Upping the Anti(c)

Norths Club was the venue of the NSWCA Australia Day weekender, which attracted a rather disappointing crowd of 62 (down from over 70 last year). However the quality of the chess was excellent on the top boards with 16 players rated over 2000.

The first round went according to rating except for Joshua Christensen (1605) winning a lost endgame against visiting Frenchman Guillermo Campitelli (FIDE: 2173) who apparently blundered into mate. Other Upsets included Ex Campbelltown player Robin Mayo (1147) defeating Elliot Hoving (1820) and E Tamsot (unr) defeating Irvis Venclovas (1713).

The Second Round upsets saw Christopher Skulte (1605) defeating Max Illingworth (2096) and Michael Ngo defeating Mark Ryan. All other games went according to rating.

Something amazing happened in round 3.

Ex Australian Chess Federation Webmaster and Newsletter editor Paul Broekhuyse (pictured Left) defeated International Master elect George Xie (pictured right)! This was by far the upset of the round. Other upsets included Anthony Lo (1625) defeating Allan Mcgregor (1872), Shane "Bergil" Burgess(1498) drawing with Francisco Plaza (1825), Terence Wall (1488) defeated Andrew Furst (1773), Robin Mayo continued to perform above his rating by beating Carla Wettstein (1773), Balsalan Karayi (1311) defeated Mark Ryan (1557). Unrated Thai Pham defeated Benjamin Whiteside (1350).

On top boards in round 4 Dejan Antic defeated Vincent Suttor and Igor Bjelobrk defeated Paul Broekhuyse to be the only two leading the tournament on a picket fence score: 4/4. Upsets on the lower boards included: Michael Morris (2030) defeating Neil Wright (2138). John redgrave defeated Michael Dunn, Balsalan Karayi defeated Jose Escribano (1687) E Tamsot defeated Ian Dickson (1575) and My mate Lance Chiddy (955) drew with George Smit (1464)

On Sunday, round Five, it was time for the Titans to Clash:









In the 5th round it was time for GM Dejan Antic (Top, Please excuse the Blur) to play Igor Bjelobrk (bottom). This game ended in a long draw.

Further down the boards more trouble for George Xie was brewing. After a while away from weekend chess Romeo Capilitan defeated the FM - IM elect. George whats happening? 'spose people just have a bad tournament (puts had up!) Other upsets included John Redgraves draw against T Hisler, Herman rachmadi defeating Rob Hvistendahl, Anthony Lo drawing with Ahmed Farris, Tarek Elgindy drawing with Danny Wayne Bisson and Lindsay Went (1278) drawing with Mark Ryan.



I wasn't able to get much for rounds six and seven but the major results were Igor Bjelobrk drawing to Jason Hu in the final round to fall short of first by half a point. Oh and an upset win in the last round by Luthien Russell Over The Chess Nut :D



1st was GM Dejan Antic on 6.5 points (only losing the half point to Bjelobrk),

2nd was FM Igor Bjelobrk 6 (having drawn with GM Antic and Hu)

3rd was Johny Bolens with a score of 5.5 (Taking a half point bye in fourth round and losing to Antic in the sixth round)



My appologies for the lateness of this report. I will try to get one more promptly in future.



Other photos I took at the Australia Day Weekender:

Shane Burgess and Nick Chernih have a laugh over the life of brian series of movies! :D

Below: Robin May L and Lance Chiddy R

Wei, Lin Ahead

Michael Wei and Zhigen Wilson Lin currently lead the Australian Juniors currently being held in Canberra. They are on a score of 7/8 with Three rounds to go. 6 players have 6/8 to be equal third, including Christopher Wallis and Junta Ikeda

In the other events:
U18 Girls: Emma Guo is the sole leader in this event on 7/8 a full point in front of Jessica Kinder, Alana Chignall and Sally Yu.

U12 Boys: In this division many players are in contention. Currently coming first on 6.5/8 are: Vincent Horton, James Li, Oscar Wang and Gene Nakauchi. I hope Oscar Wang wins this event although he is not the top seed. Oscar defeated me twice last year, both when is rating was below 1000. He is a rapidly improving junior!

U12 Girls: Currently first on 6.5 points is ACT Junior Megan Setiabudi, closely followed by Clarise Koh on 6 points, Abbie Kanagarajah, Alannah Byrn and Natasha Bortsova on 5.5 points.

Time management

My new years resolution is to manage my time more efficiently so that i get things done on time and without any rush. I started on Sunday night by typing myself out a daily schedule for this week. I believe that allocating my time to various tasks will improve the chances of me getting work, playing better chess, improving my management of administration activities and more...... Including regular blogging.

