We will be having a Simil at the Club on February 5th. Current NZ Champion Alphaeus Ang and ACC Club Champion Ben Hague will play against a group of other players.
The Summer will be over 7 weeks starting from February 12th. Some round-robin and then Swiss grades. Note: I called this this “Spring Cup” in the txt I sent to some people.
Simul Entries (Limit around 30)
Rosa Ryu
Kendrick Zhang
Louie Wei
Leo and Rodney Li
Leo and Toby Zhang
Boyuan Zhang
Caroline and Sarah Yan
Saasha and Renae Ghadialli
Leo Liu
Jordan Lewis
Uday Jain
Tracey Liu
James Liu
Xinyang Liu
Jacob Narry
Anya Thurner
Karl Holdo
Tim Ha
Tom Fu
John Liu
Charlotte Wen
Winston Weng
David Xu
Charlotte Ray
Brian Zhao Joy, Nicole, Oscar Qin Erica and Selena Hu Hannah Xu
Summer Cup entries
Note: Full, definately no further entries rated below 1500 and possibly none over that rating.
Ben Hague
Paul Garbett
Mike Steadman
Gino Thornton
Daniel Gong
Alphaeus Ang
Bruce Watson
Alexei Kulashko
Allen Fan
John Duneas
Alex Huang
Brett Rider
Nathan Goodhue
Leo Zhang
Alex Nagorski
Paul Macdonald
Caroline Yan
Nicole Qin
Tim Ha
Keith Ward
Joy Qin
Simon Lyall
Roy Seabrook
Don Eade
Euan Mcdougal
Virginia Milne
David Xu
Xinyang Liu
Sarah Yan
Stephen Peak
Oscar Qin
Wayne Mcdougal
Sylvia McDougal
Toby Zhang
Silie Wang
Saasha Ghadialli
Renae Ghadialli
Mathew Steadman
Philip Te Whata
Rosa Ryu
John Liu
Leo Liu
Tracey Liu
James Liu
Abraham Deng
Jeffrey Yu
Jordan Lewis
Owen Jin
Brian Zhao
Jason Huang
David Ansell
Kendrick Zhang
Leo Li
Rodney Li
Winston Weng
Louie Wei
Hannah Xu
Kelvin Xiao
Aaron Wang
Boyuan Zhang
Isabelle Ning
Erica Hu
Selena Hu
Anya Thurner
Jacob Barry
Tom Fu
Shawn Hui
Philbert Zhai
Arkadi Poliakevitch
Nicholas McKinlay
Longbin Bi
Felix Xie
Andrew Michael
Backup List
Charlotte Wen
Charlotte Ray
Joe Wang
Ying Wang
Jacob Chai
Karl Holdo
Edward Zhang
Everett Bishop
I hope you all had a good break over Christmas and New Year. As usual it will be a slow start to the year due to various holidays. The 2018 Calendar is online but here is what is happening the next few weeks:
Monday Jan 22 Casual night
Saturday Jan 27 – Monday Jan 29 The Auckland Anniversary Weekender will be held at the Club. To enter see The NZChess Calendar
Monday Jan 29 No Club Night due to Holiday
Monday Feb 5 Simil Display. Note Tuesday is a Public Holiday
Monday Feb 12 First Round of the Spring Cup. Enter via email, Txt or signup sheet at Club.
