Aus Champs Photos

The Photos I took from the Australian Championships are now on the net here

Keep Dejan In Australia

At the 2008 Australian championships there was a petition signed by players in order to persuade the Australian Immigration Department to allow Dejan Antic permenant residency in Australia.

I would also like to do something for Dejan.

I would like to start an online petition for Dejan Antic

What I would like people to do is to comment below on how you think Dejan would positively impact on Australian Chess and the Australian Society in general. Also provide a Full name and the name of the chess club you belong to. Lets see if this takes off!

Eg:

I believe that Ejan atic is a great chess mind and he is able to share with students his chess wisdom to players from beginners to advanced players. He works with various schools to implement chess into the schools extra curricular activities. Chess has a proven effect on school children in various ways. The more chess is promoted the more chess players we will have the more masters Australia will have in the future.

Trent Parker
Campbelltown Collegians Chess Club

All Hail King Solomon!

After 14 attempts and 28 years, Queenslander IM Stephen Solomon finally defeated all other contenders for the title of Australian Champion 2007-2008. GM Dejan Antic won the tournament but was not elligible for the title of Australian Champion.



After Round Ten we had our Brazilian visitor Mr Herman Van Reimsdijk whom had remembered Doug Hamilton from a tournament back in the early 1970's! Van Raimsdijk accounted for German visitor Felix Klein. Solomon had had yet another draw, this time with IM George Xie. Dejan Antic kept his chances alive by drawing his game with Max Illingworth on top board. Greg Canfell went down to Igor Goldenberg on board four. The only upset for round ten was Jesse Sales defeating underperforming GM Daryl Johansen in what probably was a drawn endgame. Draws included Ben Lazarus against Tristan Boyd, David Hacche against Sam Chow, Gareth Oliver against another underperforming Master in Gary Lane, Junta Ikeda drew with Barak Atzmon-Simon, Ascaro Pecori broke his losing streak by drawing against Jason Hu. And Dusan Stojic drew with Michael Wei, unfortunately giving Dusan the bye for round 11.



On top board George Xie accounted for Van Reimsdijk, board two saw Antic defeat Igor Goldenberg, Solomon was held to a draw by Tomek Rej, Young guns Max Illingworth and Moulthun Ly drew, as did Sales against Klein, Boyd against Chow, Hacche held Lane, Yu against Bjelobrk, and Malcolm "Macavity" Pyke drew against Gareth Charles. Gareth Oliver defeated NSW State Champion Greg Canfell, which was the only upset for the final round.

Congratulations to 16th seed James Watson for obtaining the chance of participating in the next Australian Championships by winning the Australian Major title. James won the title after obtaining a score of 8.5, equal with Korean Yongtae Kim. A playoff was played between the two which ended up in a blitz playoff for the trophy. James Watson eventually won the playoff and the trophy.

Congratulations to Bob Liang on winning the Minor division by defeating Tereza Grbin in the last round. Howard Duggan was unlucky to come up against me with a full head of steam having won the last four in a row. we both had our chances in the game. I ended up winning that game thus holding Howard back to second place and I defeated Anthony Villanueva in round 10 and Howard in round 11 to snatch third prize

To summarize the Parramatta Tournament: It was a fantastic tournament that would not been a success without the work of the big man - Shane Burgess. he worked his rear end off for this tournament. Even going to personal expense. The Australian Championship was won by a very worthy winner. However I was a little disappointed with the results of GM Johansen and Im Gary Lane. I think they would be disappointed too and I'm sure they will be hungry to make amends in future tournaments.

To those of you who read my blog I thank you and I appologise for the last few days of the championships. All my energy went into those games on the last few days so I did not get to blog much. And on the tenth day I rested!

Bring on Australia Day Weekender!
Bring on Toukley Open!
Bring on Newcastle Open!
Bring on Doeberl!
Bring on Sydney International!

