Just two more rounds to go in the Club Champs. Don’t forget to enter the next two tournaments (the Spring Rapid and the Winter Cup), entry forms are at the club or you can email/txt Simon.
Club Champs round 7 and catchup games by Ewan Green with help from Tim Ha.
Catchup Games
These are games from A and B grade not played on the Monday night.
Zhang vs Gong – A Grade round 3 – An even start with long pawn chains blocking the centre. Black pushed his Kingside pawns while White’s pieces were on the Queenside. Black sacrificed a piece for the attack but failed to find the best continuation. White stopped the attack and then took Black’s pieces to eventually mate. 1-0
Gong vs Morrell – A Grade round 4 – Passive opening play by White allowed Black to push a little early in the game. The middle game was even with both players having chances as pieces threated many parts of the board. Black made a mistake and resigned after the loss of a key pawn let his position unholdable. 1-0
Wu vs Qin – B Grade round 5 – White gave up and early pawn and was unable to get it back and looked in further trouble when he lost another. White tried an attack against Black’s king and Black played the wrong move and lost to mate. 1-0
Brimble vs Nagorski – B Grade Round 6 – Some interesting tactics in an open position. Black resigned after he miscalculated a sequence and was left a piece down. 1-0
A Grade round 7
Morrell vs Duneas – Both players spent the first 40 movies maneuvering their pieces around threatening various things and trying to gain an advantage. After swaps white had a difficult position and eventually lost on time. 0-1
Goodhue vs Zhang – White’s feel for his typical positions gave him a good start but the position was equal after 20 moves and just two major pieces left each. Black got a little better of the endgame before the players agreed on a draw.
Steadman vs Hague – A fairly even game for most of the opening and middle game. White looked a little better a times but both players had chances. However Black blundered a piece in the endgame and resigned. 1-0
Ang vs Gong – Black pushed his Kingside pawns white White pushed his Queenside ones. Black managed to pickup a pawn and swapped the game to a bishop+pawns vs Knight+pawns endgame. However he got stuck in an endgame position and took a draw.
Watson vs Fan – A even position went bad very quickly for black as white advanced some pawns to get an advanced chain. Black game up a Knight for two pawns to save the position. However white was able to efficiently use his extra piece. 1-0
After 7 round Ben Hague is still in the lead but now only half a point ahead of Bruce Watson. Both players have difficult opponents in round 8 and face each other in round 9.
B Grade
Nagorski vs Ha – White picked up a pawn in the middle game but they players agreed on a draw has black gained it back.
Wu vs Brimble – White speculatively gave up an exchange. However the loss of a rook a few moves later lacked any compensation. 0-1
Eade vs Ward – White had a better opening but black pulled ahead and by move 20 looked better. white made an error on defending an gave black a mate. 0-1
Yan vs Peak – A fairly even game. After the swap to the endgame white looked much more comfortable. Black had one chance which he missed and soon afterwards white picked up pawns and then got a passed pawn to win. 1-0
Caroline Yan, Keith Ward and Mark Brimble share the lead on 4.5 points with 2 other players just half a point behind.
C Grade
Seabrook vs Isabelle Ning – A strange opening line from Black game White an early pawn. White picked up an exchange an another pawn to give himself a winning endgame. 1-0
S Yan vs Michael – After the opening game Black a good attack against White’s castled King she had it flee to the centre. Black’s attack petered out a little afterwards but a mistake by white forced her to give up her queen for a rook and bishop. White was unable to hold her position after that. 0-1
Milne vs E McDougall – The position swung back and force several times as both players made tactical mistakes. After the dust settled black was left with a rook+paws vs just some pawns. 0-1
Upsets in Round 7:
- Tom Fu beat Daniel Morrin
- Sylvia McDougall beat Zyre Milina
- Uday Jain beat Hugh Gao
- Felix Xie beat Ying Wang
Roy Seabrook is back by himself in the lead. Half a point behind him are Aaron Wang, Euan McDougall and Andrew Michael.