Australian Internet Junior Interstate Championships

Are well underway!

The first event that is currently well under way is the Australian Internet Junior Interstate Chess Championships, which sees teams of 12 battle it out to see who is the best chess playing state in the country over a time control of 1hr each.

Today, To start this blog i will review the past two rounds and preview the upcoming round.

6 teams are contending this interstate round robin competition.
Round 1 Draw put chess population Giants NSW against the relatively Smaller Tasmania, The Battle of the AFL states (South Australia v Victoria), and favorites ACT play QLD

NSW 11 v TAS 1
The Tasmanian Kids were outrated on every board. However Tasmania were able to pick off an upset with Nina Horton defeating Jordan Morris as White after 44 moves of a Four Knights game.

VIC 9 v SA 3
The game to watch out for in this round was the top board clash between Christopher Wallis (Vic) and James Obst (SA). One ratings point splits these two players so i was assured to be a tight game. James' Alekine defence lasted out until the 33rd move where he played a check that lost him the exchange and, later on, the game.
South Australia were outrated on every board. Upsets in this tie were:
Feldja Zulfic defeating Eugene Shon, Anthony Khoo defeating Cedric Antolis and James Griggs defeating Udit Thakur.

ACT 11 v QLD 1
For the third tie running one state has the higher rated players on all the boards. For the small population of the ACT the amount of highly rated juniors is astonishing.For this tie they only have one player rated below 1000. So the Queensland team, lead by Alex Jule (the 2006 Australian Girls Champion), had a battle on their hands.
All boards went according to rating except for Brock McIntyre who defeated Sherab Guo-Yuthok.

Round 2
the first match of the round saw the banana benders (QLD) play the kids from the Apple Isle {TAS}. South Australia v ACT was the second tie and NSW faced of with those kids south of the border (VIC).

TAS 5.5 - QLD 6.5
In the tightest match in the tournament so far, QLD pipped the lower rated Tasmanian side at the post. Upsets: Alastair Dyer (TAS) defeated the slightly higher rated Sam Grigg (QLD).

SA 1.5 : ACT 10.5
Junta''s team of Giants Rolled on over the top of the South Australians. ACT were higher rated on all the boards except for the top board. On the top board monkey business was the order of the day; Junta Ikeda could not detain James Obst's Orang Utan that wore down Junta's position in the endgame. South Australia's other half point game from Sophie Eustace, who drew with Andrew Brown in an opposite colour bishop endgame.

NSW 9.5 : VIC 2.5
One might Consider this the match of the round. With Ronald Yu and Christopher Wallis battling it out on the top board, Vincent Suttor, Dusan Stojic playing on the Second board and both teams having a long list of rated players, the tie promised to be an interesting contest.
On the top board Ronald Yu played a type of london system which led to an interesting game. Christopher Wallis sacrificed the exchange for a pawn, however, in the end it was not enough compensation for the exchange and Christopher went into the engame an exchange down. Even still. It took Ronald Yu 93 moves to compell his opponent to resign.
Meanwhile on the second Board Vincent Suttor's Dragon breathed fire.
Victoria Out rated their Norther counterparts on 5 of the 12 boards. So there were some upsets of NSW over Vic. These include Deborah Ng over Udit Thakur, John McMahon over Rocheleh Ziffer,Jordan Morris drawing with Yi Liu.

So Now its time to preview this round.
The first matchup tonight sees the battle of the Bass Straight (Vic v Tas), the Capital versus the first state is matchup number two which leaves South Australia To battle the Sunshine state (QLD)

On paper Victoria Outrate Tas on all the boards, so it appears that the battle of the bass straight will be won by the Victorians. However the Tasmanians will be throwing all they have at the Victorians

My pick for matchup for the day is the ACT v NSW clash of the titans. NSW have a the higher rated players in the top 5 boards (also the 12th) and the ACT have the upper hand on the next 6 boards. We could well see a 6-6 scoreline. NSW is currently 1 point behind ACT so they will be looking for a 6.5-5.5 or 7-5 win in this game to keep them in the hunt. The games to watch would be: Junta Ikeda v Ronald Yu and Gareth Oliver v Vincent Suttor.

Last but not least...
SA v QLD
Queensland out rate South Australia on 9 out of the 12 boards. Also South Australia have three unrated players who could possibly build up a surprise win.