Antic, Van Reimsdijk join Solo

We now have three players on 7 points being Stephen Solomon, Dejan Antic and Herman Van Reimsdijk. These three are followed by three players on six points being Illingworth, Xie and Klein. Max Illingworth held Stephen Solomon to a draw on the top board, Dejan Antic defeated Jesse Sales on the second board whilst on board three Sam Chow lost to Van Reimsdijk. Xie moved into contention by defeating GM Daryl Johansen, Klein defeated Mouthun Ly to move into equal fourth.
Upsets for the round included: James Morris over Dusan Stojic. Draws included Tristan Boyd against Doug Hamilton, Ikeda against Yu, Atsmon Simon against Hacche and Malik Hani against Vincent Suttor

I'm a little tired at the moment. will report on Major and minor in the morning

The Illingworth Express: Solo remains solo but field now a step closer

On top of the standings as of after round 8 we have Stephen Solomon (who drew with in an endgame where solo had R and P against BNP). Board two saw Antic play against George Xie at a later time because Antic Had his Immigration hearing on today. Antic ended up winning the game after a long battle. Herman Van Riemsdijk defeated Goldenberg to step closer to Stephen Solomon. Johansen was down a pawn and was under attack against Sam Chow but the end result was a draw. Illingworth accounted for tomek Rej on the next board. Upsets for the round included Felix Klein against Greg Canfell, Ronald Yu drew with Tristan Boy, Hamilton inflicted Gary Lanes second loss in a row, Malcolm Pyke held Ben Lazarus to a draw and Bjelobrk continued his dismal tournament by losing to Jason Hu. Andrew Bird drew with Vincent Suttor.

In the Minor division we once again have a sole leader on 6.5/8 being James Watson. Tim Hare, Sanghoon Lee, Mehmet Dizdarevic, Adrian Rose, Jason Cohn and Yoongtae Kim all tied for second. James Watson drew with Sanghoon Lee, Tim Hare drew with Dizdarevic, Adrian Rose accounted for Richard Voon, Jason Cohn defeated Phil Viner,Yongtae Kim defeated Johny Bolens to raise to equal second. Other draws for round 8 included Levi Descallar holding Benjamin Harris to a draw, Vasil Tulevski drew with Rebecca Harris, Stephen Myers drew with Chris Waterman, Brian Press drew with Milan Ninchich, and Svetozar Stojic drew with Peter Abbot. There were four upsets for the round: Sheldrick defeated Lilly, Joshua Lau defeated Garnash Viswanath, Oleg Koronevski defeated Michael Dunn, Mike canfell defeated Alkin.

In the Minor division Duggan stayed in the lead by defeating Anthony Villanueva, Bob Liang Joined Duggan by defeating Patrick Beahan, David Beveridge held David Evans to a draw, and Davies lost to Michael Courtney giving two players on 7 and two players on 6points for the final run home. Andrew pan continued his excellent run as he drew with Abel Urdanegui and Korean Kyuho Doh drew with Tony Baldwin. The other upset of the day was Mario Pleno against Vince Chiara.

Well there are three more rounds to go as players in all divisions jostle for position and hoping to get a place.

Round 7 Solo Keeps point lead, Johansen - jGoldenberg three fold repetition dispute

Today on the top board Stephen Solomon sacrificed a knight for a massive centre in the opening where his opponent ended up having to give back the material. His opponent was Herman Van Riemsdijk who had a chance to win it in the endgame. But Solomons masterful endgame knowledge was obviously better than the Brazilians and ended up being K against K. Board two saw Tristan Boyd go down against Dejan Antic in a Kings indian that lasted 92 moves. Board three saw Igor Goldenberg play white against Daryl Johansen. Goldenberg claimed a threefold repetition but Johansen claimed that the draw claim was not valid. The Arbiter's decision was that Goldenberg had intended to make the bishop move that gave the threefold repetition position and thus drawn the game. Board four saw IM George Xie defeat FM Jesse Sales. Upsets for the round included Ronals Yu being held to a draw by Paul Broekhuyse, Hu being held to a draw by Booth. Gary Lane was defeated bye Illingworth and Bjelobrk went down to Felix Klein. The country air must be helping Ascaro Pecori with his good play against Junta Ikeda. Pecori's games are always thought out and almost always go into a long game.

