News

This is the schedule B Grade in the 2016 Club Champs. At the Top I’ll list players whom I know are missing rounds so that people have a chance the schedule matches on different dates. Please let me know any others.

• Jasmine missing Rounds 3 (Paul) and 4 (Keith)
• Don, Simon, Allen, Richard and Paul are playing in the Trundle during round 3 (July 11th)

ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 1
=====================================================
1 = 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou   - 10 Eade, Don 
2 = 2 Nagorski, Alex        - 9 Rider, Brett 
3 = 3 Lyall, Simon          - 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo
4 = 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth  - 7 Taylor, Richard 
5 = 5 Macdonald, Paul       - 6 Ward, Keith 


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 2
=====================================================
1 =10 Eade, Don             - 6 Ward, Keith 
2 = 7 Taylor, Richard       - 5 Macdonald, Paul 
3 = 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo  - 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
4 = 9 Rider, Brett          - 3 Lyall, Simon 
5 = 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou   - 2 Nagorski, Alex 


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 3
=====================================================
1 = 2 Nagorski, Alex        - 10 Eade, Don 
2 = 3 Lyall, Simon          - 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 
3 = 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth  - 9 Rider, Brett 
4 = 5 Macdonald, Paul       - 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo
5 = 6 Ward, Keith           - 7 Taylor, Richard 


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 4
=====================================================
1 =10 Eade, Don             - 7 Taylor, Richard 
2 = 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo  - 6 Ward, Keith 
3 = 9 Rider, Brett          - 5 Macdonald, Paul 
4 = 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou   - 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
5 = 2 Nagorski, Alex        - 3 Lyall, Simon 


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 5
=====================================================
1 = 3 Lyall, Simon          - 10 Eade, Don 
2 = 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth  - 2 Nagorski, Alex 
3 = 5 Macdonald, Paul       - 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 
4 = 6 Ward, Keith           - 9 Rider, Brett 
5 = 7 Taylor, Richard       - 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 6
=====================================================
1 =10 Eade, Don             - 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo
2 = 9 Rider, Brett          - 7 Taylor, Richard 
3 = 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou   - 6 Ward, Keith 
4 = 2 Nagorski, Alex        - 5 Macdonald, Paul 
5 = 3 Lyall, Simon          - 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 7
=====================================================
1 = 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth  - 10 Eade, Don 
2 = 5 Macdonald, Paul       - 3 Lyall, Simon 
3 = 6 Ward, Keith           - 2 Nagorski, Alex 
4 = 7 Taylor, Richard       - 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou 
5 = 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo  - 9 Rider, Brett 


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 8
=====================================================
1 =10 Eade, Don             - 9 Rider, Brett 
2 = 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou   - 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo
3 = 2 Nagorski, Alex        - 7 Taylor, Richard 
4 = 3 Lyall, Simon          - 6 Ward, Keith 
5 = 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth  - 5 Macdonald, Paul 


ACC Club Champs 2016 - B Grade : Round 9
=====================================================
1 = 5 Macdonald, Paul       - 10 Eade, Don 
2 = 6 Ward, Keith           - 4 Ha, Huy Minh (Timoth
3 = 7 Taylor, Richard       - 3 Lyall, Simon 
4 = 8 Zhang, Jasmine Haomo  - 2 Nagorski, Alex 
5 = 9 Rider, Brett          - 1 Fan, Allen Chi Zhou

 

This is the schedule A Grade in the 2016 Club Champs. At the Top I’ll list players whom I know are missing rounds so that people have a chance the schedule matches on different dates. Please let me know any others.

• Alexei missing Round 8 (vs Gino)
• Daniel missing Round 2 (vs Bruce Watson)
• Ben missing Round 3 (Daniel) and Round 5 (Gordon)
• John, Ben, Alphaeus, Bruce, Daniel and Gordon are playing in the Trundle on Round 3, (July 11th).

AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 1
=====================================================
1 = 1 Duneas, John         - 10 Kulashko, Alexei 
2 = 2 Goodhue, Nathan      - 9 Hague, Ben 
3 = 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 8 Watson, Bruce R 
4 = 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 7 Steadman, Michael V 
5 = 5 Thornton, Giovanni A - 6 Morrell, Gordon 


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 2
=====================================================
1 =10 Kulashko, Alexei     - 6 Morrell, Gordon 
2 = 7 Steadman, Michael V  - 5 Thornton, Giovanni A
3 = 8 Watson, Bruce R      - 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 
4 = 9 Hague, Ben           - 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er
5 = 1 Duneas, John         - 2 Goodhue, Nathan 


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 3
=====================================================
1 = 2 Goodhue, Nathan      - 10 Kulashko, Alexei 
2 = 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 1 Duneas, John 
3 = 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 9 Hague, Ben 
4 = 5 Thornton, Giovanni A - 8 Watson, Bruce R 
5 = 6 Morrell, Gordon      - 7 Steadman, Michael V 


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 4
=====================================================
1 =10 Kulashko, Alexei     - 7 Steadman, Michael V 
2 = 8 Watson, Bruce R      - 6 Morrell, Gordon 
3 = 9 Hague, Ben           - 5 Thornton, Giovanni A
4 = 1 Duneas, John         - 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 
5 = 2 Goodhue, Nathan      - 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 5
=====================================================
1 = 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 10 Kulashko, Alexei 
2 = 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 2 Goodhue, Nathan 
3 = 5 Thornton, Giovanni A - 1 Duneas, John 
4 = 6 Morrell, Gordon      - 9 Hague, Ben 
5 = 7 Steadman, Michael V  - 8 Watson, Bruce R 


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 6
=====================================================
1 =10 Kulashko, Alexei     - 8 Watson, Bruce R 
2 = 9 Hague, Ben           - 7 Steadman, Michael V 
3 = 1 Duneas, John         - 6 Morrell, Gordon 
4 = 2 Goodhue, Nathan      - 5 Thornton, Giovanni A
5 = 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 7
=====================================================
1 = 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 10 Kulashko, Alexei 
2 = 5 Thornton, Giovanni A - 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er
3 = 6 Morrell, Gordon      - 2 Goodhue, Nathan 
4 = 7 Steadman, Michael V  - 1 Duneas, John 
5 = 8 Watson, Bruce R      - 9 Hague, Ben 


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 8
=====================================================
1 =10 Kulashko, Alexei     - 9 Hague, Ben 
2 = 1 Duneas, John         - 8 Watson, Bruce R 
3 = 2 Goodhue, Nathan      - 7 Steadman, Michael V 
4 = 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er - 6 Morrell, Gordon 
5 = 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen  - 5 Thornton, Giovanni A


AC Club Champs 2016 - A Grade : Round 9
=====================================================
1 = 5 Thornton, Giovanni A - 10 Kulashko, Alexei 
2 = 6 Morrell, Gordon      - 4 Gong, Daniel Hanwen 
3 = 7 Steadman, Michael V  - 3 Ang, Alphaeus Wei Er
4 = 8 Watson, Bruce R      - 2 Goodhue, Nathan 
5 = 9 Hague, Ben           - 1 Duneas, John

 

Results from the Final round

A Grade

• Round 7 pgn from Alex Nagorski
• Bruce Watson went into the last round a full point ahead of Ang, Ward and Hague. After a long game he claimed a win against Alphaeus to finish on 6.5 points a full 1.5 points ahead of the second place players Mike Steadman, Gordon Morrell, William Li and Keith Ward.
• In the Steadman vs Hague game Mike’s unorthodox opening left him slightly behind but after Ben’s attack left him with pieces stranded Mike was able to build a huge centre and Ben’s defense could not hold. In the last couple of moves Ben tries two traps to salvage the game but Mike saw past them to win.
  

• Besides Steadman there were 8 other upsets during the round including Rodney Li against Eric Wu, Virginia Milne vs Caroline Yan  and Jasmine Zhang against Simon Lyall.

