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Round 3 of the Autumn Cup saw large number of upsets in both grades. There is now only one player left on a perfect score in A Grade and just two leaders in B Grade.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade

Autumn Cup Round 3 PGN by Tim Ha, Alex Nagorski and Simon Lyall.

A Grade

Fan v Watson – A good start by White but he managed to get two pieces forked and quickly ran out of threats. He resigned with once Black swapped off his threatening pieces. 0-1

Nagorski vs Gong – Shortly out of the opening black found a tactic to line out 3 undefended white pieces (see diagram). But instead of a simple piece advantage Black took two pieces for his Rook.  However White managed to create a passed pawn and then chewed up blacks pawns while black maneuverer to stop it. At the end with 3 pawns and a rook vs a Bishop, Knight and pawn white gave up his rook for the pawn leaving black short of material once he gave up a piece to stop white queening. Draw

Steadman v Macdonald – Black got better out of the opening with pawns and Knights in the centre having prevented White from getting out. A few moves later White resigned when he was faced with the loss of material plus a follow-up attack. 0-1

Duneas vs Morrell – Black was intent on an attack and fail to notice a white tactic that won a piece and more. He resigned when the trap was sprung. 1-0

Ang vs Oscar Qin – After a good start Black played a couple of passive moves and allowed White to make threats which black had to scramble to counter. Eventually he missed one and White picked up a piece. 1-0

Leo Zhang vs Sarah Yan – Black made a simple tactical mistake and lost a piece. White then swapped down to a Night plus 4 pawns vs 6 pawns. He scooped up enough of the pawns with the Night to Win. 1-0

Eade vs Goodhue – Black pushed his pawns in the centre and queen-side but after pawn chains locked together white tried and attack on the King side in the cramped position. Black missed a tactic which gave white an attack and then under pressure black got his queen trapped. 1-0

Lyall vs Jasmine Zhang – White made a mistake just out of the opening and lost two centre pawns. Black pressed her advantage to win. 0-1

Wells vs Caroline Yan – A standard opening follow by rooks and Queens maneuvering and threatening each other in the enter of the board. White pressed a little hard, made a couple  of mistakes and got checkmated. 0-1

Jacobs vis Nicole Qin -After Black got off to a good start when made a few tactical mistakes and white picked up a pawn. However White missed a fork and lost a rook . 0-1

Ha vs Euan McDougall –  Black had some problems in the opening and ended up a pawn down. White then started to swap down but black walked into a fork and resigned. 1-0

Aaron Wang vs Wu – Passive opening play by Black left White with a good attack early in the game. But he allowed it to peter out. Black was then a pawn up and started swapping. However he gave the pawn back and was left with nothing better than a draw. Draw

Steiner vs Peak – White resigned on move 10 after a miscalculation in the opening left Black a piece up.

Wayne McDougall vs Rodney Li – After An Italian Four Knights opening a a lot of standard looking swaps Black picked up a pawn. After he got 2 others his position was completely winning. 0-1

Burrows vs Milne – After a Quiet opening Black launched a dubious attack, however it payed off when White failed to defend a complex position correctly. 0-1

Andrew Michael vs Ward – After an even start White lost a piece. Black then had a strong attack but failed to find the correct winning lines. After Black gave up his piece for the attack White managed to swap down things down to a even position. Draw

Out of the 16 games in round 3 exactly half were upsets. with the biggest being Paul MacDonald beating Mike Steadman, Alex Nagorski drawing with Daniel Gong and Caroline Yan beating Clinton Wells.

With various byes and upsets combining Bruce Watson is now the only player on 3 points. He is followed by 6 players on 2.5

B Grade

B Grade also saw around half the games being upsets especially on the top boards.

• Tom Fu beat John Liu
• Winston Wng beat Ying Wang
• Toby Zhang beat Louie Wei
• Uday Jain beat Hugh Gao

Players in the lead are Tom Fu and Toby Zhang on 3 points with Felix Xie just being on 2.5.

Round 4

Provisional draws for round 4 are below, subject to byes etc.

