New camera!

Purchased me a new camera yesterday!

Be able to get some pics at the Aus Champs! :D

So How am i doing...? Round 3 results and round 4 tips

Hmmm what unruly tips can i make at this our of the morning after 23.5hours with out sleep (and loving it.)

Firstly Round 3 Tips and results:

1.IM Lane, Gary (2) .5-.5 GM Rogers, Ian (2) Correct!
2.Obst, James (2) 0-1 GM Chandler, Murray (2) Correct!
3.GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (1.5) .5-.5 IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (2) incorrect - Ftacnik won
4.GM Schmaltz, Roland (1.5) 1-0 IM Smerdon, David (1.5) incorrect! - Smerdon scored an upset win!
5.GM Johansen, Darryl (1.5) .5-.5 IM Solomon, Stephen (1.5) correct!
6.FM Levi, Eddy (1) 0-1 IM Wohl, Alex (1) Correct!
7.FM Bjelobrk, Igor (1) 1-0 FM Dougherty, Michael (1) Correct
8.Lakner, Jay (1) 0-1 FM Goldenberg, Igor (1) Correct!
9.FM Humphrey, Jonathan (1) 0-1 WIM Moylan, Laura (1) Correct!
10.Ly, Moulthun (1) 1-0 FM Guthrie, Aaron (1) Correct!
11.FM Xie, George (0.5) 1-0 Smirnov, Vladimir (0.5) Incorrect! Drawn game!
12 Pyke, Malcolm (0.5) 0-1 WIM Caoili, Arianne (0.5) incorrect! Pike won
13 FM Canfell, Greg (0) .5-.5 Song, Raymond (0.5) Incorrect Canfell won!
14 Booth, Stewart (0) 1-0 Wallis, Christopher (0) incorrect Drawn game
15.Bird, Andrew (0) 1-0 Frame, Nigel (0) incorrect Drawn game!

So that Makes me....8 for this round
Round 1: 10
Round 2: 8
Round 3: 8

So My tips for round 4:

1.GM Chandler, Murray (3) .5-.5IM Lane, Gary (2.5)
2.GM Rogers, Ian (2.5) 1-0GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (2.5)
3.IM Smerdon, David (2.5).5-.5 GM Johansen, Darryl (2)
4.IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (2) 1-0 WIM Moylan, Laura (2)
5.IM Wohl, Alex (2) 1-0 Obst, James (2)
6.IM Solomon, Stephen (2) 1-0 Ly, Moulthun (2)
7.FM Goldenberg, Igor (2) .5-.5 FM Bjelobrk, Igor (2)
8.Pyke, Malcolm (1.5) 0-1 GM Schmaltz, Roland (1.5)
9.FM Levi, Eddy (1) 0-1 FM Canfell, Greg (1)
10.FM Dougherty, Michael (1) 0-1 FM Xie, George (1)
11.Smirnov, Vladimir (1) .5-.5 FM Humphrey, Jonathan (1)
12.FM Guthrie, Aaron (1) 1-0 Lakner, Jay (1)
13.WIM Caoili, Arianne (0.5) 1-0 Wallis, Christopher (0.5)
14.Frame, Nigel (0.5) .5-.5 Booth, Stewart (0.5)
15.Song, Raymond (0.5) .5-.5 Bird, Andrew (0.5)

Anonymous responses

Please.

If you wish to post a comment on my blog please give a name to me to let me know who you are. If you wish to be anonymous, include your name; and i will Delete the name from the comment for you.

I have said in a comment before; now i'll say it on the actual blog. I will no longer be accepting comments from anonymous.

How am i going? + Round 3 tips

Round 2:
My tips were:
1.IM Smerdon, David (1) .5:.5 GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (1) correct!
2.GM Rogers, Ian (1) 1-0 FM Bjelobrk, Igor (1) correct!
3.IM Solomon, Stephen (1) 0-1 GM Schmaltz, Roland (1) Incorrect - Drawn game
4.GM Chandler, Murray (1) 1-0 FM Humphrey, Jonathan (1) Correct!
5.IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (1) 1-0 Ly, Moulthun (1) Correct!
6.WIM Moylan, Laura (1) 0-1 IM Lane, Gary (1) Correct!
7.WIM Caoili, Arianne (0.5) 1-0 Obst, James (1) Incorrect Obst Won!
8.Song, Raymond (0.5) 0.5-0.5 GM Johansen, Darryl (0.5) Incorrect Johansen won
9.IM Wohl, Alex (0) 0-1 FM Xie, George (0.5) Incorrect Wohl won
10.FM Canfell, Greg (0) 1-0 Lakner, Jay (0) Incorrect Lakner won
11.FM Goldenberg, Igor (0) 1-0 Booth, Stewart (0) Correct!
12.FM Guthrie, Aaron (0) 0-1 Bird, Andrew (0) Incorrect Guthrie won
13.Wallis, Christopher (0) 0-1 FM Levi, Eddy (0) Correct!
14.Smirnov, Vladimir (0) 1-0 Pyke, Malcolm (0) Incorrect - drawn game
15.Frame, Nigel (0) 0-1 FM Dougherty, Michael (0) correct!

