Summer Cup - Daniel Baider does it again!

My grand scheme of "doing a Baider" failed at the first hurdle, and I got wiped off the board in 17 moves by Nic Croad. Meanwhile Daniel was out-Baidering himself at the other end of the table - he defeated his Wellington Open nemesis Anthony Ker after a tricky queen knight and pawns ending where Daniel was a pawn up. In the last 5 days he has wrought chaos among the cream of Wellington's chess talent. At this rate we will soon be forced to start up a grandmaster fund for him!

Round 7 results (1 round to go)

Croad 1 Sellen 0
Baider 1 Ker 0
Nijman 1 Jackson 0
Hill 1 Stracy 0
Du Plessis M 0 Dive 1
Rabina 0 Van der Hoorn 1
Bowden 0 Marner 1
Nyberg 1 Hewson 0
Salem 0 Farrington 1
Capper 1 Du Plessis N 0
Nicholls 0 Wilkins 1
Olssen 0 Aldridge 1
Brockway 1 Shierlaw 0
Proctor 0 Pattekar 1

Standings:

6.5 points
Nic Croad

5.5 points
Daniel Baider

5 points
Russell Dive, Martin Hill, Anthony Ker, Brian Nijman

4.5 points
William Forster, Ian Sellen, Mark Van der Hoorn

4 points
Lawrence Farrington, Ross Jackson, Gavin Marner, Michael Nyberg, Arthur Pomeroy, Don Stracy

3.5 points
David Capper, Megan Du Plessis, Mulshankar Joshi, Romeo Rabina

3 points
Alan Aldridge, Paul Bowden, Andrew Brockway, Michael Hewson, Roy Seabrook, Mark Wilkins

2.5 points
Edmund Salem

2 points
Alistair Nicholls, Alex Olssen, Somesh Pattekar

1.5 points
Neels Du Plessis, Hugh Waugh

1 point
Matthew Proctor, Hamish Shierlaw

Wellington Open - Final Results and Standings

Anthony Ker and Scott Wastney shared top spot on 5/6 at the end of the Easter Wellington Open which finished today. Anthony has a slightly higher sum of opponents' scores, if there is a tie-break. B grade title shared by John Duneas, Alan Aldridge, William Forster, Ross Jackson and Fuatai Fuatai. C grade title taken outright by Du Plessis père, who got the same score as the top B graders, 3 1/2.
Junior title was taken (again) by Daniel Baider, who to me was the real star of this tournament.
Overall the tournament was well organised, and played with such generosity of spirit and good humour that it made me proud to be a chessplayer! (even though I wasn't playing.) Congratulations to all who took part in a great contest. I hope to get some photos of the event to publish in the next few days.

Round 4
Baider 1/2 Wastney 1/2
Fuatai 0 Ker 1
Davis 0 Dive 1
Croad 1 Van der Hoorn 0
Han 0 Duneas 1
Marner 1/2 Aldridge 1/2
Jackson 1 Stracy 0
Forster 1 Ward 0
Wilkins 1 Wu 0
Judkins 1 Capper 0
Du Plessis N 1 Khoo 0
Gers 1 Brockway 0
Hewson 0 Smith 1
Kruger 0 Du Plessis M 1
Bye: Shierlaw

Round 5
Ker 1 Baider 0
Wastney 1 Jackson 0
Dive 1/2 Croad 1/2
Van der Hoorn 1 Forster 0
Smith 0 Han 1
Duneas 1/2 Marner 1/2
Aldridge 1 Fuatai 0
Judkins 0 Davis 1
Stracy 0 Wilkins1
Wu 0 Ward 1
Capper 1 Hewson 0
Du Plessis M 1/2 Du Plessis N 1/2
Shierlaw 1 Kruger 0
Khoo 1 Gers 0
Bye: Brockway

Round 6
Wastney 1/2 Ker 1/2
Croad 1 Aldridge 0
Dive 1 Duneas 0
Baider 1/2 Van der Hoorn 1/2
Han 1 Davis 0
Jackson 1/2 Marner 1/2
Wilkins 0 Fuatai 1
Forster 1 Du Plessis M 0
Hewson 0 Stracy 1
Ward 1 Shierlaw 0
Khoo 0 Capper 1
Du Plessis N 1 Smith 0
Gers 1 Kruger 0
Brockway 0 Judkins 1
Bye: Wu

Final Standings:

5 Points
Anthony Ker, Scott Wastney

4.5 points
Nic Croad, Russell Dive

4 points
Daniel Baider, Daniel Han, Mark Van der Hoorn

3.5 points
Alan Aldridge, John Duneas, Neels Du Plessis, William Forster, Fuatai Fuatai, Ross Jackson, Gavin Marner

3 points
David Capper, Justin Davis, Gary Judkins, Simon Ward, Mark Wilkins

2.5 points
Megan Du Plessis, Jeremy Smith, Don Stracy

2 points
Matthew Gers, Alan Khoo, Hamish Shierlaw, David Wu

1.5 points
Andrew Brockway, Michael Hewson

1 point
Sebastian Kruger

Wellington Open rounds 2 and 3

No doubting who is player of the tournament so far - 14 year old Daniel Baider, finally fulfilling some of the promise he has shown over the last few years. How many of us can say we have have beaten Russell Dive, followed it up with a win against Nic Croad, then taken a breather with a draw against Scott Wastney? Not many, I suspect.

