Blog of a Chess Nut

MightyMax Vs The Russians

2009-05-25T15:47:00.001+10:00

The week leading up to the City of Sydney Rapidplay was perfect chess playing weather: Wet and Cloudy. But on the sunday - the sun did shine! The previous week's weather must have still been on chessplayers mind as a bumper crowd of 58 players turned up to contest the title. There were 7 players with a rating of over 2000.

The tournament started with the fill in Arbiter Shane "Bergil" Burgess jokingly stating that if he had to get up to rule on something he'd forfeit the player! :D

The top seeds all started without a hitch with the exception of Paul Broekhuyse (2044) falling to the much lower rated Peter Yang (1440) on board 5. Board 1 say NSWCA Treasurer Norm Greenwood battle it out against top seed Vladimir Smirnov, sitting next to him was was his son Anton Smirnov who lost to second seed Max Illingworth, on board three Ed Agulto defeated Parramatta Chess club junior Andrew Pan, Blair Mandla defeated Peter Hannigan on board 4, Ivan Zirdum defeated Michael Tracey and the eccentric Johny Bolen defeated Nicholas Deen-Cowell. Other upsets for the round: Duncan Peters (1904) losing to Valsalan Karayi (1332), Kamal Jain defeated Trent Parker, and stephen stipic went down to an unrated Shan Siddiqi.

Round two saw Vladimir Smirnov account for Parramatta club stalwart Joshua Christensen on board one, Illingworth defeated Cary Cowling on board 2, Ed agulto defeated Frank Barisic on three, Blair Mandla (2116) conceded a draw on board 4 against Adrian Chau (1616), Ivan Zirdum defeated Stevan Jovanovic on 5, and Bolens defeated the young rising star in Sean Gu. The unrated Shan Siddiqi continued in good form by defeating Rob Hvistendahl. Other upsets includedunrated Gerges Fady defeating Stephen Stipic, Samuel Talisayan (1192) once again defeated Trent Parker (1553) after defeating him in the Parramatta club rapidplay the previous Thursday. Michael Tracey drew with unrated Egon Cardenas and unrated Shaun Morgan defeated David Beveridge.

Round three saw Vladimir Smirnov (2324) upset by Joseph Nguyen (1832) on top board, Max illingworth defeated Angelito Camer, Ed Agulto accounted for Dr Vasil Tulevski, Ivan Zirdum defeated Francisco Plaza and Johny Bolens defeated John Redgrave. Upsets for the round included: Frank Barisic (1615) drawing with Valsalan Karayi (1332), Nicholas Deen Cowell defeating Stevan Jovanovic, Trent Parker getting a lucky draw against Michael Tracey (1418) (hooray i'm on the board!). Jasper Hong drew (655) with drew with Shan-Shan Qiao(1207).

Round 4, and the big guns start to play each other. Shane Burgess, in his cheeky teasing way gave Max a new nickname..... Pepsi Max. Bolens was the victim of Max's bubbling form in this round. The game was one of the first games finished due to Bolens' miscalculation. Ed Agulto (2174) drew with Kimberly Jane Cunanan (1961) for both to bail out of the joint lead, and Joseph Nguyen couldn't continue his giant killing ways losing to Ivan Zirdum, who joined Max in the lead of the tournament. Both Vladimir Smirnov and Blair Mandla were in the chasing pack trying to keep in contact with the leaders, unfortunately Mandla floated down to Vladimir Smirnov and the Russian was victorious. The person Blair drew with earlier, Adrian Chau, caused another upset draw against Duncan Peters. Other upsets included: Andrew Pan over John Redgrave, Nicholas Deen-Cowell overCary Cowling, Bernard Chau (1249) over Frank Barisic, Anton Smirnov being defeated by Shan Siddiqi, Henry Rara (1538) going down to Tony Wong (1204), Michael Tracey conceded his third draw in a row against unrated Mitchell Barker, and Unrated players robert beeman, Kamal Jain and Shaun Morgan had their way against the likes of David Beveridge, Bob Sewell and Vincent Chen. (and I finally got a win on the board....albeit against a 655 rating)

Just Past Half way mark and the placings were: 1-2 Illingworth, Zirdum 4/4, 3-4 Aguilto, Cunanan 3.5/4, 5-16 V. Smirnov, Broekhuyse, Bolens, Camer, Plaza, Nguyen, Tulevski, Kanostrevac, Babic, A. Chau, Pan, Deen-Cowell 3/4.

The front runners played each other in round 5 to see who would take the outright lead and shorten their odds of winning the City of Sydney Rapidplay Championship. Illingworth Defeated Zirdum. Board two saw Ed Agulto defeat Bolens, Angelito Camer kept up within a point of the leaders by defeating Kimberly Jane Cunanan, Vladimir Smirnov accounted for Zeljko Kanostrevac to keep his chances alive and Paul Broekhuyse kept bubbling to the top after his first round loss by defeating Adrian Chau. Upsets for the round includedJoseeph Nguyen (1832) sharing the point with Michael Babic (1699), Shan Siddiqi continued his stellar run by beating Bernard Chan, John Redgrave (1719) defeated the Campbelltown Collegians Chess Club treasurer Duncan Peters (1904), Anthony Villanueva (1573) drew with Peter Yang (1440).

It was Ed Agulto's turn to succumb to the wrath of Max Illingworth in round 6 ended Ed's chances of winning the City of Sydney Rapid and secured Max a share of the title. Vladimir Smirnov Kept his chances alive by defeating Angelito Camer, Paul Broekhuyse (2044) knocked his chances out by drawing with Francisco Plaza (1844) as did Ivan Zirdum (2040) by drawing with Vasil Tulevski (1793). All others could not catch Max. Upsets for the roundincluded: Shan Siddiqi over Zeljko Kanostrevac, Herman Rachmadi over John Redgrave, Sean Gu over Cary Cowling, Nicholas Deen-Cowell over Frank Barisic, Bernard Chan over Trent Parker, Gerges Fady over Rooty Hill's Henry Rara, Tony Wong over Peter Hannagan, Unrated Haun Morgan defeating Vince Chiara, Kamal Jain defeating David Beveridge and Valsalan Karayi defeating Stephen Stipic.

It all starts with Russian and it all ends with a Russian..... well it did for Max Illingworth. Max started the tournament playing Anton Smirnov and in the final round he played Vladimir Smirnov. Max played out an endgame being an exchange up but with Smirnov with a pawn on the 7th rank. Max gave up a Rook to push one of his pawns home whilst stopping Smirnov's pawn from promoting. Max Illingworth is the City Of Sydney Rapidplay Champion!

This was an excellent tournament and i think fun was had by all!

Photos and maybe a chess position will be added to the Chess.com version of my Blog.

Greedy Guts

2009-05-12T01:44:00.002+10:00

After a long while away from blogging I've decided to start blogging regularly once again. I will be posting the blog both on here and on Blogger (as there apparently is some readers of my blog who couldn't find my material here (such as the Parramatta Chess Club president! lol)

My first blog back is about a game I played today at the Campbelltown Collegians chess club Autumn Championships. I played one of my best friends, Lance Chiddy. Now I'm rated ACF 1553 and Lance is rated about 900-1000. But to my astonishment Lance lost a pawn then an exchange to force three fold repetition.... by the 18th move!

The game can be found here

The moral of the story is...... analyse carefully before you leap and do not underestimate your opponent

Blog indefinitely suspended

2008-05-10T00:00:00.002+10:00

Sorry peoples but I've been very busy recently so I will not blog for the time being.

Got so much on At the moment. Might start blogging in another month I suspect. Everything i'm doing seems to end in a month or two.......

American Express - Don't leave Canberra without it! The doeberl cup that is!

2008-03-25T03:15:00.006+11:00

In round 5 the American GM Varuzhan Akobian played on top board against sole leader GM Darryl Johansen andwon. GM Gawain Jones and Zhang Zhong played out a draw on board two, GM Surya Ganguly accounted for GM Dejan Antic on board three, GM Vadim Malakhatko conceded a draw IM Hafizulhelmi Mas on board four and Merab Gagunashvili defeated Endre Ambrus. Notable upsets for the round included Tomek Rej defeating IM Igor Bitansky and IM David Smerdon drew with Jesse Sales as did IM Antanas Kizov against Velomir Kresovic

Round 6 saw Akobian's French defence defeat Ganguly in 67 moves. Zhang Zhong defeated Daryl Johansens Sicilian Defence on boarde two. Board three saw Gawain Jones and IM Stephen Solomon play out a draw from a Spanish four Knights opening. Merab Gagunashvili defeated IM Andras Toth from a Pirc defence. Dejan Antic accounted for Tomek Rej on board 5 in a Bogo-Indian. And WGM Zozulia lost to Malakhatko on board 6. Notable Upsets include Victorian Domagoj Dragicevic accounting for IM Gary Lane in a sicilian, Endre Ambrus went down to Gareth oliver and Paul Broekhuyse was held to a draw by Ian Rout. Derek Yu scored a draw against Ascaro Pecori.

Round 7 saw GM Akobian play top seed GM Zhong Zhang. The game ended in a draw by threefold repitition ending on move 15. This game was determined to be a fair draw as the players may black may not have had any better play than to repeat the position three times. However Akobian was warned not to take any more draws of this nature. Board two saw GM Merab Gagunashvili draw with GM Surya Gangulyin thirty two moves from a Slav defence. Boad three saw GM Malakhatko lose to GM Gawain Jones. IM Solomon lost to Dejan Antic in a French Tarrasch. GM DarrylJohansen scored a draw against WGM Roufan Li from a sicilian defence.

It was Gawain Jone's Turn in round 8 to draw with GM Akobian on top board, Zhong Zhang drew with Merab Gagunashvili. Dejan Antic accounted for IM David Smerdon, FM Igor Goldenberg lost to Surya Ganguly. WGM Roufan Li lost to IM Kizov. FM Igor Goldenberg drew with Puchen Wang and Tomek Rej scored an excellent result by drawing with GM Vadim Malakhatko. WGM Anna Zozulia upset Daryl Johansen to wrap up the which wraps up the round 8 report.

Varuzhan Akobian performed a threefold repetition against Dejan Antic. However the Arbiters decided that this draw was unacceptable and that the players should play on. Akobian played a different move and went on to win the game and the tournament. A draw would have meant that Antic would have shared first prize with Akobian but it was not to be.

Board two saw Ganguly and Zhong Zhang play out a draw from a Ruy Lopez. The draw was agreed to after 36 nives, Board three saw GM Gagunashvili draw with Gawain Jones after 38 moves. Igor Bitanski and Antanas Kizov played out a draw on board 4, IM Stephen Solomon and Igor Bjelobrk battled each other in a Scandinavian where Solomon eventually won. Puchen Wang and WGM Zozulia Played out a draw.Malakhatko outplayed Raul Samar in a 104 move marathon on board 7.

So GM Akobian won the Doeber cup. A full point from Ahong Zhang, Surya Ganguly, Gawain Jones, Merab Gaguashvili, Dejan Antic, Stephen Solomon, and Atanas Kizov.

I have volunteered to enter games to be kept in a database so If I come accross any interesting games (such as Ascaro Pecori's game in the last round where he won with two rooks against tow queens )

A minor and Major Report will be coming. Probably after SIO

No Short Draws Allowed!

2008-03-22T01:27:00.002+11:00

In the third round there were 5 draws on the top six boards with most of them being genuine draws. There was one exception however, The draw between Antanas Kizov and Dejan Antic ended up in a line where threefold repetition often occurs. The Arbiter apparently gave them an earfull but no action was taken as the "Gibraltar Rule" of having no draws shorter than 30 moves or less without the approval of the Arbiter had not been announced before the start of the tournament. The Organisers were very quick to change this and an announcement was made before round 4. On top board IM David Smerdon claimed an excellent result by drawing with Zhang Zhong. board two saw GM Malakhatko defeat WGM Roufin Li, board three saw GM SS Ganguly draw with Israeli IM Igor Bitansky (who told me that he was out of form - really?) GM Gawain Jones drew with Gary lane on board four, GM Merab Gagunashvili drew with Igor Goldenberg on board 5. Akobian kept climbing up the ranks after his first round draw against Max Illingworth by defeating Pinoy FM Jesse Sales. IM Puchen Wang accounted for Australian champion IM Stephen Solomon.

On one of the lower boards it was the battle of the Stojics with Dusan defeating Svetozar. After his first round draw with Akobian, Max Illingworth fell to 0.5/3 by going down to Tony Davis.

On to round four and after the announcement of the Gibraltar rule there were a grand total of 9 draws in the Premier division with only 3 of the top 15 boards resulting without a win. Board one saw Aussie GM Darryl Johansen fly the flag high by defeating the second seed GM Vadim Malakhatko. Board two saw Zhang Zhong account for NZ rising star Puchen Wang. After drawing against Zhang Zhong IM David Smerdon put his rook in an awkward spot where it was out of play and Akobian dodged some tactical tricks to eventually win the game.IM Gary Lane lost to GM SS Ganguly on board four. Gawain Jones defeated FM Igor Goldenberg on board five. Igor Bitansky continued his excellent tourney by drawing with GM Merab Gagunashvili on board six and Dejan Antic accounted for FM Igor Goldenberg to complete the GM Wrap up.

Results of note for the fourth round of the Premier include Ben Lazarus scoring a draw against WGM Anna Zozulia.

Tomorrow Mornings round will be crunch time as the top three boards are occupied wholly with GM's. How many draws will we see amongst this lot?

=---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------==

The upsets started on the top board in the first round of the U2000 first round. Peter Fraemohs lost to Queensland Senior Oleg Korenevski on the top board. Kerry Stead accounted for Laurence Matheson on board two and Toby Lewski got a draw out of Alex Mendes Da Costa.

Other Upsets include Victorian Sally Yu accounting for ACT local Sherab Guo Yuthok, Michael Courtney drew with Tony Weller and James Satrapa held Joshua Christensen to a draw as did Justin Tan against David Lovejoy.

Round two saw Kerry Stead Lose to Michael Dunn on the top board, Blair Mandla continued to 2 points by defeating John Marsden and Mehmedalija dizdarevic accounted for Nicolas Kordahi on board three. The Closet Grandmaster, Amiel Rosario defeated Aina Musaeva on board four. Further down the field Andrey Bliznyuk and Mos Ali agreed on a draw, as did Oleg Korenevski against Richard Voon. Meanwhile Efrain Toinko defeated Jamie Roberts. Phil Viner and Toby Lewsky agreed on a draw as did tony weller against Justin Tan and Sebatian Jule against Laurence Matheson.

Will the string of top board upsets contue tomorrow? We'll soon find out. Time to sleep.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------==

The minor will be updated later on

Off To Doeberl!

2008-03-21T08:46:00.000+11:00

The premier division of the Doeberl Cup started today. The first leg of a chess marathon for some including the Sydney International Open and the Bankok Open. My event, the minor does not start until tomorrow. I was a passenger in a cool car being the convertible of Matthew Sweeney. We cruised from Picton to Canberra in two hours talking about everything from chess to how Neurologists explain what happens to the brain with deja vu to how full we've seen Lake George.

I checked in at my accomodation and then headed to the Helenic club. One of the first things I heard over the phone from talking to my mate joshua Christensen was that Max Illingworth drew with american GM Akobian

The other GM's of the tournament largely had their own way in the first round. Dusan Stojic lost to Zhang Zong, Vadim Malakhatko defeated Edsil dilla, Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly won his game, Gawain Jones defeated WIM Laura Moylan, GM Merab Gagurashvili defeated WIM Arianne Caoili, Leon Dempen lost to GM Dejan Antic, and GM Darryl Johansen defeated Vincent Suttor. Upset draws for the first round included Igor Bjelobrk could only manage a draw against Svetozar Stojic. Velimir Kresovic drew with Hamish Selnes.

Now on to round two. Early results for the round two. include Gawain Jones defeated Guy West and Puchen Wang racked up a win for the Kiwi's. Max Illingworth went into a double rook endgame a pawn up but Igor created play and eventually was able to capitalise on a passed pawn.

Board one saw Zhong Zhang defeat Malaysian player Mas. Board two saw Vadim Malakhatko defeat Endre Ambrus. Board three saw GM Ganguly defeat IM Anna Zozulia. Gawain Jones scored a walk over as IM Guy West forgot that there was an extra round on the thursday. Dejan Antic accounted for Hartmut Metz. Irina Berezina and Vladimir Feldman were paired against each other and agreed to a friendly draw. Upsets included Edsil Dilla going down to Derek Yu, Leon Kempen lost to local canberran Ian Rout. Tony Davis drew with Dotsenko, Yi Yuan defeated WIM Laura Moylan, Adrian Flitney defeated Robert Mitchell and Sanmorgan Goudar defeated Jonas Muller.

Bit Slow but rush is coming

2008-03-14T04:34:00.002+11:00

Its been a little slow for me in terms of chess tournaments of late. Hence I have not blogged much. However with Doeberl and SIO coming up I want to blog more.... at least a bit every day.

Lets see what happens.

As for one Parramatta club player who says I have so many spelling mistakes in my blog.... I apologies Bobert!

Western Sydney Rapidpay Grand Prix

2008-03-02T16:52:00.004+11:00

The first leg of the Western Sydney Rapidplay Grand Prix was held at the Rooty Hill RSL Hotel yesterday and was won by Jason Hu and George Xie on 6/6 each. Hu and Mandla had a shorter than grandmaster draw in the last round to help Hu to the first place whilst Mandla won scond place.

Its Now under a month until the Doeberl cup and the Sydney International Open. I hope to do some interviews and profiles on some of the players playing in these events.

All Tied Up! Scott, Smirnov and Bolens tie for first.

