[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.02"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Felix Xie"]
[Black "Josh Langford"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2166"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[ECO "E04"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 {However, he surprised me by playing the
Catalan, an opening that I hadn't prepared for in ages. I played the Open
Catalan with} 4... dxc4 5. Nf3 {and} 5... c5 {but as it turns out my lack of
knowledge and positional understanding in the opening killed me extremely
quickly.} 6. Qa4+ {is a sideline that I have never looked at before} 6... Nc6
7. Ne5 {almost instantly I make a blunder with} 7... Qa5+ $4 8. Qxa5 Nxa5
{Diagram #and my knight is trapped on the side of the board} 9. Bd2 cxd4 {I
tried to complicate the game a little bit} 10. Bxa5 Bd7 11. Nxd7 Nxd7 12. Bxb7
Rb8 13. Ba6 Rxb2 14. Bxc4 Ne5 15. Bb3 d3 16. Nd2 {but Felix quickly stabilised
and seized a completely winning position and I was forced to resign after just
16 moves. Not a terrific start to the tournament, but certainly a lesson in
preparation and a hole in my Black repertoire} 1-0

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.03"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Joshua Langford"]
[Black "Vaclav Fisher"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1637"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[ECO "C44"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 h6 $6 {Vaclav surprised me with this, the
idea is to prevent Ng5, but is unnecessary as I would've met }  (4... Nf6
{with} 5. e5 $1 {seizing the initiative and bringing the game into very
familiar territory for me} ) 5. O-O Nf6 6. e5 Ng4 $4 {Diagram #A blunder that
loses a piece after the simple} 7. h3 Ngxe5 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. Re1 d6 10. f4 f6 $2
{A final mistake allowing} 11. Qh5+ {followed by a king hunt} 11... g6 12.
Qxg6+ Kd7 13. fxe5 dxe5 14. Rxe5 Bd6 15. Qf7+ Kc6 16. Qd5+ Kd7 17. Re2 c5 18.
Bf4 Kc7 19. Qxc5+ Kd7 20. Bb5# 1-0

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.04"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Edward S Lee"]
[Black "Joshua Langford"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1974"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[ECO "B12"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 dxe4 4. fxe4 e5 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Bc4 Nd7 7. O-O Ngf6 8. c3
Bd6 9. Qb3 O-O 10. Bg5 Qc7 11. Bxf6 Nxf6 12. Nbd2 b5 13. Bd3 a6 $1 { This was a
move I had seen in a model fantasy Caro-Kann game which I had looked at just
before the game } 14. a4 Rfd8 $6 15. Rae1 {Diagram #I had originally intended
on keeping my a8 rook on the a-file, but after this, my a8 rook was practically
useless, as Edward was never going to open up the a-file with axb5} 15... Re8
{The changed circumstances seemed to justify changing my mind} 16. Kh1 Rad8 17.
c4 $6 {This surprised me, it seems to weaken the d-pawn} 17... bxa4 $1 18. Qxa4
exd4 19. c5 $1 {I missed this follow up, sacrificing a pawn to open up the
position and start an attack} 19... Bxc5 $2 {A misjudgement}  (19... Bf4 $1
{instead kills basically all of Edward's counterplay, and stops any future
attacking prospects} ) 20. e5 $1 {Opening the light squared bishop and
preparing for a Greek gift, which was extremely scary to face over the board}
( {I had expected} 20. Rc1 {trying to win back the material but} 20... Bf8 21.
Rxc6 Qf4 $1 {and e4 is falling} ) 20... Nd7 {Diagram #} 21. Bxh7+ $6 {Very
practical, as Black only has one defence, and it is very hard to spot under
time pressure.} 21... Kxh7 22. Ng5+ Kg8 23. Qc2 d3 $3 { Luckily I did spot the
winning idea! } 24. Qxd3 Nf8 $1 {sacrificing a pawn to attack the queen with
tempo, which halts White's attack entirely. } 25. Qg3 Bh5 26. Qh4 Bg6 27. Nc4
Rd4 28. Rf4 Rxf4 29. Qxf4 Ne6 30. Nxe6 Rxe6 {The position has settled  down and
I'm a full piece up} 31. Rd1 Re8 32. h4 Rd8 33. Nd6 Bxd6 34. exd6 Qd7 35. g4
Qe6 36. Rd4 Qf6 37. Qd2 Qxh4+ 38. Kg2 Qf6 39. d7 Qe6 40. Qf4 Qe2+ 41. Kg3 f6
42. Rd6 Be4 43. Rd2 Qe1+ 44. Kh2 g5 45. Qd6 Qh1+ 46. Kg3 Qh4# {A satisfying
criss-cross mate finishes the game in a good fashion} 0-1

