Here are three games from round 2 of the Winter Cup played on 9 July 2019. The time format is 75 + 30.

The first features a game from our junior members, Hamish Lester playing white against Mark Summers. Mark tries a modern defense 1… with g6, then Bg7, and comes away with the advantage after the opening phase. While Hamish tries some nice counter play with his rook and knight honing in on the king, he is still in a pretty lost position around move 17. However, Mark lets him off the hook with 17… Rab8, leaving his bishop to be taken for free. Ten moves later, it is Hamish who is a completely winning position, but fails to find the killing blow (29. h4! and if 29 …Rxc2 then it’s Rg7 mate), and  then drops his knight, allowing Mark to pounce back and eventually promote his d pawn and trap Hamish’s king on move 37.

The second game features another tight battle between Guy Burns and David Scott. Guy played his standard d4 and the game played tight and uneventfully  until David mishandled a queen-exchange tactic, doubling his pawns on move 23, instead of leaving the pawn on f6 and moving g5. He struggled into an endgame, which was the most interesting part of the game, in terms whether a draw could be salvaged or not. However  some further inaccuracies with allowing the trade of rooks, in particular  32…Rg5, and with Guy not making any errors, eventually saw Guy take it out.

The third game features an interesting game from top club players Gordon Lyall (playing white) against Alistair McGowan.

With 5.Nxd4 White is playing to exchange the knight for Black’s dark-squared bishop. 7…Qxd4? is a mistake, Black should play Nc6 when he has nothing to worry about. After 8.Bb2 White is clearly better, when Black has dark-square weaknesses on the kingside and a lack of development. 17.Bf3 threatens to win with Nc5. White opens up the game with the sacrifice 23.Nxf6±, however 23.c5 is more deadly, strongly threatening d6+. After a series of exchanges White emerges with a two pawn advantage and winning endgame.

This is the first of two games from Round 1 of the 2019 Winter Cup. Guy Burns, playing black against Gordon Lyall goes for a Sicilian, with Gordon opting for the Grand Prix attack, 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3, Nc6, 3. f4.

White is slightly better after 8.Qe2! however, he should follow up with e6 on move 10 or 11.  Black quickly equalises with 11…Bxf3! when White should recapture with the queen 12.Qxf3= Nxe5 13.Qg3.  Black continues to defend accurately and his pieces are more active after 17….Ne5. Black seizes the initiative with 18…f5 when his pieces are starting to co-ordinate better. Once the Black king slips to f7 on move 19, connecting the rooks, Black has a clear initiative.
White has not been able to create any play on the open g-file, and the pawns on f3 and h5 will be a liability in the endgame.
White follows the correct strategy and forces the exchange of major pieces with 23…c4, and avoids the capture on f3 which is inferior (23…Qxf3 24.Rde1=). After the rooks are exchanged on d-file after 29…Bxd8, Black has a won endgame which he converts well.

This is the second of two games is from Round 1 of the Winter Cup played on July 2, 2019. Brandon Holman is white against David Paul. Brandon opts for a King’s Gambit.

David Comments, “Having Brandon talk about the Cunningham version of the King’s Gambit,  I decided to decline and enter into one of Mark Noble’s lines, the Falkbeer Counter Gambit. 6. Bc4.   Usual for white here is Qe2 here or Bxd7. My move 6… a6 is a waiting move seeing what white’s plan is. After 8. …Bb4.  I considered exd4 ep but did not want to give the white knight an olive branch on the f3 square.  12. …Bb5   Time to get rid of the white bishop and get my pawn back. 16. …Nxd5    Qxb7 is full of nasty surprises after Rb6. Nxd5 gets my pawn back plus position.  17. Ne2   Nc6    Finally white moves his knight, I think I will do the same. Now Qxb7 loses straight away to Rb6, with a trapped queen.  18. g5    Bd2 would have been better for white, oh well lets go for the jugular.  18 …Qa8, threatens mate in one”

This game features two of the Club’s Junior members, Hamish Lester and Valera Bonyuskin matching up during the second night of the North v South match. Played under 25 + 5 time control, Hamish is white, and opens with the Ruy Lopez, all going well for the first 10 or so moves, until he overlooks his hanging knight. However, Valera then plays well to mobilise his forces activating his bishop and getting both rooks into play along open files and ranks, to eventually convert his minor piece advantage to a rook and outside passed pawn (soon to be queen) advantage. Game over.

The first KCC North versus South night saw pairs from each team play each other twice in two 25 + 5 minute games.

In one of the more even match-ups, John Whibley (North) squared off against David Scott (South), first as white, then as black. The games saw neither wanting to give too much away, but equally not able to find any decisive blows. In Game two, David gets a thematic kingside attack going from the London opening, sacking his bishop on g6, but without seeing clear options for  advantage opts for a perpetual. Result: two draws. Full results for the other games here.

