NZ Open Championship 2019 Rounds 4 & 5

Brandon Leads

With the tournament having passed the half-way mark, IM elect Brandon Clarke is continuing his great form from the George Trundle Masters and is leading with 4.5/5. Today he drew quite effortlessly with the top seed, GM Timur Gareyev, after pushing gently for most of the game.

I have kept on my exercise regime, walking about 13km a day on average with several swims and a few gym workouts thrown in.  There are many nice places to walk in the area. The Cormorant reserve is one of them. I have been lucky to be able to have company on most of them.  

Round 4

Not my best day but a lucky one. I was playing a veteran from Belgium who has been in New Zealand for a while. I have not won a game with black for a while and felt that I had good chances for a while, especially given a huge time advantage. Visually black looks to be on top, to me anyway, given the light square weaknesses around the King, and control of the a file. Stockfish is not impressed.

Everything is more or less equal until I played the idiotic 22...Qh6, wanting to complicate. I had to spend the next few hours defending a lost position.

[Event "NZ Ch 2019"]
[Site "Auckland"]
[Date "2019.01.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Goormachtigh, J"]
[Black "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2148"]
[BlackElo "2332"]
[ECO "A40e"]
[EventDate "2019.01.14"]

1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.Nf3 Bb7 4.Nc3 f5 5.g3 Nf6 6.Bg2 Bb4 7.Bd2 O-O 8.O-O
a5 9.a3 Bxc3 10.Bxc3 Qe8 11.Rc1 Qh5 12.d5 Na6 13.e3 Nc5 14.Nd4 Qh6
15.dxe6 Bxg2 16.Kxg2 dxe6 17.Nc6 Nce4 18.Bxf6 Qxf6 19.b4 axb4 20.axb4
Ra2 21.Rc2 Ra3 22.Qd4 Qh6 23.h4 Raa8 24.Qe5 Nd6 25.c5 bxc5 26.bxc5
Nf7 27.Qxc7 g5 28.hxg5 Qxg5 29.Qe7 Qxe7 30.Nxe7+ Kg7 31.Nc6 Kf6 32.
Rb1 Rfc8 33.Rb6 Rc7 34.Nb4 Ke7 35.Na6 Rca7 36.Nb4 Rc7 37.Na6 Rca7 38.
Nb4 Rc7 39.Ra6 Rac8 40.Ra5 Ne5 41.f4 Nd7 42.Nd3 Nf6 43.Rca2 Ne4 44.
Ra7 Kf6 45.Kf3 Nxc5 46.Nxc5 Rxa7 47.Rxa7 Rxc5 48.Rxh7 Rc3 49.Rd7 Ra3
50.Ke2 Rb3 51.Rd3 Rb2+ 52.Kf3 Rb4 53.Rc3 Ra4 54.Rc5 Ra3 55.Re5 Rb3
56.g4 fxg4+ 57.Kxg4 Rb1 58.Ra5 Rg1+ 59.Kf3 Rb1 60.e4 Rf1+ 61.Kg3 Re1
62.Ra4 Rb1 63.Ra3 Re1 64.Kf3 Rf1+ 65.Kg4 Rg1+ 66.Rg3 Rf1 67.Rh3 e5
1/2-1/2

Round 5

My Kingdom for a tournament without an incident involving yours truly. Soon after the round started the door made loud rhythmic banging noises every time someone walked through it, which was very frequently. Quite a few players noticed and closed it very carefully, most didn't.

I resisted saying anything not wanting to be the grumpy complaining old man again. After about an hour or more I was not able to stand it anymore and went over to the arbiters desk to politely point it out to the chief arbiter. There were three other assistants sitting at the desk. I thought they might eventually do something but no, they all just sat there.

Finally, about move 30 my position got quite complicated and I had to calculate some quite complex variations. Clack clack clack....clack clack clack... clack clack clack... and still, all four just sat there doing sweet FA!

This time I was not so polite and objected in a manner which surely disturbed many players and I should have used language more appropriate for an event where juniors were playing. Anyway, the noise stopped as someone had the sense to apply a small piece of electrical tape.

The game itself was quite messy with many improvements for both sides. Only 38...Ke8 was fatal. Instead, 38... Ke6 seems to hold.


[Event "NZ Ch 2019"]
[Site "Auckland"]
[Date "2019.01.18"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Black "Soo-Burrows, Eliot"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2332"]
[BlackElo "2154"]
[ECO "A03"]
[EventDate "2019.01.14"]

1.g3 Nf6 2.Bg2 d5 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.O-O O-O 6.d3 c6 7.c3 Qb6+ 8.Kh1
Ng4 9.d4 Bf5 10.h3 Nf6 11.Nbd2 Ne4 12.Qe1 Nd6 13.g4 Be4 14.Qh4 e6 15.
b3 Qd8 16.Ba3 Qxh4 17.Nxh4 Bxg2+ 18.Kxg2 Rd8 19.Bxd6 Rxd6 20.e4 dxe4
21.Nxe4 Rd8 22.f5 exf5 23.gxf5 Nd7 24.fxg6 fxg6 25.Rae1 c5 26.dxc5
Rdc8 27.b4 b6 28.Nd6 Rc6 29.Re7 Nf6 30.Rd1 bxc5 31.b5 Rb6 32.a4 Bf8
33.Re6 Nh5 34.Re8 Rxd6 35.Rxf8+ Rxf8 36.Rxd6 Rf4 37.Rd8+ Kf7 38.Rd7+
Ke8 39.Rxa7 Rxh4 40.b6 Nf6 41.Ra8+ Ke7 42.b7 Nd7 43.a5 Ra4 44.a6 Ra2+
45.Kg3 Rb2 46.Rh8 1-0

Tomorrow I get to play the Blindfold King for the second time, this time with black. A challenge is always good, and this is surely a challenge 😉