Alexei Kulashko vs Don Eade – Black dropped a piece to a mate threat and resigned shortly afterwards. 1-0
Alex Nagorski vs Bruce Watson – White forgot his opening and gave Black a better position. White tried pushing the h-pawn but Black picked it up and swapped down to a king-and-pawn endgame where his extra pawn was decisive. 0-1
Simon Lyall vs Allen Fan – Black got a better opening and charged his pawns against White’s castled King. Eventually White failed to find a correct move to hold the attack. 0-1
Keith Ward vs Nathan Goodhue – A strange looking position as both players like their own opening lines. White had a good start but ended up poorly placing his pieces and allowed Black to pickup and exchange and more dominant position. White attempted a King side pawn push and Black moved his King from the g to a-file. Black then attacked White though the holes White had opened up in the Kingside pawns. 0-1
Ben Hague vs Virginia Milne – Straightforward win for White as he piled on the attack. 1-0
Mark Brimble vs Daniel Gong – White got his pieces a little and game up a Bishop for two pawns. The game ended abruptly white Black ahead but not completely winning. 0-1
Clinton Wells vs Tim Ha – A very passive Modern variation by Black gave White the initiative. Black resigned after losing a piece. 1-0
Paul Macdonald vs Euan McDougall – White had a good start against Black’s Slav. Hi fianchetto’ed his kingside Bishop and did scope up the c4 pawn as he pressed an attack. But his attack slowed and he allowed Black a counter-attack that put Black a Knight and pawn ahead. 0-1
Stephen Peak vs Tom Fu – A fairly even game. But on move 35 Black miscalculated some exchanges and ended up a piece down after the swaps. 1-0
Aaron Wang vs Xinyang Liu – Black lost a piece fairly early. White eventually managed to invade his position and win. 1-0
Philip Te Whata vs Roy Seabrook – White’s development left his pieces on worse squares. He tried a Bxh6 sacrifice but it wasn’t enough and he lost further material. 0-1
Daniel Gong vs Alexei Kulashko – White lost an exchange and was in a bad position but managed an attack to put Black under some pressure Black gave back the exchange. But a few moves later White lost a piece and the game. 0-1
Bruce Watson vs Alphaeus Ang – An even looking game but White made a couple of mistakes and it was all suddenly over. 0-1
Leo Zhang vs Don Eade (friendly) – Black’s complicated web of defended pieces fell apart when White found the right sacrifice. 1-0
Allen Fan vs Stephen Peak – Straight-forward win for White. 1-0
Tom Fu vs Paul Macdonald (see the PGN for Paul’s full analysis) – Black dominated most of the game but gave up a pawn on move 28. White was unable to hold his advantage and ended up doubling his extra pawn in a drawn King and pawn endgame. – Draw
Clinton Wells vs Alex Nagorski -White gave up a pawn for pressure on the g-file but this didn’t appear enough. However when he dropped a piece that settled things. 0-1
Toby Zhang vs Mike Steadman – Easy win for Black. 0-1
Tim Ha vs Mark Brimble – Players swapped to a drawn endgame.
Louie Wei vs Keith Ward – Strange start ( 1. d5 d6 2. f4 c5 ) led to a big pawn centre. Black looked better throughout and invaded along an open file and eventually had a win. 0-1
Nathan Goodhue vs Uday Jain – White dominated throughout. 1-0
Virginia Milne vs Ying Wang – Black lost a piece and White went well after that. 1-0
Upsets
Samuel Sajch beat Eric Liang
Philip Te Whata beat Andrew Michael
Tom Fu drew with Paul Macdonald
Jacob Chai beat Mathew Steadman
Winston Weng drew with Joy Qin
Standings
Leader: Alexei Kulashko 5.5
2nd= Don Eade, Alphaeus Ang, Alex Nagorski 5.0
Alexei Kulashko vs Bruce Watson – A fairly even game that swapped down to a drawn endgame. Draw
Daniel Gong vs Gordon Morrell – The players agreed on an draw on move 18 with Black is a slightly better position. Draw
Don Eade vs Nathan Goodhue – White got an attack against Black’s castled King and Black made a couple of mistakes. 1-0
Paul Macdonald vs Simon Lyall – Black sacrificed his Queen for some of white’s pieces but missed the correct follow-up move and didn’t get enough compensation. Black was eventually about to develop his pieces to take advantage of his extra material. 0-1
Alex Nagorski vs Virginia Milne – Black opened up her position which allowed White to get a fork and pick up a piece. 1-0
Philli Park-Tamati vs Clinton Wells – White played well and was better to even up to move 25. But on move 26 he lost a piece and Black swapped down to the endgame. 0-1
Mark Brimble vs Xinyang Liu – Black picked up a pawn but this allowed White to invade his position with 2 rooks and overwhelm Black with threats. 1-0
Keith Ward vs Euan McDougall – White pinned and under-defended piece and got a piece ahead. 1-0
Stephen Peak vs Toby Zhang – Black lost a pawn, then another, than an exchange and finally a Queen. 1-0
Oscar Qin vs Tim Ha – White castled into a pawn storm and spent the next few moves trying to defend against Black’s attack. White (on his 9th birthday) got out of it an exchange down. However made an error and lost a piece in the endgame under pressure. 0-1
Roy Seabrook vs Allen Fan – In a complicated tactical position Black picked up a couple of pawns and then managed to survive Whites counter-attack. Once White’s attack was stopped he resigned due to an imminent mate.
