News

Great news for young NZ chess talents:

FM Allen Fan (b. 2004) will represent New Zealand at the FIDE World Cup in Sochi, Russia, July 2021 (tournament details: PDF + calendar)

WCM Isabelle Ning (b. 2009) and Felix Xie (b. 2008) will participate in the FIDE Chessable Academy and get special coaching from the world’s best!

The note on NZCF website reads:

Allen Fan selected for the World Cup

NZCF has selected 17-year-old FM Allen Fan to represent NZ at the World Cup in Sochi, Russia, to be played from July 10th. Allen started playing chess at five and credits his parents for dedicating countless hours of time and effort to his chess ambitions, including travelling with him to international youth competitions. Allen has enjoyed participating in global online competitions but is pleased to be selected for a prestigious over-the-board event as Covid (hopefully) wanes. He is intent on doing everything he can to progress further and eventually become an IM.

Interclub tournaments are held in Auckland by the Auckland Chess Association. Teams of 6 players from each club are playing roughly every second Sunday. This year, six teams are participating — Auckland Chess Centre, Howick-Pakuranga, North Shore, Papatoetoe, Waitakere, and Summit. It’s a round-robin tournament and lasts five rounds.

ACC beat Howick 4.5-1.5 in the first round and beat Papatoetoe 5-1 in the second round. Current standings are (final standings are based on game points)

	ACC	H-P	PT	NS	WT	SU	Pts	#
ACC	X	4.5	5				9.5	1
H-P	1.5	X		3			4.5	4
PT	1		X			1.5	2.5	6
NS		3		X	3.5		6.5	3
WT				2.5	X	2	4.5	4
SU			4.5		4	X	8.5	2

The schedule, details of each match, and the list of players are available on https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J0EeDJ3vWOr_6o8UhJly1fMwKt6PT8KZZ77CzrF1rdc/edit?usp=sharing

The next match will be held on May 16, when Auckland plays North Shore CC, which is currently on 3rd place in the standings.

Round 3, May 16

North Shore – Auckland

Summit – Howick-Pakuranga

Papatoetoe – Waitakere

The FIDE-rated Autumn Cup (7 rounds of 90m+30s classical chess) will run from May 3 to June 21 (with a break for Queen’s Birthday and Trusts Open tournament on June 5-7) and will consist of 3 grades:

A-grade, a round-robin tournament for top 8 players

B-grade, a Swiss tournament for 50 players with a rating >= 1300 FIDE (either classical or rapid)

C-grade, a Swiss tournament for 28 players with a rating < 1300 FIDE

This year our club is experiencing a boom and we are running out of space. The total number of players is 86, but our club has only 80 seats, so we have to introduce a waitlist. B-grade and C-grade will have a waitlist of 3 players each, and on the night, if others drop out due to illness or exams or any other life issues, players from the waitlist will get a spot.

Now to penalties… Please understand that the waitlist is created because every chess player wants to have a game, but this also means everybody else needs to be responsible and notify the captain before 6:30 pm on Monday nights. If a player or his/her parents forget to do that twice, they’ll be withdrawn from the tournament.

The waitlist

• B-grade: David Holland
• C-grade: Ethan Tai, Jerome Tao, James Kippenberger

If you’re unhappy with seeing yourself (or your child) on the waitlist, please come to the captain and require a one-time compensation in form of a Chessable course. There’ll be hard work for you to do instead of playing a Monday night game!

Please find and check your name on our registration list

https://www.aucklandchess.nz/vega/2021/wwwACCAutumnCup_regs/

No new names will be accepted unless you’ve missed out because of a communication error with the captain and you can prove that the captain is wrong. Thanks for your understanding.

There will be a round-robin of 8 players on top of the list, and two Swiss grades, B and C. If some of the top 8 can’t commit to 7 games, they’ll be moved down to the Swiss B-grade.

The top 8 at the moment are: (we’ll use May 1 ratings in the final grouping)

1	Ang, Alphaeus Wei Ern	NZL	FM	2265
2	Gong, Daniel Hanwen	NZL	FM	2242
3	Garbett, Paul A	NZL	IM	2239
4	Fan, Allen Chi Zhou	NZL	FM	2193
5	Steadman, Michael V R	NZL	FM	2157
6	Huang, Alex	NZL	CM	1988
7	Zhang, Jasmine Haomo	NZL	WIM	1954
8	Macdonald, Paul	NZL		1890

Please also note that the number of 85 players on the list means that on every particular night, anybody from the waiting list (we’ll publish the list soon when grades are done) cannot play if all others have turned up.

Euan McDougall and FM Alphaeus Ang shared 1st place in the Autumn Rapid. Both had one draw and five wins.

FM Daniel Gong (4 wins, 2 byes) and CM Alex Huang (5 wins, 1 loss) shared second on 5.0/6. Several players were on 4.5, with different paths to their results: WCM Isabelle Ning, Felix Xie, Joe Wang, Hao Tang, and Winston Weng.