Finally an unfortunate event happened today as Israel Yadao did the Championship division a huge disservice by not showing for the round. Apparently two round before he wanted to withdraw from the tournament due to "urgent business matters" which reasons were turned down by the D.O.P Charles Zworestine given that Yadao was probably just withdrawing due to his bad results thus far in the tournament.

In the Major divisionWatsons excellent run continued as he defeated the higher rated Johny Bolens. Board two saw Phil Viner draw against Tim Hare as did Jason Cohn against Adrian rose. Korean Sangjoon Lee defeated Blair Mandla and Dizdarevic defeated Sheldrak. Voon dewfeated Fry. Draws were agreed between Junil Choi and Levi Descallar, Benjamin Harris drew with Hamish Selnes, Arthur Huynh drew with Shanon Oliver, Herman rachmadi held Stojic to a draw, Michael Dunn drew with Stephen Myers, Alkin drew with Vasil Tulevski and Richard Eccles drew with Brockman. There were two other upsets: Alex Jule lost to junior Joshua Lau and Luthien Russell defeated Milan Ninchich.

In the minor division Howard Duggan rose to the top with Bob liang who defeated David Evans and Tom Accola respectively. Anthony Villanueva defated Patrick Beahan.. Upsets for the round were few and far between with David Beveridge drawing with Andrew Pan when Pan was a pawn up and one of the young Korean juniors finally defeated a rated player. Mary Wilkie was the unfortunate sole to lose to Jaewon Jang.

Round 6: Solo sets pace around the turn

In round six there were some big upsets that saw Stephen Solomon increase his lead to a full point by defeating Pinoy FM Jesse Sales. On board two Antic lost a pawn without getting a decent position for it against the Brazilian IM Herman Van Riemsdijk. This gave the Brazilian the outright second place with 4.5 points ahead of 8 players on third place with four points out of 6. Daryl Johansen conceded his fourth draw of the tournament against Tomek Rej, Mouthun Ly agreed to a draw with FM Igor Goldenberg. Gary Lane drew with Tristan Boyd. In fact there were more draws this round than the last. I think everyone was looking forward to the rest day: Board 7 saw Ben Lazarus draw with Max Illingworth, Board 8 saw Greg Canfell draw with Sam Chow, Board 10 saw the outstanding performance of Ascaro Pecori draw a long game with Felix Klein, Dusan Stojic drew with Israel Yadao on board 12, Board 15 saw Stweart Booth draw with Gareth Oliver, Board 16 saw Malcolm Pyke draw with Barak Atzmon Simon, Board 17 Michael Wei drew with David Hacche, Board 18 Vincent Suttor drew with Romeo Capilitan, Board 19 saw Hani Malik draw against James Morris, There were no upset wins other than Van Riemsdijk over Antic.

In the Major division There were once again three players in first place on 5/6 This round saw Tim Hare draw with James Watson on top board with Johny Bolens defeating Sanghoon Lee on board two to join in the lead. Blair Mandla and Peter Fry drew on board three. Notable draws included David Webster against Michael Dunn, Stephen Myers against Mosaddeque Ali, Sarah Anton against Dragan Djukovic and Henk Jens against Chris Watermann. Upset losses included Jason Cohn against Benjamin Harris Bill Egan defeated the higher ratec Joshua Christensen, Joshua Lau defeated Frank Barisic, Horst Bleicher defeated Jose Escribano, Queensland Junior Luthien Russell defeated NSWCA Treasurer Norman Greenwood.

One leader became 5 in the minor division as Anthony Villanueva was defeated by David "Dozy" Evans on the top board to become joint leaders and then Howard Duggan defeated David Beveridge, Bob Liang defeated Michael Courtney and Patrick Beahan defeated Abel Urdanegui on board 4 to give us our leaders. Upset started on the fifth board as Andrew Pan inflicted Trent Parkers second smashing in a row. Tom Accola caused an upset by defeating Tony Lau, Tony Baldwin caused an upset by defeating Michael Tracey.