Ying Wang vs Andrew Michael – Black got careless and allowed his Bishop to be trapped and lost. White then was able to keep the pressure on until she won. 1-0
Upsets:
Uday Jain beat Grant Burrows
Tom Fu beat Aaron Wang
Abraham Deng beat David Ansell
Ying Wang beat Andrew Michael
Kelvin Xiao beat John Liu
Don Eade beat Nathan Goodhue
Simon Lyall beat Paul Macdonald
Standing:
Bruce Watson and Alexei Kulashko are leading on 4.5 ahead of 6 players on 4.0 and 8 players on 3.5 with two roads to play.
Bruce Watson vs Ben Hague – White sacrificed a Knight for two central pawns and then Black had to give the piece back a few moves later leaving White will ahead. 1-0
Allen Fan vs Alexei Kulashko – A very long game. White looked like he might be able to hold a draw in the endgame but a couple of inaccurate moves allowed Black into his position. 0-1
Xingyang Liu vs Paul Macdonald – Annotated by Paul in the PGN – White went astray in the opening and was two pawns down, a few moves later he lost a piece by allowing a fork and resigned. 0-1
Keith Ward vs Daniel Gong – White got a good position out of the opening with a strong centre and well developed pieces. But he made a couple of errors in the endgame and lost his advantage instantly. 0-1
Alphaeus Ang vs Eric Wu – Black brought his queen out early and allow White to get a tactic which won two pieces. 1-0
Simon Lyall vs Alex Nagorski – Black was better most of the game which swapped down to a Bishop and pawn endgame. White made a mistake and lost a pawn to give Black the winning position but the game swung back again as White Queened with check. However White was unable to find the winning tactic and settled for a perpetual check. Draw.
Gordon Morrell vs Nicole Qin – White exploited errors in Black’s defence to pick up and exchange and then gradually win another pawn to bust open Black’s position. 1-0
Nathan Goodhue vs Aaron Wang – 1. b4 strikes again. White used two central bishops to boss Black’s pieces around. He trapped a bishop and went a piece ahead. Swaps were followed by checkmate. 1-0
Louie Wei vs Roy Seabrook – 1. d5 Nf6 2. f4?! ended up leaving white with a cramped position. Black looked comfortable but lost a key pawn and then another. An aggressive counter-attack by Black was unsuccessful. 1-0
Mark Brimble vs John Liu – Black mixed up his opening lines and got in trouble has white kicked his Queen around. He survived but lost a pawn and then resigned after losing a rook to a tactic. 1-0
Clinton Wells vs Uday Jain – Black had good opening but soon went downhill. 1-0
Joy Qin vs Philli Park-Tamati – White was in a good position but allowed a tactic which gave Black a mate threat. White resigned at the imminent loss of material. 0-1
Tom Fu vs Don Eade – White tried a nice attack but it was not enough and Black’s counter-attack against his exposed position left White soon to be mated. 0-1
Virginia Milne vs Abraham Deng – Black had a good game but allowed White to get two rooks on the seventh which put White enough pawns ahead to win. 1-0
Winston Weng vs Stephen Peak – Black picked up a couple of pawns and then piled on a big attack. 0-1
Erica Hi vs Tim Ha – White had a good start but lost a piece. 0-1
Upsets in Round 4:
Philli Park-Tamati beat Joy Qin (850 points rating difference!)
Louie Wei beat Roy Seabrook
Bing Kui Yu beat Wayne McDougall
Rosa Ryu beat Leo Li
Jacob Chai beat James Liu
Standing after Round 4:
1st= Bruce Watson and Alexei Kulaskho on 4/4
3rd= Danial Gone and Alphaeus Ang on 3.5
A large number of players on 3
Ben Hague vs Gordon Morrell – Black was going okay and had some pressure but made a mistake that gave White a fatal attack. 1-0
Alexei Kulashko vs Nathan Goodhue – Black made some mistakes in the opening and lost two pawns. He resigned a few moves later in a hopeless position. 1-0
Roy Seabrook vs Bruce Watson – White had a good start but game two pawns in return for some pressure. However Black neutralized the pressure, picked off a couple more pawns and White resigned. 0-1
Don Eade vs Alphaeus Ang – White tried an opening innovation ( 1. e4 Nc6 2. b3 Nf6 3. Nc3 ) that quickly got in trouble as Black mounted a strong attack. White resigned on Move 20 on the verge of going two pieces down. 0-1
John Liu vs Allen Fan – White allowed Black a long pawn chain stretching to White’s 3rd rank (see below). After Black punched a hole in front of White’s King he just had to pour in pieces until White ran out of useful defenders. 0-1
John Liu vs Allen Fan after. 19…g3
Alex Nagorski vs Erica Hu – An exciting game with threats all over the place on a very open board. Eventually White managed to prevail . 1-0
Winston Weng vs Keith Ward – White allowed Black to get pressure on his King and then missed a tactic. He resigned on move 20 5 pawns down with further attacks to come. 0-1
Brian Zhao vs Simon Lyall – Black played passively and let White get a pawn chain and a passed pawn. But then he let Black’s Queen get though the chain and after picking up 4 pawns Black had a simple win. 0-1
Steven Peak vs Xin Yang Liu – Score-sheets incomplete but White says: “I got a pawn down in the late middle game and this was enough to convert to a win after about 50 moves” 0-1
Paul Macdonald vs Felix Xie – Black played passively and gave White some opportunities which added up to a mating attack. 1-0
Ying Wang vs Clinton Wells – Black picked up an exchange in an early attack and got white under a lot of pressure. He kept swapping of pieces and stayed ahead into a won endgame. 0-1
Upsets in round 3:
Uday Jain beat Andrew Michael
Abraham Deng beat Wayne McDougall
Tom Fu beat Rodney Li
Philli Park-Tamati David Ansell
Also Isabelle Ning came very close to beating Nicole Qin in a game that finished very late.