 

B Grade

• In the last round the 3 leaders Euan McDougall, Neil Sonnekus and Mike Steiner had already played each other so had separate games.
• Mike Steiner ended up being the sole winner of the 3 ( Neil drew and Euan lost) so capture the grade win.
• Upsets were Leo Li beating Euan McDougall and Hugh Gao drawing with Renae Ghadiali.
• Final placing was Mike Steiner 1st on 6 points; Niel Sonnekus 2nd on 5.5 and Euan McDougall, Leo Li and Mathew Steadman 3rd= on 5.0

The Vega website for the tournament is

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

The follow are the Entries for the 2016 Club Champs. The club champs is planned to be 3 10-player round robins for the top players plus a Swiss competition for the remaining players.

This year there are potential disruptions to competition including the George Trundle, School Holidays and the Olympiad. If you want to play in the round robins please let Simon know which rounds you might miss and we will look at options.

Entries for the Club Champs are listed below along with some draft grades. Currently I have only 9 people in C grade to allow space for late entries. Please contact me if you think you should be in a different grade.

• Alphaeus Ang
• Jacob Barry
• Olivia Dong (miss Rd 2,3)
• John Duneas
• Don Eade
• Allen Fan
• Daniel Gong
• Nathan Goodhue
• Tim Ha
• Ben Hague
• Selena Hu
• Erica Hu
• Jason Huang
• Renae Ghadiali
• Saasha Ghadiali
• Hilton Jacobs
• Chris Joel
• Sergiy Kozakevych
• Alexei Kulashko (miss Rd 9)
• Rodney Li
• Leo Li
• Xinyang Liu
• Simon Lyall
• Paul MacDonald
• Euan MacDougall
• Wayne MacDougall
• Temu Maroroa
• Andrew Michael
• Virginia Milne
• Gordon Morrell
• Alex Nagorski
• Gaurav Pahuja
• Stephen Peak
• Rosa Rhu
• Brett Rider
• Nicole Qin
• Oscar Qin
• Pouya Seifi
• Kate Song (miss rd 5-9)
• Mike Steadman
• Mathew Steadman
• Mike Steiner
• Richard Taylor
• Scott Treanor
• Isaac Yuan (miss Rd 1,2)
• Bruce Watson
• Keith Ward
• Aaron Wang
• Ying Wang
• Jingbo Wei
• Louie Wei
• Eric Wu
• David Xu (miss Rd 1,2)
• Jasmine Zhang
• Brian Zhao

Draft Grades

A Grade – Round Robin

• Alexei Kulashko (miss Rd 9)
• Alphaeus Ang
• Bruce Watson
• Ben Hague
• Mike Steadman
• John Duneas
• Daniel Gong
• Nathan Goodhue
• Gordon Morrell
• Allen Fan

B Grade – Round Robin

• Tim Ha
• Paul MacDonald
• Don Eade
• Jasmine Zhang
• Alex Nagorski
• Keith Ward
• Richard Taylor
• Brett Rider
• Simon Lyall
• Andrew Michael

C Grade – Round Robin

• Chris Joel
• Hilton Jacobs
• Sergiy Kozakevych
• Scott Treanor
• Pouya Seifi
• Nicole Qin
• Jingbo Wei
• Mike Steiner
• Rodney Li
• ???

D Grade – Swiss

• Kate Song (miss Rd 5-9)
• Virginia Milne
• Stephen Peak
• Xinyang Liu
• Eric Wu
• Euan McDougall
• Aaron Wang
• Temu Maroroa
• Olivia Dong (miss Rd 2,3)
• Louie Wei
• Wayne McDougall
• Jacob Barry
• Gaurav Pahuja
• Rosa Ryu
• Oscar Qin
• Leo Li
• Mathew Steadman
• Isaac Yuan (miss Rd 1,2)
• Selena Hu
• Erica Hu
• Jason Huang
• Renae Ghadiali
• Saasha Ghadiali
• Ying Wang
• David Xu (miss Rd 1,2)
• Brian Zhao

 

A few no-shows complicated the draw this week (in two cases two players have now played each other twice). One player has managed to not turn up (without calling) in 3 rounds so far. They have been withdrawn from the competition.

