The Spring Cup is a Swiss tournament played across 7 rounds in October, November and December. There are two Swiss Grades of around 40 players each, the split is roughly at the 1500 NZCF July 2019 rating.
2019 Spring Cup Round 2 PGN by Ewen Green
A Grade
Boyuan Zhang vs Ben Hague – Black gets in a quick attack on the King side and Black is soon lost. 0-1
Scott Treanor vs Mike Steadman – Black miscalculates, loses a piece and resigns. 1-0
Yolanda Chang vs John Duneas – White plays some bad lines in the opening and Black is able to string together threats to win two pawns. Black is able to cruise from there. 0-1
Alex Nagorski vs Philli Park-Tamiti – Black makes a hasty move that loses a piece. He resigns on move 16. 1-0
Don Eade vs Hao Tang – A series of exchanges leaves Black’s King exposed in the centre. White is able to pick up a couple of pawns and then a piece when Black resorts to tricks. 1-0
Bruce Watson vs Winston Weng – White gets the better of middle-game swaps and ends up with 3 connected passed pawns. 1-0
Joe Wang vs Paul Garbett – White manages to counter just about everything that Black throws against him and create his own threats. White eventually forces perpetual check. Draw
Alphaeus Ang vs Jeffrey Yu – Black gets a piece trapped and then loses an exchange. 1-0
Paul Macdonald vs Anya Thurner – See Pauls commentary in the PGN. White got a better position and Black made a series of mistakes as she got low on time. 1-0
Daqi Mao vs Danial Runcan – A long game. Fairly even but Black has most of the pressure and eventually picks up a piece in the endgame. 0-1
Stephen Peak vs Nigel Metge – White had a good start and early middle game but ended up with some holes in his pawns that Black was able to infiltrate (supported by two rooks on an open file). 0-1
Jordan Lewis vs Rauen Le Grange – White mixed up his opening a little but got away with it. The game was very even until White drove Black’s King forward to g3 where it unexpectedly was able to support Black’s Queen attack. 0-1
Abraham Deng vs Jack Chen – Some mid-game swaps left White two pawns up and he was able to Queen one of them. 1-0
Lakshmi Ravi vs Tim Ha – White was better (a pawn up and a protected passed pawn) but left a hole in his position though which Black pushed his Queen and won 4 pawns for an exchange. White tried a counter-attack but Black found the correct moves to hold. 0-1
Karl Holdo vs Kenny Zhang – 1-0
Ajit Pendharkar vs Grant Burrows – A very back and forth game with mistakes on both side. 0-1
Arkadi Polyakevich vs Virginia Milne – White counted Black’s opening sidelines with his own innovations. An unwise pawn-push by Black opened up her position and allowed Black to invade. 1-0
Upsets in Round 2 of A Grade
Scott Treanor beat Mike Steadman
Joe wang drew with Paul Garbett
Rauen Le Grange beat Jordan Lewis
B Grade
Philbert Zhai vs Mike Steiner – A quick draw.
David Zhu vs Vincent Cai – Another Quick draw. Black was better.
Upsets in Round 2 of B Grade
Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono beat Neil Sonnekus
Bryan Kang drew with Jacob Yuan
Charles Lu beat Joseph Xin
Adam Ali beat Michael Ma
Narasimha Ravi drew with Alan Leach