Round 2 of the Autumn Cup was still a little mixed up due to the large number of players who took byes in Round 1.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade

PGN for Autumn Cup round 2 by Ewan Green and Tim Ha

A Grade

Goodhue v Hague – A very strange early game, Queens and a rook were swapped and then black attacked with two Knights supported by his bishops. The game ended abruptly when Black mated with the bishops supported by rook and Knight. 0-1

Watson v Wells – Initially fairly even but White got the initiative. He gave up the exchange for a couple of pawns and after swaps ended up with the Two bishops and a Rook vs two Rooks and a Knight. But the tight mass of central pawns and Bishops left little room for black to play in. Eventually one of Blacks rooks was trapped. 1-0

Jasmine Zhang vs Garbett – Got an exposed King early in the game and after some swaps was a pawn down. Black then creped his pawns forward and swapped down to opposite bishops endgame but with black two pawns up. This was enough to win. 0-1

Gong vs Eade – After a very book Spanish black played some sub-optimal moves to get a little down. There were some interesting swaps with black being a couple of pieces up at one point on the board, unfortunately for him he had a severe back rank weakness and white had a unstoppable pawn. 1-0

Fan vs Lyall – Black blundered a pawn early on but white played passively and he was able to get it back. A few moves later Black allowed white to charge two supported pawns at a group of pieces and pin two however. The extra piece was enough to settle matters. 1-0

Nagorski vs Leo Zhang – After looking in a bit of trouble early in the game White got a nice attack on Blacks central King and force black to swap to survive. White was Queen and Bishop vs 2 rooks (and 4 pawns each). A few moves later black resigned as White threatened to win an additional exchange. 1-0

Nicole Qin vs Mike Steadman – A good start by Black out of the opening, he got a pawn and white’s central bishops were not great compensation. He pushed White back with pieces and pawns until she ran out of room. 0-1

Peak vs Ang – Black gave up a pawn for an aggressive Kingside push (and Whites Queen stuck on a Queenside). White managed to stop it but he missed a mate threat a few moves later. 0-1

Rodney Li vs Morrell – Black came up with a fast attack right out of the opening and white incorrectly defended. 0-1

Euan McDougall vs Duneas – Black won and early exchange. He then swapped off pieces and chased white around to eventually get a mate. 0-1

Macdonald vs Wayne McDougall – Black got in early trouble with White’s Queen chasing his King into the middle of the board. White missed a mate but black resigned in the face of imminent loss of at least a couple of pieces. 1-0

Ward vs Jacobs – White looked very good at the start after Black played a dubious line in the opening. However he got boggled down and made mistake in a cramped position to allow black to win 2 pieces. White tried some aggressive tactics to catch black’s exposed king and/or win material back but was unsuccessful. 0-1

Caroline Yan vs Andrew Michael – Black lost a piece to a fork and gave up another for an attack. White was forced to give one piece back but swapped down to be 2 rooks plus a bishops vs 2 rooks. She maintained the material advantage. 1-0

Milne vs Ha – White missed a fork early in the game and went an exchange down. Black then swapped pieces but made a misstep and lost one piece to a tactical threat. Both players agreed on a draw in a position where it was difficult for either to make progress. Draw

Wu vs Steiner – The players castled opposite sides and attacked each others Kings. Game ended rather abruptly with an agreed draw.

Sarah Yan vs Burrows – The game fairly quickly swapped to an endgame with 6 pawns and one rook each. White played it much better and force two pawns though the middle with a king supporting them. 1-0

After 2 rounds there are 6 players on 2.0 and another 6 on 1.5 points.

B Grade

A few upsets.

• Tom Fu beat Brian Zhao
• Eric Hu drew with Mathew Steadman
• Kelvin Xiao beat Leo Li
• Sylvia McDougall drew with Renae Ghadiali.

4 players are leading on 2 points.

Below is the potential draws for round 3. Subject to change due to byes etc.

A reminder that the ACC May weekender starts on Saturday May 6th. It is played across 3 days over 2 weekends.See the NZCF calendar page for details.

The 2017 Autumn Cup started on April 24th. It is a two 7-round swiss tournaments, each with just over 30 players.