I hope to do an other post or two later this week so keep an eye on the site. Please remember to enter the Club Champs soon.

Results from this week

A Grade

• Round 6 pgn from Alex Nagorski
• Bruce Watson beat John Duneas on board 1 to hold his lead. Going into the last round he is a full point ahead of Hague, Ang and Ward (on 4.5)
• Another seven players are on 4 points due to draws compress the top of the field.
• Upsets this round included Andrew Michael beating Paul Macdonald in a long rook and pawn endgame.
• Scott Treanor also beat Caroline Yan to continue his excellent competition. He now has a performance rating over 2000 which is 400 rating points above is current rating.
• Richard Taylor also drew with Gordon Morrell and Keith Ward beat Simon Lyall.

B Grade

• The Grade has Euan McDougall, Neil Sonnekus and Mike Steiner on 5 points who are a point ahead of a group on 4 points.
• Amusingly the leaders have all played each other.
  • Euan beat Neil
  • Neal beat Mike
  • Mike beat Euan
• There were no major upsets this round.

The Vega website for the tournament is

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

Round 7

As of Wednesday June 15th the following byes have been received for Round 7:

• Alexei Kulashko
• Keith Ward
• John Duneas

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye. Please let us know as early as possible.

The draft draw for both grades is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

First up a reminder that Monday the 6th of June is Labour Day and the Centre will be closed. Round 6 of the Autumn cup will be on Monday the 13th of June.

Next I’d like to send out a huge thanks to Alex Nagorski for entering the top 8 boards in A Grade. The pgn is linked below.

Results from this week

A Grade

• A PGN of round 5 games has been entered by Alex Nagorski
• Board 1 saw a draw between Ben Hague and Bruce Watson so Bruce remains in the lead
• The next two boards all saw draws with Gordon Morrell and Allen Fan managing to hold Alexei Kulashko and Mike Steadman to draws.
• John Duneas won against Simon Lyall on board 4 to join Ben Hague in 2nd place on 4 points
• Keith Ward managed to pick up an early piece from Paul MacDonald for an upset on board 7
• There were a few upsets further down the field although some were with people whose provisional ratings might be inaccurate.

B Grade

• The two undefeated players Neil Sonnekus and Euan McDougall meet on board one. Euan won to leave him in the outright lead on 5 points
• In second place on 4 points are Neil Sonnekus, Mike Steiner and Temu Maroroa

The Vega website for the tournament is

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

Round 5

As of Sunday June 12th the following byes have been received for Round 6:

• Stephen Peak
• Bishop Everett

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye. Please let us know as early as possible.

The draft draw for both grades is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

Another reminder to let us know if you are going to miss a round. It means we can give you half a point instead of zero. Also if you don’t tell us then we schedule you to play somebody and then they don’t get a game or start late when we shuffle them around.

On a more positive note I have updated the correct country for most players. This means we are down to just two from “Jamaica”.

Results from this week

A Grade

• The clash of the unbeaten players on board 1 saw Bruce Watson beat Mike Steadman to go into the lead by himself. Bruce is now half a point ahead of Ben Hague on 3.5 and 6 players on 3.
• John Duneas continued his good run by drawing with Alexei Kulashko
• Keith Ward came very close to beating Alphaeus Ang but miscalculated and allowed Alphaeus to squeeze a draw.
• Andrew Michael nicely played an endgame to upset Eric Wu while Rodney Li got the biggest upset beating 300-points better Hilton Jacobs

B Grade

• The top board clash saw Neil Sonnekus upset Mike Steiner.
• Euan McDugall’s win saw him join Neil as the last 2 unbeaten players.

The Vega website for the tournament is

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

Round 5

As of Sunday the following byes have yet been received for round 5:

• Ying Wang
• Aaron Wang
• Daniel Gong

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye. Please let us know as early as possible.

The draft draw for both grades is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

Once again a reminder to text or call if you can’t play. It means we can schedule you for a half point bye rather than you getting zero points and somebody having to wait around but not get a game.

