2019 Winter Cup – Rounds 1, 2 and 3

The Winter Cup is a Swiss tournament played across 7 rounds in August and September. There are two Swiss Grades of around 43 players each, the split is roughly at the 1500 NZCF July 2019 rating.

Things have gotten a little far behind so I’m catching up the first 3 rounds of the Winter Cup in one post.

Vega Links: A Grade , B Grade

A Grade Round 1

Mostly easy wins due to the large rating difference. We will look at the upsets:

Joe Wang vs Alex Nagorski – White gave up two pieces for a rook and a pawn and a slightly better endgame. Black then made a couple of mistakes that him a full exchange an pawn down. Black was able to convert. 1-0

Don Eade vs Thomas Zheng – An even game but White missed a check at the end of a tactical sequence and Black was left a pawn ahead. 0-1

Upsets from A Grade round 1

Joe Wang beat Alex Nagorski
Thomas Zheng beat Don Eade
Karl Holdo drew with Gordon Morrell
Yolanda Chang drew with Simon Lyall

B Grade Round 1

Upsets from B Grade Round 1

Eden Oshri beat Ying Wang
Narasimha beat Alan Leach
Grayson Po’e-Tofaeono beat Michael Ma
John Liu beat Eric Fan

A Grade Round 2

Exactly zero draws this round but 3 upsets.

Thomas Zhen vs Paul Macdonald – Thomas (who has an upset win in round 1) picked up two pawn s using seperately tactics. He then swapped down to and endage with a single rook and several pawns each. He was then able to force though a win without too many problems. 1-0

Lakshmi Ravi vs Winston Weng – White got some pressure in the centre and then picked up material. 1-0

Abraham Deng vs Grant Burrows – White unwisely opposite-side castled and then allowed Black a couple of moves to build up an attack. 0-1

B Grade Round 2

Upsets for B Grade round 2

Charles Lu beat John Liu
Bhatt Daksh beat Renier Lategan
Narasimha Ravi beat Kelvin Xiao
Eric Fan beat Uday Jain
Bevis Jiang beat Ying Wang

A Grade Round 3

Many closer games as the player’s ratings got closer.

Lewis Jordan vs Alex Nagorski – Black allowed White to take the knight on f6 half-opening up the g-file. Black built up on the g-file while White opened up the Queen side. Just when it was getting interesting Black missed a mate-in-one. 1-0

Boyuan Zhang vs Erwin Koestanto – Just 14 moves long. Black won white’s Queen but then resigned two moves later in the face of White Queening/mating the next move. 1-0

Grant Burrows vs Euan McDougall – Black played into a dubious opening line and White had a great attack with piece after piece rolling over Black’s position. 1-0

After round 3 the only undefeated players were Alphaeus Ang and Mike Steadman. While Bruce Watson and John Duneas were in 3rd-equal on 2.5 points.

B Grade Round 3

Eight upsets this round. The major ones were:

Pranav Shenoy beat Renier Lategan
Mantra Bhatt beat John McClory
Grayson Po’e-Tofaeono beat Kelvin Xiao
Hunter Po’e-Tofaeono beat Ying Wang
Daksh Bhatt drew with Bobby Peoples
A Sriram beat Mathew Steadman

After 3 rounds 3 players are on 3 points: Neil Sonnekus, Wayne McDougall and A Sriham.