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Joshua Langford"]
[Black "Stephen G Lukey"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1637"]
[BlackElo "2141"]
[ECO "B33"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8.
Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c4 b4 12. Nc2 a5 13. g3 Be6 14. h4 {The
point of my setup is to completely restrict Black's dark squared bishop} 14...
O-O 15. Bg2 Rc8 16. b3 Rb8 17. O-O Be7 18. Qd3 Qd7 19. Rad1 Rbd8 20. Kh2 g6 21.
Qe3 $1 {Black's wasted rook moves have gifted me time to exploit Black's
dark-square weaknesses with this move, intending 22. Qh6 and h5-h6 with an
attack to follow.} 21... Kh8 22. Qh6 f5 23. h5 Rf7 24. hxg6 Rg7 25. Rh1 $4 {My
attack had been very quickly gaining initiative, but this move gives Black an
opportunity to counterattack and terminate quite a lot of my activity}  (25.
exf5 $1 { Opening up my light squared bishop this way was stronger } ) 25...
Rxg6 26. Qh5 Bg5 $2 {Missing the opportunity}  (26... f4 $1 { Stephen pointed
out this move in the post-mortem, it locks in my light squared bishop and puts
pressure on g3 } ) 27. Kg1 Rdg8 28. exf5 {Black has given White a second chance
to get this in, and the Bg2 comes to life.} 28... Bxf5 29. Nce3 {Diagram #}
29... Rh6 $4 {This doesn't work out} 30. Qf3 Rxh1+ 31. Bxh1 {White is winning a
piece due to the dual threats of Nxf5 and Nb6 hitting the queen and uncovering
a double attack on the Nc6} 31... Rf8 32. Nb6 Qd8 $1 { A great attempt from
Stephen } 33. Qxc6 Bxe3 34. fxe3 Qg5 {hitting two weaknesses and posing a
puzzle I failed to solve in time. Despite me being a piece up, I handled the
counterattack quite poorly and my position became a shambles.} 35. Qf3 Rf7
{Diagram #} 36. Nd5 $2 {was a step in the wrong direction, requiring me to
tread a very narrow path to keep my advantage}  ( {I missed the much simpler}
36. Rf1 $1 {with the idea of meeting} 36... Be6 {with} 37. Qa8+ $1 {and White
is completely winning with no issues at all.} ) 36... Be6 37. Qe2 $4 {A blunder
losing material}  (37. Qg2 { Was sufficient to keep equality } )  (37. Nf4 $3 {
Giving back the piece to obtain a technically winning endgame, is now the only
winning continuation } ) 37... Bg4 $1 {and Black has a completely winning
position, which he converted with ease. Certainly a tough and tilting game, and
the aftermath of my anger is shown in my next few disastrous games.} 38. Qe1
Bxd1 39. Qxd1 Qxg3+ 40. Bg2 Rf2 41. Nf4 Qxe3 42. Nd5 Qg3 0-1

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.06"]
[Round "5"]
[White "David Cilia Vincenti"]
[Black "Joshua Langford"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2074"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[ECO "A36"]