Round Five: Tired men agree to draw on top boards

Round five was the second game on the third day and the top boards agreed to draws: Solomon drew with Dejan Antic whilst Herman Van Riemsdijk and Darryl Johansen could not approach any closer to the Queensland IM as they also agreed on a draw. Jesse Sales moved into equal second with Dejan Antic by defeating IM Gary Lane. Draws were also the order of the day on board four (Tristan Boyd against Mouthun Ly), Board 8 (Sam Chow against FM Igor Bjelobrk), Board 12 (Jason Hu against Israel Yadao), Board 14 (Gareth Olivedr against Michael Morris), Board 15 (Andrew Bird against Stuart Booth), Board 16 (David Hacche against Vincent Suttor). Junta lost to Ben Lazarus in the only upset win of the round

In the Major division there were three leaders aftger the fifth round as Sanghoon Lee and drew with Tim Hare, and James Watson defeated Kevin Sheldrake to advance to the equal lead of the Major division. top Seed Adrian Rose drew with fellow Parramatta member Blair Mandla on board three. Johny Bolens defeated Peter Abbott on board four to join Blair Mandla and Peter Fry (who beat Anrew Furst) on Fourth Place on a score of Four points.

Inthe Minor division we finally saw a single leader in Anthony Villanueva who defeated Bob Liang on the top board. Bob Lian remained in second place however, equal with David Evans (who gave Mary Wilkie her second consecutive loss), Michael Courtney (who accounted for Tereza Grbin), Howard "Gunner" Duggan (who defeated Richard Davies) placed himself in contention by being the only undefeated person other than Anthony Villanueva. Patrick Beahan crushed Trent Parker where a blundered pawn soon turned into a piece and eventually game, David Beveridge (who defeated Kyuho Doh). Upsets were obtained by Tony Lau drawing with Valsalan Karayi, and there were no more upsets!

Round 4: Solo goes Solo

Solomon ended up out on his own on 4/4 after the first of day threes games. Lane totally missed a fork of his rooks and resigned as his position starts to crumble after the exchange is obtained. Board two saw Dejan Antic defeat Felix Klein in a Sicilian where Antic eventually obtained a passed h pawn that was going to be extremely hard to stop. Board three saw Mouthun Ly draw with our Brazilian visitor, Herman Van Riemdijk. And Johansen defeated Junta Ikeda on board four, Tomek Rej drew with Igor Goldenberg on board 5. Upsets for the round included Tristan Boyd against Greg Canfell, Israel Yadao drawing with Andrew Bird.



The Major saw only two people on a perfect score after round 4 both were not from the hosting state: Sangoon Lee accounted for Adrian Rose and Western Australian Tim Hare accounted for Victorias Mehmed Dizdarevic. Upsets for the round included: Alex Mendes Da Costa who lost to James Watson, Lloyd Fell drew with Benjamin Harris, Peter Fry defeated Svetozar Stojic, Sherab Guo Yuthok conceded a draw against Jason Cohn as did David Webster against Levi Descallar. Horst Bleicher defeated Dragan Djukovic, Sarah Anton scored a draw against Jose Escribano.

The Minor division saw four Leaders turn into two as the favorite David Evans Fell to Bob Liang, Mary Wilkie ended her 0utstanding streak against Anthony Villanueva, Howard Duggan Marched on towards the top board with a win over Vince Chiara. The upsets started on board four as Tony Lau held Alex Mehan to a draw, Parramatta Local David Beveridge accounted for Teresa Grbin in a board five upset and Patrick Beahan defeated Valsalan Karayi. Other upsets included Michael Tracey drawing with David Soul.

Round 3: Solomon, Lane only on 3/3

After round three only two remained on a perfect score: Board One saw Dejan Antic draw with Moulthun Ly, Stephen Solomon defeated NSW Champion Gregory Canfell, Benjamin Lazarus lost to Gary Lane, Board four saw Daryl Johansen obtain his second draw on the second day against Tristan Boyd. Our Brazilian visitor defeated with well performing Ascaro Pecori. Upsets for the Championship division for round three included: Giant killer Junta Ikeda continued George Xies Bad start by defeating him. Max Illingworth bounced back from his round two defeat by beating Israel Yadao, Paul Broekhuyse agreed to a draw against Doug Hamilton.

