The Autumn Cup is being played on Monday in April, May and June and consists of two Swiss Grades. It is Nationally Rated.
Autumn Cup R1 PGN by Ewen Green
A Grade
The first round saw unequal matches but there were 5 draws and two wins by the lower rated player.
Bashar Mohammad beat Caroline Yan
Jeffrey Yu beat Simon Lyall
Bruce Watson vs Xinyang Liu – Black lost an early pawn and white was able to keep up the pressure throughout the game to eventually mate. 1-0
Nathan Goodhue vs Alphaeus Ang – Black picked up a pawn and an exchange and a lot of pressure which White was unable to counter. 0-1
Paul Garbett vs Abraham Deng – Black had a good start getting a pawn or two up but a series of errors built up. Game ended abruptly with White ahead. 1-0
Ajit Pendharkar vs Michael Steadman – Lots of interesting tactics and threats by both players. However in the majority Black came out ahead until he was a full piece up. 0-1
Allen Fan vs Arron Wang – Black gave up a pawn in what appears to be a miscalculation and his position completely fell apart. 1-0
Karl Holdo vs Gordon Morrell – White managed to hold his own into the middle game until an unwise move by Black allowed White to invade into the Kings area with a Queen while Black’s pieces were on the other side of the board. White got into a near winning position but couldn’t find the right line so took a perpetual check. Draw
Paul Macdonald vs Virginia Milne – Blacks position got steadily worse. She tried a counter-attack but overlooked the mate on the other end of the board. 1-0
Stephen Peak vs Jasmine Zhang – White got a pawn up and was looking good in the early middle game, but lost his way and Black was able to get material back and swap into a winning endgame. 0-1
Grant Burrow vs Nigel Metge – White got a better opening and executed a nice swap to give himself a rook, Knight and Bishop vs two rooks. Just when he looked like winning White lost a piece but black then made his own mistakes. A draw was agreed in what looks like a won position for White. Draw
Alex Nagorski vs Andrew Michael – White picked up an exchange, then a pawn and then a piece. 1-0
Arkadi Polyakevich vs Don Eade – Black made a mistake and allowed an attack by White but luckily for him White missed the best line and only ended a little better. White quickly went wrong though and lost. 1-0
Caroline Yan vs Bashar Mohammad – White over-pressed an attack against Black who eventually got some counterplay. White resigned with Black a little better on the board. 0-1
Jeffrey Yu vs Simon Lyall – Black got an attack but was only able to pick up a pawn. White got a counter-attack that got the pawn back and then another. The game went back and forth a few more times with both players low on time before black made the final mistake. 1-0
Lewis Jordan vs Joe Wang – The players swapped down and both got attacks. They agreed on a draw with Black in the better position. Draw
Kendrick Zhang vs Euan McDougall – White was ahead for much of the game but missed the best moves. 0-1
Felix Xie vs Boyuan Zhang – White got a little lost in the opening. A few moves later Black got a draw by repetition. Draw
Anya Thurner vs Timothy Ha – The players aggressively swapped down to an even endgame which they drew.
Scott Treanor vs Eugene Wang – Black eventually made enough mistakes to allow White to win. 1-0
B Grade
Upsets in Round 1
Adam Macauley beat Erica Hu
Vincent Cai beat Wayne McDougall
Jack Chen beat Mike Steine