For the first round a larger number of people took byes due to school holidays and also playing in the ANZAC weekender that took place that weekend  and following day

We unfortunately also had around 7 players from B Grade ( Zi Hao Lin, Zyre Milina, Jason Huang, Hugh Gao, Isaac Yuan, Jacob Chai, Jeffrey Yu and Shawn Hui) not bother turning up without telling us beforehand. This meant that their opponents had a wait around for 15 minutes until another opponent could be found. A reminder that players who do this repeatedly will be withdrawn from tournaments.

PGN for Round 1 of the Autumn Cup by Ewan Green

A Grade

The fist round saw the usual mismatches with only one upset.

Hague v Caroline Yan – fairly even as players exchanged pieces, but black allowed a tactic that White didn’t miss. 1-0

Tim Ha vs Watson – White castled without covering pieces on his King side & Black threatened mate to win a piece. Win in 13 moves. 0-1

Garbett vs Eric Wu – White poked some holes in Blacks defense with some swaps and then pushed in with a couple of supported Knights with too many threats to for black to block. 1-0

Burrows vs Gong – after a dubious opening and cramped looking position White found a nice tactic to break out for a slight advantage. But he made a tactical error a few moves later and resigned. 0-1

Morrell vs Peak – A Slav which White played strangely and allowed Black to quickly equalize. Black then took advantage of Whites poor pawn structure and swapped down to a rook each and a pawn advantage. 30 moves later with a rook and 3 pawns vs a rook and pawn. But Black missed a couple of winning moves and had to settle for a draw. Draw

Jacobs vs Fan – After a good start by White he allowed a tactic by Black & lost a piece. Black took another 20 moves to mop up – 0-1

Leo Zhang vs Milne – Some sharp tactics with a web of pieces guarding each other in an open position. But Black eventually made a mistake and dropped a piece. 1-0

Andrew Michael vs Jasmine Zhang – White miscalculated a pawn swap and left some pieces under threat. He lost a pawn and got a stranded Knight that Black took a few moves later.  Black opened up the position and created too many threats to handle. 0-1

Wells vs Sarah Yan – Black played will against White’s dubious opening before the game evened out with Black in a solid defensive position. White managed to punch a hole in and won and exchange and then a pawn which he swapped down to a won endgame. 1-0

Steiner vs Nagorski – White made some tactical mistakes and resigned a pawn and an imminent exchange down. 0-1

Eade vs Aaron Wang – Black attempted a tactical trick and got a Queen and Knight stuck. Eventually White allowed him to extract them and after a few missed moves the position was close to even. However Black made a slip-up and allowed a mate in 1. 1-0

Goodhue vs Ward – A slow game with 8 interlocked pawns in chains in the middle of the board and both players maneuvering behind them. Black eventually (on move 50) opening a break which looked good until he blundered a piece. 1-0

Lyall vs Liu – A fairly even game with the players slowly trading down pieces. Eventually they were left with 2 Knights and six pawns each. Black tried a trap which White saw and ended up a little better, A small mistake later by Black saw White with an extra pawn and opposition in a King and pawn endgame. 1-0

B Grade

There were upsets on the top 3 boards with Tom Fu beatign Ying Wang, Winston Weng beating Jocob Barry and Erica Hu winnign against Isabelle Night. Then on board 4 Selena Hu drew with Renae Ghadiali.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade

After discussions with the team, we’ve decided that instead of charging $80/year upfront, it would be fairer to charge non club members, a voluntary $2 per night. This makes it more flexible for the parents and the players. The parents do not need to worry about whether if their child would be interested to play in all of the sessions during the year. It will also be much less of a burden, having to pay it all in one go. This new pricing structure will take effect starting after the July holidays on July 28th.

We’ve also decided that we will also have holidays during school holidays, so that it gives you guys some extra time and the flexibility to use the time for other things other than chess. This does not apply for this current school holiday, and players should turn up on the 28th of April to play at our 9-round Autumn Rapid.

So far the response to our Friday Night events has been positive and the players are really enjoying their time playing chess at our club.