So How am i going?
Round 1: 10
Round 2: 8
I have to pick up my game......

Round 3 Picks
1.IM Lane, Gary (2) .5-.5 GM Rogers, Ian (2)
2.Obst, James (2) 0-1 GM Chandler, Murray (2)
3.GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (1.5) .5-.5 IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (2)
4.GM Schmaltz, Roland (1.5) 1-0 IM Smerdon, David (1.5)
5.GM Johansen, Darryl (1.5) .5-.5 IM Solomon, Stephen (1.5)
6.FM Levi, Eddy (1) 0-1 IM Wohl, Alex (1)
7.FM Bjelobrk, Igor (1) 1-0 FM Dougherty, Michael (1)
8.Lakner, Jay (1) 0-1 FM Goldenberg, Igor (1)
9.FM Humphrey, Jonathan (1) 0-1 WIM Moylan, Laura (1)
10.Ly, Moulthun (1) 1-0 FM Guthrie, Aaron (1)
11.FM Xie, George (0.5) 1-0 Smirnov, Vladimir (0.5)
12 Pyke, Malcolm (0.5) 0-1 WIM Caoili, Arianne (0.5)
13 FM Canfell, Greg (0) .5-.5 Song, Raymond (0.5)
14 Booth, Stewart (0) 1-0 Wallis, Christopher (0)
15.Bird, Andrew (0) 1-0 Frame, Nigel (0)

First bulletin out

The first Bulleting is out and it looks good. No games yet though......

Colours backwards

The list of games i had in my previous post are incorrect in that all colours are reversed. And the bolding didn't seem to do a very good job either.

So the results were

1.GM Ftacnik, Lubomir 1 - 0 FM Guthrie, Aaron (0)
2.FM Levi, Eddy 0 - 1 GM Rogers, Ian
3.GM Schmaltz, Roland 1 - 0 Smirnov, Vladimir
4.FM Dougherty, Michael 0 - 1 GM Chandler, Murray
5.GM Johansen, Darryl ½ - ½ WIM Caoili, Arianne
6.Lakner, Jay 0 - 1 IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan
7.IM Lane, Gary 1 - 0 Booth, Stewart
8.Ly, Moulthun 1 - 0 IM Wohl, Alex
9.IM Smerdon, David 1 - 0 Bird, Andrew
10.Pyke, Malcolm 0 - 1 IM Solomon, Stephen
11.FM Bjelobrk, Igor 1 - 0 Wallis, Christopher
12.WIM Moylan, Laura 1 - 0 FM Canfell, Greg
13.FM Xie, George ½ - ½ Song, Raymond
14.Obst, James 1 - 0 FM Goldenberg, Igor
15.Humphrey, Jonathan 1 - 0 Frame, Nigel

So I score a total of 10/15 for the first round. Arianne Caoli drew with Johannsen in a Queen and pawn endgame where Caoli had an extra pawn. Moultin Ly (theres that name again.....) defeated International master Aleks Wohl. Fellow NSWCA councillor Laura Moylan defeated FM Greg Canfell. Well done Laura! And James Obst defeatedFM Igor Goldenberg. Young Raymond Song played out a draw with fellow Sydneyite (and soon to be IM) George Xie.

So Lets see the draw for round two:

1.IM Smerdon, David (1) .5:.5 GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (1)
2.GM Rogers, Ian (1) 1-0 FM Bjelobrk, Igor (1)
3.IM Solomon, Stephen (1) 0-1 GM Schmaltz, Roland (1)
4.GM Chandler, Murray (1) 1-0 FM Humphrey, Jonathan (1)
5.IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (1) 1-0 Ly, Moulthun (1)
6.WIM Moylan, Laura (1) 0-1 IM Lane, Gary (1)
7.WIM Caoili, Arianne (0.5) 1-0 Obst, James (1)
8.Song, Raymond (0.5) 0.5-0.5 GM Johansen, Darryl (0.5)
9.IM Wohl, Alex (0) 0-1 FM Xie, George (0.5)
10.FM Canfell, Greg (0) 1-0 Lakner, Jay (0)
11.FM Goldenberg, Igor (0) 1-0 Booth, Stewart (0)
12.FM Guthrie, Aaron (0) 0-1 Bird, Andrew (0)
13.Wallis, Christopher (0) 0-1 FM Levi, Eddy (0)
14.Smirnov, Vladimir (0) 1-0 Pyke, Malcolm (0)
15.Frame, Nigel (0) 0-1 FM Dougherty, Michael (0)

MY Aus Champ picks are in bold; games where there are no bolding are draw predictions.

