Congratulations on a marvellous chess career Ian! May all your future endeavors be fruitful.
As a 12 year old Ian participated in the 1973 Australian Championships where he scored 3/9 to be equal 72-79 out of 82 players. In his 7th round game was against Ken Henrick and in the book of that tournament stated: "Trying to console Ken Henrick for his 6 losses, the DOP told him he had paired him with a 12 year old, and that if he couldn't win this time he should give up chess"! How harsh! Ken Henrick went on to lose a piece to the old poisoned d4 pawn trick.
(224924) Rogers,I (2200) - Henrick,K (2200) [B03]Australia op Australia (7), 1973
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.exd6 exd6 5.c4 Nb6 6.Nf3 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 Nc6 9.b3 h6 10.Bb2 Bg4 11.h3 Bh5 12.Nbd2 Bf6 13.g4 Bg6 14.Ne4 Bxe4 15.Bxe4 d5 16.Bd3 dxc4 17.bxc4 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 Bxd4 19.Bxd4 Nd7 .. 1-0
Ian wrote a book on the 1980 championships called "Australian Chess into the Eighties". Which that championships was a very strong championships that Ian won. In that book Guy West gives a profile of Ian Rogers (as well as three other players).
"Ians success formula for chess is ingrained in his very character, He is
energetic, Hard-working and self-disciplined. Yet despite the gravity of
these qualities Ian has a tremendously buoyant personality and an ever present
sense of humour"
"Ian is a master of the power of positive thinking and is living evidence of the self-fulfilling prophesy"
"Ian always rates himself a chance ("you know Karpov has to lose sometimes!")and as a result, in my opinion he always is"
This view seems acurate given his results in tournament play both in Australia and over seas. His chess Career has taken him from Australia to USA, Argentina, Many European visits including playing in the British 4NCL championships and the German Bundesliga. And of course Asia.
Ian's Chess Career has included games against Gary Kasparov, An upcoming Sergei Karjakin, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Mikhail Gurevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Loek Van Wely, Artur Yusupov, Alexander Baburin, Evgeny Bareev, Alexander Beliavski, Alexander Morozevich, A win over Judit Polgar in a rapidplay game, Anatoly Karpov, Alexei Shirov, Vladimir Akopian, Victor Korchnoi, John Emms, Alexander Khalifmann, Viktor Bologan, Boris Gelfand, Nigel Short, Mikhail Tal, Vassily Smyslov, Eugenio Torre, Susan and Sofia Polgar, Vishy Anand, Boris Spassky, Jan Timman, John Nunn, Just to name a few of his famous opponents over the years.
I for one will miss observing his games at chess tournaments. I have played GM opponents in rated play twice, both being GM Dejan Antic, however I wish I could have had the opportunity to play Australia's no.1 GM. I suppose that is what a lot of Rogers fans are thinking at the moment.
Once again Congratulations on a marvellous career and I hope that we will be seeing you around the chessboards in some other capacity.
1 comment:
Very sad news for Australian chess.
I, like you, would have loved to have had an opportunity to play him.
Best wishes Ian in your retirement!
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