2008-02-20T14:51:00.001+11:00

My Newcastle Open adventure this year started on the friday as I decided to not risk missing the first round of the tournmaent due to being bussed around the cityrail Network. I still got bussed around! A chemical spill on the southern highlands line meant I had to catch a bus to Campbelltown and catch a train from campbelltown. And then I had to get bussed from Gosford and Wyong.
What Is it with cabs? do they have a magnetic attraction to other cars? On my way from Adamstown to the Accomodation at Charlestown the taxi i was in had a prang withing eyeshot of my accomodation. (The Cabbie didnt know where the Motel was.... hence why he was going slow).
Anyway I'm here and healthy and ready for some good chess!
Round 1
Top Seed Vladimir Smirnov defeated Victorian Sarah Anton. Board two saw second seed Ronald Scott defeat George Lithgow where Lithgow was an exchange up for a pawn but Scott's central pawn roller was to strong for Lithgow to take advantage of the exchange. Board three saw Johny Bolen got out of "trouble" against Graeme Deacon.
Round one upsets started on board 4 where Luthien Russell drew with Bernard O'Riordan. The other upset of the round was unrated Adam Lenskyj defeating Benjamin Young in a game where both kings were out in the open. The Game of the round must be David Behne Smith's game agains Colin Parsons in an Attacking display.
Round 2
I was unable to take many notes for this round as my game with Ronald Scott went for quite a long time. There were only two games left running. Dion Sampson (1778) drew with Gary Losh (1462) in an endgame where Sampson had 4pNQR v Losh's 6pQR. In the other game Sarah Anton drew with George Lithgow where they had opposite coloured bishops with an equal number of pawns which liquidated to a draw. The top boards saw Alex Mehan become Vladimir Smirnov's second victim. and on board three Norm Greenwood lost to Johny Bolens. Other upsets included Helen Aylwin (1007) drawing with Greg Wilson (1221), and Graeme Deacon (1361) fell fictim to that little junior..... Anton Smirnov (1043).
Round 3
Once again I had a game which I ended up defeating Col Parsons in a time scramble and didnt take many notes. Top board saw Vladimir Smirnov take care of business against Johny Bolens. Ronald Scott defeated David Behne-Smith and Gary Losh lost to O'riordan. the only upset for the round was Anton Smirnov defeating Ben Young.
Round 4
Finally the top two seeds fought it out on the top board. And it was not a Grandmaster draw like in Toukley. Ronald Scott's minor pieces and passed pawns were too strong for Smirnov's Rook and bishop. O'riordan defeated Dion Sampson on board two. Johny Bolens accounted for Anton Smirnov. Greg Wilson played a fire and brimstone type of game against Gary Losh. With accurate play Gary should have won the game but made an error and ended up having his king going back and forth with perpetual check:
Wilson,G - Losh,G [A45]
Newcastle Open 2008 (4.1), 16.02.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.e3 Be7 4.Nf3 0–0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.c3 a6 8.Qc2 h6 9.a4 b6 10.0–0–0 Bb7 11.Ne5 c5 12.Nxf7 Rxf7 13.Bg6 Rf8 14.Nf3 Ng4 15.Bh7+ Kh8 16.Qg6 Bf6 17.Qc2 Nxf2 18.Bxh6 gxh6 19.Ng5 Nxd1 20.Qg6 Qe7 21.Qxh6 Qg7 22.Qh5 Rae8 23.Bg6+ Kg8 24.Bh7+ Kh8 25.Bg6+ Kg8 26.Bh7+ ½–½
In the battle of the young ladies Sarah Anton (1414) misplayed an attack and Luthien Russell (1316) was able to counterattack where Anton blundered in the defence of that attack. This was the only upset for the round other than the top board.
Round 5 saw
Bernard O'Riordan lost to Ronald Scott on the top board, Vladimir Smirnov defeated David Behne-smith and after a really tough tussle Johny bolens defeated me. I had an excellent position in the middlegame but Bolens was able to wriggle out of the restraints to either force mate or win my queen.
Upsets for the round included Anton Smirnov drawing with Michael Weltner, Luthien Russell defeated Norm Greenwood in a miniature. .e4 c5 2.Nf3 b6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Bb7 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bf4 a6 7.Be2 Bb4 8.Qd3 d5 9.0–0 Bxc3 10.Qxc3 b5 11.Nxb5 axb5 12.Qxg7 Qf6 13.Bxb5+ Ke7 14.Bg5 1–0
It was a game of youth v Experience in yet another battle of the ladies. Mary Wilkie (1223) defeated Sarah Anton (1414). Gary Losh lost to the careful colin Parsons. and Adam Lenskyj drew with Greg wilson.
Round 6 saw Johny Bolens and Ronald Scott duel and Bolens caused the upset to defeat Scott and thus creating a three way tie for first place after six rounds after Vladimir Smirnov Accounted for Bernard O'Riordan. I defeated David Behne smith in a mutual attacking position. The other upset for the round saw Michael Weltner drawint with George Lithgow. And Alex Momot racked up another win against Helen Aylwin.
Round 7
The top three seeds made easy work of their lower rated opponents Vladimir Smirnov defeated Luthien Russell, Alex Mehan lost to Johny Bolens and Ronald Scott defeated Dion Sampson. Colin Parsons was up in his game against Sarah Anton but blundered in time pressure to turn the game into a drawn endgame. A draw was agreed. In the battle of the Wise and Experienced ladies from Armidale it was Mary Wilkie who defeated Helen Aylwin. Alex Momot drew with Adam Lenskyj.
So the Three top seeds won the tournament with 6/7 a piece with the pack following with Bernard O'riordan and Luthien Russell coming equal fourth with 4/5/7.
An enjoyable tournament all round! I'll be back in newcastle in August for the Hunter Valley Open

Tough tournament in Toukley - There was an Israeli, a Russian and a Blind Man....

2008-02-11T14:59:00.000+11:00

Preview

My Great Grandparents had a home in Favrent Street, Toukley which when my great grandparents got older and could no longer care for themselves in that home my extended family used the house as a bit of a holiday house in order to take advantage of its location, close to the beach and close to the lakes. A great place for a short summer getaway to take advantage of the sun. The house has been out of the family’s hands now for well over 10 years but in recent years I have been returning to this town for the annual chess tournament. The weather certainly suited indoor pursuits as well!

On the back of last years rather poor turn-out of 20 players the 2008 edition of the Toukley open promised to be a much better affair than the 2007 affair. Vladimir Smirnov has voiced his interest in this year’s tournament as well as other first timers to this tournament. The Question remained. Would IM Gary Lane defend his Toukley Open crown in 2008?

Numbers are up compared to last year. There are 28 participants in the 2008 edition of the Toukley open with the first seed being visiting Israeli IM Igor Bitansky with Vladimir Smirnov in as second seed and Johny Bolens as the third seed.

Round 1
The tournament host Gary Losh announced the first round pairings as "incorrect" as he had to play the visiting IM Bitansky in the first round! Eventually the IM outplayed the local TD. On board two another Country organiser, Phil Bourke "wasted" (Phil's wording) a white against a very formidable opponent in Vladimir Smirnov in an interesting game where white thought he couldn't recapture a pawn on e4 but infact he could:

Bourke,P - Smirnov,V [B01]
Toukley Open 2008 (1.2), 10.02.2008
[from fritz analysis]
1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nc3 Qa5 5.d4 Bg4 6.Be2 0–0–0 7.Be3 Nf6 8.0–0 e5 9.a3 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Nxd4 11.b4 Qb6 12.Kh1 Qe6 13.Bxd4 Rxd4 14.Qe2 e4 15.Qe3 Qe5 16.g3 [16.Bxe4 Nxe4 17.f4] 16...Be7 17.Rad1 Rhd8 18.Rxd4 Qxd4 19.Rd1 Qxe3 20.Rxd8+ Kxd8 0–1

Board three saw Johny Bolens play white against Benjamin Young.

Upsets started on board 4 where Peter Abbot drew with Gary Mann. On board 7 Ivan Kodzoman lost to Graeme Deacon. Graeme Cole defeated Jamie Davidson on board 9, and little trouble maker (on the board anyway) Anton Smirnov defeated Alex Mehan.

Round 2
It was Michael Tracey's turn to battle (and lose) against the Israeli IM Igor Bitansky. Vladimir Smirnov played NSWCA Treasurer Norm Greenwood. Smirnov's Trompovski eventually won an exchange for a pawn and Smirnov's better technique won the game On board three Johny Bolens played Black against Graeme Deacon. Bolens Blundered and immediately resigned.

Other upsets included Bruce Harris against Richard Eccles. The Giant Killing Anton Smirnov moved on to two points after defeating Matthew Koutnik. Garry Mann continued Ivan Kodzomons bad start by defeating him.Andrew Philips conceded a draw against John L Pascoe. Board 12 saw the tournament organiser go 0/2 by losing aginst Lou Kreidl.

Round 3 saw the International Master finally stretched. Blair Mandla was his opponent.and the Scandinavian was the opening:

Bitansky,I - Mandla,B [B01]
Toukley Open (3.1), 09.02.2008
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxd5 4.g3 Bg4 5.Bg2 e6 6.0–0 Nc6 7.h3 Bh5 8.d3 Be7 9.Nbd2 0–0 10.a3 Qd7 11.Qe1 Rad8 12.Ne5 Nxe5 13.Qxe5 Bg6 14.Qe2 c6 15.Re1 Rfe8 16.Nc4 Bf6 17.Ne5 Qc7 18.Bd2 Qb6 19.Rab1 Qc5 20.Rbc1 Qb6 21.Rb1 Qc5 22.Rbc1 Qb6 23.b4 Qd4 24.Nxg6 hxg6 25.h4 Qb2 26.h5 gxh5 27.Qxh5 Qxa3 28.Re4 Bc3 29.Rh4 g6 30.Qh7+ Kf8 31.Qh6+ Bg7 32.Qg5 Bf6 33.Qh6+ Bg7 34.Qg5 Bf6 35.Qh6+ Ke7 36.Bg5 Rh8 37.Bxf6+ Nxf6 38.Qf4 Rxh4 39.gxh4 Nd5 40.Qg5+ f6 41.Qh6 g5 42.Rf1 Qxb4 43.hxg5 Qf4 44.Qg7+ Kd6 45.Bxd5 Rd7 46.Qf8+ Kxd5 47.c4+ Kd4 48.Re1 Qxg5+ 49.Kf1 c5 50.Rxe6 Kxd3 51.Qe8 Rd4 52.Re3+ Kxc4 53.Qa4+ Kd5 54.Qd7+ Kc4 55.Qa4+ Kd5 56.Qd7+ Kc4 57.Qxb7 Rd1+ 58.Ke2 Qh5+ 59.f3 Rh1 60.Qb3+ Kd4 61.Qd3# 1–0

Bitansky was running on increment fumes from approximately the 40 move mark onwards. Igor put it down to the fact that he had not played or studied chess for the past several months. He has been travelling around spending a couple of months in New Zealand before coming to Australia. He will be hanging around here in Australia to play in the Sydney International Open. But will be doing some travelling between now and then!

Back to the Tourney and on board two Vladimir Smirnov had the black pieces against his son! Vladimir accounted for Anton. Garry Mann and Graeme Deacon battled it out on board 3 but the result was a draw. Draws were also taken on Boards 4 (where Peter Abbot drew with Andrew Phillips), Board 8 where Phil Bourke drew with Michael Koutnik and on board 6 where I missed winning chances against Richard Eccles and eventually stuffed up into perpetual check:

Parker,T - Eccles,R [D31]
Toukley Open TOSHIBA (3), 09.02.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Ne7 6.Bf4 0–0 7.e3 Bf5 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 h6 10.0–0 Bd6 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.Rfc1 c6 13.a3 Nd7 14.b4 a6 15.Na4 f5 16.Nc5 Rab8 17.Nxd7 Qxd7 18.Ne5 Qe6 19.a4 Rbc8 20.Rc2 Ng6 21.Nxg6 Qxg6 22.Rac1 Qe6 23.b5 axb5 24.axb5 Ra8 25.bxc6 bxc6 26.Rxc6 Rfc8 27.Rxc8+ Rxc8 28.Rxc8+ Qxc8 29.g3 Kf7 30.h4 Qe6 31.Qe2 g6 32.Qc2 Kg7 33.Qc7+ Kf6 34.Kg2 h5 35.Qd8+ Kf7 36.Qc7+ Kf6 37.Qc5 Kg7 38.Qa7+ Kf6 39.Qa3 Kf7 40.Kf1 Qb6 41.Ke1 Qb1+ 42.Kd2 Qf1 43.Qa7+ Kg8 44.Qb8+ Kg7 45.Qe5+ Kh7 46.Qe7+ Kh6 47.Qg5+ Kg7 48.Qf4 Qc4 49.f3 Qb4+ 50.Ke2 with perpetual checks to follow... ½–½

The other upset for the round was Lou Kreidl defeating John Pascoe.

Round four and it was time for the big guns to battle each other. After Igor's game in the previous round he was very tired and offered an early draw to Vladimir Smirnov which he accepted. On Board two was Graeme Deacon who lost to Jamie Davidson. Board three saw Johny Bolens Climb back onto the top boards with a win over Norman Greenwood.

The upsets for the round were as follows: Alex Mehan defeated Peter Abbot, Benjamin Whiteside defeated John Pascoe and Alex Momot played a draw against Howard Koutnik. The only other draw was between Myself and Michael Koutnik where, once again I stuffed up an advantage to end up in a drawn pawn and rook endgame. I was so disappointed.

Standings after the first day of play saw IM Igor Bitansky and Vladimir Smirnov on equal first with 3.5 points followed closely by a host of 5 people on 3 points: Johny Bolens, Blair Mandla, Jamie Davidson, Alex Mehan and Andrew Phillips.

Finally on the Sunday, after plenty of rain on the Saturday, the sun was out in full force. It was a beautiful day. But it didn’t stop the 28 devoted chess players from turning up to play the second day of the Toukley Open.

The first round of the day saw Igor Bitansky defeat Andrew Phillips on board one . On board two Johny Bolens gave Vladimir Smirnov a great run for his money. Bolens describing it as “a completely won game” but Bolens ended up losing in his time pressure. On board three Jamie Davidson played Blair Mandla in a wild Scandinavian.
From the moves 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3g3?! Davidson’s position was already inferior due to Qxd5! But he fought on to make a game of it and Mandla had to play well to put the scalp in the bag. On Board four Graeme Deacon and Alex Mehan played a hard fought game where Alex was an exchange down but he had advanced passed pawns to compensate for the exchange. He had a chance to push his pawns through to win but eventually promoted at a time where his only Idea was to get a perpetual check.

Upsets for the round included: Board 7 where Garry Mann defeated Matthew Koutnik in an endgame. Graeme Cole scored the other upset of the round by defeating Keith “Arbiter/Player” Farrell.

In round 6 Blair Mandla laughed at the fact that he and Vladimir Smirnov had taken the top board off of Igor Bitansky. The game was a trompovsky which turned into a position not dissimilar to and exchange French. Mandla had his chances but it was Smirnov who ground out a win with his two rooks against Mandla’s Queen.
On board two Igor Bitansky defeated rapidly improving Novacastrian Alex Mehan. A king’s Indian defence was the order of the day on board three as Johny Bolens broke through with the black pieces to defeat me (Trent Parker). I was analysing the crucial position and then played my Queen to the wrong square when I had analysed that square as being a losing move!

Upsets for the round included Norman Greenwood wielding his Colle System against Peter Abbot ending up in a draw:

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Nf6 6.Qb3 Bxf3 7.Nxf3 Na5 8.Qa4+ c6 9.Bd3 Ne4 10.Nd2 f5 11.Bxe4 fxe4 12.b4 Nc4 13.Nxc4 dxc4 14.Qd1 Qg5 15.0–0 Bd6 16.f4 Qg6 17.a4 b6 18.Qe2 b5 19.axb5 cxb5 20.Ra6 Kd7 21.Qa2 Bb8 22.f5 Qh5 23.fxe6+ Ke7 24.g3 Rf8 25.Rxf8 Kxf8 26.Qg2 Qd1+ 27.Qf1+ Qxf1+ 28.Kxf1 Ke7 29.d5 Bc7 30.Ra2 Kd6 31.Rd2 Rf8+ 32.Ke2 Rf5 33.Rd4 Bd8 34.Rxe4 Rxd5 35.Kf3 Re5 36.Rd4+ Rd5 37.Ke4 Rxd4+ 38.exd4 Kxe6 39.Bf4 a5 40.d5+ Kd7 41.bxa5 Bxa5 42.Be5 g6 43.g4 Bb6 44.h3 Bc5 45.Bf4 Bb6 46.Bg3 Bc5 ½–½
Michael Tracey Held Ivan Kodzoman to a draw on board 6, Jamie Davidson was beaten by Garry Mann on board 7, and Keith Farrell finally got an upset win against John Pascoe.
Standings going into the final round saw the top two seeds basically securing the top two prizes.as they were 1.5 points ahead of four players on 4 points: Blair Mandla, Johny Bolens, Garry Mann and Andrew Phillips.
Igor Bitansky was back on top board for the final round and defeated Johny Bolens.On second board Garry Mann played white against Vladimir Smirnov and lost. On board three Blair Mandla stunned Andrew Phillips with somewhat of an opening trap. 11.Nb5 was an excellent move:
Mandla,B - Phillips,A [A17]
Toukley Open (7), 10.03.2008
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.d4 c6 6.Bg2 Be7 7.Nf3 0–0 8.0–0 Re8 9.Bf4 b6 10.Rc1 Nbd7 11.Nb5 Ba6 12.Nc7 Bxe2 13.Qxe2 Ne4 14.Nxe8 Qxe8 15.Ne5 Nxe5 16.Bxe4 Nc4 17.Bd3 1–0

Upsets for the round included Norman Greenwood who employed a Benko Gambit against Ivan Kodzoman: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.b3 bxc4 5.bxc4 e6 6.dxe6 fxe6 7.Bb2 Be7 8.Qc2 Nc6 9.a3 Bb7 10.Nf3 d5 11.e3 d4 12.exd4 cxd4 13.Bd3 e5 14.Be4 Nxe4 15.Qxe4 Bf6 16.0–0 0–0 17.Nbd2 Qc7 18.Qe2 Na5 19.Rfe1 Rfe8 20.Rac1 Bc6 21.Ne4 Bxe4 22.Qxe4 Rab8 23.Ba1 Nb3 24.Rc2 Red8 25.Rd1 Nxa1 26.Rxa1 d3 27.Rcc1 d2 28.Rd1 Qa5 29.g4 h6 30.Ra2 Bg5 31.Nxg5 hxg5 32.Qe2 Rb3 33.Rdxd2 Rf8 34.Rd5 Qb6 35.Rxe5 Rbf3 36.c5 Qb1+ 37.Kg2 Qh7 38.Rf5 Qh3+ 39.Kg1 Qxg4+ 40.Kh1 Qxf5 41.Kg1 Qg4+ 42.Kh1 Qh4 43.c6 Rxf2 44.Qe6+ Kh8 45.Rxf2 Qxf2 46.Qh3+ Kg8 47.c7 Qf1+ 0–1

Other upsets included Alex Mehan defeating Richard Eccles, Gary Losh defeating Jamie Davidson, Graeme Deacon drawing with Michael Koutnik,

Shortly after the last games were completed the Prizegiving ceremony was held to hand out the Prizes.

Igor Bitanski and Vladimir Smirnov finished the tournament equal first on 6.5/7. Blair Mandla came third with 5/7 only losing to the top two place getters.

The division One prizes for players seeded below the 10th seed was Norm Greenwood and Alex Mehan with 4.5/. Equal third was Gary Losh, Garry Mann and Myself.

Division two prizes for players seeded below the 20th Seed was won by Graeme Deacon with Anton Smirnov, Graeme Cole and Benjamin Whiteside sharing second place

Congratulations must go to Gary Losh for putting on an excellent tournament once again. Keith Farrell done an excellent job as DOP whilst still being able to play!

There is only one more thing to be said about this tourney. It is a friendly tournament. Enjoyable to play at. I urge all Sydneysiders to try to get to Toukley Next year.

Bobby Fischer - swimming with the fishes - The Sharks are circling

2008-02-07T10:39:00.001+11:00

With the death of Bobby Fischer last month the sharks are starting to circle for his remains - His monetary remains that is.

A filipino woman claims to have had a child with the reclusive former World Chess Champion. Marilyn Young claims that her daughter, Jinky,was a result of a relationship with Bobby Fischer in 2001, and even went to Iceland to visit Fischer.

Other people to lay claim to the Estate of Bobby Fischer include a Japanese woman who claims that she Married Bobby whilst he stayed in Japan. Two nephews are laying claim and even the United States Government wants to raid Bobby's estate for back taxes.

So where's the documentation ladies? maybe a DNA analysis will have to be done?

In more Bobby Fischer news it looks like Bobby Fischer goes to War is to become a movie.

Time for Touikley

2008-02-05T12:59:00.000+11:00

Once again this weekend we have the toukley open happening this weekend. and then the Newcastle Open the week after.

For a reminder about last year's Toukley see this post

Expecting a much larger field this year!

Lotsa Doctors in the House!

2008-02-04T00:01:00.000+11:00

For thie top boards in the Australia Day Weekender and a couple of times for the Australian Championships I deciphered some games to put into chess datgabases. I could not believe at the crppy writing of a lot of chessplayers. Maybe this is why the Monroi system works well. (unless you have DGT boards working of course).

For multiple games shown below I was not ablle to decipher all the moves due to messy handwriting. I gotta say that George Xie and GM Dejan antic are he worst. I find Geroge Xie's Handwriting eligible at the start of the game but deteriorates once the game starts to get interesting. as for Dejan Antic is scoresheets use the german or european? notation using Laufer and S sprenger or something like that.