1 FM Guthrie, Aaron : Ftacnik, Lubomir
2 GM Rogers, Ian : FM Levi, Eddy
3 Smirnov, Vladimir : Schmaltz, Roland
4 GM Chandler, Murray : FM Dougherty, Michael
5 WIM Caoili, Arianne : Johansen, Darryl
6 IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan : Lakner, Jay
7 Booth, Stewart : IM Lane, Gary
8 IM Wohl, Alex : Ly, Moulthun
9 Bird, Andrew : IM Smerdon, David
10 IM Solomon, Stephen : Pyke, Malcolm
11 Wallis, Christopher : FM Bjelobrk, Igor
12 FM Canfell, Greg : WIM Moylan, Laura
13 Song, Raymond : FM Xie, George
14 FM Goldenberg, Igor : Obst, James
15 Frame, Nigel : FM Humphrey, Jonathan

Under starter's orders

The Australian Junior Championships started at 9.30 today. There are supposed to be live games here. however it appears that either as of 10.22 they have not started or they are having teething problems with the DGT setup. Hopefully they will have it fixed by this afternoon

This afternoon at 3.30 The Australian Championships, with 5 grandmasters, start form 3.30, with live games at the above site. I have decided to make some picks for the Championship division. For the first round i expect them to go according to rating.

****Late edit***** It appears that the games on the site have started as of 10.26.

GP pipe Dream

Wouldn't it be excellent if the GP could be organised to create a "tour of chess" perhaps incorporating a backpacking tour withchess?

For Example: Next year the Australian championships are to be held in Brisbane. A grand prix tour could then stop at the Gold coast for some relaxation and a tournament, say two weeks after the end of the Champs, Then on to Coffs Harbour where the chess players could work for a week and then have a chess tournament at the end of that week. Then on to Port Macquarie to work for a week followed by a tournament.

Then to Newcaste;

Then to Sydney and a weeks break sight seeing.

then on to Adelaide on the indian Pacific. Sightseeing/working in Adelaide followed by a tournament. Then travel to Ballarat for a weeks work and a tournament. Then on to melbourne for some sightseeing/work+chess tournament.

Then Albury

Finishing at Canberra For Doeberl Cup.

Then the second section of the grand prix could start at Doeberl and end up, say at a NSW Open. And so on.

It could also give an opportunity for places like Northern territory to get into the action and hold a tournament.

Perhaps Australian chess enterprises could have a child company "Australian Chess Tours" :D

Anyhow, you get my drift. I believe that something like this would attract more people to Australia to play chess. This idea combines the experience of backpacking with playing chess in tournaments.

Australian Grand Prix = 2005 Edition

As 2005 comes to a close we have the grand prix results wrap:

As Per the Australian Chess Federations Grand Prix rules, players can only win one prize.

Please note that these are not the official prizelist. Just an educated guess from the spreadsheets supplied by the ACF.
Therefore the prizes appear to be

Open:

1st: FM Igor Bjelobrk.

Igor Bjelobrk Has had an excellent year, winning several weekend tournaments. He has been quite prolific. He came close to winning the Doeberl Cup, coming third on a score of 5.5/7 to Grandmaster Ian Rogers and Aleks Wohl who both came equal first. Igor Scored 12 points at Doeberl.

At the next prestigious tournament, the NSW Open, Igor played excellently to win the tournament outright and win the 20 grand prix points over quality field such as Grandmaster Ian Rogers, IM Stephen Solomon and George Xie. At this tournament Igor defeated the Grandmaster!

Then came his tremendous battle with visiting FM Jesse Sales in a string of tournaments that took place in winter.

Firstly Igor overcame Sales to win the Fairfield Winter cup Scoring himself 20 points, Then on to the ANU open where Jesse defeated Igor to pick up first place, leaving Igor to claim Second and 15 grand Prix points. Sales went up to Sydney the next week to win the NSWCA June July Weekender and ended up 6th on the GP

Finally, Igor won the Ryde Eastwood Open, scoring himself another 20 points.

Well Done Igor!!


