
2nd: Paul Macdonald
3rd: Alex Nagorski

C Grade

1st: Euan McDougall
2nd= Stephan Peak, Winston Weng, Felix Xie and Lewis Jordan

 

The 2018 Auckland Chess Centre Club Champs is across 9 rounds in June though August. The A and B grades are 10 player round robins while the C grade is a Swiss ( with just over 60 players). All Grades are NZCF rated while the A and B grades are FIDE rated.

Final results will be published in a separate post.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C Grade

ACC Club Champs 2018 Rnd9 PGN by Ewan Green

A Grade

Alphaeus Ang vs John Duneas – The players swapped down to an endgame with White a pawn up but he was unable to make progress and a draw was agreed. Draw

Paul Garbett vs Bruce Watson – Steady swaps also resulted in a draw.

Daniel Gong vs Michael Steadman – White temporarily game up two pawns to give himself open lines to attack Black’s Castled King. He then attacked and it was quickly over. 1-0

Allen Fan vs Alexei Kulashko – White picked up a Bishop but gave up 4 pawns. Black later checked the King around on the open board until he picked up White’s Queen. 0-1

Gordon Morrell vs Ben Hague – White got a better position and Black accepted and early draw.

B Grade

Don Eade vs Simon Lyall – Whute blunder a piece in the opening. 0-1

Roy Seabrook vs Caroline Yan – After being ahead for most of the game Black made one bad move and her position fell apart. 1-0

Joy Qin vs Alex Nagorski – White missed a tactic and lost material, she attempted to recover it but allowed another. 0-1

Tim Ha vs Nathan Goodhue – White had a better start but once the game was in a closed position that Black enjoys Black was able to catchup and win (on time I believe). 0-1

Nicole Qin vs Paul Macdonald – Black got a better position after White’s theory ran out. But he made a mistake and gave up a piece. However White was unable to win the difficult endgame. Draw

C Grade

Euan McDougall vs Sarah Yan – Black gave up a piece. 1-0

Jordan Lewis vs Felix Xie – White got in a strong attack and eventually Black slipped up. 1-0

Joe Wang vs Stephan Peak – After a fairly even game Black swapped into a won endgame. 0-1

Upsets in Round 9

Longbin Bi beat Vincent Cai
Mike Steiner beat Xinyang Liu
Brian Zhao drew with Saasha Ghadiali
Ying Wang drew with David Ansell

The 2018 Auckland Chess Centre Club Champs is across 9 rounds in June though August. The A and B grades are 10 player round robins while the C grade is a Swiss ( with just over 60 players). All Grades are NZCF rated while the A and B grades are FIDE rated.

Club Champs 2018 – Round 8 PGN by Ewan Green

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C Grade

A Grade
John Duneas vs Gordon Morrell – White tried an unusual line ( 6. Qb3 in the Queen’s Gambit) that seemed unpromising. A couple of moves later Black picked up an pawn and then press to win. 0-1

Ben Hague vs Allen Fan – White mounted an aggressive attack and ended up several pawns up in the endgame which was more than enough. 1-0

Alexei Kulashko vs Michael Steadman – An unusual opening line. Black resigned on move 13 after miscalculating a tactical sequence. 1-0

Daniel Gong vs Paul Garbett – White got a small advantage but soon lost it. The players swapped pieces and agreed on a draw.

Bruce Watson vs Alphaeus Ang – White got a small advantage but soon lost it. The players swapped pieces and agreed on a draw.

After this round Alexei Kulashko was in the led on 5.5 over a point ahead of several other players (Ben Hague played some catchup games to being himself into second).

B Grade

Simon Lyall vs Nicole Qin – White got himself in trouble and then lost a piece to a passed pawn in the endgame. 0-1

Paul Macdonald vs Tim Ha – White made a strong attack from the start and rolled over Black. 1-0

Nathan Goodhue vs Joy Qin – White was better in the middle game and ended up with a slightly better endgame position which has was able to exploit to pick off Black’s pawns. 71 moves. 1-0

Alex Nagorski vs Roy Seabrook – Another long game. White game up a pawn for a passed-pawn but white was able to hold it and then use his material advantage to get a pawn of his own though to the 8th rank. 0-1

Caroline Yan vs Don Eade – Black made a tactical mistake and lost material during a middle game. 1-0

Nathan Goodhue continued his streak of Wins to stay a point ahead of Paul Macdonald.

C Grade

Leader Euan MacDougall won to keep his lead. He is on 7 while Felix Xie is on 6.5 and several players are on 5.5

Biggest upsets:

Felix Xei beat Xingyang Liu
Isabelle Ning beat Aaron Wang
Mathew Steadman drew with Andrew Michael

 

The Winter Cup will be starting on September 3rd.

