Again we didn’t have many members turn up so we only had 5 boards playing. On board 1 it was John Worn vs Yash Narayan. They played Giuoco Piano opening and once John started winning pieces he didn’t stop, eventually promoting a pawn and quickly followed with mate.

Board 2 was Barry Hooton vs Paul Norris. White played a quiet queens gambit and it wasn’t until well into the game that white obtained an advantage with a rook on an open file that co-ordinated with the queen and an advanced knight to firstly go a pawn up and then an exchange up. The win should have been simple from here but only for Barry forgeting to protect a pawn which Paul duely took with counterplay. Luckily for Barry, black ran out of time handing him the win.

Other results were –

Dave Misileki v Paul Postma  0-1 default

Pauline Thomas v Greame Coleman  0-1

Temu Maroroa v Steve Singer  1-0

This leaves John Worn and Barry Hooton leading on 3 points. They will be paired for the critical game in the next round.

Please remember that round 4 will be played on Anzac day at 7.30pm and you should be contacting me or the club if you are not going to attend.

The number of players that were unable to attend on Wednesday 11 April was disappointing. We only had 8 out of 18 players turning up.

On the top board it was Paul Norris vs John Worn. After John gained a pawn Paul started sacrificing peices without enough inititive, so John eventually won a full point. Board 2 was Paul Postma vs Barry Hooton. As with board 1 Barry gained a pawn and swapped Queens in the process. It soon headed to an end game where Barry gained 2 more pawns and then promoted one. This soon lead to mate. Yash Narayan beat Greame Coleman on board 3 with the black pieces.

This leaves John Worn, Barry Hooton and Yash Narayan leading on 2 points.

Papatoetoe Chess Club Autumn Cup began on Wednesday 4th April. We had 7 boards playing in one group, under the Swiss format. In the 1st round, under a Swiss format, the top half (highest rated) play the bottom half. All of the higher rated players duely won their game except for board 2 where Temu Maroroa failed to turn up and so lost to Cairo Molesi by default. On the top board John Worn, playing white defeated John McRae.

There are 4 members who have taken half point 1st round byes so I expect more boards playing next Wednesday.