• Isabelle Ning beat Alex Huang and WIM Jasmine Zhang, then later drew Euan McDougall (who was quite lucky to escape to a draw)
• Felix Xie had one upset draw with Philli Park-Tamati and lost to Alphaeus Ang
• Hao Tang drew Alphaeus Ang and beat Paul Macdonald
• Joe Wang beat Paul Macdonald and others, losing only one game to Alex Huang
• Winston Weng was away from chess, skipped rounds 1-3 and came back to win rounds 4-6.

Little debutants in the club, Leo Lian and Franklyn Zhang (brother of Jasmine) started slowly in rounds 1-3 (0.5 and 0) but got themselves two wins in rounds 4-6. They can play chess!

Vega page

Autumn Rapid tournament will resume this Monday, April 19.

In round 3 of the first rapid night, Alphaeus Ang was held to a draw by Hao Tang, and Felix Xie by Philli Park-Tamati. These four are on 2.5/3, with some people on 2.5 after playing only 2 games (0.5 byes in round 3).

Alex Nagorski, Euan McDougall, Isabelle Ning and Jasmine Zhang are on the perfect score of 3.0/3.

ANZAC weekender will happen on April 24-26, so the club will be closed on April 26, and will resume on May 3 for the start of the Autumn Cup.

Our club will not run casual chess Fridays on April 16, 23 and 30. Coach Wayne will be back on May 7, after the school holidays. If you’re keen to play online chess, we have the usual NZCF Friday night blitz on Lichess, please join the NZCF team to play. Make sure to specify your name and location so you can be added. Thanks!

https://lichess.org/team/new-zealand-chess-federation

Alphaeus Ang, Mike Steadman, Allen Fan, John Duneas, Alex Huang and Euan McDougall played for ACC last night and beat Howick-Pakuranga with a big score of 4.5-1.5. On board 6, Euan “should have lost”, but fought back creatively as always, and got a draw. Otherwise, the score would be closer.

Howick	1.5-4.5	ACC
FM Daniel Gong	0.5-0.5	FM Alphaeus Ang
FM Martin Dreyer	0-1	FM Mike Steadman
FM Ewen Green	0-1	FM Allen Fan
WIM Jasmine Zhang	0.5-0.5	FM John Duneas
CM Benjamin Lim	0-1	CM Alex Huang
Oliver Dai	0.5-0.5	Euan McDougall

“Kids’ team” Summit CC beat Papatoetoe also with the 4.5-1.5 score, and North Shore narrowly beat Waitakere, 3.5-2.5.

Interclub schedule and results of all teams will be posted round by round in this Google sheet (please bookmark it) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J0EeDJ3vWOr_6o8UhJly1fMwKt6PT8KZZ77CzrF1rdc/edit?usp=sharing

Next round is May 2, when ACC will face Papatoetoe.

Thanks, all, for playing in small groups after the Summer Cup has been cut short to just 3 rounds. The small rating groups made the tournament tougher, more alike to a round-robin tournament than a Swiss with match-ups of varying difficulty. Below are the results of all groups, you can find details on Vega pages under the group name.

Winners are:
Group 0: FM Alphaeus Ang and FM Allen Fan (shared)
Group 1: Hao Tang
Group 2: Daqi Mao
Group 3: Andrew Michael
Group 4: Baraa Zara
Group 5: Charles Lu
Group 6: Pranav Shenoy
Group 7: Virginia Milne
Group 8: Eden Oshri
Group 9: William Liu

Group 0

1,Ang, Alphaeus Wei Ern , 15002, 3:W, 5:W, 2:D
2,Fan, Allen Chi Zhou , 14853, 6:W, 4:W, 1:D
3,Xie, Felix , 16267, 1:L, 8:W, 7:W
4,Gong, Daniel Hanwen , 14934, 7:W, 2:L, 5:D
5,Steadman, Michael V R , 10201, 8:W, 1:L, 4:D
6,Zhang, Jasmine Haomo , 15218, 2:L, 7:D, 8:D
7,Huang, Alex , 13629, 4:L, 6:D, 3:L
8,Runcan, Daniel-Ioan , 14963, 5:L, 3:L, 6:D

Group 1

1,Tang, Hao , 17080, 4:D, 5:W, 8:W
2,McDougall, Euan , 15055, 0:H, 8:W, 3:W
3,Metge, J. Nigel , 10041, 0:B, 6:W, 2:L
4,Zhang, Kendrick Botong , 16276, 1:D, 7:D, 0:H
5,Nagorski, Alex , 16299, 8:D, 1:L, 6:W
6,Macdonald, Paul , 11740, 7:W, 3:L, 5:L
7,Ning, Isabelle Yixuan , 16360, 6:L, 4:D, 0:H
8,Wells, Clinton A. , 12482, 5:D, 2:L, 1:L