2nd: GM Ian Rogers
Australia's First grandmaster might have been expected to win the Grand Prix, after all....only your five best results count. Ian could only manage 4 GP tournaments this year in his busy schedule. Scoring Equal first with Wohl at Doeberl (17.5 points), winning outright the Gold Coast Open and the Caloundra Open scoring 20 points in these, and finally an equal third with 7 others at the NSW open.

Congratulations Ian!

3rd: Moultin Ly
Moultin Who? Moultin Ly, An obviously talented junior who appears to be taking the sunshine state (Queensland) by storm. Moultin Ly is also in contention for the first U2000 prize. So he will win whatever is highest. Like GM Ian Rogers Moultin only had 4 results in the GP - all of which were in Queensland. This year Moultin started his GP campaign at the Brisbane Open, where he only scored 7-8 points. But then came the Gold Coast Open and the Caloundra open, where he came outright second in both, and both tournaments he was behind GM Rogers. Finally, without GM Rogers Playing he scored a first in the Nell Van der Graaf Classic winning 20 GP points.

Congratulations Moultin.





4th: FM George Xie
Galavanting George Xie has not been as busy in the GP Scene this than last year. This soon to be IM scored Most of his points during the middle of the year in NSWCA tournaments. George won GP events a the Cat 2 May weekender where he scored 16 points and equal first at the Tuggeranong Vikings Weekender picking up 10.5points. His other points came from an outright second in the NSW Open (16points) half a point behind Bjelobrk, an equal third at Fairfield(9 points), behind Bjelobrk and Sales, and an equal fourth in the NSWCA July Weekender,


5th: Johny Bolens

The poor old Johny Bolens came second to Sales at the NSWCA July Weekender, Equal third at NSWCA Ryde Eastwood Open, behind joint winners Bjelobrk and Armen Ayvazyan, won Gosford Open, and equal third at Coffs Harbour.


Under 2000
The top four in the u2000 division gets a prize:

1st - Moultin Ly
because Moultin Ly might be taking the Open 3rd Prize chances are 2nd place will take first prize in this division

2nd - Ben Ingram
A tough competitor whom i seem to come up against in every second or third tournament we both play in. He scored his points in the Fairfiel Winter Cup, NSWCA July Weekender, NSWCA Ryde Eastwood Open and Gosford Open.

3rd - Jason Chan
The One minute Grandmaster scored his points in the following tournaments: NSW Open, Fairfield Winter Cup, Gosford Open and Ralph Seberry Memorial Open.

4th Raymond Song
This always improving junior kept going strong this year. I believe that Raymond Song is going to be a name to watch, for a long time into the future. Raymond scored his points at NSW Open, Fairfield Winter Cup, NSWCA Ryde Eastwood Open and Coffs Harbour Open.

5th - Kevin O'Chee
Kevin will be hoping that Moultin Ly will take out the 3rd Open division so that Kevin will win the 4th place prize for U2000. Kevin received his points at NSWCA January Weekender, NSW Open and Ralph Seberry Memorial.


Under 1600
1st - Eliot Hoving
What an improvement! What an improvement Eliot Hoving has made to his game! He has gone from a low 1500's player to a low 1700's player within this year! A feat that i would like to emulate next year perhaps....
Eliot won his GP points at Fairfield Winter Cup, NSWCA July Weekender, NSWCA Ryde Eastwood Open.

2nd - Andrew Brown
Andrew Brown recieved GP points for the following tournaments: Doeberl Cup, ANU Open,NSW Open and Tuggeranong Vikings Weekender.

3rd - Trent Parker (thats me! :D)
I play in alot of tournaments. The tournaments i got my gp points for are:
NSW Open, NSWCA Ryde Eastwood Open, Gosford Open, Coffs Harbour Open and Ralph Seberry Weekender.

4th - Steven Cooke
The only Queenslander in the top 4! He got his points from Coffs Harbour Open, Gold Coast Open and Nell Van Der Graff Open.


Junior Prizes1
1st - Raymond Song
Who will probably win a different Prize

2nd - Moultin Ly
Who will also probably win a different Prize

3rd - Max Illingworth
4th - Kevin O'chee
(who could possibly take a different Prize)

5th - Ronald Yu
6th - Michael Morrris

Any of these 6 can win the 3 Junior Prizes


Womens Prize
1st - Jessica Kinder

Unrated Prize
1st - Liam McGarity

This CD will self destruct in.......

The Mt Buller Debacle.

In Early 2005 The Australian Open was held in Mt buller. At the venue they were not able to deliver the "Buller-tins" to the subscribers due to printing problems. So near the events end they decided they would offer a compact disk with the buller-tins on them.