Now I'm not saying that My handwriting is perfect... Far from it. But you would think by the messy writing that all thes people are Doctors! lol

Igor Bjelobrk bucks the trend. The winner of the ADW has good handwritten scoresheets!

Igor Wins Australia Day weekender. Xie Second. Antic misses out!

2008-02-03T14:53:00.000+11:00

On a Bright and sunny Australia Day 56 chess nuts decided to be gundled inside a room to play chess. The tournament had plenty of players with large ratings including GM Dejan Antic, FM Igor Bjelobrk, IM George Xie, FM Jesse Sales. Other over 2000 players included Tomek Rej, Niel Wright, Jason Hu, Paul Broekhuyse, Barak Atzmon-Simon and Johny Bolens. All these players accounted for their weaker opponents in round one except for Johny Bolens who underestimated his opponent in Michael Tracey. " I Sacrificed too much" said Bolens. Antic's first game was against David Adler who dropped a piece nearing the endgame and promptly resigned.

Adler,D - Antic,D [E60]
Australia Day Weekender (1.1), 26.01.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.Nc3 h6 5.Bh4 g5 6.Bg3 Nh5 7.e3 Nxg3 8.hxg3 c5 9.Nf3 d6 10.Qd2 g4 11.Nh4 Nc6 12.dxc5 dxc5 13.Qxd8+ Kxd8 14.0–0–0+ Kc7 15.Nd5+ Kb8 16.Be2 h5 17.f3 e6 18.Nf4 Ne5 19.Rd2 Kc7 20.Rhd1 b6 21.b3 Bb7 22.Nd3 Rad8 23.fxg4 hxg4 24.Nxe5 Rxd2 25.Rxd2 Bxe5 26.Bxg4 Bxg3 27.Nf3 f5 28.Bh3 Bxf3 0–1

Bjelobrk outplayed Benjamin Cheung on board two. First losing a pawn then the exchange and then more pawns and Benjamin Resigned.

Bjelobrk,I - Cheung,B [A13]
Australia Day Weekender (1.2), 26.01.2008
1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 e6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 0–0 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.Bf4 Re8 9.Rc1 a6 10.cxd5 Nxd5 11.Nxd5 exd5 12.d4 cxd4 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 Bf6 15.Qxd5 Qxd5 16.Bxd5 Rxe2 17.Rfe1 Rxe1+ 18.Rxe1 g5 19.Re8+ Kg7 20.Bd6 Be6 21.Rxa8 Bxd5 22.b3 Kh6 23.Rg8 Bg7 24.Bf8 Bxf8 25.Rxf8 Kg7 26.Rd8 Bc6 27.Kf1 g4 28.Ke2 f5 29.Ke3 Kg6 30.Kf4 Be4 31.Rd6+ Kh5 32.b4 Bb1 33.a4 Bc2 34.a5 Bb1 35.Rd7 Be4 36.Rxh7+ Kg6 37.Re7 Bb1 38.Rxb7 1–0

ACT's Emma Guo lost to FM George Xie, potential Sydneysider Jesse Sales accounted for NSWCA Treasurer Norman Greenwood. Tomek Rej defeated Roy Banecefic in an attacking display. Niel Wright defeated Les Kovacs, I got smashed by Jason Hu, Paul Broekhuyse accounted for Danny Bisson, and Barak Atzmon Simon beat Michael Courtney. To get to the next upset you have to go to board 21 where Drawmeister Nick Mann drew with Jason Cohn, Lloyd Fell drew with young Kinto Wan, Wah Cheung drew with Joshua Christensen. The unrated players faired well as Baby Joseph defeated Dennis Wan and Harun Majumder defeated Pierre Guenette.

In round two the top seeds kept Mowing down the lower rated opponents. Antic defeated Blair Mandla in a Benoni, Milan Grcic lost to Igor Bjelobrk who underpromoted a pawn to inflict defeat, Gerge Xie defeated Sarwat Rewais, Sales defeated Mos Ali, Tomek Rej defeated Stephen Javor, the closet grandmaster - Amiel Rosario lost to Niel Wright. Jason Hu defeated Andrew Philips , Paul Broekhuyse defeated Herman Rachmadi and Barak Atzmon-Simon defeated Rebecca Harris. There was only one draw for the round. I drew with Patrick Beaven with opposite colour bishops. Upsets for round two included Michael Tracey over Michael Dunn, Unrated Harun Majumder defeating Lloyd Fell, Gary Losh Defeating Dennis Wan, Mark Ryan defeating David Adler, Luthien Russell defeated Roy Banicevic, and Benjamin Whiteside defeating Les Kovacs.

Round two games:

Antic,D - Mandla,B [A44]
Australia Day Weekender (2.1), 26.01.2008
1.d4 c5 2.d5 e5 3.e4 Nf6 4.Nc3 d6 5.Be2 g6 6.Nf3 Bg7 7.0–0 0–0 8.Nd2 Na6 9.Nc4 Nc7 10.a4 Nfe8 11.f4 f5 12.fxe5 Bxe5 13.Nxe5 dxe5 14.exf5 Rxf5 15.Be3 b6 16.Qd2 Nd6 17.g4 Rxf1+ 18.Rxf1 Bb7 19.Bg5 Qd7 20.Bf6 Re8 21.h3 e4 22.Qf4 Rf8 23.g5 Nxd5 24.Nxd5 Bxd5 25.Rd1 Qc6 26.Qe5 Ne8 27.Qxd5+ Qxd5 28.Rxd5 Nxf6 29.gxf6 Rxf6 30.Rd7 a5 31.Re7 Rf4 32.b3 Kf8 33.Re6 Kf7 34.Bc4 Kg7 35.Kg2 Kh6 36.Bd5 Kg5 37.Bxe4 Kh4 1–0

Grcic,M - Bjelobrk,I [A89]
Australia Day Weekender (2.2), 26.01.2008
1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.c4 Bg7 5.Nc3 0–0 6.Nf3 d6 7.0–0 Nc6 8.d5 Na5 9.Qd3 e5 10.e4 fxe4 11.Nxe4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Bf5 13.Qe2 Bg4 14.Qe4 Bxf3 15.Bxf3 Nxc4 16.Bg4 Nb6 17.h4 Qe8 18.Bg5 c6 19.dxc6 d5 20.Qb4 bxc6 21.Be7 Rf7 22.Be6 e4 23.Bxf7+ Kxf7 24.Bc5 Rb8 25.Bd6 Rb7 26.Rac1 Qd7 27.Qc5 Bxb2 28.Rc2 Ke6 29.Bf4 Nc4 30.Qf8 Bf6 31.Qg8+ Kf5 32.Be3 Ne5 33.Qf8 Qe6 34.Kg2 Kg4 35.Qh6 Qf5 36.Bf4 Rf7 37.Rh1 Bg7 38.Qxh7 e3 39.Rb2 Qe4+ 40.Kg1 Nf3+ 41.Kf1 Bxb2 42.Qg8 e2+ 43.Kg2 e1N+ 0–1

Round three saw some of the big names start to pair up Jason Hu come up against the Grandmaster in the tournament Dejan Antic and lost in a benoni which gave Antic (as black) two very advanced passed pawns in the endgame:

Hu,J - Antic,D [E66]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (3.1), 26.01.2008
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0–0 5.0–0 d6 6.Nc3 c5 7.d4 Nc6 8.d5 Na5 9.Qd3 e5 10.Nh4 Nh5 11.Bf3 f5 12.Bxh5 gxh5 13.e3 a6 14.Qe2 Bd7 15.Kh1 b5 16.cxb5 axb5 17.e4 b4 18.Nd1 Nb3 19.Rb1 Nd4 20.Qxh5 fxe4 21.Bg5 Qe8 22.Qxe8 Rfxe8 23.a3 Bb5 24.Re1 Bd3 25.Rc1 bxa3 26.bxa3 Rxa3 27.Nb2 Nf3 28.Nxd3 Rxd3 29.Nxf3 exf3 30.Red1 Rxd1+ 31.Rxd1 e4 32.Be3 Ra8 33.Bf4 Ra6 34.h4 Bd4 35.Re1 Bxf2 36.Rxe4 Bd4 37.Re1 h5 38.Rf1 f2 39.Kg2 Kf7 40.Rb1 Kg6 41.Kf3 Kf5 42.Rd1 Rb6 43.Rc1 c4 44.Kg2 c3 45.Rd1 Ke4 46.Bg5 c2 47.Rc1 Rb1 48.Rxc2 f1Q+ 0–1

Meanwhile on board two Igor Bjelobrk defeated Barak Atzmon-Simon's From Gambit against Igors Birds opening.

Bjelobrk,I - Atzmon-Simon,B [A02]
Australia Day Weekender (3.2), 26.01.2008
1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.d4 Ng4 6.Qd3 c5 7.Qe4+ Be6 8.Ng5 Nxh2 9.Nxe6 Bg3+ 10.Kd1 fxe6 11.Qxe6+ Qe7 12.Qc8+ Qd8 13.Qxc5 Rf8 14.Nd2 g6 15.e4 Nd7 16.Bb5 a6 17.Bxd7+ Qxd7 18.Nf3 Qg4 19.Bh6 Rf7 20.Qg5 Rxf3 21.Qxg4 Nxg4 22.gxf3 Nf2+ 23.Ke2 Nxh1 24.Rxh1 Bc7 25.f4 1-0

On board three George Xie was able to overcome Paul Broekhuyse's London system.

Broekhuyse,P - Xie,G [D02]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (3.3), 26.01.2008
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bf4 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Bb5 Bd6 6.Bg3 Nge7 7.Nbd2 a6 8.Be2 0–0 9.0–0 Nf5 10.Bxd6 cxd6 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Nxf3 Rc8 13.Bd3 g6 14.c3 Na5 15.Qe2 Ng7 16.e4 Nh5 17.exd5 Nf4 18.Qd1 exd5 19.Re1 Nc4 20.Rb1 b5 21.Bf1 a5 22.g3 Ne6 23.Bg2 b4 24.cxb4 axb4 25.Qa4 Qb6 26.Rxe6 Ra8 27.Qc2 fxe6 28.Ng5 Rac8 29.Qe2 Rce8 30.Nxe6 Qa5 31.Qg4 Rf5 32.Nf4 Kg7 33.Rc1 b3 34.Bxd5 Rxd5 35.Rxc4 bxa2 36.Nxd5 a1Q+ 37.Kh2 Qd8 0–1

Jesse Sales accounted for Benjamin Harris on the fouth Board whilst TomekRej conceded a draw against Brendan Norman. Other Upsets for the round included Gary Losh over Stephen JavorRoy Banecevic conceded a draw against Jonathan Ren as did Les Kovacs agaist Daniel McGowan.

The Last of the Saturday round saw the titled players play off against each other. The clash of the overseas listed players was on board one Sales Drew with Antic.:

Antic,D - Sales,J [A60]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (4.1), 26.01.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 Bd6 6.Nc3 0–0 7.g3 Bc7 8.Bg2 d6 9.0–0 a6 10.a4 Re8 11.b3 Nbd7 12.Bb2 Rb8 13.Nd2 Nf8 14.e4 Ba5 15.Qc2 b5 16.h3 Ng6 17.Rfe1 Bd7 18.axb5 axb5 19.Nd1 c4 20.bxc4 bxc4 21.Bc3 Bxc3 22.Qxc3 Qc8 23.Ne3 ½–½
George Xie did not get enough compensation for a sacrificed exchange on the second board against Igor Bjelobrk.

Xie,G - Bjelobrk,I [D18]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (4.2), 29.01.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0–0 Nbd7 9.Qe2 Bg6 10.Rd1 0–0 11.Na2 Bd6 12.b4 Qe7 13.Bd2 Bh5 14.e4 e5 15.Bg5 exd4 16.Rxd4 Bxf3 17.Qxf3 Bxh2+ 18.Kf1 Be5 19.Rxd7 Qxd7 20.Rd1 Qe7 21.b5 h6 22.Bc1 Rfd8 23.Re1 cxb5 24.axb5 Rac8 25.Ba3 Qd7 26.Qb3 Rc7 27.Nb4 Qd4 28.Bd5 Ng4 29.Qa2 Bd6 30.Rb1 Bxb4 31.Bxb4 Nxf2 32.b6 axb6 0–1

Onboard three Tomek Rej defeated Brendan Norman after Norman's wild Benoni went wron losing a piece but instead of going down a piece decided to play two pieces for a queen down. Eventually Rej's Queen infiltrated the black position and black resigned:

Rej,T - Wright,N [A56]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (4.3), 27.01.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e5 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 Nbd7 6.Bd3 Be7 7.Bd2 a6 8.Nge2 h5 9.Ng3 g6 10.Qe2 h4 11.Nf1 Nh5 12.g3 Bg5 13.Ne3 Qe7 14.0–0–0 Qf8 15.Kb1 Qh6 16.Ng4 Bxd2 17.Nxh6 Bxh6 18.Bc2 Ndf6 19.Rhg1 0–0 20.f3 Rb8 21.Qf2 b5 22.g4 Nf4 23.g5 b4 24.Ne2 Bg7 25.Nxf4 exf4 26.gxf6 Bxf6 27.e5 Bxe5 28.Qxh4 Kg7 29.Qe7 1–0

Joshua Christensen continued his unbeaten streak on board four by drawing against Neil Wright. Barak Atsmon simon drew with Jason Cohn and Jason Hu accounted for Mos Ali. Broekhuyse defeated Amiel Rosario and Johny Bolens making his way back up the pack defeated Johnathan Adams. Upsets for the round included Trent Parker over Lloyd Fell, Valsalan Karayi over Dennis Wan, Mark Ryan over Pierre Guenette, Les Kovacs was held to a draw by Nicholas Mann and on the lower boards Kunec drew with Lance chiddy.

DAY TWO
Yet another beautiful day was wasted playing chess in at Norths Club at Cammeray.While the Sun shon outside top seed Dejan Antic's tournament went from good to bad to missing out on a prize after round 7.. In round 5, the first of the Sunday rounds, Dejan Antic did not get his way on the top board. It was time for the top two seeds to meet. After an interesting Nimzo Indian Dejan Antic eventually missed a combination which allowed Igor Bjelobrk to win a piece for little or no compensation:

Bjelobrk,I - Antic ,D [E24]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (5.1), 27.01.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 b6 6.e3 0–0 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.f3 d5 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Ne2 c5 11.0–0 Re8 12.Ng3 Nc6 13.Ra2 Ne7 14.Raf2 Ng6 15.Re1 Rc8 16.Bb2 h5 17.Qb1 h4 18.Nf1 Nf8 19.e4 cxd4 20.cxd4 Nh5 21.e5 Nf4 22.Bf5 Rc6 23.g3 N4e6 24.f4 Bc8 25.Bd3 Nc7 26.f5 Nh7 27.Kh1 Ng5 28.gxh4 Ne4 29.Rf4 Rh6 30.Ng3 Bb7 31.Qc2 Rxh4 32.Rxh4 Qxh4 33.Bxe4 dxe4 34.Qxc7 Ba8 35.e6 1–0

Meanwhile on the second board Jesse Sales slayed Tomek Rej's Dragon with a Maroczy Bind:
Sales,J - Rej,T [B36]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (5.2), 27.01.2008
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 g6 6.e4 d6 7.Be2 Bg7 8.Be3 0–0 9.Qd2 Qa5 10.f3 Nd7 11.Nb3 Qa6 12.0–0 Nf6 13.Rfd1 Be6 14.Rac1 Rac8 15.Nd5 Rfe8 16.Bf1 b6 17.Bg5 Nd7 18.Be3 Nc5 19.Nd4 Bd7 20.Nxc6 Bxc6 21.Bd4 Bxd4+ 22.Qxd4 Qb7 23.Ne3 Ne6 24.Qd2 Rcd8 25.Qf2 Qc8 26.Kh1 Qd7 27.Nd5 scoreshet Inelligible 1–0

In other top results, George Xie accounted for Brendan Norman, Neil Wright drew with Blair Mandla, Jason Hu defeated Sarwat Rewais, Paul Broekhuyse finally ended Joshua Christensens unbeated run and Garry Losh, who had an excellent tourney up to now lost to Johny Bolens. Jason Cohn drew with Benjamin Harris and Barak Atzmon-Simon defeated Herman Rachmadi. Mos Ali turned up with about six minutes left on his clock after taking a wrong turn and ending up getting lost. He was in luck however. His opponent was Milan Grcic whom was in the same car! A draw was agreed to. Michael Dunn drew with Norman Greenwood, Andrew Phillips drew with Michael Tracey, David Adler drew with Harun Majunda, Lloyd Fell drew with Johnathan Ren, Nick Mann held Oscar Wang to a draw as did Wah Cheung against Patrick Beahan. Upsets for the round include Emma guo over Amiel Rosario, Valsalan Karayi against Jonathan Adams, Kinto Wan defeated Roy Banicevic, Benjamin Whiteside defeated Dennis Wan. Pierre Guenette forfeited to Luthien Russel as he was sick and withdrew with very little notice.

Round 6 and the GM recovered in this round to defeat Jason Cohn. But on board one an interesting game was brewing between Jesse Sales and Igor Bjelobrk. Sales played 1.Nf3 and Bjelobrk played to arrive at a dutch defence but the usual dutch position didn't come to fruition. Sales lost a piece for a pawn to a pawnfork. Goes to prove that even the best can have "Brain explosions" as I like to call them.

Sales,J - Bjelobrk,I [A04]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (6.1), 27.01.2008
1.Nf3 f5 2.d3 d6 3.e4 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.exf5 Bxf5 6.d4 Nf6 7.Bc4 d5 8.Bd3 Bg4 9.h3 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 0–0 11.Be3 c5 12.0–0 Nc6 13.dxc5 e5 14.Bb5 d4 15.Rad1 Qa5 16.Bxc6 bxc6 17.Qxc6 dxc3 18.b4 Qxb4 19.Rb1 Qe4 20.Qe6+ Kh8 21.c6 Rae8 22.Qd6 Rd8 23.Qc5 Rc8 24.Rb7 Qxc6 25.Qe7 Rg8 26.Rxa7 Nd5 27.Qd7 Qxd7 28.Rxd7 Rgd8 29.Rxd8+ Rxd8 30.Rd1 Bf6 31.Bc5 Kg7 32.g3 Kf7 33.Rb1 Ke6 34.Kf1 Rc8 35.Rb5 Ra8 36.a3 Kd7 37.Rb3 Kc6 38.Bb4 e4 39.Ke2 Rb8 40.h4 Nxb4 41.axb4 Kb5 42.Ke3 Rd8 43.Ra3 Rd2 44.Ra2 Bd4+ 45.Kxe4 Bxf2 46.Kf3 Kxb4 47.Kg4 h5+ 48.Kf3 Bc5 49.Kf4 Bd6+ 50.Kf3 Rh2 51.Ra6 Kc5 52.Ra3 Rxc2 53.g4 Kc4 54.Ra6 hxg4+ 55.Kxg4 Bc5 56.Kf3 Rf2+ 0–1

Board two saw George Xie defeat Johny Bolens in a four knights game:
Xie,G - Bolens,J [C47]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (6.3), 27.01.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 d6 6.h3 0–0 7.0–0 a6 8.d4 exd4 9.Nxd4 Bd7 10.Nf5 h6 11.b3 Re8 12.Nxe7+ Nxe7 13.Bb2 Bc6 14.Qd4 Ng6 15.Rad1 Qe7 16.Rfe1 Qf8 17.a4 Re7 18.b4 b6 19.b5 axb5 20.axb5 Bd7 21.Ra1 Ree8 22.f4 Reb8 23.Ra6 Rc8 24.e5 Scoresheet inelligible 1–0
On board three Jason Hu defeated Paul Broekhuyse in and English Opening. Hu was able to pick up a pawn and then a second during the game. Paul fought on but to no prevail. Once Rooks were off White was clearly better and Black resigned:

Hu,J - Broekhuyse,P [A29]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (6.3), 27.01.2008
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 d5 7.d4 exd4 8.Nxd4 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 c5 10.Qd3 d4 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.Bxd5 Rb8 13.e4 dxe3 14.Bxe3 Be6 15.Rad1 Bxd5 16.cxd5 Bd6 17.Rd2 b5 18.b3 Qa5 19.Rc1 Rbc8 20.Rdc2 b4 21.h4 Rc7 22.h5 Rfc8 23.Qc4 a6 24.Qg4 Qb5 25.Bh6 g6 26.hxg6 hxg6 27.Kg2 Qd3 28.Rd2 Qf5 29.Qxf5 gxf5 30.Rc4 Kh7 31.Bf4 Rd8 32.Kf3 Kg6 33.Be3 Re8 34.Rdc2 Rec8 35.Rc1 Kf6 36.Rh1 Rg8 37.Rh6+ Rg6 38.Rh8 Ke5 39.Ra8 Kxd5 40.Rxa6 Be5 41.Ra5 Bc3 42.Rcxc5+ Rxc5 43.Rxc5+ Kd6 44.Rxf5 Ke6 45.Rb5 Rg8 46.Bc5 Rg5 47.Rb6+ Kd7 48.Be3 Ra5 49.Rb7+ Ke6 50.Ra7 Rf5+ 51.Ke4 Re5+ 52.Kd3 Rd5+ 53.Ke2 Rb5 54.Ra6+ Kf5 55.Kf3 f6 56.Rc6 Kg6 57.Ra6 Rb7 58.g4 Rd7 59.g5 Kf5 60.gxf6 Bxf6 61.Ra5+ Ke6 62.Ke4 Bb2 63.Ra6+ Kf7 64.Ra7 Rxa7 65.Bxa7 1–0

Tomek Rej played against Rebecca Harris on five: Rej 1 Harris 0. Meanwhile Brother Benjamin defeated Neil Wright. Barak Atzmon Simon was defeated by Blair Mandla.