1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 a6 5. a4 Bg7 6. e4 e6 7. Nge2 Nge7 8. O-O
O-O 9. d3 d6 10. Rb1 Rb8 11. Be3 h6 $6 { Intending to meet 12.Qd2 with
12...Kh7, overlooking David's whole idea } 12. d4 $1 {The thematic Botvinnik
Engilsh move shouldn't have been a suprise. David achieves quite a favourable
Maroczy bind, which I had no idea how to handle.} 12... cxd4 13. Nxd4 Nxd4 14.
Bxd4 Nc6 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. Qd2 Qe7 {With the idea of meeting 17.Rfd1 with
17...Rd8, } 17. Rfd1 {Diagram #} 17... b6 $4 { Preventing 18.c5, which wasn't
even a threat anyways }  ( {When Rfd1 appeared on the board I suddenly worried
that David could meet } 17... Rd8 {with} 18. c5 $2 {as I thought my d-pawn was
pinned to my d8-rook. Actually of course my rook was guarded by my c6-knight,
so there was no reason to panic with the pointless 17...b6?? which just
surrenders d6 pointlessly} ) 18. Qxd6 Qxd6 19. Rxd6 Bb7 20. b3 Rfd8 21. Rbd1
Rxd6 22. Rxd6 Rd8 23. Rxd8 Nxd8 24. f4 {The game simplifies into a pretty sad
endgame for me, a pawn down and a huge lack of space. It didn't take too much
effort for David to convert the position, and win a game where I put up
absolutely no resistance at all. An appalling effort from me, but one to learn
from and to not make the same mistakes again} 24... Kf8 25. Kf2 Ke7 26. b4 f5
27. Ke3 Nc6 28. exf5 gxf5 29. b5 axb5 30. axb5 Na5 31. Bxb7 Nxb7 32. Na4 Kd6
33. Kd4 Kc7 34. c5 bxc5+ 35. Nxc5 Nd8 36. Ke5 1-0

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.07"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Joshua Langford"]
[Black "Vyanla M Punsalan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1637"]
[BlackElo "1945"]
[ECO "B18"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nh3 $5 {The
point of this move is to transfer the knight to f4, where it can exert pressure
on e6 and potentially reroute to h5, pressurising g7. Scott has had huge
success with this line, and I hope to follow in his footsteps.} 7... Nf6 8. Nf4
Bh7 9. Bc4 Nbd7 10. O-O g5 $6 {Diagram #A surprise to me, with the clear
intention of opening up the h-file. The drawback is that it delays her
development, removes the option of castling short and keeps her king stuck in
the middle for a bit too long, but that was something I wasn't able to punish.}
11. hxg5 hxg5 12. Nh3 g4 13. Ng5 Bg8 14. Re1 Qc7 15. Qe2 Qd6 16. N5e4 Nxe4 17.
Qxe4 Nf6 18. Qf4 {With this move I gave up on trying to punish Vyanla's poor
opening decisions and went into an endgame that I thought favoured me , since I
had pressure along the e-file and harmonious piece placement. To my surprise,
the engine only evaluates it as +0.3 for me, which in retrospect is
understandable since she was able to regroup her pieces and apply pressure to
my position.} 18... Qxf4 19. Bxf4 Bh7 $1 { I really like this move, preventing
Nf5 and attacking putting pressure on c2 } 20. Bg5 Nd5 21. Re2 e6 22. Rae1 Be7
23. Bxe7 Kxe7 24. Ne4 Rad8 25. c3 b6 26. Bb3 Bg6 27. Bxd5 cxd5 28. Ng3 Rd6 29.
Re5 f6 30. R5e2 Rh6 31. f3 gxf3 32. gxf3 Kf7 33. Nf1 Bd3 34. Re3 Rg6+ 35. Kf2
Bxf1 36. Kxf1 {Diagram #Eventually we liquefy the position into an endgame with
double rooks and five pawns each side, where Vyanla has a glaring weakness on
e6, but my rooks are misplaced. She handles the pressure on e6 perfectly,
switching out her rooks and moving one to a more active position where it
exerts pressure on f3} 36... f5 37. R1e2 Rd8 38. Ke1 Rdg8 39. Kd2 Rh8 40. Kc2
Rh3 41. Kd2 f4 $1 { After this well-timed push, I realise that I can't keep
putting pressure on e6, and I am forced into defending a tough position where
her rooks infiltrate my camp } 42. Rd3 Rg1 43. Rf2 a5 44. Kc2 Kf6 45. b3 Rhh1
46. Rdd2 Kf5 47. Rde2 Rc1+ 48. Kd3 Rhe1 49. c4 Kf6 50. Rxe1 Rxe1 51. c5 $4 { I
played this  with just one second on my clock, and I instantly regretted it,
now I can't defend both my loose c5-pawn and my loose f3-pawn}  ( {Instead} 51.
cxd5 {would've kept some drawing chances} ) 51... Re3+ {Vyanla soon cleans up
my pawns and then her central pawns roll down the board. I was extremely
impressed by Vyanla's endgame technique. This was a game that I learned a lot
from, it exposed a big hole in my own endgame skills. } 52. Kd2 bxc5 53. dxc5
d4 54. Rf1 Ke7 55. Rc1 Rxf3 56. Rc4 e5 57. Ra4 Rc3 58. Rxa5 e4 59. Ra7+ Ke6 60.
b4 e3+ 61. Ke1 f3 0-1