I was to be a recipient of one.

Now recently in the Australian Chess Federation News Bulletin we find out that people who were to get the cd's will be re imbursed for the outlay.
It took almost all year to finally get a result. After various stuff ups and things going wrong.

I hope the ACF now goes after the directors of Mt Buller Chess Inc. Which i think is only George Howard. I had only met George for the first time at Mt Buller and he seemed like a reaonable person. I really enjoyed MT Buller , and i think others did too. However under the pleasantry i think is a lot of uglyness. Mt Buller will never happen again.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

Happy Christmas everybody!

Chiristmas today was at home with relos coming over my place. Had an excellent time.

Eat, Drink, and be merry - the Parker Christmas Motto.

Lucky Me!

What have i done today?

I went down to the main shopping area of Picton, had some beautiful grapes for lunch, went to the Australia Post, Sent a money order express post to Gardiner Chess for entry into the Australian Minor. (Due to my mother's Credit Card being maxed out... before Christmas shopping.... will she ever learn....?) I bump into my Father in the Post Office, pretty happy, had spent the morning with his mother, my grandmother (who unfortunately wont be having christmas with the family.... the first time since.... before i was even born....) Anyhow... back to the story at hand. With the christmas spirit my father gave me $50 towards the entry fee!

Eeeexcellent!

It gets Better!

My father had completed his business for the day and all i needed to do was to go up to the train station and make a booking for my Brisbane adventure. So he decided to give me a lift up to the station to get my tickets.

Now i'm at the Ticket window waiting for the guy at the window to get off the phone. (well i wasn't expected and the next scheduled train was in about two hours....) But i get along well with this guy at the station. He catches alot of the trains that i do when he has duty at another station.

Now, I have a Person with Vision Impairment Pass. This entitles me to one free return Countrylink journey within NSW per calendar year. Which means that i had to pay the journey from the NSW/QLD border to Brisbane.

So i handed the warrant for the journey (from Sydney to the border) to the guy at the counter, he relayed my details and journey to the countrylink person on the phone. A couple of minutes later the ticket is faxed to Picton Station. They had made an error! Countrylink had given me the whole journey for free!

All in all... a very money saving day for myself.

Bring on Australian Minor!

Andrew Bird - 2005 NSW Champion!

Congratulations to Andrew Bird on winning the NSW Championship!

Andrew Bird has defeated Max Fuller in a four game playoff for the title at the rate of one game per day to be played at the Sydney Academy of Chess at Strathfield, in Sydney's West. The end result was 2.5 - 1.5 with some exciting play.

Game One: Fuller - Bird

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. f4 e6 7. Nf3 Nge7 8. O-O O-O 9. Be3 b6 10. d4 Ba6 11. Rf2 Qc7 12. Rd2 Rad8 13. d5 exd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. exd5 Na5 16. b3 Rde8 17. Bf2 Bxa1 18. Qxa1 f6 19. g4 Qg7 20. c4 Bc8 21. h3 Re7 22. Qc1 Nb7 23. Be1 Rfe8 24. Rf2 h5 25. g5 f5 26. Bc3 Qf7 27. Bf1 Kh7 28. Bf6 Rc7 29. a4 Na5 30. Qc3 Re4 31. Nd2 Re1 32. Re2 Rxe2 33. Bxe2 Bd7 34. Bd3 Rc8 35. Bc2 Re8 36. Kf2 Bc8 37. h4 Qc7 38. Nf1 a6 39. Ng3 Qf7 40. Bd3 Nb7 41. Qc2 Na5 42. Qc3 Bd7 43. Qc2 Ra8 44. Bc3 Nb7 45. Bf6 Qe8 46. Nxf5 Bxf5 47. Bxf5 gxf5 48. Qxf5+ Qg6 49. Qd7+ Kg8 50. Qxb7 Re8 51. Qd7 Qc2+ 52. Kf1 Qd1+ 0-1

