Spring Cup 2018 – Round 3

The Summit Rapid Chess Open is on Sunday the 18th of November. See the Entry form for details.

Lots of people were away this week, mainly due to school exams.

Vega Links:  A Grade , B Grade

Spring Cup 2018 R3 PGN by Ewen Green with help from Alex Nagorski.

A Grade

Daniel Gong vs Bruce Watson – White launched a very early (move 7) pawn storm against Black’s castled King. Black lost an exchange under the attack and resigned as he was about to lose another. 1-0

Paul Garbett vs Mike Steadman – After 9 exf6 gxf6 black was left with a big hole on f7/g7 and all his pieces on the Queenside. White was able to exploit this fast enough to win material and Black resigned. 1-0

Alphaeus Ang vs Ben Hague – White got a strong centre while Black worked around the sides. Black was unable to equalise and after White gave up his rooks for a Queen and pawn White was able to dominate with a mobile Queen. 1-0

Simon Lyall vs Alexei Kulashko – White got an isolated and difficult to defend pawn out of the opening. Black pushed until White made bigger slip-ups and lost material. 0-1

Nathan Goodhue vs Don Eade – Black went well for about 25 moves but a misjudge pawn push gave White an open file for a rook with threats. White picked up a couple of pawns and Black’s attempt to get one back allowed a mate. 0-1

Winston Weng vs Alex Huang – A very long game. After 30 moves the players had swapped to a rook, opposite coloured bishop and 5 pawns each. White picked up a pawn. The players swapped pawns into a draw although the computer claims that at one point White had a win if he’d seen the right move. Draw

Jordan Lewis vs John Duneas – The players swapped down to an unbalanced but even endgame. White had a chance but missed it and the game was drawn.

Akshay Sharma vs Alex Nagorski – White got a little lost in the opening and Black came out better, especially after White missed a tactic and lost an exchange. White tried complications to get it back but ended a piece and a pawn down. 0-1

Paul Macdonald vs Clinton Wells – See Pauls extensive notes. White did a pawn push and Black gave up a piece (that he probably didn’t have to) to stop it. Black resigned a piece down and with little counter-play. 1-0

Upsets:

Winston Weng drew with Alex Huang
Jordan Lewis drew with John Duneas
Alphaeus Ang beat Ben Hague
Daniel Gong beat Bruce Watson

Daniel Gong and Paul Garbett lead the grade on 3/3 with Alphaeus Ang just behind on 2.5.

B Grade

Stephen Peters vs Ariel Padhu – Black got his Queen trapped and was lucky to come out only down a rook, he then lost another piece. 1-0

Sarah Yan vs Rosa Ryu – Black missed a tactic and lost her Queen. 1-0

Hannah Xu vs Arkadi Polyakevich – White allowed black to get two advanced pawns. He was able to Queen one. 0-1

Vincent Cai vs Stephen Peak – White got a good position out of the opening but gave away a couple of pawns and then a piece. 0-1

Upsets in round 3:

Narasimhan Lakshmi Ravi beat Tom Fu
Philbert Zhai drew with Jeffrey Yu
Stephen Peters beat Ariel Patdu

Stephens Peters is in first places as the only player on 3 points. Just behind him 6 players are on 2.5 and 7 on 2.0.