It’s been a struggle to get everything running perfectly but we’re getting there.

Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Alex

A reminder that the first round of  the Autumn Cup is on the 24th of April. Both grades are full so we unfortunately cannot accept new players into the competition.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade

If you are going to miss a round please remember to email contact@aucklandchess.nz or send a text to Simon on 021 575 233.

Hi all, just a reminder that the Autumn Rapid for Friday Night starts on the 28th of April. It runs through three sessions. It is very difficult for me to contact people since I don’t have any of your numbers. I will be collecting the fees from non-members (those who only wish to play on Fridays) and will also keep a list of the contact numbers of those who play regularly on our Friday Nights, so I could txt the parents about our club events. Tonight there were very few turnouts, mostly because people thought it is the schools holidays, but our Friday Night also runs through School Holidays too (unless to be changed in the future). It was confusing because we were closed on Good Friday and parents easily forget that we are open the week right after.

Hope to see you guys again in our future events.

Alex

The 2017 Autumn Rapid was played across 6 rounds rounds and two nights ( April 3rd and 10th ). Just over 60 players entered.

Full Results in online from Vega

After the first night there were three players on 3 points, Ben Hague, Bruce Watson and Allen Fan. There were another 6 on 2.5 points.

Rounds 4 and 5 had two upsets that the top with Leo Zhang beating first Allen Fan and then Bruce Watson to go into the lead in the last round (with 4.5 points). However Leo decided to take a half point bye in the last round which gave a chance for some of the 6 players on 4 points to catch up to him.

Final result was 4 players sharing 1st place on 5 points out of 6

• Bruce Watson
• Leo Zhang
• Ben Hague
• Gordon Morrell

with John Duneas 4th on 4.5 points and 13 players on 4.0 points (including 1139 rated Winston Weng who beat 3 players rated in the 1500s)

We also had some problems with the Vega software on both nights. This has now been updated and will hopefully behave itself.

Coming Up:

• A reminder that the club is closed on Easter Friday and Easter Monday.
• The first round of the Autumn cup is on April 24th
• The ACC will be running a tournament over ANZAC weekend. Entry forms are here and Vega link is here.

 

• Photos from the first night of the tournament
• Photos from the 2nd night

The Summer Cup was the first tournament in the Auckland Chess Centre calender for 2017. A total of 77 players players across 5 grades played 7 rounds during February, March and (for one game) April.

Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C1 Grade, C2 Grade, D Grade

A Grade

1st      Bruce Watson on 5.5
2nd= Alexei Kulashko and Ben Hague on 5.0

B Grade

1st=   Gordon Morrell, Allen Fan and Nathan Goodhue on 4.5

C1 Grade

1st     Keith Ward on 6.0
2nd   Kate Song on 4.0
3rd=  Nicole Qin, Eric Wu on 4.5

C2 Grade

1st      Everett Bishop on 5.0
2nd    Joy Qin on 4.5
3rd=   Hilton Jacobs, Stephen Peak on 4.0

D Grade

1st       Xinyang Liu on 6.0
2nd=   Wayne McDougall, Aaron Wang on 5.5
4th=    Andrew Michael, Rodney Li, Ying Wang on 5.0

 

 

 

A reminder that we have only a couple of places left for entries for the Autumn Rapid and Autumn Cup. Please enter asap.

• Entries for the Autumn Rapid
• Entries for the Autumn Cup: A Grade, B Grade

Monday the 27th of March was the final round of the Summer Cup. I’ll review the round in this post and give a summary of the results in another post.

Links for the Summer Cup

• Vega Links: A Grade, B Grade, C1 Grade, C2 Grade, D Grade
• Draw Links: A Grade, B Grade, C1 Grade, C2 Grade

PGN of Summer Cup round 7 by Tim Ha and Ewen Green

A Grade

Steadman vs Hague – Black gave up a pawn for a good centre early in the game but his compensation declined. However black regrouped his attack and white was soon in trouble. However black missed two winning moves (one of which Ben posted to facebook) and had to settle for perpetual check. Draw

Garbett vs Duneas – A slightly better opening for white but black equalised with some swaps. There was a tense position around moved 23-30 but both players found the safe moves and things swapped to a draw.