Game Two: Bird - Fuller

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. f4 e6 7. Nf3 Nge7 8. O-O O-O 9. Be3 b6 10. d4 Ba6 11. Rf2 Qc7 12. Rd2 Rad8 13. d5 exd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. exd5 Na5 16. b3 Rfe8 17. Bf2 Bxa1 18. Qxa1 f6 19. g4 Qg7 20. c4 Bc8 21. h3 Re7 22. Qc1 Nb7 23. Be1 Rde8 24. Rf2 h5 25. g5 f5 26. Bc3 Qf7 27. Bf1 Kh7 28. Bf6 Rc7 29. a4 Na5 30. Qc3 Re4 31. Nd2 Re1 32. Re2 Rxe2 33. Bxe2 Bd7 34. Bd3 Rc8 35. Bc2 Re8 36. Kf2 Bc8 37. h4 Qc7 38. Nf1 a6 39. Ng3 Qf7 40. Bd3 Nb7 41. Qc2 Na5 42. Qc3 Bd7 43. Qc2 Ra8 44. Bc3 Nb7 45. Bf6 Qe8 46. Nxf5 Bxf5 47. Bxf5 gxf5 48. Qxf5+ Qg6 49. Qd7+ Kg8 50. Qxb7 Re8 51. Qd7 Qc2+ 52. Kf1 Qd1+ 0-1

Objection! Your Honour

In my previous post I said:

Now, I personally would be lenient and let a person who wishes to join the NSWCA on the day of the AGM.

However it has come to my attention that if a meeting is lenient and accepts a membership once the meeting has been brought to order Then there could be objections from the attendees at the agm and would be able to take the matter to the Department of Fair Trade. It may be viewed as Favoritism on the part of the chair.

In fact it does make sense to me now. What what i thinking?

My take on the NSWCA AGM

On the 28th of November a portion of the NSW chess members turned out to
what promised to be an interesting AGM.

Beforehand there was talk of
Jason Lyons and Peter Parr, as well as others taking positions on the NSWCA
council. I think Jason Lyons may have mistakenly assumed after having a chat
with Bill Gletsos (the current President) that bill would not contest the
Presidents position

When I arrived on the day (Late due to catching a
later train than i would have liked) i walked into a largerAgm than the previous
year however when i looked around the roomI noticed that Lyons and Parr was not
there.

I later learnt that when the meeting was called to order Jason
Lyons was not a member and thus was not eligible to run for President. So
because of this Lyons, Parr and whomever was with them decided to up and leave.

Now, I have heard various versions of the event. Apparently Jason's first attempt to Join the Association when the meeting was
called to order. Now, I personally would be lenient and let a person who wishes
to join the NSWCA on the day of the AGM.

HOWEVER, however i would not
let him be President. According to the NSWCA Registrar he has not been a member
since his tenure as registrar has started...... which was back in 1991! Now i
know that Jason Has Arbited a few tournaments and run some excellent tournaments
before I was involved in the chess community, but i really think a person who
wants to be the President of the NSWCA must support the NSWCA beforehand. Even
if it is only with paying the $25 membership fee earlier in the year or perhaps
even more than one year. I mean what are people to think? A person who is
friends with a chess shop owner tries to obtain the presidents job without
supporting the NSWCA in previous years it may make one wonder whether he is just
a puppet for the chess shop owner

Also Peter Parr, the chess shop owner,
was planning on going for the Vice Presidents job. And I can tell you... there
would have been a tough fight for that position if Jason Lyons got in. There was
a reasonable sized contingent at the AGM woul were going to nominate and support
another person in the event that Jase got the Job.

There were two trains
of thought in this matter. There was one arguement that Peter Parr may have had
a conflict of interest being on the executive of the council. Another Argument
was that between Lyons and Parr, they control half of the Executive positions,
and could possibly make decisions that may be beneficial to themselves due to
the executives being able to carry out business between meetings.

Now make a comment on a couple of things:

Quoting BG from chesschat.org (Australia's Chess community forum):

He then went on to discuss the other existing members of Council. He
pointed out
he wasnt interested in having Trent remaining on Council.

Well Jase join the Association. You might discover what i do. I
admit i may not exactly be a publicity whiz but at lease i am paying my
membership and contributing to the association the past few
years.

And from the Closet Grandmaster

I will leave the last word to Jason Lyons: "I'll continue to support ACF
initiatives, the GP if I can help in some way, Olympiad Appeals and the
like,
and Junior Chess. But these blokes have lost me."

Mate, we never had you! You never had a membership. I really hope you will reconsider your stance, Join the NSWCA and perhaps run next year?

Anyhow congratulations to the new members of council Andrew Bird( vice president), Brett Tindall (Tournaments Officer), Laura Moylan (communications officer), Rick Keuning (club liason officer) and Gareth Charles (member without portfolio)

For the first time in years the NSWCA has a full council!

Hope no one held their breath...

hmm yeah i'm really going well at the moment aren't i......

I promise to do better........

Yet another bloggy revival

Gunna revive my blog again.

Stay tuned for items on
NSW AGM
And maybe something about chess on the board.....

My Exchange Sacrifice Doesnt Pay Off!

..... And i end up a full rook down.......