Draws were agreed upon by Roy Banecevic against Whiteside.
Joshua Christensen continued an excellent tournament by defeating Steven Javor. Luthien Russel scored one for the girls against Dany Bisson and Johnathan Ren defeated Michael Courtney . Les Kovacs contined his disappointing tournament by going down to Oscar Wang.

Igor Bjelobrk was the sole person on 6/6 before round 7. Could Jason Hu make a dint in Igor's perfect score? Igor Bjelobrk and Jason Hu agreed to a draw on move 22 Thus securing Igor Bjelork outright first:
Bjelobrk,I - Hu,J [A11]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (7.1), 27.01.2008
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.b3 Bf5 6.Bb2 e6 7.Be2 h6 8.0–0 Bd6 9.d4 0–0 10.Bd3 Bxd3 11.Qxd3 Nbd7 12.e4 dxe4 13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nf6 15.Qh4 b5 16.Rfc1 Rc8 17.Ne5 Qe7 18.Rc2 Ba3 19.Bxa3 Qxa3 20.Rac1 b4 21.Qf4 Qa5 22.Rd1 ½–½

The last round saw the Grandmaster defeated by the no. 3 seed George Xie. The game was a Slav defence:
Antic,D - Xie,G [D94]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (7.2)
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Bd3 a6 7.Qb3 0–0 8.0–0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Be2 Bf5 11.Bd2 c5 12.dxc5 Nbd7 13.Qa3 Qc8 14.b4 Ne4 15.Nxe4 Bxa1 16.Ng3 Bg7 17.Nxf5 gxf5 18.Qd3 Nf6 Scoresheet Inelligible 0–1

On Board three Jesse Sales accounted for Barak Atzmon Simon to take equal third with Rej and Hu.

Board 4 saw Tomek Rej play the black side of a nimzo indian where he sacrificed his Queen for two minor Pieces and a rook. Benjamin Harris had the Queen but eventually succumbed to Rej's pieces. Harris 0 Rej 2
Harris,B - Rej,T [E30]
NSWCA Australia Day Weekender (7.4), 27.01.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bg5 c5 5.d5 Nxd5 6.Bxd8 Nxc3 7.Qb3 Ne4+ 8.Kd1 Nxf2+ 9.Kc2 Kxd8 10.Nh3 Nxh1 11.e3 Nc6 12.Be2 Kc7 13.a3 Ba5 14.Rxh1 d5 15.Rf1 Rf8 16.Ng5 Bd7 17.cxd5 exd5 18.Qxd5 Rad8 19.Rxf7 Rxf7 20.Qxf7 Kb8 21.Bf3 Ne5 22.Qf4 Bc7 23.Nf7 Nxf3 24.Qxf3 Rf8 25.Qd5 Bc6 26.Qe6 Re8 27.Qh3 h6 28.Qg4 Rxe3 29.Qxg7 Ba4+ 30.Kd2 Re8 31.Qxh6 Bb3 32.Qh5 Bf4+ 0–1

Draws for the final round included Valsalan Karayi against Jonathan Ren. Upsets for the final round were Luthien Russel over Benjamin Cheung, David Adler lost to Kinto Wan, Whiteside defeated Micheal Tracey, Wan Cheng defeated Roy Banecevic and Kunkel Veikko defeated Les Kovacs.

Congratulations to Igor Bjelobrk on his win and George Xie on his second place.

Aus Champs Photos

2008-01-15T14:14:00.000+11:00

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

Keep Dejan In Australia

2008-01-15T11:48:00.000+11:00

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!

2008-01-14T10:43:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-09T20:12:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-09T00:03:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-07T23:34:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-07T21:26:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-07T19:59:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-07T07:50:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-06T23:43:00.000+11:00

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!

2008-01-06T21:05:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-06T20:42:00.000+11:00

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...

2008-01-02T23:41:00.000+11:00

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.

Chess Game Preparation

2007-12-22T03:53:00.000+11:00

What does a chessplayer concentrate on when coming up to a big tournament? I generally like to go over some Opening theory if I'm playing a new Opening or study tactics or study endgame.

Also physical training could be a good Idea for improving ones chess game. In an article by an Argentinian Nutritionist Roberto Baglione with the assistance of German GM Helmut Pfleger's survey it was found that "the elite chess players have comparable physiological parameters in competition as those who practice sports such as shooting, car racing and golf; consequently, chess could be classified as the same category of sport as those according to these criteria"

the article also gives recommendations for nutritional ways to be at your optimum performance and concentration at the board in important games:

"Avoiding “heavy foods” or foods of difficult digestion before games must be
adopted as a regular habit for chess players. The last “main” meal before a game
has to be had at least three hours in advance. If a player wishes to have
something to eat nearer the time of the beginning of a competition (one or two
hours before, e.g.) he/she should choose among fruits (whole ones, fruit salad
or juices, raisins), cereal bars, pretzels, cookies, low fat yogurt with fruit
or cereals, sports drinks.

During the games, it is recommended fluid ingestion, and, if the chess
player wants it (or when the game becomes long), solid foods. Mineral water,
fruit juices, tea, coffee, sports drinks, cereal bars, fruits, raisins, dry
fruits (almonds, e.g.), chocolate, cereal cookies, can be chosen. In all cases,
moderate quantities should be taken.
The best strategy to hydration is to drink small quantities at regular intervals, instead of greater quantities at a few intervals, and avoid being thirsty. The same indication should be followed during board training and physical activity. It is also important to begin the activity properly hydrated.
It would be good for chess players “to train” the quantity of fluid to be
drunk while playing training games in situations similar to the tournament’s; in
order to determine if the options and quantities are well tolerated (and to
become familiarized with them) and then, avoid drinking quantities during an
important game which may result in concentration loss. The same routine should be taken into account for solid foods.
Some characteristics of the urine can show the state of hydration, which
gives players a very good reference. If at any moment of the day the color of
the urine is dark yellow, it is small in volume and has a strong smell, then all
these signs could be showing that the chess player might not be properly
hydrated and, consequently, should drink plenty of water or fluids containing
water in considerable proportion.
It would be advisable for the elite chess players to count on scientific
nutritional consultancy in order to cope with all the requirements that
top-level chess entails, because nutrition plays a significant role in the sport
performance.
The improper use of dietary supplements, mainly under self-supervision or
non-professional supervision, can cause health problems and may result in a
positive anti-doping control. It is advisable that chess players take dietary
supplements only if these are prescribed by a medical doctor after a complete
general check, and, in the case of top players, only those ones which are not on
the list of the banned substances and methods for chess. The players must be
informed about the current World Anti-Doping Code.
Physical activities should be considered as an important component of the
chess player training. It is necessary to attend clinical- cardiologic tests
before starting doing this type of activity and this program must be designed by a doctor or a physical trainer."

I might have to start using some of these strategies in the lead up to the Australian Minor. :D I've been having a healthy eating period recently with lots of salad Items and leaving out a lot of crap that I used to eat. I'm using low fat milk and the low GI Bergen bread for my sandwiches which keep me full for ages. I've got to work on the hydration however. I have been only drinking when thirsty which is a sign of dehydration.

In recent times there has been a bit of discussion on chesschat on how unhealthy chessplayers are (except for the children). see this post here and subsequent discussion here. Maybe to get a healthier chess standard we need a healthier chess community?! Bring on the treadmills - pump out those GM's! lol

12 more sleeps

2007-12-21T06:54:00.000+11:00

The Final field of the Australian Championships have been decided with a field of 36 players. Entry into the Major and Minor are still being taken so if you want to get into a great tournament its not too late.

I've prepared my new arsenal for the Australian minor. As for those Koreans in the Major and the Minor apparently the Koreans in the Major are adults and in the minor they are young 10 year olds.

Its time for me to start preparing my lines.... :D

Getting Excited? Less than a month to go!

2007-12-13T13:35:00.000+11:00

Its almost that time of year again! yeah its christmas but thats not what i'm talking about.

Its almost time for the Australian Championships! My count makes 31 entering the Championship division , 49 in the Major division and 31 in the minor division. So it should be a good tournament. Top seeds in the Championship division are GM Dejan Antic and GM Darryl Johansen. with 4 other IM's (including one from Brazil!). Other visitors include: Felix Klein from Germany. and a host of South Korean players playing in the Major and the Minor. The Question is: how good are these Korean players?

A Club Liason officer - for city and country

2007-12-10T17:27:00.000+11:00

At the NSWCA AGM I was voted in as the Club Liason Officer. It was not a role I was expecting to get. However, now that I now have that position I am going to try my best to be a clubs Liason person to the NSWCA for both city and country clubs.

I will listen to what people say about issues in their club, issues about the NSWCA Grade Matches and the like. But I want to know whats happening with Country Clubs as well. I want to find out how I can make the affiliation fee even more worthwhile for them to pay.

I will try to assist country clubs to hold their weekender tournaments, whether it be to be in a role of player or maybe Director Of Play or even in another form. I have already agreed with Gary Losh to arrange car pooling arrangements for Toukley Open (even knowing that, sadly, The White Knights Chess Club has folded) as the public transport to and from Toukley can be a pain (as I experienced last year).

Next year I would like to work with Keith Farrell in improving the Country Clubs Championships. These Championships are always fun to play at.

I hope that I can make a positive impact on the clubs in NSW in 2008.

Election Update:: Incumbents stay in!

2007-12-09T10:52:00.000+11:00

On the 24th of November the nation went to the polls to vote for the person who they believe would serve them best as Prime Minister of Australia. Chess Players had to vote and then go to the NSW Lightning and or the NSWCA AGM.... If they cared. The Incumbents were largely voted in to their positions again with a few shuffling around in the back benches.

Brett Tindal moves from Tournaments Officer to Member without portfolio, Shane Burgess fills Brett's spot as Tournaments officer after a year's stint as Clubs Liason Officer. After a year and a half I decided to come back on to council. I was voted in as Clubs Liason Officer. Peter Parr took over the vacant Publicity Officer role and Martin Van Elmpt replaced Rick Keuning as Webmaster.

It was also decided to increase the membership fee to $30 and to charge a non voting rights fee of $10 if a player wishes to play rated games. A tournament will not be rated unless all players have paid this membership. The Country Membership remains at $10.

In relation to the compulsory membership to get a players games rated, I had an interesting conversation with Mr Gary Losh and he was concerned about the extra $10 that must be paid/player if games are to be rated. His arguement was that the Club affiliation fee was supposed to cover advertisment of their tournaments and the rating of these tournaments. I argued that Individuals are members of the NSWCA and thus the individual players should pay for having their games rated. At the end we agreed to disagree. He felt that the additional $10 per person may have detrimental effects on small tournaments like Laurieton. We will see if this is founded or not next year.

Changes: for the better!?

2007-12-08T17:11:00.000+11:00

Hello peoples
Sorry about going missing for a long time. I’ve had a bit of an up/down time of it lately.

I’ve started to get some chess Coaching GM Dejan Antic in order to improve my chess. In my Chess Career I’ve gone from an aggressive, Sac happy type of person and I’m looking to turn myself into a more positional, maybe prophylactic style of play. Rather than play like a cobra trying to strike fast at a mongoose before it strikes back, I want to play more like a boa Constrictor – I want to squeeze my opponent’s position until it’s choked to death. The coaching is paying off dividends at the moment. Had some successful games in the Western Suburbs Rapid-play Challenge where I scored 1.5/2 and Parramatta and Rooty Hill Tied for the night but Parramatta won due to winning the Rooty Hill leg.

I have had some problems in my personal life. My work dried up so was looking for work a lot of the time. In an effort to start getting in shape I decided to go see a doctor to get a check up. I haven’t really done that before and have never really had my own GP. Anyhow he sent me to get a blood test done and it came back not good. My Cholesterol was a bit higher than what it’s supposed to be and I now have type two diabetes. Add to that High Blood pressure and the obvious fact that I’m obese means I got to get in shape to lose this heart attack material…

So I got a couple of action plans in happening at the moment: for my health, for my chess, and to earn a living (which I intend to start my own bookkeeping business in the new year). With a bit of effective time management I should be able to blog regularly as well. (Maybe a little bit of Déjà vu?)

So what has happened in chess since I last blogged?

Surfer’s Paradise
My apologies for not completing the Surfers Paradise tournament blog entry.

GM Dejan Antic won the tournament on a score of 6/7 and GM Roland Schmaltz and Mouthun Ly ended up equal second on 5.5/7. The under 1600 division ended up being won by Craig Stewart on 6/7. Shayne Hunter scored 5.5/7 to grab second prize and there were 4 players on 5 points for equal third, including Mike Duffin who took my second place in the GP standings after this tournament.

Coffs Harbour Open – Incorporating the NSW Country Championships.

On the tenth and 11th of November the 4th Coffs Harbour Open was held at the Coffs Harbour Catholic Club. The joint winners of this event were: GM Dejan Antic, visiting Malaysian Mas Hafizulhelmi and IM George Xie all on a score of 6/7. Coffs Harbour local Alan Tankel won the NSW Country Champion title with a score of 4.5/7. Congrats to the Coffs Harbour Crew on another great tournament! GM Ian Rogers gave lectures on the top two games. (Which embarrassingly I had to play top seed Antic in the first round and my game got cut to shreds!!).

Gosford Open

Chris Morrison, a Scottish player who is currently working in Singapore who decided to holiday in Australia and enter the tournament after several years out of chess, won the Gosford Open! Anyhow he won from Johny Bolens and Paul Broekhuyse who came second and third respectively.
For more information…. http://gosfordchess.com/Previous/2007/GosfordOpen2007/PhotoAndReport/GosfordOpen2007PhotoReport.html

And a few weeks later….

Country Teams Championship – Gosford

Once again the Central Coast Leagues club hosted the Country Teams Championship, which was won by Gosford 1 over 11 other teams from Ettalong, Newcastle, Hamilton, Dubbo, Coffs Harbour, Blayney and Bathurst, Tumbi Umbi (Mingara of course!) and Gosford.

Also there was a little meeting called the NSW AGM, which I’ll come to in another post.

Sun, Sand, Surf, chess what else do you want?

2007-10-27T23:36:00.000+10:00

4:20 pm; The Sydney-Brisbane overnight XPt slinks out of Sydney Central station and powers North through the suburbs of Sydney, Central Coast and Newcastle. My Desination: Surfer's Paridise, Queensland. The train will take me as far as the town called Casino where i will change over to a coach at the ungodly hour of 3:30. And Its time for me to sleep.

Iremember when I was a kid of about 15-16 My family and I came to the Gold Coast for a family holiday. We did the usual touristy things like Sea World and Movie World. We stayed at Conrad hotel Jupiter's Casino. I remember going walkabouts; catching the Monorail accross to the Oasis shopping Centre. Heading towards the beach and walking north is the BroadBeach Surf Life Saving Club. The Venue for this Surfer's Paridise Chess tournament.

The Train arrived in Casino half an hour late but the Surfer's Paridise bus made up time as it's first stop was not until Palm beach. The bus arrived in Surfer's Paridise at just before seven. Muddle headed and not sure which way to go I picked up some brochures and maps of the local area. My intended accomodation, the YHA, i discovered was on the other side of Surfer's paridise. so i decided to seek alternate accomodation. Walking south towards Broadbeach I came accross the Surfer's Paradise backpackers which had a vacancy. Then to the venue: a 10-15 min walk away.

The Broadbeach SLSC overlooks the beach (how else whould they save lives in the surf?). It is a bright venue without air conditioning although surprisingly the fans do make conditions bearable on a day without a cloud in the sky and muggy as.

Now to the chess:

Round one went to plan for the vast majority of higher rated players in both the Open and the U1600:

Francisco Chung lost to GM Roland Schmaltz, Antic defeated Narelle Szuveges in a Catalan Opening, Oleg Korenevski lost to IM Steven Solomon, IM Gary Land defeated Jonas Muller, Sam Griggs lost to IM Peter Froelich; Pinoy IM Jesse Sales defeated Mark Stokes, and Michal Van Pelt lost to Mouthun Ly. Unrated Joe Delmastro defeated Tony Weller in the only upset for the round.

The Under 1600 top seed Daniel Ford defeated Henry McLennan, board two saw Mike duffin defeate Peter Horan, board three saw John Ringrose lose to Aurel-John buciu, Peter radonovan defeated John Surridge. David Soul lost to Me in a french gone wrong for white. Upsets started on board 9 where Kyle Ringrose (909) defeated John Radovan (1423)

Round two saw Roland Schmaltz defeate Dusan Stojic, Edsil Dilla started a devastating run of losses against GM Dejan Antic, Steven Solomon was an exchange down against Lee Jones but Solo was able to put the squeeze on Jones' cramped position to come away with a win. Domagoj Dragicevic (2139) defeated Gary Lane (2405) in a board 4 upset. Froelich defeated Bruce Thomas, Ben Lazarus lost to Jesse Sales, Mouthun Ly defeated David Lovejoy, Gene Nakkauchi lost to Felix Klein. Upsets in the Open division include Tony Weller (1788) losing to John Alkin (1616), Alex Stanke (1613) defeating Francisco Chung (1761), Yi Liu (1510) defeating Oleg Korenevski (1695), Jonas Muller (1677) drew with Jessica Kinder (1588) Mark Stokes (1668) lost to Kieran Lyons (1439).

In the U1600 division Daniel ford defeated Alex "Arrogant One" Toolsie, Regina Edwards lost to Mike Duffin. Aurel-John Buciu defeated Peter Booy, Keiton Beilby (1354) defeated Peter Radovan (1530), Shayne Hunter defeated Kyle Ringrose and Jim Laky drew with Craig Stewart. I accounted for Anicha Bay in an interesting game where Anicha's Hyper Modern style opening against my huge centre ensured an interesting battle. I went down a pawn and then gained a piece for a pawn. Then I was able to make a Bishop sacrifice to gain the advantage.
Upsets in the U1600 included Vasile Buciu (1408) lost to Hans Peter Muller (1267), John Radovan (1425) lost to Anthony Solomon (1046) and DUnrated David Andrew defeated Jonathan Ringrose (1172).