Round 2:

Dive 0 Baider 1
Ker 1 Marner 0
Davis 0 Wastney 1
Croad 1 Duneas 0
Van der Hoorn 1 Aldridge 0
Han 1 Kruger 0
Wu 0 Fuatai 1
Jackson 1 Smith 0
Forster 1 Hewson 0
Wilkins 1 Gers 0
Brockway 1/2 Stracy 1/2
Ward 1 Du Plessis M 0
Capper 1 Shierlaw 0
Du Plessis N 1 Judkins 0
Bye: Khoo

Round 3:

Van der Hoorn 1/2 Ker 1/2
Han 0 Wastney 1
Baider 1 Croad 0
Fuatai 1 Forster 0
Ward 0 Dive 1
Marner 1 Wilkins 0
Khoo 0 Davis 1
Duneas 1 Capper 0
Kruger 0 Jackson 1
Aldridge 1 Wu 0
Stracy 1 Du Plessis N 0
Hewson 1 Gers 0
Smith 1 Brockway 0
Du Plessis M 1 Shierlaw 0
Bye: Judkins

Standings after 3 rounds:

3 points
Daniel Baider, Scott Wastney

2.5 points
Fuatai Fuatai, Anthony Ker, Mark Van der Hoorn

2 points
Alan Aldridge, Nic Croad, Justin Davis, Russell Dive, John Duneas, Daniel Han, Ross Jackson, Gavin Marner

1.5 points
William Forster, Michael Hewson, Jeremy Smith, Don Stracy

1 point
David Capper, Megan Du Plessis, Neels Du Plessis, Gary Judkins, Alan Khoo, Sebastian Kruger, Simon Ward, Mark Wilkins, David Wu

0.5 points
Andrew Brockway

0 points
Matthew Gers, Hamish Shierlaw

Wellington Open round 1 results

The Wellington Open takes place 21st March to 23rd March 2008, 2 rounds a day.

Results from round 1:

Russell Dive 1 Mark Wilkins 0
Don Stracy 0 Anthony Ker 1
Scott Wastney 1 Simon Ward 0
David Capper 0 Nic Croad 1
Mark Van der Hoorn 1 Neel Du Plessis 0
Matthew Gers 0 Daniel Han 1
Daniel Baider 1 Andrew Brockway 0
Megan Du Plessis 0 Gavin Marner 1
Fuatai Fuatai 1/2 Michael Hewson 1/2
Hamish Shierlaw 0 Justin Davis 1
John Duneas 1 Gary Judkins 0
David Wu 1 Ross Jackson 0
Alan Aldridge 1 Alan Khoo 0
Jeremy Smith 1/2 William Forster 1/2

Byes: Sebastian Kruger, Asheesh Gautam, Matthew King, James Stewart.

Summer Cup round 6 and a game

Nic kept his half point lead by grinding down Ross Jackson in round 6 (2 rounds to go). The entertainment was provided for us late night stragglers by Russell Dive and Anthony Ker who played out an exciting ending where Anthony had a bishop and pawns against a knight and an extra pawn (but doubled and isolated). Both players were in time trouble when the minor pieces came off and Anthony got a pawn through while Russell's got headed off by the opposing king. Result: win for Anthony.
And who is this coming up in the outside lane, joint third with Daniel Baider? It is I! Now all I have to do is beat Nic and Russell and I'll be laughing...