Results from this week

A Grade

• Once again there was a draw on board one of A-Grade. John Duneas managed to to covert a R+P vs B+P endgame against Ben Hague into a winning  K+P vs K position but forgot his endgame theory at the critical moment and let Ben get away with a draw.
• Further down the field Paul Macdonad was (I’m told) lucky to get a draw against Caroline Yan.
• Over White had a good day in the A grade with 10 wins, 1 default win, 3 draws and 4 losses.
• There are now only two players in A Grade with perfect scores (Mike Steadman and Bruce Watson) but there are another 4 rated 2200+ just behind them on 2.5.

B Grade

• There are now 3 players in B Grade on 3 points plus 1 more on 2.5
• Upset this week included Xinyang Liu beating Gaurav Pahuja , Ying Wang drawing against Pavlo Chudinov and Selena Hu beating Hugh Gao

The Vega website for the tournament is

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

Round 3

As of Wednesday the byes for round 4 are:

• Saasha Ghadiali
• Renae Ghadiali
• Rashit Patel

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye. Please let us know as early as possible.

The draft draw for both grades is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

A crash on the Southern Motorway delayed a few people from getting in on Monday but most games started on time.

Please txt if you are going to be late in and we can sort something out. We had one player turn up late after their game had been defaulted and another didn’t turn up at all.

Apologies for the delay updating the website. We had some problems with Vega. Thank you to Keong Ang for his hard work chasing the bugs (and re-entering the draw/results) and to both Keong and Ewan for organising on Monday.

Results from this week

• Alexei Kulashko on board one was held to a draw by Nathan Goodhue. The game was the last to finish and went to just over 80 moves. At the end Alexei had to play a perpetual check to prevent Nathan from getting a second Queen.
• Newcomer Alex Negorski beat Alphaeus Ang
• Scott Treanor continued his run of upsets from last week and got a draw against Daniel Gong
• The B Grade saw several upsets including from Daniel Qiu, Leo Li and Isaac Yuan plus 3 draws.

The Vega website for the tournament is

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

Round 3

As of Wednesday the byes for round 3 are:

• Rodney Li
• William Li
• David Ansell
• Tom Fu

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye. Please let us know as early as possible.

A reminder to players to bring a pen when they come in on Monday, we don’t have many spares to lend out. Also please make sure you pay you sub if it is still pending. I believe we are down to the last few.

The draft draw for both grades is below. Please remember that this may change if there are additional byes

The Autumn Cup is the first tournament using the new start time of 7pm. We didn’t quite make that but we were going around 7:10pm.

A couple of last minute entries means that we have a record of  70 Entries with 40 in A Grade and 30 in B Grade. This presents a problem with space, since we only have 32 boards at present. The 3 board shortage is bridged by byes and by starting a couple of games late. Specifically Shawn Hui and Charlotte Wen both arrive a late so they (and their opponents) will take over the first 2 boards that become free.

The Vega website is online for both grade:

• Autumn Cup A Grade
• Autumn Cup B Grade

Results in round one saw the top half playing the bottom half so there were only a few upsets.

In the A Grade

• Scott Treanor beat Simon Lyall (who probably spent a bit too much time not looking at the board)
• Richard Taylor took a draw against Virginia Milne while materially ahead but low on time and not having an easy path forward
• Wayne McDougall got a piece ahead against newcomer Andrei Toporkov and converted it to a win.

B Grade upsets were:

• Toby Zhang drew with Mathew Steadman
• Isaac Yuan beat Temu Maroroa
• Renae Ghadoali beat newcomer Gen Li

Looking forward to Round 2 I have created a draft draw for each grade below. This is very much a draft and any additional byes will cause changes.

As of now the byes for Round 2 are:

• Stephen Peak
• William Li (and also round 3)
• Richard Taylor
• Tom Fu (also for round 3)

If you are unable to play please contact Simon Lyall either via text (021 575 233) or email to contact @ aucklandchess.nz . Normally you will get a half point bye.