Due to the disruptions of the Olympiad, School Holidays and North Island Champs I’ve decided to change the tournament to two rated Swiss tournaments.

The cutoff between A and B grade will be roughly 1500. Vega links are here:

• Winter – A Grade
• Winter – B Grade

Please make sure you enter early to avoid disappointment.

The field for the Spring Rapid has been Finalised

Due to lack of Space the field has been limited to 70 players.

The following players (in order) are on the wait list. If some people cancel on Monday night they will be able to play:

Rodney Li
Leo Li
Narasimhan Ravi
Ethan Lou
Tom Fu

Those 5 players are entered into vega but their status is “withdrawn”. All others listed Vega page for the tournament are fully entered.

No further entries will be accepted.

The next tournament will be the Winter Cup starting on September 3rd. Entries can be via signup sheet or text.

 

The Spring Rapid will be held later this month. It will be a single unrated Swiss tournament for the whole club with a time control of 25 minutes + 5s per move.

There will be 3 rounds on August 20th and 3 on August 27th.

Entries are now being accepted, you can enter via:

• The entry sheet at the club
• Emailing or texting Simon Lyall

Please check the Vega page for the tournament to confirm your entry has been processed.

The limit for entries is 70.

 

The 2018 Auckland Chess Centre Club  Champs is across 9 rounds in June though August. The A and B grades are 10 player round robins while the C grade is a Swiss ( with just over 60 players). All Grades are NZCF rated while the A and B grades are FIDE rated.

• Club Champs R1 PGN by Tim Ha
• Club Champs R2 PGN by Ewan Green

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C Grade

A Grade

Watson and Garbett lead after two rounds with 2/2 . The top two seeds (Hague and Kulashko) drew against each other.

Biggest upset in the first two round as was Gordon Morrell getting a draw against Daniel Gong in round 2.

B Grade

After two rounds only Don Eade is undefeated. Top seed Paul MacDonald beat second seed Nathan Goodhue but drew his other game.

Upsets:

Lyall drew with MacDonald in round 1
Nicole Qin beat Alex Nagorski in Round 2
Tim Ha beat Caroline Yan in round 2

C Grade

10 players were on 2 points after 2 rounds.

Upsets in round 1:

Selena Hu beat Jason Huang
Jeffery Yu beat Virginia Milne
Joe Wang drew with Arkadi Poliakevitch

Upsets in Round 2:

Brian Zhao beat Toby Zhang
Isabelle Ning beat Andrew Michael
Felix Xie beat Euan McDougall
Hannah Xu beat Leo Li
Philip Te Whata beat Aaron Wang

The Autumn Cup was played across 7 rounds between April 23rd and June 11th. There were two Swiss Grades. A Grade was 35 players rated 1440 and up which B Grade was 33 players below that rating.

• Autumn A Grade in Vega
• Autumn B Grade in Vega

A Grade

1st equal: Ben Hague, Alphaeus Ang, Allen Fan – 5.5 points
4th: Bruce Watson – 5 points
5th equal: Paul Garbett, John Duneas, Roy Seabrook – 4.5 points

B Grade

1st: Hugh Gao – 6 points
2nd: Joe Wang – 5.5 points
3rd equal: John Liu, Mathew Steadman, Kelvin Xiao, Isabelle Ning – 5 points.

 

Catching up from last month.

• Autumn A Grade in Vega
• Autumn B Grade in Vega

Autumn Cup R6 PGN

A Grade

Daniel Gong vs Alphaeus Ang – Black was down a piece but managed to take advantage of sharp tactics. 0-1

Michael Steadman vs Ben Hague – Black handled White’s usual b4 and attacked the King. White didn’t accurately defend. 0-1

Nathan Goodhue vs Bruce Watson – Black gradually improved his position and picked up a piece. 0-1

Paul Garbett vs Allen Fan – Black picked up a pawn and swapped down material before a mate presented it self. 0-1

Alex Nagorski vs John Duneas –  White missed some tactics that allowed Black to win material 0-1

Other games in the PGN

Upsets were:

Felix Xei beat Arkadi Poliakevitch
Allen Fan beat Paul Garbett
Tim Ha beat Clinton Wells

Alphaeus Ang was first on 5.5 after 6 rounds with Ben Hague, Bruce Watson and Allen fan all on 4.5.

B Grade

There were a large number of Byes in Round 6.

Upsets:

Kelvin Xiao beat Wayne McDougall
Brian Zhao beat Jacob Chai

Leaders after the round were Huge Gao on 5 followed by Jaon Huang, Joe Wang, Mathew Steadman and Kelvin Xiao on 4.5