South Island Championship/Nelson Open Rounds 3+4

Today was the first sunny morning in Nelson so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures for you. The venue is directly across the road from our Motel, the Carmel Court, at the Hampden street school. This is the entrance,

then we walk a few minutes along this park

past a playground

and the entrance is just behind this tree.

The view from the outdoor analysis area. Planning this location cost Hilton Bennett his d pawn in the first round. It was worth it...for us :-)

The Arbiters throne.

Children's artwork decorates the walls.

A closer look

The kitchen and the aforementioned Hilton Bennett { left }

The players gather for the start of round three.

On to the games. I was not able to get the game re-player today because the site I use, chessvideos.tv  seems to be down today. I will edit this post when it is back up. Meanwhile, for the really keen follower I have pasted the pgn.

I got what I deserved in the morning for a half-hearted effort. I got a good position but spent hardly any time at the board, making a few superficial moves, in particular 15.Nc5. As Puchen pointed out, 15.e3 makes life unpleasant for black. Blacks extra pawn was not so great but I misplayed the ending badly culminating in 42.Rb7, forgetting that the knight covers the rook on a5.  

[Event "South Island Championship/Nelson Open 2013"]
[Site "Nelson"]
[Date "2013.10.10"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Black "Wang, Puchen"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2364"]
[BlackElo "2436"]
[ECO "D30i"]
[EventDate "2013.10.09"]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 c5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.d4 Nc6 7.O-O Be7 8.
dxc5 Bxc5 9.a3 O-O 10.b4 Bb6 11.Nc3 Re8 12.Bb2 a6 13.Rc1 Ba7 14.Na4
Qe7 15.Nc5 a5 16.Nd4 axb4 17.axb4 Nxb4 18.Ncb3 Be6 19.Nb5 Bb6 20.Bxf6
Qxf6 21.Nc7 Bxc7 22.Rxc7 Bg4 23.Qd4 Qxd4 24.Nxd4 Nc6 25.e3 Re7 26.
Rxe7 Nxe7 27.Rb1 Rb8 28.Rb6 Bd7 29.f4 Kf8 30.Bf3 Ke8 31.e4 Nc8 32.Rb2
dxe4 33.Bxe4 Nd6 34.Bxh7 g6 35.h4 Bg4 36.Nc6 Ra8 37.Ne5 Be6 38.g4 Ke7
39.f5 gxf5 40.Bxf5 Bxf5 41.gxf5 Ra5 42.Rxb7+ Nxb7 0-1



 And again I get to take on f3 and am allowed to play 6....Nc6! Rick didn't want to suffer a backward d pawn so he just gave it to me, hoping to get counterplay for it. 15.g4 just makes a bad position hopeless. GM Rogozenko seems to have quite a following :-) To long time followers this must seem like another action replay.

[Event "South Island Championship/Nelson Open 2013"]
[Site "Nelson"]
[Date "2013.10.10"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Hothersall, Rick"]
[Black "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1947"]
[BlackElo "2364"]
[ECO "A10"]
[EventDate "2013.10.09"]

1.c4 b6 2.Nf3 Bb7 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 Bxf3 5.exf3 c5 6.Bg2 Nc6 7.O-O Nge7
8.f4 Nf5 9.b3 Be7 10.Bb2 O-O 11.Ne2 Bf6 12.d4 Nfxd4 13.Nxd4 Bxd4 14.
Bxd4 cxd4 15.g4 Qh4 16.Kh1 f5 17.f3 Rad8 18.Qe2 Qe7 19.Rae1 Qd6 20.
Qd2 a5 21.Rg1 fxg4 22.Re4 gxf3 23.Bxf3 Rf6 24.Bd1 Rdf8 25.Bc2 d3 26.
Re3 Qxf4 27.Qxd3 Rg6 28.Rxg6 hxg6 29.Rg3 Qf1+ 30.Qxf1 Rxf1+ 31.Kg2
Ra1 32.Bxg6 Rxa2+ 33.Kh3 Rb2 34.Be8 Ne5 35.Re3 Kf8 36.Rxe5 Rxb3+ 0-1



Thanks to Jonathan Sarfati and Jeff MacWain for pointing out the error in the second game yesterday. I cannot correct it until chessvideos.tv is up again. As for Trevor Tao's suggestion that I was testing my audience, thanks for ascribing cleverness to my incompetence but the latter is and will usually be the case :-)

A demain mes amis :-)