Round 2 of the Spring Cup was back to a more conventional Swiss pairing but with players still a little mixed up due to the first round draw and large number of byes.
A reminder to Club members about the following upcoming tournaments
The ACC Junior Rapid on Sunday November 19th
The Papatoetoe Rapid on Saturday December 2nd
The Papatoetoe Junior Rapid on Sunday December 3rd
The New Zealand Chess Congress tournaments on January 1st to 12th 2018 in Palmerston North.
Tim Ha vs Ben Hague – A fairly even start but Black was eventually able to pick up a pawn and keep it in a swap to a Knight and pawn endgame. White resigned after the position became unholdable. 0-1
Grant Burrows vs Alexei Kulashko – White went a pawn down and then game up a piece for a mate threat. But Black stop the threat to leave White just a pawn down. 0-1
Bruce Watson vs Rodney Li – White got a good start out of the opening and then won a couple of pieces. 1-0
Gordon Morrell vs Euan McDougall – Black lost his Queen on move 9. 1-0
Nathan Goodhue vs Ying Wang – White played the b4 openign popular at the Club. He picked up an early pawn and then after locking the King-side and centre, he pushed his “passed” a-pawn. Black eventually lost a piece. 1-0
Keith Ward vs John Liu – A good start for White, he kicked around Black’s Queen and developed faster. But the position locked up with pawns and the players repeated positions. Draw
Wayne McDougall vs Roy Seabrook – This Game is fully annotated (with lost of question marks) by Ewan Green – Black had a good start and was ahead but miscalculated and lost a piece. But Black played on an kept the pressure against White who missed several winning chances (while he concentrated on defending). Eventually after many ups and downs Black won but even as White resigned he missed a drawing trick. 0-1
W McDougall vs R Seabrook. White to play.
David Ansell vs Don Eade – White started well but after central pawns were swapped Black had too many threats for White to counter and he was checkmated. 0-1
Eric Wu vs Abraham Deng – After a shaky opening White got a pawn ahead and managed to keep it into the endgame. He eventually won. 1-0
Erica Hu vs Stephen Peak – White got into a better position but took the draw rather than pushing for a win. Draw.
Daniel Gong vs Jeffrey Yu – Black got lost in the openign a gave up a pawn and then allowed White a strong attack. White picked up a piece and more. 1-0
Alphaeus Ang vs Renae Ghadiali – Black got lost in the opening and allowed White to pick up a pawn. A few moves later she lost a piece to a tactic. 1-0
Jacob Barry vs Alex Nagorski – Black had a good opening and White position was poor very early as Black stormed it with pawns and pieces. White resigned as he was about to lose a piece. 0-1
Mark Brimble vs Winston Weng – White’s opening line seems to be unpopular for a reason. He game up a pawn for no compensation. The players castled opposite sides and pushed pawns. White got there first but missed the best move and Black got a winning counter-attack. 0-1
Simon Lyall vs Saasha Ghadiali – Black played the opening incorrectly and White made a series of attacking moves. Black eventually failed to defend correctly against one. 1-0
Virginia Milne vs Philli Park-Tamati – White lined up an attack but the players took a draw rather than testing if it would work. Draw
Xinyang Liu vs Kelvin Xiao – Black castled into White’s attack. White kept attacking and eventually trapped Black’s Queen. 1-0
Oscar Qin vs Jacob Chai – Black was worse out of the opening. White then attacked Black’s king and managed to pick up a piece at one point. 1-0
Silei Wang vs Eric Liang – White got a pawn and an attack but after swaps the position was even with Queens and pawns each. But Black swapped Queens and gave up the opposition which was enough to lose. But White got lost and had to settle for a draw.