Ang v Watson – White seemed to get lost after the opening and gave black lots of room to advance and put pressure on his position. A couple of swaps later black had a past pawn. 0-1

Gong vs Kulashko – White made a mistake and gave up a pawn. He got it back and had a small attack with the Queen shortly afterwards but was unable to get his other pieces to help. There were some sharp tactics as the players reduced the number of pieces on the board. However Black ended up an exchange plus a pawn ahead and kept up the pressure until he had a win. 0-1

B Grade

Wells vs MacDonald. Paul has once again extensively annotated his game. See the pgn for the whole thing. The opening left Black in a slightly better position. After much Knight maneuvering blacks position was the better and he was able to win and then two pawns leaving White with no chance with just a piece each in the end. 0-1

Morrell vs Fan – This is also annotated in the PGN. Black played a inferior line in the opening, leaving himself with a pawn on h6 that served as a nice target for white (who built up all his pieces for a king side attack). Black had a small chance of a Queenside push against whites king but was too slow. When Whites eventual push came Black had little chance. 1-0

Nagorski vs Wang – A kings Gambit declined!? But by move 16 Black was still two pawns up. Sloppy moves by black gave white a chance a few moves later which he missed and black was an even exchange up. He was eventually able to turn this into a winning endgame. 0-1

Goodhue vs Jasmine Zhang – Black had some chances but eventually things evened out to a draw.

C1 Grade

Ward vs Milne – Black came out of the opening a little better but gradually got worse as her better pieces were swapped off. Black resigned when white was three pawns up. 1-0

Burrows vs Song – A bit of inattention by Black allowed white to sacrifice a Bishop on h7 and threaten a mate follow-up which force black to give up her Queen for two pieces. White was unable to follow-up correctly though and lost and exchange, then a pawn and eventually resigned while under pressure. A lucky escape for Black. 0-1

Lyall vs Nicole Qin – White unwisely castled into a pawn storm and spent the rest of the game under a lot of pressure. Black tried find a way though for about 20 moves before giving up and agreeing on a draw.

Wu vs Kozakevych – Players swapped pieces until that had opposite coloured bishops and white was a pawn up. Not enough to force things however. Draw

C2 Grade

Joy Qin vs Peak – The players open with the Spanish which while it may be popular elsewhere in the world is not at the club.  We even go the “Spanish Knight” going to g3. Things were fairly even before black allowed a tactic which led to a crushing attack. 1-0

Jacobs vs Euan MacDougall – A even looking opening and early game. Black moved most of his pieces to the Queen side which gave white pressure allowing the half-open F-file. It all came to an end when black overloaded a defender and forgot it was stopping mate. 1-0

Bishop vs Ha – Black got off to a good start, swapped a Night for a Bishop and leaving white with doubled pawns and a blocked in Bishop. After some swaps black was still a little ahead but didn’t take a free pawn and the players were in an endgame with 7 pawns each and White’s bishop vs Black’s Knight.  30 moves later with the position still even (and fewer pawns) Black lost on time. 1-0

Yan vs Eade – Black got into a great position with a dangerous attack. However he missed the best follow-up and the blundered into a mate-in-one. 1-0

D Grade

Wayne MacDougall vs Rodney Li – After some sharp tactics both players decided to call it a night and took the draw.

Andrew Michael vs Xinyang Liu – A very long game that looked like being a drawn endgame but Xinyang eventually won.

Upsets this round:

• Renae Ghadiali  winning against Mike Steiner (576 points rating difference!)
• Isabell Ning beating Sarah Yan
• Hugh Gao beating Louie Wei
• Kenny Zhang beating Jacob Chai
• Felix Xie drawing with David Ansell

 

A reminder that if you wish to play in the Autumn Rapid you need to sign-up immediately. The field is limited to 70 players and we currently have 65 entries.

Check your name on the list of entries and if it is missing and you want to play then email or text Simon.

Similarly there are only around 10 places left for the Autumn Cup. Entries are online for A Grade and B Grade.