In the Major division the leasders were culled down to four as Ben Harris was accounted for by Adrian Rose, Sanghoon Lee was victorious agains the rested Frank Barisic, Victorian Nehmed Dizdarevic upset third seed Johny Bolens, Tim Hare accounted for Frank Low to lead the tournament with the previously mentioned winners. Upsets included former country NSW player come ACT player Bill Egan defeated higher rated Korean Junil Choi, Queenslander Alexandra Jule defeated higher rated victorian Richard Voon, Arthur Huynh finally showed to be felled by Lloyd. Ganesh Viswanath incurred a second upset to go down to David Webster, Vasil Tulevski was held to a draw by Herman Rachmadi. Hamish Selnes was held to a draw by Queensland Senior Oleg Koronevski, John Alkin drew with Richard Lilly, Richard Eccles continued his losing streak by going down to Ian Dickson. Jack Mejzini lost to NSWCA and ACF treasurer Norm Greenwood and on the bottom board Subhash Kadam was defeated by Victorian Sarah Anton.

In the Minnows division the all but three of the Koreans were playing each other on the bottom boards whilst on the top boards David Evans moved to a perfect sore by defeating Michael Courtney, Anthony Villanueva defeated Daniel McGowan to join David jEvans, Mary Wilkie survived from a losing position to swindle a win against yours Truly, Bob Liang was the fourth person to arrive on four points by defeating Richard Davies. Upsets for the round included: an underated Andrew Pan defeating Michael Tracey, Mick Waters was only held to a draw against David Soul.

And as the day became night everyone retired to their accomodation to rest up for the second double header day.

Round 2: The Hard Slog Starts!

Round two was the first game in the first double header day in what was to be a tiring couple of days of brain busting chess. The top board saw former Australian Champion Doug Hamiltion go down to GM Dejan Antic. On Board two GM Darryl Johansen agreed to a draw against German Felix Klein. Junta Ikeda as white lost to Stephen Solomon, and Gary Lane shot down the Bird's Opening of Ronald Yu. Herman Van Riemsdijk was held to a draw against Gareth Oliver.

Other Players to moved into the equal lead on 2/2 include Mouthun Ly, Greg Canfell, and Ben Lazarus.

Other draws for the Championship division included: Western Australian Tristan Boyd being held to a draw by Victorian Ascaro Pecori who was very happy with his performance in this tournament thus far. Igor Bjelobrk drew with Stuart Booth, James Morris drew with Sam Chow, Malcolm Pyke drew with Michael Wei, Michael Morris drew with Victorian David Hacche.

Upsets included: Tomek Rej went down to Ben Lazarus,

In the Major division the top four seeds accounted for their lower rated opponents: Adrian Rose defeated Levi Descallar, Sherab Guo Yuthok lost tod the top Korean in the tournament Sanghoon Lee, Johny Bolens accounted for Andrew Furst, Western Australian Tim Hare defeated Queenslander Hamish Selnes. Upset draws were obtained by Peter Abbot against South jAustralian Representative Kevin Sheldrake. NSW Reserves Champion Paul Glissan drew with Michael Dunn, Parramatta Club member Blair Mandla drew with ACT President Mosaddeque Ali. Rebecca Harris drew with James Watson, Roland Brockman drew with Chris Waterman. Upsets were scored by Junior Jason Cohn over Victorian Richard Voon, Frank Barisic scored a free point when Arthur Huynh forgot about the eleven o'clock starting time for the second round. Ganesh Viswanath lost to Frank Low, Bill Egan defeated Phil Viner, Dragan Djukovic lost to Brian Press, Horst Bleicher defeated Richard Eccles.