I played in the 2005 Rooty Hill open played at the Rooty Hill RSL Club hoping that i may be able to advertise the Fisher's ghost Open tournament starting the Monday after the long Weekend. I received some fliers from the campbelltown collegians chess club and forgot to put them out on the 6th week due to being late. Last Night (which was the last round of the tournament) i forgot to put the fliers in my bag. I wanted to make an announcement before commencement of play but i was told i couldn't because it would be against the clubs interest as they had their club championships starting that week. I was not happy. I sacrificed playing in my own clubs championship to go all the freakin' way to Rooty Hill for 7 weeks to make an attempt at advertising The FG Open. Well.... What can i say..... We learn from our mistakes...... Playing in the Rooty Hill Open for me was a mistake.....I will not be playing in that tournament for the forseeable future. (Ummm i'll also mention that i played badly only scoring 2/6)

OH And Congratulations to Lee and Brian Jones who came 1st and 2nd respectively in the Rooty Hill Open.

Blog revival

Hello peoples. I have been a bit slack in updating my blog these last few months...... Will try to enter one post per day. Anyhow onto the next story....... I've got plenty of them at the moment.......

A.N.U. and I

Hello Peoples!

I appologise i haven't been updating this regularly. Annnnyhow.....

Last Weekend i played chess down Canberra in the ANU Open....

What a shocker i had!!! I ended up with only 2/7!!!
I had an excellent game against a visiting Mongolian woman(whose name currently excapes me and i couldn't pronounce her name anyway....)
But i lost it when i probably had a good chance of winning......

I then proceeded to lose to 3 ACT juniors..... I defeated one ACT junior and one NSW junior..... The other game i lost to Narelle Szuveges.

Mr Jesse Sales took out the event with a score of 6.5/7

I shared accomodation with Mr Sales whilst down canberra. His enthusiasm for chess rubbed off on me...... not that i'm not already enthusiastic about chess.... but i think i might try some slightly more main line openings to what i play now...... My game is going to undergo a transformation......

Jesse was studying for his round 5 game against Igor Bjelobrk from about 10-10.30 on the saturday night till about 12 and then was up at about 4.30 studying, preparing again for Igors game! And the hard work paid off!

Self Analysing games

Apparently one of the best ways for a player to improve is to annotate his or her own games. This is something i do too little of. I shall start to self analyse my games onto my blog for other's criticisms and thoughts... So there are going to be a lot of games go up here in the next couple of weeks because i plan on playing: ANU Open this weekend, NSWCA JUly weekender next weekend and then Coal city the week after!

Any How lets start off with my Grade match game played on Tuesday night....

Trent Parker - Terry Wall (1448)

1.d4 Nf6
2.f3 .... I like to play the Blackmar Diemer Gambit (BDG) this is a transpositional tool to offer the pawn if black plays 2...d4
2.... d4
3. e4 dxe4
4.Nc3 c6!? Black decides not to take the pawn..... you bewdy.... i get an open f file without having to give up a pawn! I can use this extra pawn to shoo away the knight on f6 :D
5.fxe4 Bg4+
6.Nf3 .... Now i was a little worried about Bxf3 here. However i ended up deciding that if 6...Bxf3 then 7.gxf3 then develope the q side rapidly to castle q side...
6...d6
7.Be2 Nbd7
8.0-0 Qc7 I had a bit of an inclinatation that Black was going to castle Q side....
9.e5 .... The plan here was to get rid of the knight on f6 and play Ng5 attacking the h pawn
9....Bxf3
10.Rxf3.... Keeping the pressure on f7.
10....Nd5
11.Nxd5 cxd5
12.c3 f6
13.

Need a break from the puter... i'll finish it later....

Improving aussie chess.... #2

This is a continuation of my previous post...

Perhaps it could be a condition of the ACF's Grand Prix conditions that the tournaments must be submitted with carbon paper scoresheets to be sold as a periodical....

However this would then not include the games in places like state championhips etc. Perhaps the scoresheets could be collected by the ACF when it gets submitted for ratings? Then there would be the problem of manpower. Trying to get all the games keyed in. Perhaps people could be paid to do this job? However the periodical must be cost efficient enough that people would want to buy the periodical....

As for this year.... I might propose to the NSWCA Council that carbon copy paper will be used for the NSW Championships and supporting tournaments to make a bulletin. I would be prepared to do the work... What do y'all think? is it worth crating a bulletin?

Improving Aussie chess.....

It has always struck me as more than a little odd, actually it is a tragedy, that in NSW, we do not have a habit of transcribing and recording games into a database. While scoresheets may be provided - no one actually collects these.