Group 2

1,Mao, Daqi , 17073, 6:W, 2:D, 5:W
2,Lyall, Simon , 10945, 8:+, 1:D, 0:H
3,Weng, Xintong (Winston) , 15853, 4:W, 0:H, 0:H
4,Lewis, Jordan , 14124, 3:L, 7:D, 6:W
5,Wang, Aaron Ziwen , 15174, 7:W, 6:L, 1:L
6,Park-Tamati, Philli , 16529, 1:L, 5:W, 4:L
7,Ha, Huy Minh (Timothy) , 16235, 5:L, 4:D, 0:H
8,Khawaja, Ahmad , did not play

Group 3

1,Michael, Andrew , 13776, 5:+, 2:D, 3:W
2,Jones, Stephen K , 14220, 9:W, 1:D, 6:W
3,Liu, Zikun Kenneth , 17039, 8:W, 4:W, 1:L
4,Deng, Abraham , 16325, 0:B, 3:L, 7:W
5,Sonnekus, Neil , 15007, 1:-, 0:H, 9:W
6,Sriram, A , 0, 0:H, 0:H, 2:L
7,Lee, Fergus , 15745, 0:-, 9:W, 4:L
8,Thurner, Anya , 16363, 3:L, 0:H, 0:H
9,Wang, Justin Zhide , 17324, 2:L, 7:L, 5:L

Group 4

1,Zara, Baraa , 16906, 7:W, 2:W, 0:H
2,Po`e-Tofaeono, Hunter , 17105, 6:W, 1:L, 4:W
3,Peak, Stephen , 15728, 4:D, 5:D, 8:W
4,Ravi, Narasimhan Lakshmi , 16064, 3:D, 8:W, 2:L
5,Chang, Yolanda , 16602, 8:D, 3:D, 0:H
6,Fan, Eric , 17030, 2:L, 7:W, 0:H
7,Bhatt, Daksh , 17096, 1:L, 6:L, 0:B
8,Burrows, Grant L , 11576, 5:D, 4:L, 3:L

Group 5

1,Lu, Charles , 16846, 7:W, 8:W, 3:W
2,Wang, Joe , 16554, 8:W, 0:H, 6:W
3,Treanor, Scott , 15377, 4:W, 5:W, 1:L
4,Zhu, David Junyang , 16672, 3:L, 7:D, 5:W
5,Chen, David , 0, 0:B, 3:L, 4:L
6,Tang, Tracy , 17091, 0:H, 0:H, 2:L
7,Somaraju, Sai Vivan Karth, 17206, 1:L, 4:D, 0:H
8,Bhatt, Mantra , 17061, 2:L, 1:L, 0:B

Group 6

1,Shenoy, Pranav , 16674, 0:B, 5:W, 2:W
2,Po`e-Tofaeono, Grayson , 17167, 3:W, 6:W, 1:L
3,Leach, Alan , 17168, 2:L, 7:W, 5:W
4,Feng, Sophia , 17295, 6:L, 8:W, 0:H
5,Vasudeva, Ayaan , 17248, 8:W, 1:L, 3:L
6,Wang, Ying , 15865, 4:W, 2:L, 8:L
7,Ray, Charlotte , 16662, 0:H, 3:L, 0:H
8,McClory, John , 16731, 5:L, 4:L, 6:W

Group 7

1,Milne, Virginia , 10862, 3:W, 4:W, 2:W
2,Brooker, William , 0, 8:W, 6:W, 1:L
3,Mironov, Eric , 17399, 1:L, 8:W, 7:W
4,Yu, Weiyang , 17377, 7:W, 1:L, 6:D
5,Ma, Michael , 16326, 6:D, 7:L, 8:+
6,Xiao, Lucas , 16617, 5:D, 2:L, 4:D
7,Steiner, Michael , 11692, 4:L, 5:W, 3:L
8,Wang, Xipeng (Max) , 17478, 2:L, 3:L, 5:-

Group 8

1,Oshri, Eden , 16827, 5:D, 6:W, 2:W
2,Nimmakayala, Srirama Vikh, 17185, 7:+, 4:W, 1:L
3,Yue, Annie , 17064, 8:W, 0:H, 0:H
4,Zhou, Adele , 17082, 0:B, 2:L, 5:W
5,Kane, Paul , 17398, 1:D, 8:+, 4:L
6,Xiao, Maxwell , 16618, 0:H, 1:L, 8:+
7,Hughes, Mike , 0, 2:-, 0:-, 0:-
8,Liu, Lanjun , 17122, 3:L, 5:-, 6:-

Group 9

1,Liu, William Rui , 17424, 4:W, 3:W, 2:W
2,Tao, Junqing Jerome , 17344, 5:W, 6:W, 1:L
3,Zhang, Franklyn , 16913, 7:+, 1:L, 6:D
4,Sheng, Ethan , 17046, 1:L, 5:+, 0:H
5,Ellis, Roderick , 0, 2:L, 4:-, 0:B
6,Tai, Ethan , 0, 0:-, 2:L, 3:D

Friday casual, Saturday Junior and Monday club night will not happen during the Easter break of April 2-5. The club will be closed. Thanks! Happy Easter!