In the Minor division David Evans defeated Ryde Eastwood chess club member Vince Chiara, Fellow Parramatta members Mick Waters and Anthony Villanueva. The only Queenslander in the tournament, Howard Duggan squandered a Rook advantage to stalemate Tony Baldwin on board three, Daniel McGowan was defeated by promising Junior Alex Mehan. Others to reach a perfect score included Trent Parker who defeated Tony Lau, Bob Liang defeated David Beveridge, Patrick Beahan lost to Michael Courtney, Michael Traceylost to Unrated Richard Davies, and Mary Wilkie upset Valsalan Karayi. There were no other upsets.

Well After a Few Days of Computer Problems

My new home computer would not log onto the internet.

Today however I deceided to try my home internet on my laptop. And it worked! Aus champs update to follow!

Is your name Igor? You Lose! Your name Canfell? At least half a point...

We're off and racing in the 2008 Australian Championships.

I was the first one to post a result as my opponent overlooked a mate in one on move 9. Those young Koreans seem to be a little out of their league and need a little more coaching...... good on 'em for having a go though. Its going to be a bit of a Korean Round Robin on the lower boards I think.

As for the Championship division GM Dejan Antic accounted for Malcolm Pike after Malcolm blundered a bishop in a R v 2B endgame with Queens still on the board and another set of rooks still on the board. looked a bit dodgy for both sides but with correct play by both sides it probably would have been a draw.

Board two saw GM Darryl Johansen play against a friend in David Hacche but the game was not a friendly encounter with Hacches knights dancing all over the board in the opening and then Johansen sacrificing an exchange at a precise moment to ensure the full potential of his passed d pawn.

Stephen solomon on board three commanded the white pieces against Gareth Charles and ended up winning in a Sicilian Sheveningen!? i think its called.

Board 4 saw the biggest upset of the tournament as IM George Xie was routed by Gareth Oliver in a bit of a risky encounter in a Nimzo indian defence. Olivers Q and R ended up infiltrating with the Queen munching a couple of Q side pices while black tried counterplay with passed pawns. One passed pawn eventually Queened when it was too late and it was clear that Oliver's attack would be able to crash through.

Board 5 saw Gary Lane play a closed sicilian against Dusan Stojic who sacrificed a bishop for the attack but resigned after it was clear that the attack would not bear any fruit.

If your name was Igor you had a bad day at the office in round one: Igor Goldenburg losing to Max Illingworth, Igor Bjelobrk losing to Ben Lazarus were included in the upsets of the day as were Sales losing to Vincent Suttor, Yadao Israel losing to Paul Broekhuyse and Sam Chow going down to Ascaro Pecori.

In the Major top seed Adrian Rose built a huge centre for Dragan Djukovic to break down but blundered when he tried to establish a strong centre for himself. Board two saw visiting Korean Candidate master Sanghoon Lee defeat the human NSW history book Lloyd Fell. Lee's Maroczy bind against Fell's Dragon resulted in an attack which did not bear any fruit until the endgame. The Eccentric Mr Johny Bolens is third seed. His opponent dropped a rook out of nowhere and handed Bolens the win. Winning in not much longer time as my win. Fourth seed and Western Australian Representative in the Major - Tim Hare defeated David Webster.

It is rare that you get to see both father and son Canfells in the same room. Greg's father Mike Canfell drew with Phil Viner. Former New South Welshman Bill Egain (who is now from the capital Territory) drew with Richard Lilly. Upsets included Rebecca Harris upsetting Korean Junic Choi, Frank Barisic holding on to a pawn advantage in the endgame after a closed sicilian and Frank low defeating Vasil Tulevski.

In the minor Eddy Katnic had to withdraw late leaving David Evans to fill the top seed void. He accounted for andrew pan. David evans won the exchange in a Kings indian defence and ended up converting into a rook. Pan decided to resign when his position became untenable. Board two saw Anthony vilanueva play his london system against Accola's Kings indian system where Villanueva ended up coming through with the goods. Hey Howie where's that banana suit you been talking about? :D Duggan, the sole Queenslander, ended up winning against Far north coast New South Welsh man David Sole. Young up and coming Junior Alex Mehan defeated Parramatta local Mario Pleno. My board was next with my miniature and then a host of wins over the hapless Korean Juniors.

Hopefully happiness for all can be obtained tomorrow..... Except for my opponent.