I've started studying chess by reading a book that i have started several times but never got past the first few chapters - My System by Aaron Nimzowitch. I will also start studying endgames using Dvoretsky's endgame manual. And soon I intend on starting on the " Seven circles" method which i have previously commented on a while back. No more online blitz for me :D

I have had to adjust my schedules though. I didnt leave any time to Blog! lol

Catching up

In this Post i'll talk abou the things i've missed recently

Firstly and Foremostly, congratulations to Zong-Yuan Zhao on winning the Autralian Open on a score of 9.5/11 closely followed by Rogers on 9/11 and Canadian GM Bluvshtein and GM Daryl Johansen Rounding out the podium finishers. There were a disappointing 58 entries in the event

In the Supporting events:

The Minor which was played over the first few days was won by young ACT Junior Allen Setibudi with a picket fence score. I remember Allen defeating me when he had a very low rating at the ANU Open in 2005!!! Congratulations Allen!!!

The Major was Played after the New Year and was won by Sherab Guo - Yuthok who drew twice and won his other four to win with a score of 5/6.
The top seed of the Major, Brian Thomas could only get a draw out of Sherab and lost to Yi Yuan to come outright second on 4.5/6.

Victorian Leon Kempen and New South Welshman FM Brian Jones both ended up in the seniors undefeated, however Leon played out two draws where as Brian was held to three. Congratulations to Leon Kempen for winning the Australian Seniors on a score of 6/7

Thats my wrap up of the Australian Open events (although anyone who reads this will probably already know the details...). Games from all these events can now be downloaded from the Ozbase website.


The Australian Juniors Started on the 14th of January and will end on the 28th. Current Leaders after 5 rounds are Christopher Wallis and Michael Wei on a score of 5/5 with James morris half a point behind. There are 85 players in this event.

Girls U18 is being led by Jessica Kinder on 5, Emma Guo on 4.5 and Sarah Behne Smith performing above her rating on 4. There are 25 players in this event.

In the U12 Open division Yi Yuan and Laurence Matherson are equal leaders on a picket fence score followed by 9 players on 4 points. There are 78 players in this event.

And in the very little ladies class (U12 Girls) there is a field of 22 players which is being led by Abbie Kanagarajah on 4.5 points followed by Caroline Shan and Clarise Koh on 4.5 points.

AND NOW

Internationally the Corus tournament is currently being held in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Before it had started i picked Topalov to win. I like his attacking style of play. The event is a single round robin due to the amount of players in the premier event this year.

The contenders are
Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Teymour Radjabov, Peter Svidler, Ruslan Ponomariov, David Navara, Alexey Shirov, Magnus Carlsen, Loek van Wely, Sergey Karjakin, Sergey Tiviakov, Alexander Motylev.

It will be interesting how the youngsters go. How will Magnus Carlsen and Karjakin go against the big guns? Can Radjabov prove that he is the superior of the youngsers?

After five rounds Radjabov leads on 5/5 but he has not yet met any of the higher rated grandmasters. Second on 3.5/5 is Vishy Anand and Vaselin Topalov.

One of the games, Navara - Radjabov interested me as i like to play the benko gambit but this was not really a benko gambit. I will be interested to see if more games are played with this system. I may even employ it myself!!!

Ok thats it! Now i'll post regularly!

Back On Solid Ground

On Monday I disembarked the Pacific Sun with cold / flu like symptoms that I had recieved in the latter part of the cruise. Mystery Island was excellent and i didn't get to see Isle of Pines, I was too sick. Anyhow I'm feeling better now.

Here is a couple of photos:

Perfect Port Vila? Pissing down Port Vila

Tdayit was pouring dwn at port vila in the afternoon. In themorning we were able togo to the cultural tour. Itwas excellent

Stuff this computer keysdon work properly.

wonderful Wala to Perfect Port Vila

Got to Wala today but didnt go swimming in their pristine waters as there was apparently "stingers" in the water. Later however i found out that they were only sea lice which only bite at the waters edge and not any form of jellyfish. I got a couple of photos on wala.

Tomorrow we head to Port Vila. We take off on a cultural tour followed by a jetboat ride with the opportunity to have a look through Port Vila in the afternoon.

I'm finding little competition chesswise on the boat however tonight i came against this young adult from Melbourne. His mates told me that he used to be a really good player and is out of practice.

I played Black and my opponent played a Ruy Lopez and i decided to play a schlemann. play was quite double edged and evenually i trapped his knight on the queenside with the bonus that I also had mating threats at the end of a nice little combo. He missed the mate threat and i was the victor! Finally i have some competition!

Happy New year!!!

Happy new year to one and all. Today the P & O Pacific Sun visited Champagne Bay in Vanuatu. A Beautiful and idilic spot to relax and swim in the tuquoise blue water.

However I didn't get to see much of it! I had a big one at the new years eve party last night! But before dinner there was no water to have showers in several of the rooms. Today we discovered that three young men were booted off at Champagne bay as they were causing trouble and decided to rip the shower head and arm off the wall causing their compartment to become flooded! And now they have to find their own way home :D sweet justice!

Anyhoo Wala tomorrow..... and then Port Vila the next!

Bye Peoples!