Both grades saw a large number of first round byes, mainly due to school holidays.
A Grade
The first round saw wide ranges in ratings and only two upsets. I’ll only cover the interesting games below.
Alphaeus Ang vs Tim Ha – White launched into push but black defended well and stayed a little better. Black missed his chance to go a pawn up and agreed on a draw in an even Queen+pawns position.
Virginia Milne vs Mike Steadman. Black almost got into trouble (see diagram) but White missed the best move..
Milne vs Steadman. White to play
Stephen Peak vs Allen Fan – A cute finish
White resigned here
Alex Nagorski vs Rodney Li – See the PGN for Ewan’s analysis – White was better at the start but failed to find the best continuations. He made a couple of mis-steps in the endgame but Black failed to find the correct move to take advantage and White won a couple of pawns to give him the game.
Don Eade vs Winston Weng – White was in a bit of trouble but Black failed to follow though with his attack and quickly fell to White’s counter-attack.
Filix Xie vs Joy Qin – Black’s errors eventually caught up with her.
Upsets:
Felix Xie beat Joy Qin
Tim Ha drew against Alphaeus Ang
Alexei Kulashko and Ben Hague dominated the grade dropping just a loss and a draw each.
1st= Alexei Kulashko & Ben Hague on 5.5
3rd Alphaeus Ang on 5.0
B Grade
The grade was a little messy due to a couple of players dropping out and thus some missed games. Erwin and Qi Le stepped in to fill the gaps although they struggled a little. Leo Zhang is still regaining form after taking time off.
Winner was John Duneas with 5.5 while Alex Nagorski played well above his rating to get second. Third was Nathan Goodhue.
1st John Duneas 5.5
2nd Alex Nagorski 4.5
3rd Nathan Goodhue 3.5
C Grade
Simon Lyall won the grade, just conceding just two draws. Nicole Qin led the the grade initially with 4 early wins but then faded in last 3 rounds. This allowed Roy Seabrook to pip her for 2nd place with 4 wins in his last 4 games.
1st Simon Lyall 6.0
2nd Roy Seabrook 5.0
3rd Nicole Qin 4.5
D Grade
Euan McDougall led the grade by a full point with 5 points in 5 rounds but lost on round 6 and then took a bye in round 7. Several others leaders took byes in the last round and Jordon Lewis was able to push though to claim first.
1st Jordan Lewis 6.0
2nd= James Liu, Euan McDougall 5.5
The Autumn Cup starts on April 23rd. It is almost full and only 1 or 2 more entries may be accepted.
The ACC ANZAC weekender will be played on Wednesday the 25th, Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th of April. Entry forms are here or see the Vega page.
The Autumn Rapid was played across 6 rounds on the 9th and 16th of April. There was a single grade for the whole club.
The list of Entries so far to the Autumn Cup is now up. There is room for only about 10 more players so please enter as soon as possible if you want to play.
The Cup will be two Swiss Tournaments, both rated. The cut-off for A Grade is around 1500.
Please talk to Simon if you would like to move up (or possibly down) a grade.
1. Due to a cricket match at Eden Park on March 26th there is no parking on the street near the Club. Please park elsewhere (or if early you might be able to park inside the club).
2. Club fees are due this week. Please pay or arrange payment with Mike Steadman.
3. Next week (Monday the 2nd of April) is Easter Monday so the club is closed
4. The Autumn Rapid will start on the 8th of April. Make sure you register to ensure you get in.
Paul Garbett vs Ben Hague – Black was a little better but was unable to make progress. Draw
Alphaeus Ang vs Michael Steadman – The computer suggests White could have sacrificed a piece for 3-4 pawns and a great position on move 14 but white played another move and black equalised. Players agreed on a draw in an equal position.
Alexei Kulasho vs Daniel Gong – Black was looking much better in the middle-game as he went two pawns up. But he realized too late that White had a dangerous attack against his king and White was able to force a mate. 1-0
Gino Thornton vs Bruce Watson – Swaps left White a pawn better in the endgame but with pawns on the wrong colour and opposite coloured bishops a draw was agreed.
Going into the last round Hague and Kulashko lead on 4.5 while Ang has 4.0
B Grade
Paul Macdonald vs Leo Zhang – Black got a nice advanced Knight on g3 and then found a nice win (see digram).
Macdonald vs Zhang after 24. Bxd4 – Black to play and win
Qe-Li Kong Lim vs Erwin Koestano -Black look better throughout and eventually won.
Alex Nagorski vs Nathan Goodhue 0 See commentary from Alex in the PGN – A long game but fairly even throughout. Black briefly had a advantage with a passed pawn but failed to find the best continuation. Draw
Allen Fan vs John Duneas – Draw
John Duneas and Alex Nagorski are on 4.0 and Nathan is on 3.5 with John having a game in hand.