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.08"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Joshua Langford"]
[Black "Huy Minh (Timothy) Ha"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1637"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[ECO "C10"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. Bd3 c5
8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. O-O O-O 10. a3 $5 { This was an idea I improvised at the board,
but I had seen it being implemented against the Botvinnik-Carls Caro-Kann. The
idea was to misplace Tim's dark squared bishop, take space on the queenside,
put my dark squared bishop on the long diagonal and eventually further push my
queenside majority to create a passed pawn. It turns out that this idea has
been used against this opening in the Lichess master's database 79 times, so it
was a decent improvisation on my part } 10... b6 11. b4 Be7 12. c4 Bb7 13. Qe2
Bd6 14. Bb2 Nh5 15. Be4 Bxe4 16. Qxe4 Nf6 17. Qh4 Qe7 18. Rfd1 Rfd8 19. Ne5
Bxe5 20. Bxe5 h6 21. Qf4 Rxd1+ 22. Rxd1 Rd8 23. Rxd8+ Qxd8 {We've quickly
liquefied to a Q + B vs Q + N endgame} 24. Qd4 Qc8 $2 {Avoiding the B vs K
endgame this way was a poor decision from Tim, as the control of the d-file +
my eventual passed pawn should be enough to get a decisive advantage} 25. c5
bxc5 26. bxc5 Ne8 {Diagram #} 27. h3 {An unnecesssary preparatory move}  ( {I
saw an opportunity with} 27. Qa4 $1 {but discarded it as I thought Black could
play} 27... Qxc5 $2 ( {actually Tim would've been forced to play} 27... a6 {to
which I could reply} 28. c6 $1 {and my passed pawn should be decisive  } ) 28.
Qxe8+ Kh7 29. Bf4 Qd4 {winning back the piece. However, I completely missed}
30. g3 $1 {which protects my bishop and avoids back-rank mate} 30... Qd1+ 31.
Kg2 Qd5+ 32. f3 {and there's no perpetual} ) 27... f6 28. Bg3 a6 29. Qc4 (29.
Qa4 {instead was better, preventing the blockading ...Qc6} ) 29... Qc6 {The
position is now a lot harder to win, and Tim does a great job of killing my
play.} 30. Kf1 Kf7 31. f3 Qb5 32. Qxb5 axb5 33. Bb8 $2 {Tim has managed to
trade into a B vs K endgame, I have an opportunity to push my c-pawn, but
instead I waste time with 33.Bb8, and let my c-pawn be blockaded on c5, and it
is soon won}  (33. c6 $1 {Instead would've fought for an advantage} 33... Ke7
34. Ke2 { Although Black can blockade the pawn, he can't win it } ) 33... Ke7
34. Ke2 Kd7 35. Bg3 Kc6 36. Bf2 Nc7 37. Kd3 Na6 { Now my c-pawn falls } 38. Ke4
{My position is now lost and Tim uses some nice endgame technique to convert
his pawn advantage. Appalling endgame technique from me again, but I learnt
from this game how to use a passed pawn to my advantage, and that I should try
to avoid getting it blockaded if possible} 38... Nxc5+ 39. Ke3 Kd5 40. Be1 g6
41. g4 f5 42. Bb4 f4+ 43. Ke2 e5 44. Bd2 Ne6 45. h4 Nd4+ 46. Kf2 g5 47. hxg5
hxg5 48. Bb4 e4 49. fxe4+ Kxe4 50. Bd2 Nf3 51. Bb4 Ne5 52. Be7 Nxg4+ 0-1

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.09"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Alexandre de Maupeou d'Ableiges"]
[Black "Joshua Langford"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[ECO "A45"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 c5 3. e3 Qb6 4. Nc3 Qxb2 {Diagram #} 5. Nb5 Nd5 6. Rb1 Qxa2 7.
Ra1 Qb2 8. Rb1 Qa2 9. Ra1 Qb2 1/2-1/2