Justin Zhao vs Paul Macdonald – game annotated by Paul – White blunder a piece early on and then lost further material under the pressure of Black’s attack. 0-1
Clinton Wells vs Kendrick Zhang – The players castled opposite sides and both pushed pawns. White’s attack was a little faster. 1-0
Andrew Michael vs Sylvia McDougall – Black was looking okay until she blundered a piece. 1-0
Selena Hu vs Aaron Wang – White picked up a piece but then gave it straight back. She then overlooked a mate. 0-1
Rosa Ryu vs Toby Zhang – White lost a piece in the opening and didn’t recover. 0-1
Shawn Hui vs Leo Li – White got into trouble early on and opened his castled King up for attack. Black managed to take a Rook, Bishop and a Queen one after the other with the same Knight fork! 0-1
Felix Xei vs Charlottle Wen – Black misplayed the opening and got in trouble as White got a powerful attack that won material and then checkmated.
Isabelle Ning vs Samuel Sajch – A strange opening ( 1. d5 d5 2. Bf4 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 ) gave White a better position after some poor moves by Black. She piled on the attack until Black lost his Queen and then she chased Blacks King into a mate.
Tom Fu vs Zihao Lin – Black played a bad line, declined to retake a capture and then resigned after further material was about to be lost.
Hu Gao vs Uday Fain – White left a piece en-prise and then missed a checkmate. 0-1
Biggest Upsets:
Winston Weng beat Mark Brimble
Philli Park-Tamati drew with Virginia Milne
John Liu drew with Keith Ward
Erica Hu drew with Stephen Peak
Jain Uday beat Hugh Gao
Silei Wang drew with Eric Liang
After 2 rounds: 8 people are on 2.0, 13 on 1.5 and 29 on 1.0
The last tournament for 2017 is the Spring Cup. This is 7 unrated rounds for the whole club from October to December.
The first round was draw randomly to mix things up a little and avoid nothing but games between players separated by 400 points in ratings.A large number of people also took byes, main due to school exams. This resulted in a few more interesting games.
Kelvin Xiao vs Simon Lyall – Fairly uninspired play by both players. White won a pawn but gave it back when he miscalculated a tactic. A dead draw but White looked much better than is 950 rating. Draw
Stephen Peak vs James Liu – White had a shaky start but found a good tactic and suddenly Black was lost. 1-0
Sylvia McDougall vs Nathan Goodhue – White made a couple of mistakes to go down two pieces. It was over quickly after that. 0-1
Alex Nagorski vs Alphaeus Ang – More closely rated players. Black got ahead early in the game as pieces were exchanged. But just as he went a piece up White was able to sacrifice a piece to force perpetual check. Draw
Ben Hague vs Isabelle Ning – Black managed to keep equality for around 35 moves (although she missed the chance of winning an exchange on move 22). But White eventually picked up a pawn and then got a passed pawn. 1-0
Aaron Wang vs Wayne McDougall – White picked up a pawn early on but miscalculated the follow-up sequence and lost two pieces. Black converted without trouble. 0-1
Jain Bo Yu vs David Ansell – White misplayed the opening and ended up undeveloped and cramped. Things went downhill from there. 0-1
Paul Macdonald vs Bruce Watson – Another early clash between high ranked players. White had a good start but lost a central pawn which left him under a lot of pressure. Black swapped the pieces down to same coloured bishops plus pawns. He then used his better position and extra pawn to win. 0-1
Samuel Sajch vs Erica Hu – White failed to notice a checkmate threat and lost on move 13. 0-1
Tim Ha vs Andrew Michael – Black failed to accurately defend an attack against his castled King. 1-0
Leo Li vs Keith Ward – Black picked up a key pawn and was able to leverage his advantage from there to win. 0-1
Eric Liang vs Mark Brimble – Black had a slightly better position thought most of the game as pieces were swapped. But it was not enough to make progress once the position was down to 2 rooks and 8 pawns each. Draw.
Alexei Kulashko vs Clinton Wells – Black made an error in the opening and attempts to recover made the position worse. 1-0
The unrated tournament is a single grade with all the Club.
However we’ll copy the recent Isle of Man tournament in having the first round with random pairings. This is intended product some more interesting games than the usual first round of a tournament.
For round two and onwards the pairings will be as normal.