C Grade
Simon Lyall vs Caroline Yan – The game quickly swapped with 3 pieces and 6 pawns each with Black looking better. But black gave up her good piece and white was able to pick up a pawn for a winning endgame. 1-0
Roy Seabrook vs Don Eade – White harassed Black with a pawn push on the King side and picked up a piece, then after Black gave up his Queen for two rooks White managed to fork one of Blacks rooks. 1-0
Simon Lyall is on 5.5 ahead of Nicole Qin and Roy Seabrook. Nicole was previous in the lead but has on rounds 5 and 6. Roy has had 3 wins after a two early loses.
D Grade
Euan MacDougall vs Jame Liu – White missed the best moves under and attack from Black and ended up in trouble. 0-1
Sarah Yan vs Mathew Steadman – After a swap-off the players agreed a draw.
Arkadi Poliakevitch vs Andrew Michael – White missed the win in a complex Mexican-standoff. Black got a winning king and pawn endgame and then was a little loose playing it, but White failed to find the drawing move. 0-1
Upsets in Round 6:
Philbert Zhai beat Philip Te Whata
Tom Fu beat David Xu
Kendrick Zhang beat Tody Zhang
Rosa Ryu beat Selena Xi
With the loss by Euan McDougall there are 3 players in the lead on 5.0 Euan, Jame Liu and Jordan Lewis. Just behind on 4.5 are Sarah Yan, Mathew Steadman and Andrew Michael.
With just two rounds to go A & B grade as still close due to losses by the leaders.
A reminder that if you are in a round-robin grade you need to arrange with your opponent if you can’t make a game and also let Simon know. Try not to leave things until Monday afternoon.
Sign-ups have started for the Autumn Rapid. We will also have signups for Interclub and the Autumn Cup soon.
Gino Thornton vs Paul Garbett – Paul declined Gino’s early draw offer and regretted it after Gino managed to get a Queenside pawn majority in the endgame and push these to a win. 1-0
Bruce Watson vs Alexei Kulashko – Black got a piece trapped and lost and things went downhill from there. 1-0
Daniel Gong vs Alphaeus Ang – After 25 moves in a cramped position an exchange of pawns on the Kingside left Whites position exposed and Black was able to line up the artillery (although White almost saved the point in the endgame). 0-1
Mike Steadman vs Ben Hague – Black got a passed pawn in the middlegame with a lot of pieces behind it. 0-1
After a loss by previous-leader Alexei Kulashko; Ben Hague is now in first place with 4 points. Just behind on 3.5 are Kulashko and Alphaeus Ang.
B Grade
Allen Fan vs Paul Macdonald – (Annotated in the PGN by Paul). White picked up a couple of pawns and then pushing passed pawns picked up a piece. 1-0
John Duneas vs Alex Nagorski – Annotated by Alex in the PGN – A roller-coaster of a game. Black was two pawns up but allowed a passed pawn which after the dust cleared left each player with a King and 3 kingside pawns. Black then made a mis-step and allowed White to get a passed pawn. 1-0
Nathan Goodhue vs Qi Le Kong Lim – A French exchange led to the game quickly swapping to an endgame. White had a slight advantage but Black was able to hold the draw.
Erwin Koestano vs Leo Zhang – Black’s position fell apart after he underestimate an attack.
Koestano vs Zhang – White to play and Win
As in A Grade the leader (Alex Nagorski) lost in round 5 so the lead is now shared between Alex and John Duneas on 3.5. Just behind are Paul Macdonald and Nathan Goodhue on 3.0
C Grade
Only one game in C Grade was played on Monday, Although Keith Ward has withdrawn so Simon Lyall won by default.
Din Eade vs Tim Ha – Annotate by Tim in the pgn – Black had a good start but his push ran petered out and White seized the initiative and picked up and attack and an exchange. Black tried some tricks but they were not enough. 1-0
Simon Lyall is currently in the led by half a point but Nicole Qin has a game in hand. The rest of the field is well behind those two.
D Grade
Jin Own vs Euan McDougall – White mis-calculated a series of exchanges and ended up a rook down.
Upsets:
Anya Thurner beat Philip Te Whata
Abraham Deng beat Wayne McDougall
Euan McDougall is the only undefeated player and is a point ahead of Sarah Yan, Abrahan Deng, Jame Liu, Jordan Lewis and Mathew Steadman (all on 4 points)
Signups for the Autumn Rapid are now at the club. Please enter via sign-in there or a text to Simon Lyall. A reminder that Club fees will go up soon to if they are not paid.