[Event "New Zealand Championship"]
[Site "Christchurch"]
[Date "2022.01.10"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Aaron Ziwen Wang"]
[Black "Joshua Langford"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1788"]
[BlackElo "1637"]
[ECO "A29"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Bc5 5. Nxe5 {Aaron errs with this slightly
unexpected move, which is a common idea in the English } 5... Bxf2+ $1 {Since
Aaron has already committed to playing 4.g3, this plan is less effective due to
5...Bxf2+!, which I had prepared and was glad to play over the board.}  (5...
Nxe5 6. d4) 6. Kxf2 Nxe5 7. e3 $2 {Aaron quickly makes a mistake allowing me to
break in the centre}  ( {Instead } 7. e4 {would've held his position,
preventing d5 in a Maroczy bind fashion, and preparing to follow up with 8.d4 }
) 7... d5 $1 ( {apparently } 7... b5 { is even stronger, but this move has
never been played before in any database as far as I can tell } ) 8. d4 $2
{Allowing me to trade off his strong light squared bishop which protects his
kingside light-square weaknesses, which gives me a completely dominating
position.} 8... Nxc4 9. Bxc4 dxc4 {Diagram #Without a bishop to control White's
light-square complex, White's position becomes very hard to play } 10. Qa4+ Bd7
11. Qxc4 Bc6 12. Rd1 Ne4+ 13. Kg1 Nxc3 14. bxc3 Qd5 15. Qxd5 Bxd5 {Diagram
#Soon I traded into an endgame which I judged correctly to be completely
winning for me. Basically all of Aaron's pawns were on the same colour as his
dark-square bishop and the opposite colour of mine, so my bishop completely
dominated his position while his bishop could barely even move. As long as I
kept my bishop on d5 preventing any c4 or e4 breaks, I should be able to
convert this, as Aaron can do basically nothing to improve his position; all he
can do is sit around and wait for me to make a mistake.} 16. Re1 f5 17. Ba3 Kf7
18. Rf1 g6 19. Rab1 b6 20. Rf2 Rhe8 21. Re1 Re4 22. Bc1 Rc8 {With the nice plan
of ...c5!,  to weaken the d4-pawn} 23. a3 c5 $1 24. Bb2 cxd4 25. cxd4 Rce8 26.
Bc1 Rxd4 {Exploiting the pin on the e-file to cololect the weak d-pawn. Now a
pawn up, this is simply a matter of conversion technique.} 27. exd4 Rxe1+ 28.
Rf1 Re4 { I knew that I had to avoid trading off rooks, since although I am a
pawn up, the resulting position would be an opposite-colour bishop endgame, an
endgame which is near impossible to convert. Instead, I opted for the slow
grind, where I can push my queenside majority, keep the rooks on the board and
slowly but surely squeeze out the full-point. } 29. Bb2 Bc4 30. Rc1 b5 31. Rc2
Ke6 32. Kf2 Kd5 33. Bc3 g5 34. Kg2 $2 {Diagram #This makes my conversion easier
as I can seize more territory with} 34... Re3 $1 {controlling the 3rd rank,}
35. Kf2 Ke4 {and my pieces begin to surround Aaron's camp } 36. Bb4 f4 37. Bc5
Rf3+ 38. Kg2 a6 39. Rf2 Rb3 40. gxf4 gxf4 41. Bd6 $2 {Diagram #A final mistake
allowing} 41... f3+ $1 42. Kg3 Be2 $1 {Trapping the rook. The only problem now
was that I was situated on board 11, where at around 5pm the sun would beam
through the back window and onto my board, creating shadows and making it
tougher to visualise and calculate lines from the position. Luckily for me, the
game was basically over, and since I'd reached move 40 at this point, a few
careful moves were enough to force a resignation. } 43. Bc5 Rc3 44. h4 h5 45.
Rh2 Ke3 46. Rh3 Rc1 47. Bb6 Rg1+ 48. Kh2 Rg2+ 49. Kh1 Rg6 50. Bc5 Bf1 51. Rh2
Bg2+ 52. Rxg2 Rxg2 53. Bb6 Ke2 0-1