Round 3 saw FM Jesse Sales lose to GM Schmaltz, Antic defeated Mouthun Ly, Felix Klein (2212) drawing with Stephen Solomon (2442), Domagoj Dragicevic (2139) drew with Froelich (2365), Sam Grigg (1676) defeated Edsil Dilla (2176), Lee Jones (2086) lost to Nenad Chelebichanin (1642), David Lovejoy (1865) drew with Yi Liu (1510). Other upsets in the Open division included Jessica Kinder (1588) over Tony Weller (1788), Oleg Koronevski (1695) losing to David Cigelj (1210), and Roy Christutad(1337) drew with Mark Stokes (1660).
In the U1600 division Shayne Hunter (1517) defeated Daniel Ford (1592), Mike Duffin smashed me in the Catalan, with me having almost the worst bishop in the world. Aurel John Buciu defeated Kieton Beilby. Craig Stewart accounted for Sebastian Jule, Hans-Peter Muller defeated Jim Laky. Upsets included Kyle Ringrose (909) drawing with Petrer Haron (1194). Lachlan Van Der Bergh (1137) defeated Eegina Edwards (1409). and Anicha Bay defeated Vasile Buciu (1408).

Round four ended up being delayed by half an hour as late finishes in the previous three rounds built up. In the open division it was the clash of the Grandmasters on board one...... obviously they wanted an early night and a grandmaster draw was agreed to. The game IM Stephen Solomon against Dragicevic ended up in a win to the International Master, Peter Froehlich (2365) lost to Felix Klein (2212). Gary Lane defeaterd Ben Lazarus. Local Queensland Junior Gene Nakauchi (1870) rolled Pinoy FM Jesse Sales (2312) who apparently tried too hard in a drawn position. Mouthun Ly derfeated Brian Tomas, and Nenad Chelebichanin lost to Dusan Stojic. Upsets for the round included Jonas Muller (1677) drawing with David Lovejoy (1868), Edsil Dilla (2176) continued his slide down the tables by losing to Jessica Kinder (1588), Mark stokes (1668) and John Alkin (1616) drew, and Tony Weller (1788) lost to Oleg Korenevski(1695).

So at the major break we have 1st Schmaltz, Antic, Solomon, Klein 3.5, 5th Lane, Ly, Stojic, Nakauchi, Grigg 3, Froehlich, Dragicevic, Kinder 2.5 as our leading scores

In the U1600 division Mike Duffin became the sole leader by defeating Aurel John Buciu, Craig Stewart locked in outright second by defeating Shayne Hunter, Daniel Ford accounted for Hans Peter Muller, Keiton Beilby missed some opportunities against myself but eventually blundered into a KQ fork. Board 5 was the battle of the Alex's. O'Flynn (1351) defeated Toolsie (1488). Haron defeated Anicha Bay and Sebastiean Jule (1351) drew with Lachlan Vander Bergh (1137). Other Upsets included Jim Laky (1348) defeating Henry MacLennan (1278). Brent Winston (920) defeated Regina Edwards (1409)

Leading scores for the homeward stretch: 1st Duffin 4, 2nd Steward 3.5, 3rd Ford, Buciu, Hunter, Parker, O'Flynn 3, 8th Toolsie, Booy, McLennan, Muller, Heron, Van Der Bergh, Winstan 2.5.

All woork and not much play

2007-10-26T08:24:00.000+10:00

Been a bit busy to blog recently. My mind has not been on blogging. its been elsewhere.

Congratulations to Paul Glissan on winning the Major and congratulations to Heinrich korbe on winning the minor division of the Integra state champs.

Congratulations once again to Gregory canfel who has once again won the Integra NSW State championship division, only dropping a game to Gareth Charles

As for more blogging. I will be blogging from the inaugral Surfers Paridise Open this weekend.

6th round of Integra NSW Championships

2007-10-07T13:31:00.000+10:00

With the top division already decided, the Minor and Major have the potential to be decided as well today.

In the minor Heinrich Korbe will play Michael Courtney. Whilst on board two I will play Valsalan Karayi. Karayi needs to win to stay in contention for a podium finish whilst i need to win or draw to stay in contact with Korbe.

In the Major Paul Glissan can secure first place if he wins and Christensen draws. Sewell and Javor on equal third place cannot catch Glissan.

7 circles attempt.

2007-10-03T22:52:00.000+10:00

I'm going to try to start the 7 circles tomorrow. Phil willis has had some success with it (although he lost a pawn early against me..). I worked most of the category one puzzles out pretty quickly tonight but will start tomorrow.

Ikeda wins Ryde Eastwood Open. Illingworth, Bjelobrk, Toth, Antic equal second

2007-10-02T22:05:00.000+10:00

Round 6 saw Max Illingworth (2097) take the lead on 5.5/6 with a win over Igor Bjelobrk (2423). On board two Toth overcame Canfell and Junta Ikeda defeated Giang Nguyen on board three. The Grandmaster of the tournament crept up the standings after saturday night's/ Sunday morning's performances by beating Paul Broekhuyse. Armen Ayvazyan kept into contact with the leaders by beating Joseph Nguyen as did Bolens by defeating Rachmadi.
Upsets for the round included a draw to Thierry Olivain (1840) over Adrian Miranda (1838).
Andrew Furst (1770) defeated Brendan Norman (1907), David Lam (1659) defeated Sartaj Hans (1929), Michael Tracey won on forfeit against Yuen. Jonathan Ren (1552) defeated Ben Cheung (1524).

Time for the Final Round!
The young I's battled it out on top board which resulted in a win for Ikeda over Illingworth. Ikeda was a pawn up at the stage I had a look and Illingworth was about to get it back, however a strong attack by Ikeda saw him snatch the game from Illingworth. So Ikeda was sitting on six with board two's result to come The tense wait was short lived Bjelobrk could not convert his pawn majority and eventually ended up drawing with Toth. Thus handing Ikeda the outright lead. On board three Antic used his material advantage to defeat Ayvazyan. Antic was up the exchange plus pawns and Ayvazyan could not weather Antics attack. Antic joined Illingworth, Toth and Bjelobrk on 5.5/7 to be equal second. Bolens Blundered against Canfell who converted to a win.
Upsets for the final round included Sherab Guo Yuthok (2163) over Giang Nguyen (1642). Adrian Miranda (1838) ended a disappointing tournament by losing to Kong (1293)., Hans (1929) lost to Tamsin Oliver (1480), NSWCA Treasurer Norm Greenwood (1510)defeated Paul Reynolds (1893). Mary Wilkie (1251) lost to Phil Willis (1165). And finally I (1488) blundered away a clear advantage against Cedric Koh (1354)

At the end of the tournament Junta Ikeda took first prize with 6/7 followed by Bjelobrk, Antic, Toth, and Illingworth. Sharing 6th prize was Greg Canfell, Andrew Brown and Benjamin Harris.

Divisional Prizes were as follows: U1400 1st Adrian Kong, 2nd: Phil Willis, Andrew Jung, Cedric Koh, Johnathan Ren.
U1600 =1st Tamsin Oliver, Norm Greenwood and Michael Tracey.
1600-1800 =1st Joseph Nguyen, Herman Rachmadi. =3rdNick Kordahi, John Alkin, Andrew Furst, Allan Tankel and David Lam.

Next weekend the State Championships resume

Three I's become two!

2007-10-01T01:37:00.000+10:00

IN round 4 my game went for long while so i didnt get to get some details of the top bards. The results for round 4 were: Bjelobrk defeating Junta Ikeda on board one, Andras Toth (2426) and Max Illingworth (2097) drew on board two,Tony Davis Lost to Armen Ayvazyan, Greg Canfell started his fightback by defeating Blair Mandla, Johny Bolens defeated Adrian Miranda in a wild French Tarrasch. Adrew broawn defeated Cedric Koh, Ben Harris defeated Valsalan Karayi and Brendan Norman defeated Alan Tankel.
The only draw for the rownd was Phil Willis (1163) scoring a draw against Joshua Ng (788).
upset wins for round 5 included Tamzin Oliver (1480) over Nick Kordahi (1792), Mark Baterowicz (1554) losing to Adrian Kong (1293)
The standout result was little Sean Gu (1172) defeating Paul Reynolds (1893).

Leading scores after 4 rounds: 1st Bjelobrk 4, 2nd-4th Illingworth, Ayvazyan, Giang Nguyen 3.5, 7th -10th Antic, Canfell, Bolens, Brown, Ben Harris, Norman.

In Round 5 we saw a blitz finish on two of the top three boards. Bjelobrk overcame Ayvazyan to secure outright lead in a blitz finish. Whilst on board three Antic was down on time against Bolens and ended up having to blitz it. The position was a drawn position but Antic still wanted to play on for the win after a draw offer from Bolens. The draw was agreed when both players ended up blitzing it out. Board two saw Max Illingworth defeat Giang Nguyen (2163). Max told me he blundered early but Giang did not notice and did not let Giang back in the game. Board 4 saw Andrew Brown losing to Andras Toth. Ben Harris lost to Greg Canfell, Brendan Normal lost to Junta Ikeda. Paul Broekhuyse and Tony Davis were the second last to finish with Broekhuyse emerging with the spoils.
Upsets started on Board ten with Herman Rachmadi (1642) defeating ACT's Sherab Guo Yuthok (1847). The only other upset win was Andrew Jung (1389) over Adrian Miranda (1838)
Astonishingly Sean Gu (1172) obtained a draw against Johnathan Yuen (1686).

So the Leading scores after 5 rounds are as follows:
1st Bjelobrk 5, 2nd Illingworth 4.5, 3rd-5th Toth, Canfell, Ikeda 4, 6th-11th Ayvazyan, Nguyen, Antic Bolens, Broekhuyse, Joseph Nguyen 3.5, 12th-21st Brown, Ben Harris, Norman, Mandla, Abbott, Jung, Furst, Tankel, Lam 3.

What a Monster! Three I's lead tournament after day 1

2007-09-30T00:28:00.000+10:00

Approximately 50-60 players have entered the Ryde Eastwood open this year. There are ten players over the 2000 rating mark headed by GM Dejan Antic and Andreas Toth.

Round 1 saw all the top seeds go to rating. Antic defeated Coffs Harbour's Alen Tankel, Johnathen Yuen lost to Toth, Bjelobrk defeated David Lam, John Alkin lost to NSW State Champ Greg Canfell, Armen Ayvazyan defeated Mark Baterowicz, Ben Cheung was defeated by Junta Ikeda, Giang Nguyen defeated Norm Greenwood and a late pairing saw Bolens defeat Parker.
There were three draws for the round Sartaj Hans (1929) drew with Andrew Jung(1389), Brendan Norman (1902) was held to a draw by Cedric Koh (1354), and another makeshift pairing saw Oscar wang(1505) draw with Phil "downunder knight" Willis.
Johnathan Ren obtained an upset win over Paul Reynolds.

Round two saw the top 6 boards go according to rating:
Andrew Brown appeared to be down a pawn early then got it back.... and then lost it again in an attack which Antic weathered to win the game. Board two saw Toth defeat Mandla after toth obtained two pieces for his rook and pawn but Toth's two bishops were too overwhelming for Mandla's position. Board 3 Benjamin harris lost to Igor Bjelobrk, Greg Canfell defeated Adrian Miranda after Adrian survived Canfell's first wave of attack but succumed to Canfells second wave after trying to get some counterplay. Abbot lost to Armen Ayvazyan. There was an upset on board 7 as Tony Davis (1813) drew with Giang Nguyen (2163). followed by another draw on board 8 where Paul Broekhuyse (2122) drew with Joseph Nguyen (1756). Andrew Furst lost to Max Illingworth and Johny Bolens defeated Jonathan Ren.
Draws for the round included Andrew Jung (1389) against Brendan Norman (1902).
There were 3 upsets for the round: Cedric Koh (1354) defeating Herman Rachmadi (1642), Paul reynolds (1893) defeated by Valsalan Karayi (1408) and Adrian Kong (1293) defeated John Alkin (1616)

Round 3 was a monster of a round where the three I's came to the top.....
On board one Junta Ikeda took a long time to develop his Queen side pieces against Dejan Antic but Junta was able to cause enough problems to claim the win on time. On board two a blitz finish between Armen Ayvazyan and Andreas Toth agreed to a draw. After the agreement Bolens pointed out a possible win for Toth..... I dont know if it was or not... On Board four Igor Bjelobrk defeated Johny Bolens. Board 5 saw another upset on time. Max Illingworth went half a point better on his draw against Canfell in last year's state championships. Giang Nguyen defeated Paul Broekhuyse.
Upsets started on board 7 where Tony Davis (1813) defeated Hans (1929), and Joseph Nguyen (1756) defeated Sherab Guo-Yuthok (1843) on board 8. Nick Kordahi (1792) lost to Andrew Jung (1389) and Valsalan Karayi (1408) continued his excellent form against Adrew Furst (1770),Thierry Ollivain (1384) lost to Issac Ng (1206), And Mary Wilkie (1251) lost to the young and very talented Sean Gu (1172)
The only upset draw for the round was Will Chaffey (1173) drawing with Paul Reynolds (1893)

So after three rounds we have 3 players on 3 points. Now some sleep :D

Ryde Eastwood Open Is on today

2007-09-29T07:29:00.000+10:00

It'll be Blogging time again!

Today rounds 1-3 of the NSWCA Ryde Eastwood Open will take place at the Ryde Eastwood Leagues club, just a short walk from West Ryde Station.

I will report on it daily....

A night with Ian Rogers

2007-09-28T09:29:00.000+10:00

Mirakla Mithran will be representing Australia at the World Youth Chess tournament in Talya, Turkey, this coming november.

I played her last night and she seems to be a crafty little player. But i think the longer the time limit the better she will play. I played 2 10 minute games against Mirakla, the first, a scotch gambit, I ended up drawing.

The night with Ian Rogers will happen on
Saturday 13th October 2007
Time:6 pm
Venue: Toongabbie Christian School Hall, 30-40 Metella Road Toongabbie
Tickets are $20 per adult and $10 per student.

The meal will beBuffet style Sri Lankan Cuisine (Desert and drinks included). Contact Gaya for further information (mob ph:0416 285 837)

A simul will be given by the Grandmaster after dinner. To enter the simul contact Phin Tang on 0412879875 or email phintang@bigpond.net.au.

OK I've been quite slack.......

2007-09-27T18:41:00.000+10:00

I've been quite slack with my blogging of late. I've been reading some old magazines. One "NSW Chess" from 1991 looks interesting. What was happening in NSW In 1991? there was an Extraordinary General Meeting called consider the motion that "the national magazine "chess in Australia remains as part of the NSWCA Membership schemeas it has been for many years"

So now a Question:

If the NSWCA decided to increase the membership rate to xay $150 and included the "Chess Australia: Magazine and a free entry into a NSWCA event+ discounts into other events would you pay it?

I probably would. I play in alot of tournaments so in the long run i'd probably profit from the idea.

Anoter thing that pops up is the fact that almost all the chess events in the booklet are sponsored: the Cepacol NSW State Championships; The Mercantile mutual Grand Prix, the Commonwealth Bank Grade Matches.

And what happened to these people? Johnathan Mendel was DOP of the City of Sydney Premier Weekender.

Chatswood chess club in Focus was another article which was revisited in a recent Australian Chess Mag.

Anyhow more tidbits to come.....

WoW What a loser!

2007-09-21T13:18:00.000+10:00

To Mr Arthur Huynh:

Get off your rear and start playing the chess games that you have signed up to play in the state champs?

And what about the Parra Club Champs? Are you going to play in them?

Mr Huynh you need to stop playing World of Warcraft. It seems to be detrimental to your health.

Wake up!!!!!!!!!!

I hope this post will put a bomb under your ass and do something other than play WoW all night long.

Integra NSW Championships round 5 - Canfell Cruises to victory - Now unbeatable!

2007-09-20T18:07:00.000+10:00

Gregory Canfell defeated Johny Bolens in the 5th round of the Integra NSW State Championships, thus engraving his name once more in NSW state championship history by building up an unassailable lead. Board two saw Brendan Norman and Andrew Furst draw. Adrian Rose and Gareth Charles battled out an unclear position until Gareth's two bishops over come Adrians position and eventually won the game. Huynh - Camer ended up in a double forfeit.

Standings after five rounds: 1st Canfell 5, 2nd Charles 3.5, 3rd Bolens 3, 4th Norman 2, 5th-6th Rose, Furst 1.5, 7th Huynh 0.5, 8th Camer 0.

In the Major division Paul Glissan ended up with two Queens to defeat Herman Rachmadi. Glissan is a clear point from his nearest rivals. On board two it was a battle of Parramatta with Joshua Christensen and Bob Sewell playing out a 4hr 30min marathon game where josh had winning pawn endgame (no other pieces) and ended up with Q+3P against Bobs Q. My brain got fried trying to work out the variations.... On board three Nick Kordahi and Lloyd Fell battled out a tough game with Nick being two passed pawns up but with an active King and Opposite colour bishops Lloyd may have been able to old for a draw. I didnt end up getting this result. I think it might have been a win for Kordahi. Tom Tomas went up a pawn early against Mark Baterowicz "It was risky taking the pawn" Tom said "a player of much higher standard may have been able to punish me for my greed!" Javor scored a point when Charamova did not turn up.

Standings after round 5:
1st Glissan 5, 2nd Christensen 4, 3rd-5th Sewell, Kordahi, Javor, 6th-7th Fell, Rachmadi, 8th -10th Sharamova, Baterowicz, Tomas 1.

In th minor division Korbe became sole leader after he defeated Bruce Harris in a tight knight and two pawns against Bishop and one pawn endgame. Valsalan Karayi fell off the pace as he fell to Michael Courtney. Trent Parker played on in what was probably a drawn endgame but then found a combination that allowed either a loss of a pawn or checkmate. Alexander Papp pushed the pawn and missed the checkmate. Anthony villanueva was up two pawns butMichael Tracey had central passed pawns. In the end Anthony's material advantage paid off for the win. Michael Ngo and Tony Spirov played out a draw, Behan defeated Greenwood, Greg Davis lost to Mick Waters, Edis defeated Tom Accola.

Standings after round five:
1st Korbe 4.5, 2nd-3rd Parker, Courtney 4, 4th Karayi 3.5 5th-6th Villanueva, Harris 3, 7th-11th Papp, Ngo, Spirov, Behan, Waters 2.5, 12th-13th Tracey, Edis 2, 14th Greenwood 1.5, 15th Davis 1, 16th Accola 0

Catching up on things

2007-09-20T12:28:00.001+10:00

OMG ive missed so much. I've been busy and sick and then busy and then sick

I have not read closet grandmaster in a long time. I have missed so much on chesschat and i have not been on ozchess for a long time as well. I need to get back into the swing of things. Now to catch up on my blogging of the state championships.....

Canfell gets forfeit? Integra NSW Championships report for rounds 4 and 5

2007-09-17T05:22:00.000+10:00

In round four I did not get much of a report as I was disappointed with my own game and became enthralled with Joshua Christensen's analysis of his own game.

The Integra NSW State Championship division results went as follows:

Andrew Furst - Arthur Huynh apparently was supposed to be played on the Thursday before the sunday's round but Arthur did not turn up. Andrew won on Forfeit.

Johny Bolens defeated Gareth Charles

Now with the other two fixtures for that round there is currently no results imputted into the swiss perfect program.

I thought Angelito Camer lost on forfeit to Greg Canfell but there is no result inserted yet.

No result was inserted for Brendan Norman v Adrian rose

So the standings after 4 incomplets!? rounds are as follows: 1st Canfell 4, 2nd Bolens 3, 3rd Charles 2.5, 4-5th Rose, Norman 1.5, 6th Furst 1, 7th Huynh 0.5, 8th Camer 0.