Imagine what gems are merely lying on some dustcovered shelf somewhere. It could be a Canfell massacre. Or a George Xie novelty. Or the genius of some future grandmaster. Who knows? - The Closet Grandmaster

Actually i've thought along these lines as well..... I have not spoken it..... but i have thought it :D.....

My Idea was more along the lines of perhaps publishing a periodical with the games of the tournaments that have been played during the past 3-4 months. I really think this would increase the quality of Australian Chess.

It has ewen said that Australian players know little or no opening theory. A Strong player could work out where the "inferior" move has been played and improve on it. Thus forcing the loser players to pick up their act because they get hammered every time they play a certain move.

Perhaps it could be a condition of the ACF's Grand Prix conditions that the tournaments must be submitted with carbon paper scoresheets to be sold as a periodical....

Dinner time.... more on this later.....

Visionary, Visionascary

How can we improve the Sydney grade matches for next year?

Time Controls: Some view shorter time controls as the way to go due to the long distance that people have to go to play their matches. However this may decrease the standard of chess. Perhaps the longer time control could stay as is for the Open and perhaps u2000 tournament whilst converting the remainder of the divisions to the shorter time period.

Finals Series: Wit the problems that have arisen from the grade matches this year perhaps several things should happen:
- No publishing of the finals series draw until all the regular matches hav been completed.
- Perhaps Neutral venues should be chosen for the finals.
- Perhaps the final should be a double round robin. Or a 2 leg K.O.

I think i have some more thoughts on this but being so late i'm gunna talk about them some other time.....

Time's Tickin' Away!

I won my grade match game last night. Fairfield won 2.5-1.5 which means that St george will beat us in the end by half a point..... Now we just got to wait for other results.......

Well..... I'm reasonably happy with my results 6/8. One game i totally botched up something severe and the other i sacked unsoundly..... I wasn't to know at the time but that team is now leading the comp..... As it turns out we will beat Rooty Hill.... Now it isjust whether North Sydney can hammer Ryde eastwood and we might get second or equal second....

I was astonished last night when i found out that the st George club does not use digital clocks! For such a big club i would think that they would be with the times. Campbelltown uses analogue clocks but they do not have any digital clocks..... I am going to suggest we change this... :D

Advantages of digital clocks over analogue clocks:
- Can see the display better
- Can accurately know when you are under five minutes.
- Ease in setting digital clocks compared to analogue clocks especially when clocks have to be wound back after a time period has been completed.

There would be more but IMHO it would make sense to use digital clocks over analogue clocks.

tick tick tick tick tick.......

Hi peoples!

Welcom to my Blog.

My Blog will normally be fairly clean stuff not contraversial or not provokative. However I will spill me guts about issues that arise.

One such current issue is the NSWCA Grade Matches. The finals of the Open division have been contraversial with complaints coming from no less than two of the four finals teams.

Firstly Canterbury complained about having three away games in the final. This was somewhat rectified by the swapping of the colours when Canterbury played Sydney Academy of Chess. However I agree with Mr Sike that a player will probably play better in familiar surroundings.

Secondly the Sydney Academy of Chess complained that the draw that was on the grade match booklets should be the draw used for the final, not the one that has been published on the web. The Original had the draw as:
Round 8: 1v4 2v3
Round 9: 1v2 4v3
Round 10: 2v4 3v1

Whereas the Internet published draw is effectively
Round 8: as above.
Round 9: 1v3 2v4
Round 10: 2v1 4v3

Ooh I just read some more interesting facts... Zhao can play for STG (No.1) in round 10 but not in round 9 and I0. Bjelobrk can play for Asquith (No.4)round 9 but not 10. This gets more complex by the minute.....

If the draw is changed back there will be complaints from st. George.... And also it would be too much of a short notice...... If it isn't changed Sydney academy of chess withdraws...... What a predicament the NSWCA has put itself into!

Perhaps the answer might be to play the final series when everyone is available for all games? Would this be fairer for all clubs concerned? Would the clubs be willing to scrap the games already played for a fairer system to be put in place? Interesting stuff.....

Also I must appologise to International master Javier Gil. I may have gone a little hard on him when he first commented on chess chat about the draw... then again i might not have.... I dunno.... I was in an argumentative mood.....

Go Fairfield

Got the final round of the U1400 Grade Matches tonight! Need a win to stay over 70% result rate. Pretty close in this division! 1st is Ryde Eastwood on 20.5 points second is St George Dragons on 20 points followed by Fairfield (my team) and Rooty hill on 19 points! We just need a clean sweep against........ D'oh St George Dragons!

Should be a good game though.......