Next week will be the start of the school holidays. A reminder to let Simon know if you cannot play. If you let him know you get a half point bye. If you don’t then zero points and somebody else may miss out on a game.
Over the next week several Club members are playing in the George Trundle tournaments at the Club, the Interschools Final in Christchurch and Asia Seniors championship. Good luck to all.
Winter Cup Round 4 PGN by Tim Ha
A Grade
Steadman vs Watson – A even opening but Black blundered a Night on move 20 (with two pawns as small compensation). White got the pawns back and swapped to BNNpp vs BBpp by move 46. 30 moves later he broke through Blacks dogged defense & Black resigned. 1-0
Kulashko vs Fan – Another long game. White had a good start with a well placed Bishop on d6 and an active Queen but he missed the best lines and then sacrificed his Queen for a Rook and a Bishop. However Black returned the sac and the players were at move 35 with a rook each and 5 or so pawns. Black got a slightly better position & decline a repetition, but White turned the tables and Black was forced to carefully defend to force the draw. Draw
Ang vs Hague – White made a small mistake which snowballed when he tried to compensate by complicating the position. Black Checkmated on move 26 while a piece up. 0-1
Morrell vs Gong – White resigned after a complicated sequence ended with him about to lose a piece. 0-1
Steadman and Kulashko lead on 3 points while Watson is 3rd just half a point behind.
B Grade
Yan vs Eade – Black got some pressure on Whites exposed King after gxf3. White incorrectly defended and then faced overwhelming threats. 0-1
Seabrook vs Brimble – The players played a very sharp series of moves in the opening and early middle game. Black ended up getting the worst and resigned due many threats. 1-0
Ward vs Nagorski – Black was better for much of the game going one and then two pawns up. He swapped to a rook and pawn endgame but made a couple of incorrect moves and the game was drawn.
Goodhue vs Macdonald – See the PGN for full commentary from Paul – White got off to a good start with a f2 to c5 pawn chain and pushed his a and b pawns. But he failed to press his push and Black managed to get his pieces to good squares to defend. Black tried an attack against White’s King which White aided by moving his Queen to the other side of the board. Black Sacrificed a piece to open up White’s defenses and won a few moves later. 0-1
Paul Macdonald leads the grade unbeaten while Alex Nagorski is just half a point behind.
C Grade
Xinyang Liu vs Everett Bishop – A interesting game cut short when white fell to a Rook/Queen fork and resigned. 0-1
Tim Ha vs Mathew Steadman – A fairly even game but white looked better and went a pawn up into the endgame. Black resigned after he blundered a piece. 1-0
Felix Xie vs Aaron Wang – White got lost in his opening and then made several poor moves, however luckily for him Black missed the best replies. Eventually black won by swapping to a rook and pawn endgame where he was able to force black to give up his rook to prevent a Queen. 0-1
Euan McDougall vs Winston Weng – Black got a little lost in an Open Sicilian and then took White’s c2 pawn. This allowed White to attack Black’s completely undeveloped position(!) with a Queen, Rook and Two Bishops. Black did not last long. 1-0
Upsets in Round 4:
Jeffery Yu beat Eric Liang
Jacob Chai drew with Renae Ghadiali
Sylvia McDougall drew with Tody Zhang
Everett Bishop is the only unbeaten player on 4 points. Just behind him on 3.5 are Euan McDougall, Aaron Wang and Tim Ha.