In the Major division for round 4:

Nick Kordahi lost to the pacesetter Paul Glissan, Joshua Christensen defeated Steve Javor by hacking the kings position. Bob Sewell continued his winning streak by defeating Charamova. Mark Baterowicz was defeated by Lloyd Fell, and Herman Rachmadi defeated Tom Tomas.

Standings after round 4:

1st Glissan 4, 2nd-3rd Christensen, Sewell 3, 4-7 Kordahi, Fell, Rachmadi, Javor 2, 8th-9th Baterowicz, Charamova 1, 10th Tomas 0

Minor results for round 4:

Parker coming out of the opening a pawn up ended up blundering in the battle of Wollondilly against Heinrich Korbe on top board, Valsalan Karayi continued his good form by beating Anthony Villanueva, Michael Tracey lost to Bruce Harris, Norman Greenwood lost to Michael Courtney, Alexander Papp defeated Patrick Beahan. Franca Edis handed Michael Ngo a point by not showing up as did Greg davis to opponent Tony Spirov. Mick Waters defeated Tom Accola.

Standings after 4 rounds:

1st-2nd Korbe, Karayi 3.5, 3rd-5th Parker, Harris, Courtney 3, 6th Papp 2.5, 7-10 Villanueva, Tracey, Ngo, Spirov 2, 11-13 Greenwood, Behan, Waters 1.5, 14-15 Davis, Edis 1, 16th Accola 0.

NSW Championships..... No longer the Stayers race

2007-09-09T13:31:00.000+10:00

The NSW Championships used to be a 9 round tournament over nine weeks. To me This was the Melbourn (Or should that be Sydney) cup of chess. It was a stayers race. The winner had to maintain form over the several months of the Championshipd.

I saw the nine rounds like this: The first three rounds saw the pace set. It sort of determined the players to beat for the tournament and who was in form for the start of the tournament. The second three games is like the horses coming around the final turn. Players jostling for position and sometimes the original frontrunners may fall back into the pack. The final three games: the players have jostled into position for the sprint home. This is it! Down the main straight. the race is won in these final games. It may take until the final game before the race iswon.

This year in the Integra NSW State Championships the 7 round format has taken away from the traditional feel of the 9 round tournament.

Today we play the fourth round of the championships and Instead of coming into the turn it sora feels like we have a sharp bend rathaer a turn to negotiate before running the final 3 game sprint. I'm currently setting the pace in the minor. I hope I can maintain the lead I have and sprint away from my competitors.

Howard v Rudd: A chess Game

2007-09-04T11:19:00.001+10:00

Here we go again! The media using chess incorrectly to emphasise things. The article is a bit of a light hearted article on the Election campaign between Howard and Rudd "winning strategy eludes past master". Howard v Rudd, Like Bobby Fischer v Vaselin Topalov ...... hang on a sec..... has Bobby fisher ever played Topalov??? I dont think so.

Later on in the article it says:

Howard must also be spooked that so many chess masters have names beginning with K: Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Khalifman, Kasimdzhanov. Now Kev. Oops!

Doesnt this guy realise that all these names are surnames. lol like really.

Anyhow it seems to be the joke of the day

Integra NSW Championships Round 3 : Canfell wins; Charles wins by forfeit

2007-09-03T01:11:00.000+10:00

Round Three of the Integra NSW Championships was Canfell has shaken off Bolens to become sole leader in the open division, Paul Glissen pull ahead in the Major and I became sole leader of the minor division

In the Integra NSW Championship division Gareth Charles won by forfeit as Angelito Camer rang up on the day and said that he had to work.

Greg Canfell and Andrew Furst had completed their game even before I completed mine. Canfell was the victor of that battle.

On board three Arthur Huynh misplayed the opening to end up a pawn plus an exchange down. He battled on and at one stage missed a cunning looking draw which Fritz picked up straight away. Arthur ended up losing this very wild game.

As Eccentric as always, Johny Bolens Complained about the colours before Arbiter Nick Chernih told Bolens to play the game or dont play the game. Bolens ended up playing the game and eventually went down to Adrian Rose in a rook and multiple pawns endgame.

Current standings for the Integra NSW Championship division: 1st Canfell 3, 2nd Charles 2.5, 3rd Bolens 2, 4th-5th Norman, Rose 1.5, 6th Huynh .5, 7th-8th Camer, Furst 0.

In the Major division, top seed Paul Glissen played white against Joshua Christensen. A Scandinavian battle ensued with Paul coming out the victor.

On Board two Herman Rachmadi was apparently looking ok against Nick Kordahi until Rachmaid dropped his Queen for a Rook. Kordahi eventually won that game.

Bob Sewell and Lloyd Fell played each other on board three where it took Sewell 89 moves to convert the game in his favour after being the exchange up with advanced passed pawns in the middlegame.

The second last game of the night to finish was teven Javor against Mark Baterowicz. Javor had two pieces plus a pawn for a rook up and also had advanced passed pawns. Javor won this game.

The lady of the tournament finally won her first game! Charamova was an exchange for a pawn up in an endgame and eventually won with the exchange.

Standings after round 3:1st Glissan 3, 2nd-5th Christensen, Kordahi, Sewell, Javor 2, 6th-9th Fell, Rachmadi, Baterowicz, Charamova 1, 10 Tom Tomas 0

In the minor division the only two players on two battled it out on the top board. Anthony Villanuevea and I battled on until I came up with a nice knight sac that gave me the advantage. I eventually won the game. On the second board another upset was brewing; Alexander Papp lost to Heinrich Korbe. And yet another upset on board three! Norm Greenwood was two pawns down in a rook and pawn endgame. The additional pawn proved too much and Valsalan Karayi won. Michael and michael battled on fourth board, Courtney ended up upsetting Ngo. Michael Tracey got a free ride up the ladder as Edis did not turn up. Bruce harris defeated Greg Davis, Mick Waters drew with "the draw man" Tony Spirov and Behan defeated Tom Accola.

Standings after 3 rounds: 1st Parker 3, 2nd-3rd Korbe, Karayi 2.5, 4th-7th Villanueva, Courtney, Tracey, Harris 2, 8th=10th Papp, Greenwood, Behan 1.5, 11th-14th Ngo, Davis, Edis, Spirov 1, 15th Waters 0.5, 16th Accola 0.

Top board in the Minor next week will be the battle of te 'dilly. Both Heinrich Korbe and Myself live in the beautiful place called the Wollondilly Shire :D

Drats and Damnation

2007-08-27T06:24:00.000+10:00

I haven't been working much. Not as much as i would like. And I'm down to work on the Saturday of the Blayney Tournament so I'll probably miss that tournament.

I recieved an email from Amir Karibasic. He wanted me to advertise the Surfer's Paridise Open which will boast the likes of GM Schmaltz, GM Antic, WGM Gajic, WIM Dekic, IM Froehlich,IM Solomon,WIM Jule, FM Sales, FM Sarfati, FM Humprey, FM Nakauchi.

Details from the website

SURFERS PARADISE OPEN Tournament 27/28 October 2007

First Prize
$2,000 Limited
seats for 80 Players only

Register
now and secure your
place

Stay tuned up for more information about our new tournament: "Surfers
Paradise Open" on 27/28 October 2007 with a huge list of different prizes,
organised by Kings of Chess. This tournament is included in the Myer Tan Grand
Prix List 2007 as Category 5.The First prize under 1600 ratings is $500
and Main prize for best Kid under 1000 rating
players will be the game console XBOX 360 .

TOP PLAYERS WHO ENTERED THE TOURNAMENT: (GMs, WGMs, IMs and
WIMs have free entry)GM Roland Schmaltz (GER) 2547, GM Dejan
Antic(Ser)2471, WGM Danijela Nutu-Gajic 2350 IM Stephen Solomon
2476,IM Gary Lane 2410, IM Peter Froehlich (GER)2378, WIM
Biljana Novakovic Dekic 2075 FM Jesse Sales (Ph)2340, FM Moulthun
Ly 2267, FM Gene Nakauchi 2019

For more information see our News page or to
register contact: Amir or Margot Karibasic, on Ph (0061) 7 5578 5872,
Mobile (0061) 0414 786 852 or send emil to: amir@kingsofchess.biz .
The
Tournament will be held at Broadbeach Surf Club (www.broadbeachslsc.com), at the Corner
of Chelsea Avenue and Broadbeach Boulevard, with a beautiful view of the beach,
nice park for relaxation, and nice soccerfield and playground for the
children. Plan your Holiday on this weekend, play chess, surf, or walk
along the beach to the heart of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.
* Please
Note: We expecting delays for the first round start up to 30 minutes.

Who Deserves to be World Champ?

2007-08-27T05:39:00.000+10:00

This little article by Andy Soltis got my attention recently.

I personally think that the Classical World Championship should be the only world championship. It is preferably a fight between two people. Like a boxer in the ring. Parrying this threat, preparing for that bout.

It will be interesting to see who comes out of Mexico on top to battle Kramnik. In my eyes Kramnik will be the world Champ until he is defeated in a match

This Tournament in Mexico I feel is just a Qualification tournament.

Soltis Argues that whoever wins the Mexico Tournament deserves such status as tal and Smyslov as they only had the championship for one year. But i put to this arguement that they defeated the world champion for the crown. The winner in mexico wouldn't have defeated the World Champ and thus Not be in the same heir as the other world championships although they might be worthy of the title. Another Arguement might be that tournaments have decided the world championship in the past eg. when Alekhine died Botvinnik becasme world champion from a tournament. I would argue that at that point in time there was no champion so a champion could not defend his title. That tournament would have been seen as determining the top player most worthy of the world championship title. Botvinnik proved this as he kept the title and defended and lost and regained the title in matchplay.

Anyhow what does everyone else think?

NSW Championships: Canfell as expected sets pace

2007-08-27T01:27:00.000+10:00

There is no longer a bye in the Championship division of the State Championships. Adrian Rose has filled in the Bye void. He could only muster a draw in an apparently winning position against Arthur Huynh It was a tricky position with Arthur sacrificing a rook for a Bishop and two pawns.
Bolens and Angelito Camer played on Thursday night to become leader before todays round. Canfell joined Bolens by beating Brendan Norman.

The other game of the day was Andrew Furst going down to Gareth Charles in a Queens gambit accepted. I was watching Arbiter Nick Chernih entering the game onto the computer. It was Quite a wild game resulting in an endgame with Rooks Bishops and pawns on each side. Gareth's king eventually infiltrated Andrew's position and was able to get a passed pawn through.

Standings in the championship division after 2 rounds: Canfell, Bolens 2, Charles 1.5, Norman, Huynh, Rose .5 Camer, Furst 0.

In the Major division, Lloyd S Fell (Gotta get the initial right :D ) lost to Paul Glisson, Joshua Christensen caused an upset by defeating Nick Kordahi. Nick apparently sacrificed the exchange expecting to trap the Queen but missed a flight square for the Queen. Nearing the end Josh ended up being the exchange plus pawns up which when Nick attempted to wipe out some pawns one of Josh's pawns became unstoppable, Nick resigned. Rachmadi defeated Javor and the New Zealand Beauty Evguenia Charamova lost her second game in a row, Mark Baterowicz defeated her this time. And wrapping up the round of upsets, it was a battle of the grey hair on bottom board when Tom Thomas lost to Bob Sewell in a long game. According to Bob the game lasted 80 moves, at move 40 Bob won a pawn, and on move 69 Bob Queened his extra pawn. This was a battle indeed!

Standings after two rounds:
Glissen and 8th seed Joshua Christensen lead on 2/2, Kordahi, Fell, Javor, Rachmadi, Baterowicz and Sewell 1, Tomas and Charamova 0.

In the Minor Division:
OMG!!! Oh My Freakin' GOD!!! How did Michael Ngo lose that position????? Michael Ngo played Anthony Villaneuva on top board with the traditional Qa5 Scandinavian being the order of the day. Michael allowed Anthony to pinch the b2 pawn but in exchange got basically every single piece out whilst Anthony's pieces were still at home base. And Michael Lost this game??? Why Michael Why?? Why?? Why???? Ok i'll ease of the poor kid now. :D

I was on board 2 playing Michael Tracey. Michael and I almost always have games that go into the endgame. And this game was no different. I won a pawn early but Michael played a clever little combo that i mishandled and eventually gave the pawn back. In a very tight endgame with both of us having 3-2 minorities on each side of the board. I was able to break through before Michaels were able to Queen his pawn.

On Board three Valsalan Karayi played out a draw, KNP v KNP to end up in a draw with Heinrich Korbe. Other results included Alexander Papp over Bruce Harris, Mick waters lost to Norm Greenwood, Tom Accola lost to Michael Courtney, Tony Spirov and Beahan played but I did not get a result. I think tony might have won.

Standings after two rounds:
Villanueva, Parker 2, Korbe, Karayi, Greenwood, Papp 1.5, Ngo, Tracey, Bruce Harris, Courtney, Spirov, Davis 1, waters, Accola, Behan 0

Blayney Open - In a couple of weeks

2007-08-22T00:50:00.001+10:00

One tournament I'm going to play in next month is the Blayney Open.

Care of the Website:

When: September 8th - 9th 2007
Where: Blayney Bowling Club
Blayney is in the heart of the Central West. Sixty kms from Cowra and approx forty kms from both Bathurst and Orange. For those further afield, Blayney is approx 2.5-3hrs drive from Sydney, Canberra and Dubbo. There is a Railway Station, about a 5 min walk from the playing venue, with regular Countrylink services. Unfortunately, no airport, but plenty of room to parachute in.
Why? Because you enjoy chess!
and spending time among like minded people.
For further incentive, there is....
1st
2nd
3rd
Premier Division
$300
$200
$100
Major Division
$200
$100
$50
Best Local Player
$50
Best Junior Player
$50

There will also be 3 lucky draws.
Wall clock for an eligible local player.
Car care kit for an eligible player from outside the 100km radius for local players.
Book, "Re-Assess Your Chess" by Jeremy Silman for an eligible junior

Prizemoney is subject to change and is based on 20 players Phil Bourke has stated that about 36 players have shown interest in the tournemant.

Championship's a Farce

2007-08-20T00:28:00.000+10:00

well. I didnt get to that little internet cafe at Parramatta Station but i'm here now to give you the lowdown on what happened today at the NSW Champs

At first it seemed that there might not be a Championship division with only 4 entries into the open. A few others were talked into playing the tournament and we now have a 7 player round robin. The Championship Division Players are: FM Greg Canfell, Gareth Charles, Johny Bolens, Angelito Camer, Brendan Norman, Arthur Huynh and Andrew Furst. Greg Canfell is by far the favorite to win the NSW Championships. He wielded his chess powers by slicing a pawn off of Arthur Huynh early which he then converted into a two pawn advantage going into the endgame and Canfell was not going to let this advantage slip Canfell 1 Huynh 0

The longest game of the afternoon went to the game Brendan Norman against Gareth Charles. Brendan won the exchange however Gareth Liquidated into what seemed to be a drawn endgame. It was a B+h5 pawn v Rvh6 pawn. Brendan could not conjure up a win. .5-.5

Johnny Bolens defeated Andrew Furst in todays other game.

The Major Tournament was going to be a 8 player round robin until Lloyd Fell rocked up late and Herman Rachmadi was not playing so the addition to these two players late will make for an interesting tournament. It will now be a 7 round swiss
Results in the Major :
Paul Glisson 1-0 Bob Sewell
Kordahi1-0 Baterowicz
Evguena Charamova 0-1 (This was the second last game to finish. Evguena should have won but Joshua took home the point)
Steve Javor - Tom Tomas
Fell 1 - 0 Rachmadi

Results in the Minor:
Villanueva 1-0 Waters
Courtney 0-1 Parker
Korbe 1-0 Spirov
Davis 0-1 Ngo
Tracey 1-0 Accola
Behan 0-1 Karayi
Bruce Harris 1-0 Franca Edis
Norm Greenwood took the .5 point bye.

NSW Champs start today

2007-08-19T13:16:00.000+10:00

Hi peoples the Integra NSW CHampionships start today. There appears to be no list of entries anywhere but i'm currently at the internet cafe inside one of the convenience stores near Parramatta station.. I'll report from here after all the games have been completed! BTW I'll be playing too!

Downturn in numbers - Whats the cause?

2007-08-15T00:38:00.002+10:00

Chess in this state has had a downturn in numbers this year.

What could be the problem?

Could it be due to the phenomenon that is poker?

Could it be that Chess Tournaments have not been advertised enough?

One other possibility in regards to the NSW Tournaments is the fact that in order to get the early entry fee you must pay the fee before the closing date or pay an exuberant fee? For this point I want to do a bit of a study. The first tournament to hold this policy was the Ralph Seberry Memorial tournament in November last year. Lets compare all the NSWCA weekenders and see what the difference in numbers has been:

2005 Ralph seberry memorial attracted 56 players

2006 Australia Day Weekender attracted 76 players

2006 May Weekender attracted 54 players

2006 July Weekender attracted 51 players

2006 Ryde Eastwood Open attracted 72 players

2006 Ralph Sebery memorial Open attracted 40 players

2007 Australia Day Weekender attracted 62 players

2007 John Kellner Memorial attracted 30 players

2007 July Weekender attracted 38 players

So what do we have here? We have a steady decrease in numbers Does it have to do with the fact that early entry has to be paid?

I'll just say now that I've been against early paid entries from the start.

Lets compare the tournaments

2005-2006 Ralph Seberry Memorial - A drop of 16 players from 56-40

2006-2007 Australia Day Weekender - A drop of 14 players from 76-62

2006 May weekender - 2007 John Kellner Memorial: a drop of 24 players from 54-30.

2006 July weekender - 2007 July Weekender: A drop of 13 players

An assumption could be made that the change of policy may have affected numbers. the minimal downturn in this comparison is 13 players!

The NSWCA made a large loss last year. How big will the loss be this year given the low numbers that might have been caused by this policy change?

Now I have not included the NSW Open or the City of Sydney or the NSW Open in this study because these tournaments are supposed to be NSW's premier tournaments. But I would still like these to go back to pre register to get early entry rather than pre pay.

Furthermore I dont think there would be many people willing to pay $75 for a weekender tournament where they didnt get their payment in on time. I surely wouldnt. Not for a normal weekender. Its just too expensive for a vast number of people. And people are busy. Things happen. Eg I had intended to go to Australia Post yesterday to buy a money order to send off but the train was late and it was raining so I had no time to go to the Post office before going to work. Now I'll have to ring Australian Chess Enterprises and make a credit card payment over the phone with my mothers credit card. I don't like doing this but i'll have to do it to get early entery for the NSW Championships.

Ok there's my view on this. People can make their own view up. I'm done.

US and British Championships

2007-08-12T22:39:00.000+10:00

The United States Open Chess Championships have been played and won...... by seven people! GM Alex Shabalov was one of the players to come equal first. The others were:Boris Gulko, Sergey Kudrin, Benjamin Finegold, Michael Rohde, Michael Mulyar and Anton Del Mundo.

Meanwhile accross the Atlantic in Britain. Scotish IM Jacob Aargaard defeated a field of 68 players to win the British championship in front of Scotish GM Jonathan Rowson and English IM Stephen Gordon.

India the Victors, Australia 1 comes 5th

2007-08-12T20:59:00.000+10:00

The second seeds of the World Youth (under 16) Olympiad have performed to exceed expectations by winning the event. The Indians won with a score of 28 out of a possible 40. Second was Hungary who were the favorites with a score of 27.5. Hungary hit a bit of a lean patch in the early middle stages but came home like a flying freight train, mauling Switzerland and Uzbekistan 4-0 in rounds 8 and 9. 3rd was the Philippines and 4th was Uzbekistan.

