After the third round of the Winter competition all players, both in the adult group as well as in the youth group, had to concede at least half a point.

Adult Group

Given the fact that some players could not make it last Thursday, James and David played their game of round 4 while Joseph and Daniel played their 3rd round according to schedule.

James with white played a solidly hypermodern-style move order which did not put black under high pressure, but it also did not give much for black to work on other than positional maneuvering. In that stage of the middle game, when white seemed to be having a small plus, black was given the opportunity to simultaneously attack the center and the h-file looking into the king’s castled position. A small amount of material was won which was enough for David to win the game.

Joseph played with white against Daniel and around move 13 could have pushed for a possibly decisive plan. Not doing so offered Daniel enough counter ideas for black to win the game.

Yesterday, Tuesday, David and Daniel played their round 5 game ahead of schedule and Hannah caught up her game against James.

After Hannah’s initial initiative around the open h-file and in the center, James solidified his position such that he could start a strong black pawn attack on the queenside which turned out to be causing Hannah to weaken key squares around her long side castled king and lose several critical pawns and the game.

David played an attacking game with white against Daniel. In the middle game he had a pawn on h6 and two center pawns on e5 and d5 and with the rooks supporting them from behind the position looked good for white. Daniel’s defense and counter-attack resulted in temporary initiative after a wrong bishop capture by David. This cost David valuable time and with 40 something seconds left on the clock he was forced to repeat 3 times the same position through check and settle with a draw.

 

 

Youth U12 Group

At the start of round 3, Ronald, Rachel and Miguel Angel were the three players with the full score of 2 points.

Ronald with white opted to exchange queens early in the game but that didn’t take the dynamite out of it. Miguel Angel won a pawn on f2 but accepted Ronald’s draw offer when the position still had a lot to go for.

 

 

Rachel drew against Oliver after some confusion about the process. It is important to know that you can only offer a draw when you have done your move and, if a draw is offered to you, you cannot accept a draw after you have done your move. If you feel this process has not been followed it is important to get the arbiter in and definitely do not talk and exchange ideas about the chess game with your opponent.

Jonathan climbed back up in the ranking by defeating Regis as did Mei Jing after her win against Hugo and Arjun’s win against Ray gives him his first lift up. Anything can still happen in the coming Year of the Horse!