Full results:

Jackson 0 Croad 1
Dive 0 Ker 1
Marner 0 Baider 1
Sellen 1 Rabina 0
Nijman 1/2 Pomeroy 1/2
Forster 1 Bowden 0
Seabrook 0 Hill 1
Stracy 1 Joshi 0
Du Plessis M 1 Aldridge 0
Van der Hoorn 1 Salem 0
Farrington 1 Nicholls 0
Wilkins 0 Nyburg 1
Du Plessis N 0 Brockway 1
Pattekar 0 Olssen 1
Shierlaw 1 Proctor 0
Byes: Hewson, Meyer, Capper, Waugh

Standings:

5.5 points
Nic Croad

5 points
Anthony Ker

4.5 points
Daniel Baider, Ian Sellen

4 points
Russell Dive, Bill Forster, Martin Hill, Ross Jackson, Brian Nijman, Arthur Pomeroy, Don Stracy

3.5 points
Megan Du Plessis, Romeo Rabina, Mark Van der Hoorn

3 points
Paul Bowden, Lawrence Farrington, Michael Hewson, Mulshankar Joshi, Gavin Marner, Marany Meyer, Michael Nyburg

2.5 points
David Capper, Edmund Salem, Roy Seabrook

2 points
Alan Aldridge, Andrew Brockway, Alistair Nicholls, Alex Olssen, Mark Wilkins

1.5 points
Neels Du Plessis, Hugh Waugh

1 point
Somesh Pattekar, Matthew Proctor, Hamish Shierlaw

Here is my game from yesterday, Sellen v Rabina
I won't show you the opening because it wasn't very well played by either of us. Basically I played the cowardly 2 Nc3 against an Alekhine ("unaccountably favoured by club players" according to one book I read) and followed up with an early f4.





















Position after 14.....h5

Black has left f7 and g6 weak, so the next move came rather naturally.

15. Rxf7 Kxf7
16. Rf1+ Kg8
Any other king move leads to checkmate.
17. Qxg6 Qe7
18. Bxh5
So not a real sacrifice then - white gets a knight and 2 pawns for the rook. More important is the poor position of black's pieces, especially after he loses his white squared bishop.
18...... Rh6

Up to here everything was more or less forced. This move encourages the queens to come off, but it does not really help black's position.

19. Qf7+ Qxf7
20. Bxf7+ Kh8
21. Ne6 Bxe6
22. dxe6

This was to create an annoying bind in black's position, and also to vacate a possible outpost for the knight.

22. .......c6
23. g3 Rf6
24. Ne2 Rxf1
25. Kxf1 g5
26. Nd4 Kg7
27. Ke2 c5?






















Clearly a mistake, allowing the knight to dominate proceedings from an unassailable outpost on d5.
28. Nf5+ Kf6
29. Kf3 Be7
30. Ne3 Kg7

Now the black king has to retrace his steps back to the back rank

31. Nd5 Kf8
32. Kg4 Bd8
33. h4 gxh4
34. gxh4 Kg7
35. h5
35. Bh5 threatening e7 would have been a quicker win.

35..... Ba5?

The bishop fatally takes his eye off the e7 square

36. Bg6 Bd8
37. e7 Bxe7
38. Nxe7 Kf6
39. Nd5+ Kg7
40. Kg5 Kf8
41. Nf4

Black lost on time

Summer Cup round 5

The clash of the leaders ended in a draw. Nic Croad's king side pressure led to the gain of a pawn, but it seems that Russell Dive had enough counterplay to secure the half point. Now that Nic has played both IMs he must be clear favourite to take the title, with 3 rounds to go. Ross Jackson and Anthony Ker join Russell in the chasing group after winning against Michael Hewson and Gavin Marner respectively.

Full results:

Croad 1/2 Dive 1/2
Ker 1 Marner 0
Hewson 0 Jackson 1
Baider 1 Van der Hoorn 0
Salem 0 Sellen 1
Rabina 1 Du Plessis M 0
Nyburg 0 Nijman 1
Hill 1 Wilkins 0
Farrington 0 Forster 1
Aldridge 0 Stracy 1
Seabrook 1 Pattekar 0
Proctor 0 Capper 1
Nicholls 1 Brockway 0
Joshi 1 Shierlaw 0
Bowden 1 Du Plessis N 0
Byes: Pomeroy, Meyer, Olssen, Waugh

Standings:

4.5 points
Nic Croad

4 points
Russell Dive, Ross Jackson, Anthony Ker

3.5 points
Daniel Baider, Brian Nijman, Arthur Pomeroy, Romeo Rabina, Ian Sellen

3 points
Paul Bowden, William Forster, Martin Hill, Mulshankar Joshi, Gavin Marner, Don Stracy

2.5 points
Megan Du Plessis, Michael Hewson, Marany Meyer, Edmund Salem, Roy Seabrook, Mark Van der Hoorn

2 points
Alan Aldridge, David Capper, Lawrence Farrington, Alistair Nicholls, Michael Nyburg, Mark Wilkins

1.5 points
Neels Du Plessis

1 point
Andrew Brockway, Alex Olssen, Somesh Pattekar, Matthew Proctor, Hugh Waugh

0 points
Hamish Shierlaw

Please take time to check out Helen Milligan's new(ish) website, http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/ , unquestionably the most informative, attractive and up-to-date chess website in New Zealand.