There were 4 Aussie teams in this event.
Australia 1 came 5th with 24 points
Australia 2 came 21st with 19 points
Australia 3 came 24th-26th with 18 points
Australia 4 came 23rd with 18.5 points

Australia 1 was Australia's strongest team and Australia 2 consisted of Australian Girls.

To Europ or Asia?

2007-08-12T15:21:00.000+10:00

In Susan Polgars Recent Saturday Open Post she posts about how Americas Newest and Youngest ever GM won a tournament in Europe and asks a question "Can a player reach his / her true potential by playing mainly in the United States? What is your take?" This is a similar position for Australia although the answer for Australian players might be a bit different. Its almost a certainty that an Australian Player must go overseas to reach their potential.

Normally the traditional path is to go to Europe as IM David Smerdon has recently done. But is there merit in Australians going to Asia instead of Europe? In recent years there has been a number of strong tournaments around including the Bangkok Open. and The Malaysian Open.

Chess and Blindness

2007-08-05T19:57:00.000+10:00

I have come accross this article from the Utica Observer Dispatch which is a little close to me. I like seeing people with vision impairment excel, being vision impaired myself. I am legally blind in my right eye and 6 on 12 to 6 on 18 in my left eye. However I'm thankful for the sight that I have.

Take this guy in this article for example. He is legally blind in both eyes due to a mine explosion when he was working as a Bosnian Soldier. And yet even considering his impairment he still defeated people with sight at the New York State Championships in 2002, a tournament which he won! He recently came second in the US Blind Chess Championships. His Previous best had been in 2005 where he placed third.

In terms of Australian Players. The person I like to see around is Alex Momot. I see him at a lot of Central Coast / Newcastle tournaments and he recently participated in the NSW Open U1600 division. He always has his own board with the peg holes and pegged pieces. I've played him on that board in a friendly game and he spotted some tactics.

I just hope that as I grow older my eyesight won't get any worse and hopefully someday they can fix my Optic Nerve hypoplacia.

"You can play chess for ten hours and still lose"

2007-08-05T19:17:00.001+10:00

Of course you can. If you play chess for ten hours there is no guarantee that a game is a draw. So why did Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson make this comment about the Arsenal Premier League team?

I sourced this here.

Does this mean that Arsenal plays a slow build up of pressure in a Positional sense of chess or Do they play an attacking style of football where the right players go to the right positions before mating the opponents between the goalposts? Or that they Just play a slow game?

People will always use this vague determination for chess until they realise the nuances of chess and how dynamic chess can be.

Sponsorship and Promotion of Chess Tournaments

2007-08-05T11:04:00.000+10:00

Imagine if someone decided to pump $200,000 into our young chess players or even into any part of chess in Australia. It would go towards boosting the profile of chess in Australia. Advertisements could be made in papers rather than just being mentioned in articles.

Susan Polgar comments on her blog that in the last 3-4 years $650000 US has been pumped into the young players of Chess in the United states by the Susan Polgar Foundation. She also comments that when she took up the challenge of finding sponsors people told her that it was "impossible to find chess sponsors". Sound familiar?

At least in Australia we are starting to get some sponsorship filtering through. Lidmus has been a strong supporter of chess since forever. Recently the Doeberl Cup finally got some sponsorship which added a couple of grand to the Open prize pool.

And Recently the NSWCA found a sponsor in Integra. How they found this sponsor i do not know but..... good on them. But what concerns me with the NSW Championship is that the prize money for the championship division does not seem to be substantial enough to warrant the top players coming out to play. Consider this: The first prize in the State Championships is $600 which is about the same that one might get for winning a NSWCA Weekender tournament. Only that rather than driving to the venue twice in one weekend you have to go for 9 sundays. Is It really worth their money to play. Consider the amount of petrol a player has to use for 9 consecutive Sundays. Is the first prize worth it?.... Of course they could just be enthusiastic and wanting to play the championships just for the fun of it. But I have another Criticism. The Championship division is now open to over 1900 rated players now rather than only over 2000 rated players in previous years. Doesn't this somewhat diminish the Quality of the championship division? As for the Major, It has only a 300 ratings gap to play with (unless there is several committed souls who are rated under 1600 and want to play he Major!?

I think if chess is to become more mainstream it needs to get away from the middle of the papers and start going closer towards the covers even if it is on the very middle of the sports pages. Chess in Australia needs promotion. I dont think that it is enough to have an entry form available on a website.If the NSWCA wants to increase the numbers at their tournaments they need to start a guerilla Marketing strategy or otherwise loss after loss will be incurred. Take the July Weekender for example. They got 38 people at this weekender (which is an increase on the last regular weekender). I believe that if the NSWCA had sent an email reminding people say once a week for a month before the tournament date there would be more people at the tournament. People have busy lives. They Forget about things but if you keep reminding them it sticks.
I draw readers attention to this exchange on chesschat.

Bill, In My Opinion the advert for the tourney being on the NSWCA website is too passive. The NSWCA Needs to get out there and aggressively look for people to attend their tournaments. Mail the clubs some adverts. Mail interstate some adverts. Regularly email people, get in their face.

The NSWCA Mailout Is not a bad idea but people think "That's a month or two away i'll put that to the side" and then they forget about them. If people see the flyers at their local club it reminds them that the tournament is coming up As does the emails i previously mentioned.

Further more the adverts are too far down the NSWCA Webpage. I reckon the NSWCA should rearrange the website so that the upcoming events are up the top followed by news from NSWCA and other events.

I'm Baaaaaack!

2007-08-05T10:16:00.000+10:00

Thank you to my mother who decided to move some furniture around and move my computer (which is on dial up) into a different room (which does not have a telephone extention in it) and causing my break from blogging. But Hallelujah! We purchased a 15 Metre cord to link the internet up!

Now back to blogging!

More on the ACF Newsletter

2007-07-18T10:20:00.000+10:00

Apart from the problem I have already alluded to in the post the other day Dennis Jessop has done an excellent job of the ACF Newsletter. Sure there have been a couple of hiccups but Dennis took the bull by the horns after the resignation of Paul Broekhuyse.

Dennis apparently no longer wishes to be the Editor of the Newsletter and the position will be vacant. Other vacant positions include:
Publicity Director
Olympiad Appeal Coordinator
Ergas Training Squad Coordinator
Selections Coordinator (Juniors)

Rogers to give simul and Blindfold simul

2007-07-18T10:11:00.001+10:00

Following my spray of the ACF the other day i noticed that Shaun Press over at chessexpress has stated that GM Ian Rogers will give a Blindfold simul and then a regular simul afterwards on the Friday before the ANU Open! Rogers will not be playing in the ANU Open but will be there for the prize giving ceremony after the victor has been decided.

I'm going to try to get down there on the friday assuming i'm not working on the friday.....

Rogers Retired, Or is he?

2007-07-15T15:39:00.000+10:00

The ACF needs to get their newsletter right. Do they read it before sending it?

In the most recent ACF Newsletter the first item is the news of Ian Rogers' retirement from competitive chess. Then further down it gives that Ian Rogers will be playing in the ANU. Surely they could have checked the details before the send button was pushed.

Time to Mince and grind

2007-07-13T08:58:00.000+10:00

Imagine chess where the battles are fought by the chessmen, slicing the opponent to shreds when a piece is taken. Sounds like something out of a Harry Potter Movie .

But years before the Harry Potter phenomenon was a game called Battle Chess. This game had everything from armed combat to magical weapons to defeat the enemy. If i remember correctly depending on which piece is checkmating the king there was even a beheading in the old game.

Now IGFun - a mobile phone entertainment company - is releasing the game for the mobile phone. It currently appears that it is only available in the UK currently.

But Battlechess was a favorite of mine when i was a kid, but i thought any type of computerised chess was cool.....

Down Under Knight....... Another Interesting Blog

2007-07-13T08:39:00.000+10:00

There are several chess blogs i very regularly visit: The Closet Grandmaster, Chess Express and another interesting australian blog i now like to read the blog of Phil Willis; Down Under Knight.

Particularly interesting reading is his blog entry for Monday July 9. It talks about a simultaneous exhibition by Jenifer Shahade, author of the book "Chess Bitch". Phil Won his game against jenifer. But the last comment of his blog entry made me laugh hard! Well worth the read.

A link to this blog will eventually be put into my sidebar

A Few Tournaments Coming Up

2007-07-12T15:00:00.000+10:00

This weekend will be a weekend of poker and maybe some chess preparation in order to get ready for the tournaments for the coming weeks.

The NSWCA July Weekender will take place at the Parramatta RSL Club on the 21st and 22nd of July. I almost always play in the NSWCA tournaments, however I won't be playing in this one as I have to work on the saturday. I might pop in on the saturday afternoon or sunday though.

The week after that tournament, the 28-29th July will be the ANU Open, A category 4 GP Event in Canberra. I've only played in this tournament once before and it was at the School of Arts building at the ANU. Now, apparently the recent storms have given that building some decent damage so the tournament has been moved to Fenner Hall on Northbourne Avenue Canberra

The Week after that is a new tournament, The Hunter Valley Open. I'm not sure if i'll play this one. It just seems too far away. This tournament replaces the "Coal City Open" which i have played several times in the past. The Coal City Open was always played at either Newcastle Workers Club or Cardiff Workers club. I'd prefer the tournament at one of these venues because it is easy for me to get to from a family friend's place on the Central Coast railway line.

Then the Week after that there is the NSW Teams Challeng no.2

The Week after that the Integra NSW Championships start. Hoorah!! The NSWCA finally got a sponsor for one of their tournaments!!! Good Work!

GM ROGERS PULLS UP THE STUMPS ON AN OUTSTANDING INNINGS

2007-07-11T01:19:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I learnt that Ian Rogers has decided to call it a day. Ian Rogers is going out whilst still at the top of Australian Chess; Where he has been for the past 25 years

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.

Diamonds are a chessplayers best friend

2007-07-06T04:48:00.000+10:00

Hi peoples.

I thought now that a couple of my blog posts have been put into the Australian Chess Magazine maybe I should start blogging more often. I've been a little busy with my new job starting up but still. Not much excuse not to blog.

Anyhow I have come accross this little beauty.

"The Royal Diamond Chess" entirely hand-made in 14-carat white gold, set with approximately 9900 black and white diamonds is an extraordinary luxurious version of the classic chess-set. Designed by the renowned French artist, designer and maser of jewelry, Bernard Maquin, and as part of the Charles Hollander Collection, "the Royal Diamond Chess" is a rare and precious work of fine art jewelry. This entirely hand-made creation is an expression of meticulous artisanship, with a harmonic combination of aesthetics, functionalism and beauty. 30 artisans spent more than 4500 hours, using 1168.75 grams 14-carat white gold and approximately 9900 black and white diamonds, weighing a total of 186.09 carat, in order to bring this incredible masterpiece to completion."

Whoa Immagine how much this thing would cost!!!! It makes the Marble and metal, chess set that my parents bought back from Greece look cheap. Hmm maybe i'll win lotto some day! :D

"Squeeze his Balls! But Just Squeeze One, Not Both!

2007-06-20T13:04:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I was in Parramatta and i decided to have a browse through the chess section of Border's Book Shop. To My astonishment they had Garry Kasparov's recent release "How Chess Imitates Life". I am already 40 pages through this 260-270 page book and it is good reading. It uses alot of stories of Kasparov's career to illustrate how one can improve their lives by using ideas that appear in chess: Being self aware, Goal setting, strategy and tactics, decision making etc.

The above heading comes from a section of the book on playing one's own game. Petrosian had a 2-0 score against Kasparov as Petrosians Prophylactic style of game stifled Kasparov's attacking style of game. Then in 1981 after Kasparov's second loss to Petrosian, Kasparov spoke to Spassky on how to beat Petrosian and the title of this blog entry was what he had to say! Two years later he had balanced the ledger against Petrosian.

Hu Drew with two GMs? Antic Wins NSW OPEN

2007-06-15T03:08:00.000+10:00

"Hu drew with two Grandmasters!"

"I dunno. Who drew with two two Grandmasters""

"Hu did!"

"What?"

"No Watt didn't play"

"geez, you know more than what i do!
___________________________
Ok Jokes aside.

A great turnout for the NSW Open gave to a great competitive atmosphere at the Parramatta RSLL Club over the weekend of the 9-11 June. There were 50 players in the Open division and 57 in the Minor division. There were 17 players rated over 2000 (or thereabouts)

The top three seeds in the open division were GM Ian Rogers, GM Dejan Antic and Andreas Toth with Bjelobrk fourth seed. The first round went pretty much to script with Rogers mating Nick Kordahi with a rook sac, Antic defeating Sherab Guo-Yuthok, Toth accounting for Edwin Wu and Bjelobrk defeating sydney trickmaster Herman Rachmadi. Draws were had by Arthur Huynh (1833) against fellow SAC employee Neil Wright (2217), Allen Setiabudi (1618) drawing with fellow ACT player Ian Rout (1859). The only upset of the round was Brendan Norman (1801) defeating the eccentric Johny Bolens (2190)

Meanwhile in the lower division the top seeds didn't have it as easy. Top seed Emma Guo defeated Mick Waters and Trent Parker defeated Phil Willis but the other three seeds did not get the full point: Mark Ryan (1355) defeated Anthony Villanueva (1587), Kaz Kulpa (1575) drew with Gary Mann (1325) andTony Spirov (1299) drew with Ian Dickson (1551).

Other draws for the round included Teresa Grbin (1491) with Sathya Chitturi (987), Michael Ngo (1455) drawing with Caroline Shen (821) and Oscar Wang (1376)drawing with Kevin Zhou (unr)

In round two some interesting results started to come. In the Open division the biggest upset was Jason Hu drawing to GM Ian Rogers in a Rook and Pawn endgame. The other top boards went to plan: Antic defeated Alex Mendes Da Costa. Angela Song Paid Sydney a visit for this tournament but could not defeat Toth and Bjelobrk defeated the growing Max Illingworth. Draws were agreed to between Gareth Charles (2093) and Hamish Selnes (1800), WIM Laura Moylan (2053) and Jeffrey Tse (1735), and between Arthur Huynh and Brendan Norman.

In the Under 1600 division the upsets kept coming on the top boards: Matthew Koutnik (1495) defeated Emma Guo (1587), Trent Parker turned an exchange up into a drawing position and finally into a loss against Danny Wayne Bisson (14); Leo Kang kept his winning ways by beating Peter Zekic and St George junior John Papantonio (1460) defeated Parramatta local Shane Burgess(1521). draws occured between Caroline Shen )821_ and Teresa Grbin (1491), Kevin Zhou (unr) against Michael Ngo (1455), Mick Waters (1367) and Jim Shan (1020), and Will Chaffey against Razzardini (1218). Upsets were caused by Michael Tracey (1449) over Norm Greenwood (1520), Patrick Keuning (1390) over Chris Cooper (1512). Amir Karibasic (1390) over Phil Bourke (1505), Bruce Harris (1371) over Ernesto Alberici (1495), Mark Ryan (1355) defeated Horst Bleicher (1495), Joshua Lau (1279) defeated Kaz Kulpa (1575). Chitturi (987) defeated Oscar Wang (1376) and Phil Patterson (1408) was defeated by Megan Setiabudi (1107). and finally Phil Willis (1250) was defeated by promising young junior Sean Gu (864)

And this was the end of the first day. Time to get some real earnt rest to get refreshed for the long day two. Three rounds!

Round three started on time. We saw Atzmon-Simon lose to Antic, Toth defeated Junta Ikeda, Ayvazyan defeated Brian Jones and Ian Rogers defeated Brendan Norman. The top upset of the round was Jason Chan defeating Igor Bjelobrk in an interesting game where Igor allowed Jasons rook to get to the seventh. Draws were played out by Hamish Selnes (1890) against Laura Moylan (2053), Bolens (2107) with Guo-Yuthok (1857), Ben Encel (1228) with Tom Tomas (1648), Alex Stanke (1600) against Chris Nikolaou (1684), and David Evans (1628) against Johnathan Ren (1346). The only upset for the round was Tamzin Oliver (1458) over Ric Ambatali (1644).

In the under 1600 Division; Leo Kang was going strong by defeating John Papantonio, Michael Tracey (1449) caused an upset by defeating Peter Hannigan (1514), Benjamin Cheung defeated Rick Keuning, Amir Karibasic caused an upset to defeat Matthew Koutnik and Danny Bisson and Bruce Harris joined the chasing pack by beating Mark Ryan and Garry Mann respectively. Draws were had by Roger Jeffreys (1383) against Anthony Villanueva (1587). Teresa Grbin (1491) with Kinto Wan (1171), J. Cooper with Horst Bleicher (1495), Oscar Wang (1376) against Chaffey (unr), and Danny Yan (unr) against Clarise Koh (860). Upsets for the round were Ian Dickson (1557) losing to Joshua Lau (1279), Shane Burgess losing to Cedric Koh, C. Cooper (1512) losing to Thai Pham (1171) in an interesting line of the french where Cooper as white played 2.Bb5!? Valsalan Karayi lost to unrated Kevin Zhou, Sean Gu (864) defeated Kaz Kulpa (1575) who then withdrew from the tournament. Jin Shan defeated Armando Razzardini.

It was time for some of the big guns to start playing each other with Antic playing Ayvazyan, Chan playing Toth, Gareth Charles playing Ian Rogers and Bjelobrk playing Jason Hu. they all went to rating: Antic, Toth Rogers and Bjelobrk all won. There were only two draws this round: Mos Ali (1798) drawing with Barak Atzmon-Simon (2157) and Herman Rachmadi drawing with Anthony Keuning. Upsets for the round included Junta Ikeda (2215) losing to Max Illingworth (2103) , Arthur Huynh (1833) defeating Laura Moylan (2053), Mark Baterowicz (1568) defeating Edwin Wu (1812), and Allen Setiabudi (1618) defeating Frank Barisic (1702).

Leo Kang finally lost some points in round 4.... well half a point, drawing to Michael Tracey. Bruce Harris drew with Benjamin Cheung, Danny Bisson defeated Karibasic and the resurgent Trent Parker won a hard fought game against Joshua Lau to come back into contention. Draws for the round included Cedric Koh (1225) against Peter Zekic (1468), Aiswerya Shankar against Oscar Wang, Phil Willis (1256) against Megan Setiabudi (1107) and Charles Bishop (845) against unrated Danny Yan.
Upsets for the round included Norm Greenwood (1520) losing to Michael Ngo (1455), Michael Ryan (1355) defeating Bourke (1505), Kevin Zhou defeating Anthony Villanueva (1587) and Armando Razzardini (1218) losing to Josha Biship (1047)

Round 5 saw seeds 1 and 3 face off whilst Rogers kept climbing up the boards by beating Ayvazyan in an endgame very similar to the Rook and pawns engame against Jason Hu except Ian had the reverse side and had one pawn further down the board. Alex Mendes Da Costa lost to Igor Bjelobrk, Illingworth drew with Chan and Arthur Huynh continued his excellent run by drawing with FM Brian Jones. Other draws for the round included Jeffrey Tse (1735) against Mos Ali (1791), Richard Parfait (1975) drew with Laura Moylan (2053), Andrew Brown (1914) drew with Angela Song (2063),Jamie Boyce (1844) drew with Hamish Selnes (1844), Encel (1228) drew with Cohn (1701) and Barisic (1702) drew with David Evans (1628). Upsets were caused by J. Nguyen (1738) over Ian Rout (1859), Alexander Stanke (1600) over Herman Rachmadi (1862), and Jonathan Ren beat Joshua Christensen when he forgot to turn off his mobile phone and it rang!