Here are three games from this year’s Kapiti Rapid played in Paraparaumu on the 25th May 2019.

The first game is from eventual tournament winner Scott Wastney (rating 2346), playing white in Round 2 against Edward Tanoi (rating 1920).

Against the Sicilian, it is fairly equal into the first 20 moves, but Scott gets his rook and two knights working actively together  to advance into enemy lines and secure a positional and material advantage which eventually converts into a runaway passed b pawn.

The second game from the final round is the decisive game that wins the tournament for Scott. Played against the current New Zealand champion and Wellington clubmate Anthony Ker (Rating 2374).

Another Sicilian, but in this game, harry is allowed to march and tear open the black king’s defence, allowing white’s forces to then penetrate with deadly effect.

The third game from round 3 was nearly a case of David v Goliath with second place-getter Romie Guerra (rating 2014) up against promising junior William Ackroyd, rated some 600 rating points lower. With post-analysis-vision it might have felt like a roller-coaster, with both players having overwhelming winning positions twice, but not quite finding the winning continuations.

By move 15, black seems to be easily winning but mis-steps with Nxc6, instead of maybe exf4. William comes back very creditably and is given a chance when allowed to play Qa4+ on move 22, and again after 25. …Bd3 a few moves later…with himself now with a winning advantage… given the open lanes for his queenside pawns. However, a few moves later he mis-steps with f3 to allow black’s rook to enter the attack with material losses unavoidable.

Here are three games from club members who competed in the 2019 North Island Champs run over Easter in Wellington.

The first  game is from round 6, David Scott (1666) v Robert Hurndell (1545).
In some London system games, there’s a focus on kingside attack tactics, especially if the h-file opens. In this game, the focus was queenside, with a steady c-file build-up until the pressure on c6 became too much for black.

This game is from Junior member Geoffrey Gunawan. After securing a win in an earlier round against a player rated 300+ points ahead of him, he faced another 1700+ player in the final round. Geoffrey is the exchange down, but manages to set a nice pawn grab trap with f4 on move 18, and when white accepts is able to grab back equality with some nice tactics, then follow up with good co-ordination of his rook and minor pieces on the queenside to gain a winning initiative. With material even, and time ticking on, Geoffrey opted to secure the half point and offered a draw. But, well done to come back and play his way to this winning  position against a much higher-rated opponent.

Geoffrey Gunawan (1445)  v Lara Heppenstall (1735) Round 8, North Island Championships, 22/4/2019

The final game is Ross Jackson (1928) v current NZ champion Russell Dive (2431) from Round 7 played 22/4/2019. Ross comments “My loss to Russell was possibly a missed opportunity. When he advanced to regain a piece with a pawn fork I rescued the bishop. I should have done 18…Rd8 a move earlier, and shouldn’t have swapped queens into a lost end-game (move 24).”

A tight game from Round 2 of the John and Rose Kingston Memorial played 5/2/2019. White adopted a quiet approach to the opening, which can be very effective against hyper-modern openings such as the Benoni. Typically Black has a target such as a large central pawn mass which he can attack from the sides. When there is no target, Black’s chances of counter play can be hard to find and he can end up with a cramped position, with White retaining a small initiative.

The thematic break comes with 13…b5, which opens play up on the queenside and creates some space for the black pieces. An endgame was reached with even material but black has some pressure on the White’s b3 pawn. While White’s pieces are tied to the defence of the pawn , Black activates his king to add further pressure. White attempts to generate counter play by switching the rook to a2 on move 31. However, Black’s king has become very active and is heading to c3 to put pressure on the b3 pawn and white knight. 33.Nb1 allows the white king to c2 to put pressure on the knight and white’s attempts to generate counter play with Rc7 is now too slow, after 33….Nxb3 Black’s pieces are co-ordinating well against the white king and knight. And after 35.Rb7 Nc1+ mate is unavoidable.

This was a good example of how an active king can be a real asset in the endgame. A great example of this can be seen in the brilliant game 17 from the Karpov – Korchnoi World Championship Match, 1978. 

Game played 20/3/18 at a 55+5 time control. Both players agreed to a draw as David Scott was in time trouble, although the final position looks promising for black.

A close game played at a 55+5 time control on 13/3/18. Unfortunately Ross ran out of time on the clock. Result 1-0.

Classic match-up played 6/3/18 at a 55+5 time control. Game ended in a draw by agreement.

Game played 6/3/18 at a 55+5 time control. Result 1-0.

Game played 27/2/18 at a 55+5 time control. Result 0-1.

Game played 20/2/2018, in the first round of the John Kingston Memorial 55+5 tournament. Result 1-0.

2017 Club Championship Game. 0-1

2017 Club Championship game. Result 0-1

2017 Club Championship Game. Result 1-0

2017 Club Championship Game. Result 0-1
Arguably the winning game that put Alan Winfield’s name on the Club Champ Trophy–2017.

2016 Club Championship game. Result 0-1.