Monday December the 18th is the last day for the Auckland Chess centre for 2018. We are planning the following:
- Annual general meeting
- Prize Giving
- Committee meeting
- Food and drinks
- Informal tournament
Due to some byes by top players the last round was mostly un-equal contests at the top.
Games
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
Upsets
- Euan McDougall beat Paul Macdonald
- Isabelle Ning beat David Ansell
- Jeffrey Yu beat Leo Li
- Uday Jain beat Ying Wang
- Toby Zhang beat Jason Huang
Final Result
- 1st Alexei Kulashko 6.5
- 2nd= Bruce Watson, Alphaeus Ang, Allen Fan 5.5
- under-1800 – Stephen Peak, Euan McDougall 4.5
- under-1500 – Hugh Gao 4.5