Summer Cup – Round 6

Next week is the last round of the Summer Cup, after which we have the Autumn Rapid and then the Autumn Cup. We have almost reach the player limit of 70 for the Autumn rapid so if you want to enter you should do so straight away via email or txt.

There is a signup sheet for the Autumn Cup at the Club or you can enter via email or txt. The Autumn Cup will be two Swiss grades. The cutoff will be 1500 but please discuss with Simon if you want to go up (or down) a grade.

Finally a reminder that March 27th is the final night for discounted Subscriptions. If you pay after then it will cost you more. Also if you have not payed your subscription you may not be able to play in future tournaments.

Links for the Summer Cup

PGN for Round 6 of the Summer Cup by Tim Ha and Ewen Green

A Grade

Hague vs Gong – Black was a little slow to castle which let White’s center attack have some extra bite. A couple of mistakes later and it was all over. 1-0

Kulashko v Ang – A very even looking game with White a little better. Things swapped down to a rook and pawn endgame and then white got an advantage, picked up a pawn and swapped to a Lucena Postion. 1-0

Watson vs Garbett – An unusual opening that led to a strange looking position with White’s pieces on strange squares. White picked up a pawn and got a winning endgame. 1-0

Duneas vs Steadman – A more conventional opening. Black got a nice position by move 20, threatening to push down the board. He was even up a pawn for a few moves but White managed to get it back and even things with a queen, rook and some pawns each. Black missed a promotion chance and white was RPP vs RP.  However Black defended well. Draw

Going into the last round Watson and Hague are on 4.5 while Kulashko is on 4.0

B Grade

MacDonald vs Goodhue – The PGN has extensive analysis by Paul. A fairly even game with some chances for White. Draw

Zhang vs Nagorski – White played her usual London System and Black got himself in early trouble. By move 13 White was 2 pawns up with more threatened. Unfortunately she missed the best lines and after a few swaps was only a pawn up. Final position was opposite coloured bishops and pawns. A lucky escape for Alex. Draw

Tony Wang vs Morrell – After some problems in the opening, White halted Black’s attack and tried a counter-attack, sacrificing the exchange to get a rook and then a pawn on the 7th rank. However his attack ran out of steam and he lost on time. 0-1

Fan vs Wells – Despite missing some simple tactics a few times White managed to stay ahead. Eventually he saw one of the tactics and picked up a piece. After he got another black gave up. 1-0

Allen Fan is in first place on 4.5 ahead of Nathan on 4.0.

C1 Grade

Milne vs Wu postponed till Thursday. Updated: Just out of the opening black lost a piece to a tactic and then a couple of pawns. But White made a mistake and lost the piece back. After Black made an attack on White’s King, white made a mistake and allowed checkmate. 0-1

Kozakevych vs Lyall – Black managed to find the correct moves (this time) in the same opening as game 4 and was slightly ahead after the opening. After some swaps Black tried to find a hole in White’s position but couldn’t find the correct line and the players agreed on a draw after a dozen moves of shuffling – Draw

Nicole Qin vs Burrows – Black missed a mate threat and lost a rook and pawn for a Knight. A few moves later & another tactic he lost a Knight. Then after the next piece was lost Black gave up.

Song vs Ward – White got a cramped position at the start and after some swaps Black had a better position. After some maneuvering Black picked up a pawn. White made a mistake in the endgame and resigned as Black was about to go a Queen up. 0-1

Kieth Ward is 1.5 points ahead of Kate Song and Nicole Qin.

C2 Grade

Peak vs Caroline Yan – A fairly standard looking game until Black pushed all her pieces to the Queenside and left her Kingside unguarded. A pawn push later the whole position fell apart and White had a mating attack. 1-0

Eade vs Bishop – Black got in trouble early with white having a good attack against his King. See diagram below for the position after Black’s 11th move with White to play (find the best move). But White made a mistake, lost the exchange and Black was ahead. A few move later White got the exchange back and then black made a miscalculation and lost a piece

Ha vs Jacobs – Jacobs look better for most of the game but eventually the players evened up with the entire position blocked by pawns. Draw

Euan McDougall vs Joy Qin – After the position bounced between the players White lost a piece in the endgame and resigned. 0-1

Stephen Peak and Everett Bishop are half a point ahead of two other players.

D Grade

The Top four board were all upsets:

  • On Board one previously undefeated Wayne McDougall lost to Xinyang Lin
  • Andrew Michael upset Oliver Picken
  • Leo Li drew with Aaron Wang
  • Daniel Morrin beat Sarah Yan

Further down the field Hugh Gao upset Mike Steiner and Sylvia McDougal beat Pahuja Gaurav,

Andrew Michael, Wayne McDougall and Xinyang Lin are now on 5.0 points while 3 players are just behind them on 4.5

Below is the possible draw for D grade in round 7.