Draw between Paul Garbett and Mike Steadman (Game not in PGN) while Gino forfeited his game against Alexei Kulashko.
Daniel Gong made one bad move against Ben Hague and allowed Ben a winning attack.
In Alphaeus Ang vs Bruce Watson, Alphaeus got an exchange and swapped into an endgame and then spotted a quick mate for a win.
After 4 rounds Alexei Kulashko is in the lead on 3.5 with Ben Hague in second on 3.
B Grade
See the PGN for Paul Macdonald’s Full Analysis of his game against Erwin Koestano. Erwin looked good for much of the game before a couple of mistakes lost material and allowed Paul a winning counter-attack.
Leon Zhang and Nathan Goodhue drew
Qi Le Kong-Lim vs John Duneas saw John unsoundly sacrifice a piece. However John managed to win a piece back during the endgame (when players were short on time) and win the game.
Alex Nagorski vs Allen Fan. This game is annotated by Alex in the PGN. Alex won by pushing a passed pawn in the late middle-game. Alex’s summary: White played recklessly in the opening reacting not really well to the Black’s novelty Rf7 (Opening theory). Later on, maneuvering, White missed a couple of tactical chances to get advantage of the position (missed Ke6 and g4). (Improve tactics! Count!) I assume that Black felt the White’s pressure throughout the whole game though and struggled to find the correct way to organise counterplay (e.g. Kb6?). In the endgame Black missed the saving move 29…c6 (which can be psychologically justified). White shouldn’t have jumped for the obvious but carefully evaluate and play correctly (Qd7?) Moreover, there was no significant time pressure (11:18 v 20:00). Things to work on: 1) Opening theory, review KI games 2) Tactics, counting improvement
Alex is leading on 3.5 ahead of Paul on 3.
C Grade
Joy Qin and Caroline Yan drew later in the week in a catchup game.
Nicole Qin won by default against Keith Ward.
Simon Lyall beat Don Eade after Don made a mistake in the opening and allowed Simon to cramp Don’s position and bring up a dangerous attack.
Tim Ha’s good start against Roy Seabrook went downhill after he got a rook pinned and then he resigned after Roy won it for nothing.
Nicole Qin leads the Grade on 4/4 while Simon Lyall is second on 3.5.
D Grade
Euan MacDougall is the only undefeated player after a narrow win against Abraham Deng.
Jame Liu, Sarah Yan and Owen Jin are on 3.5
Upsets in round 4:
Brian Zhao beat Rodney Li
Boyuan Zhang Philip Te Whata
Felix Xie beat Stephen Peak
Jeffrey Yu beat David Xu
Anya Thurner beat Leo Li
Mathew Steadman beat Aaron Wang
B grade has been a bit disrupted up following the withdrawal of Brett Rider and Alex Huang. They have been replaced by Erwin Koestano and Qi Le Kong-Lim. I hope to catchup with results later this week.
Alexei Kulashko had a straight-forward win over Paul Garbett after Paul got a little behind out of the opening and Alexei put on pressure with an attack.
Alpheaus Ang and Gino Thornton played a complicated game of sacrifices and exchanges. After the dust settled Alphaeus was an exchange up in an endgame and Gino resigned.
Bruce Watson mis-calculated and material to Ben Hague and resigned early.
Danial Gong sacrificed a piece for 3 pawns and an attack against Mike Steadman. His attack was slowing down when Mike missed a tactic which allowed Daniel to gain material and initiative.
After 3 rounds Alexei Kulashko is on first place on 2.5 points.
B Grade
Alex Nagorski vs Paul Macdonald – Black got a little ahead in the opening but White equalized. The players then swapped pieces into a drawn King and pawn endgame, although the computer says both players had chances at times.
Nathan Goodhue vs Edwin Koestanto – White picked up two pawns and then a Queen for a rook and Bishop. This was enough to win.
The other two games were unplayed.
C Grade
Tim Ha vs Joy Qin – White managed to come a piece up after an attack but took a draw.
Keith Ward vs Caroline Yan – After a lot of back and forth Black won.
Roy Seabrook vs Simon Lyall – Black picked up a piece during a dangerous attack and then blundered it straight back. Eventually Black won.
Don Eade vs Nicole Qin – White went a pawn down and then sacrificed a piece but this was unsuccessful and Black won easily with her extra piece.
D Grade
Upsets:
Boyuan Zhang beat David Ansell
Abraham Deng beat Andrew Michael
Brian Zhao beat Leo Li
There are a large number of postponed games in the top grades for various reasons. They will usually be updated in Vega but often won’t be played until after these posts.