Benjamin Cheung defeated Danny Bisson, Michael Tracey lost to Bruce Harris, and Kang ploughed on by defeating Karibasic. Draws for the round included: Emma Guo (1587) drawing with Kevin Zhao (unr), Trent Parker (1546) drew with Matthew Koutnik (1493) where if black or white pushes too hard for the win the other player breaks through.Ian Dickson (1557) drew with Cedric Koh (1225), John Cooper (unr) drew with Phil Willis (1256), Megan Setiabudi (1107) drew with Kinto Wan (1171) and Nick Mann (1217) drew with Chaffey (unrated)

What a day!! Went for a walk around parramatta in between rounds four and five to clear the head. Phil Bourke and I stayed up until about 3 talking about chess and analysing different variations of various situations...... fun stuff!!! Woke up to finish strongly!!!

The Final Day; Day 3 and the two grandmasters were due to play each other. Would it be the match of the tournament? MMMMmmmm no. It finished in a draw before I had forked my Opponent's King and Queen in the early middlegame.On board two Toth defeated Bjelobrk, Wright defeated Illingworth on three, Brian Jones lost to Bolens on Four, Atzmon-Simon lost to Jason Hu on five and Jason Chan drew with Arthur Huynh on 6. Other draws included Mos Ali (1798) against Junta Ikeda (2154) , Angela Song (2063) against Alex Stanke (1600) , Sherab Guo-Yuthok (1875) against Peter Abbott (1929) , Jamie Boyce (1844) against Mal MacMillan(1695). Upsets included: Brendan Norman (1801) over Andrew Brown (1914), Tamsin Oliver (1458) over Aurel-John Buciu (1537) and Joshua Christensen (1608) finally got a point over Frank Barisic (1702).

In the Under 1600 Leo Kang found himself leading outright after defeating Benjamin Cheung, Bruce Harris lost to John Papantonio who was now only half a point behind Leo on 5/6, On the third board Danny Bisson drew with Emma Guo and on the fourth board I defeated Michael Ngo when he did not notice that I was threatening the fork of the Lady and her King. Other draws include Clarise Koh (1225) against Valsalan Karayi (1420) , Aiswerya Shankar (unr) against drew with Anthony Villanueva (1587) , Phil Willis drew with Caroline Shen and Thai Pham (1171) drew with Dennis Yan (unr). Upsets included Kevin Zhao over Peter Zekic (1648), Phil Bourke (1505) losing to Matthew Ryan (1355), Horst Blecher (1495) losing to Queenslander Amir Karibasic (1390) , Joshua Lau (1279) defeated Oscar Wang (1376) , Megan Setiabudi (1107) defeated Norm Greenwood (1520). On one of the end boards it was a case of a very young Junior playing against an elderly Blind Gentleman. Alex Momot the senior defeated the promising young gun Anton Smirnov.

Round 7, the last round of the long tourney.
The Open division saw Jason Hu come up against his second grandmaster of the tournament where a draw was agreed! Effectively giving Jason 1/2 against grandmasters for the tournament! On Board two Rogers battled it out with Toth to eventually arrive at a draw. The third board clash, Bolens - Wright, ended up a draw after a swindle. On Board 4 Arthur Huynh's excellent tournament ended with a loss to Igor Bjelobrk.
Draws for the final round included: Max illingworth (2103) with Barak Atzmon-Simon (2093), Mos Ali (1798) drawing with Laura Moylan (2053), Jeffrey Tse (1735) against Brendan norman (1801), Andrew Furst (1752) drew with Angela Song (2063), Peter Abbott (1929) drew with Alex Stanke (1600), Jamie Boyce drew with Joseph Nguyen, Allen Setiabudi drew with Tom Tomas, Encel drew with Oliver, Barisic drew with Nikolau and David Evans drew with Joshua Christensen. The only upset for the round waw Aurel-John Buciu (1537) defeating Ambatali (1644).

The Prizes for the Open division were:
U1700 Alex Stanke 3.5/7
1850-1700 =1st: Mos Ali, Brendan Norman, Arthur Huynh on 4/7
u2000-1850 equal first: Jason Chan, Alex Mendes Da Costa 4/7
Open Positions 4-9 Johny Bolens, Neil Wright, Igor Bjelobrk,
Jason Hu, and Armen Ayvazyan.
Open Position 2-3: Andreas Toth, GM Ian Rogers5.5/7
Open Position 1: GM Dejan Antic 6/7

Board One saw Myself, Trent Parker, play white against Leo Kang, Board two saw John Papantonio play Michael Koutnik, Board three saw Ben Cheung play Kevin Zhou, Board four saw Teresa Grbin play Danny Bisson. It was time to Jostle for the prize positions. Leo Kang was out in outright first on 5.5/6, John Papantonio on 5/6 and a small pack chasing on 4.5/6. As many as 5 players could have come equal first. So Board four : Teresa Grbin won and Cheung won on board three so it was up to the top two boards to sort things out. John Papantonio's chances of winning the tournament outright started slipping away in a drawn rook and pawn and bishop each endgame until Matthew left his Rook en prise and went on to lose the game. So now if Leo Kang won his match he would win the tournament outright, draw he shares first prize and loss: he hands victory over to John Papantonio. An intersting game ensued on the top board. Victory to the white pieces! John Papantonio won the tournament on 6/7 and Leo Kang joined Myself, Teresa Grbin and Benjamin Cheung on equal second. When Joshua Lau (1279) drew with Valsalan Karayi (1420) and Megan Setiabudi (1107) defeated Patrick Keuning (1390) they shared equal second prize under 1300 division. Cedric Koh (1225) defeated Michael Tracey (1449) to take out the first prize u1300 with a score of 4.5. The under 1450-1300 equal first was won by Mark Ryan and Amir Karibasic on a score of 5/7. The unrated Prize was won by Kevin Zhou.

Vishy Anand on the Particitpation of chess in the Olympic Games

2007-06-03T17:21:00.000+10:00

In the Chennai Online News today Viswanathan Anand is quoted as saying that he thought there was little or no chance of Chess being included in the Olympic Games:

"I can say I have just a little over zero per cent hope of playing in the
Olympics. It takes at least eight years from proposal to acceptance of a sport
in the Olympics and I don't see its inclusion in the Games in near future,"

I personally would like to see chess in the olympic games. Who knows? It's 7-8 years before a city knows that they are to hold the olympic games. They have to start the preparations earlier so why can't chess? The meeting between FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and IOC President Jaques Rogge hopefuly tightened ties between the IOC and chess?

The Hindu newspaper calls Anand "the finest ambassador for Indian sport". Anand comments about his preparation for the world championships coming up in september in Mexico and states that he will play at Dortmund, a rapid touranment in Leon and a tournament in Mainz.

How Life Imitates Chess

2007-06-03T16:07:00.000+10:00

According to Garry Kasparov's Article in MSNBC Newsweek, the former world chess champion has written a book entitled "How Life imitates Chess". He goes on to discuss the decision making in his retirement from chess and his entry into Russian Politics.

"Forty-one years old when I retired, I could have continued fighting to keep my
No. 1 spot for another five years. But I increasingly felt my role in the chess
world was no longer an essential one. I was ready for new challenges."

He also had other Motifs for going into Politics:

"Apart from the natural desire to fight on the side of human rights and
democracy, there was a more personal impetus behind my decision. I grew up under
the methodical oppression of the U.S.S.R., coping and fighting inside and
outside the system for much of my life. The thought of my son, Vadim, born and
raised in Moscow and now 10 years old, having to suffer similar treatment still
sends chills down my spine."

I didn't realise Garry Kasparov had a son! Does he play chess?
Good Luck to Kasparov in his political endeavors. He's going to need it!

Magnus Carlsen's Father Blogs

2007-06-03T14:09:00.000+10:00

I was reading a post on Susan Polgar's blog abut Magnus Carlsen and discovered that Magnus Carlsen's Father, Henrik, Blogs about the tournaments that Magnus is currently playing in.

An interesting read: http://blog.magnuschess.com

The Closet Grandmaster: I'm thinking maybe it's time to close down TCG!

2007-06-02T14:19:00.000+10:00

Every now and again I go a couple of days without being on the internet. And every now and again I don’t read the Closet Grandmaster blog. However my normal thing when going online is read closet gradmaster, read chesschat, then check my emails.

I was astonished to find Wednesday’s entry by Amiel, stating that he is thinking about closing down TCG. TCG has been an excellent read away form some of the mudslinging battles that happen at Chesschat. His endless supply of interesting posts never fails to entertain and Inform.

The Closet grandmaster gave me the inspiration to start my blog. I try to blog on the tournaments that I attend as well as on other chess issues however I have not been very regular on my posts. TCG however almost has a post ever day!

So to the Grandmaster of Australian Chess Blogging I congratulate you on an excellent blog and I hope to read many TCG posts in the future.

Mate in Mingara

2007-05-30T02:14:00.000+10:00

Bleary eyed and tired I once again got myself up out of bed at quarter past 3 in the morning in order to walk to the station to catch the 4.53 train out of Picton headed for the Central Coast and the Mingara Recreational Club. Hey its ok. I got to catch up with some sleep on the train. Making sure that I set my alarm for the views of the rising sunshine glistening over the Hawkesbury River between Cowan and Gosford. Visitors to the City should take this train ride and maybe alight at Hawkesbury River Railway Station and have a look around Brooklyn. I would say that that stretch of Railway would have to be one of the most beautiful stretches of train track in the world…. Well at least for the most beautiful for a suburban train service.

The Mingara Recreation Club is set in amongst the hills of Tumbi Umbi.
The Tournament room was excellent. Spacious, Well lit. And coffee and Tea was supplied for nothing.

In previous years this event had been an under 2000 or under 2100 event but this year it decided to become part of the Grand Prix, and thus changed to an Open event. There were 4 players with ratings in excess of 2000: IM Gary Lane, FM Igor Bjelobrk, Paul Broekhuyse and Johny Bolens.

Round 1 saw all the higher rated opponents win with the exception of Mike Canfell who could only draw against Alex Mehan in a very long game that slightly delayed the game for round two. And although he eventually went down Gary Losh fought very hard against Johny Bolens. At one point Johny didn’t realise that he was in check. Strange thing to happen coming from the king of blitz….

Round 2 saw local PHD student Andrew Philips come up against Gary Lane on board one, with the International Master winning that encounter. Board two saw Igor Bjelobrk defeat Johnathan Adams, Paul Broekhuyse accounted for Nick Kordahi, Johny Bolens defeated Emma Guo and Sartaj Hans defeated Heath Bonnefin to be the only 5 players on 2/2
Mike Canfell (1746) certainly started the tournament badly; In the second round he was defeated by John Pascoe (1487), which left him on .5/2. The other upsets for the round were Norm Greenwood (1515) going down to Alex Mehan (1390), and Graeme Deacon (1403) defeated the rusty Tony Eves (1566). Meanwhile Tony Baldwin and Myself finished almost simultaneously with 10-11 move miniatures against our rather embarrassed opponents. Its Just not chess.

In round 3 the big boppers started to play each other with Lane playing (and beating) Bolens on board 1, Bjelobrk defeating Broekhuyse on two and Sartaj Hans joined the leaders on 3/3 by defeating Alex Mehan who was the only person on 1.5 at that point in time. Draws occurred on a couple of the lower boards: Emma Guo drew with Graeme Deacon and Norm Greenwood drew with Anthony Eves. As for the break Tony and I had. I (Trent Parker) went on to cause an upset on board 6 to defeat Jonathan Adams. Whilst Tony hit a brick wall coming up against the resurgent Mike Canfell.

First night came to a close and time to go and get some good nights rest.

At the half way mark there were 3 leaders on 3/3: Lane, Bjelobrk and Hans closely followed by Broekhuyse, Bolens, Phillips, Bonnefin, Kordahi, an Parker all on 2/3

At this time I’d like to Say thank you very much to Hugh Windsor? Who offered to bring me from Tuggerah Station to Mingara on the Sunday, when I had thought that the first bus to Mingara arrived at 10.20 – 20 minutes past the starting time of the round. This would have been a long way around for him considering that he lives at Long Jetty! I later found out that there was an earlier bus that got me to the bus stop down across the intersection.

Bzzzzzzt there goes my alarm! Its 6.15 gotta get up and catch the 7.20 train from Wyee…..Oh I’ll just lay down for another moment.

45 minutes later I was up and racing around trying to get everything ready in five minutes so I could take the fifteen minute walk to the station. What fun! Not quite at the station I see the train coming. I have to start running……. I was lucky that the guard or driver saw that I was struggling to get to the train so they waited a minute longer for me! Thank the lord!

I arrived at the Mingara club at about 9.15 with plenty of time to spare. Round 4 was to start at 10.00 sharp. On board One Igor Bjelobrk was drawn to play Sartaj Hans, On board two Lane battled it out with Nick Kordahi, Bonnefin played Broekhuyse, and Bolens played Andrew Phillips. Meanwhile I floated down to play Emma Guo. Bjelobrk was handed the win by forfeit as Sartaj Hans did not show up and did not give any warning. All the other games mentioned above went according to rating (except for mine). In my game against Emma Guo I lost a piece early as I was concentrating too much on my attack. Later on I retrieved the piece and a few moves later I offered a draw…..I was a pawn up but I thought it was the fairest result at that moment. There were no upsets for the round.

It was time for the top two seeds to battle it out in the fifth round. Lane v Bjelobrk. A battle of the Kings Indian type ensued. Bjelobrk, after receiving the forfeit round 4, defeated Lane. Broekhuyse and Bolens played out a draw. There was no other upset other than the top board , however there was one draw for the round: Emma Guo and Andrew Phillips Drew.

Round 6 saw Bjelobrk and Bolens play on board 1 which ended in a short draw. Thus securing the Mingara Open title for Igor. Board two saw Gary Lane defeat Paul Broekuyse. Upsets for the round included Parker defeating Tony Eves (1566), there was no other real upsets Canfell and Kordahi played out a draw.

All in all an excellent tournament. Thanks to Keith Farrell for Arbiting/ DOPing another excellent tournament.

Congratulations Igor Bjelobrk on winning the tournament and Congratulations to Gary Lane on his second place
Congratulations to Johny Bolens, Jonathan Adams and Mike Canfell on their third place. See more people there next year

Antic Wins the John Kellner Memorial Tournament

2007-05-21T14:03:00.000+10:00

GM Dejan Antic won the 2007 John Kellner Memorial Tournament at the St George Leagues club Last Weekend, dropping only a half point to Johny Bolens in the Fourth round. Meanwhile the third seed took a half point bye

Upsets for the round were Michael Ngo (1151) over Pierre Guenette (1690), Michael Weltner (1422) over Anthony Villanueva (1648), Alan Mascarenhas over Mark Baterowicz(1620), Gary Losh (1438) over Joshua Christensen (1605), and Youngster Sean Gu (608) defeating Michael Lo (1451).

So after four rounds Antic and Bolens are on 3.5/4 followed by David Evans, Arthur Huynh, Richard Eccles and Michael Ngo, playing chess way above his rating, all on 3 points.

Round 5 Saw Top seed Dejan Antic defeat David Evans, Michael Ngo going down to Johny Bolens and Huynh was too strong for Eccles.

Draws were had by Blair Mandla (1763) against Retallick (1969) and Michael Lo (1422) drawing with Shurapey (1200) John Fearson defeated Mark Baterowicz, Norm greenwood defeated Anthony Villanueva, and Pierre Guenette was defeated by Michael Weltner.

Round 6 saw Bolens (who was on 4.5 points) was the victor over Huynh (ho was on 4 points), Moylan who finally rose to the top of the standings again with 3.5/5 was defeated by Antic. Michael Dunn defeated Michael Weltner who were both on 3.5/5. Michael Ngo continued his excellent tournament by drawing with Eccles, Shurapey drew with Villanueva. The only upset in the round was Mascarenhas who defeated Fearson.

Round 7
Antic disposed of Retallick on board one whilst Johny Bolens, a bishop pawns down settled for a draw against Michael Dunn when Dunn had to Sacrifice the bishop for the two pawns. Blair Mandla defeated Arthur Huynh to join Dunn on 5 points and third place. Other Upsets included Mascarenhas (1423) over Josh Christensen (1605), Michael Weltner (1422) over Richard Eccles (1611), Oscar Wang defeating Fearson, and the very promising youngster Sean Gu (608) over Iyengar (1200).

John Kellner Memorial Weekender Day One

2007-05-20T00:12:00.000+10:00

There was a disappointing turnout of 30 players in the inaugrual John Kellner Memorial Tournament (perhaps i had something to do with that?! I appologise) The top seeds are 1. GM Dejan Antic, 2. Johny Bolens and 3. WIM Laura Moylan.

In Round One I was the lucky recipient of the first round thumping to Dejan Anitc. It was an enjoyable game though.... Michael Lo lost to Johny Bolens and Laura Moylan Disposed of Gary Losh. Upsets for Round One were an unrated Aiswerya Shankar, over John Fearson and Michael Ngo defeating Mark Baterowicz. Arthur Huynh (1879) decided to play a swiss gambit and drew with Michael welter (1422). In other Draws, Blair Mandla (1765) Drew against th Improving Junior Oscar Wang (1329), Dmitriy Shurapey and Pierre Guenette also drew.

Round two saw Antic defeat Richard Eccles, Bolens Defeat Emma Guo however Laura Moylan might have taken David Evans somewhat lightly and eventually lost. Michael Ngo (1151) joined the pacesetters by defeating Anthony Villanueva (1648). Other usets included unrated Aiswerya Shankar defeating Steven Retallick (1969), Michael Weltner (1422) defeating Blair Mandla (1765), and Gary Losh (1439) going down to unrated Leuki Lyengar

The top three seeds were back onto their winning ways in round 3; Antic Defeated Michael Dunn, David Evans "should have drawn" according to Johny Bolens but eventually lost, and Laura Moylan ended Michael Weltners good run. In terms of Upsets I defeated my mate Josh Christensen when he let a piece drop in the late stages of the opening, The only other upset for the round was Laki Lyengar (unr) defeating Tom Accola (1175). Emma Guo (1543) drew with Steven Retallick (1969), Norm Greenwood (1515) drew with Mark Baterowicz (1620), and Anthony Villanueva ()1648 could only manage a draw from John Fearson (1488)

In Round 4 It was time for Antic and Bolens to face off.

Stay tuned for tomorrows installment to find out what happened!

John Kellner Memorial On today

2007-05-19T06:44:00.000+10:00

The John Kellner Memorial Weekender starts today.

I will be blogging on this event

Poker players will be very happy as the St George Shootout poker tournament is also taking place with lots of sit and go's available!

Blitz Ruling: Mate with K+N

2007-05-18T07:43:00.000+10:00

What an eccentric fellow Mr Johny Bolens is......

In the Lightning tournament at the Parramatta RSL club Johny wanted to claim a win on time as his opponent had two pawns on the side of the board (eg h and g files) with the K in front of the pawns. Bolens had just a King and Knight. Bolens argued that he had mating material as there could be the possibility that his opponent could give up the g pawn and end up mated with K and N with his opponents pawn blocking the escape square.

So What is deemed to Be mating Material? If there is the possibility that the opponent will make made a blunder should just the sole knight be deemed as mating material?

I'd like to hear the arguements.

For the Record the Arbiter determined the result as a draw. Of course Bolens Complained......

Western Suburbs Chess Premiership Comes to an end

2007-05-18T04:17:00.000+10:00

The 2007 Edition of the WSCP has come to a close culminating in a Lightning tournament at the Parramatta RSL Club yesterday.

The Open division of the WSCP was won by Brian Jones' Koala Team on 10 points closely followed by Parramatta B on 9.5 points and coming last in the three horse race was Parramatta A on 8.5 points

The Under 1900 and 1700 Division (Division B) was won By Rooty Hill on 11.5 followed by Parramatta u1900 on 8.5 points and Mounties u1700 on 8 points

The Under 1600 Division was won by Ryde Eastwood on 15 points followed by Liverpool on 14.5 points then Parramatta on 13 points then rooty Hill on 7.5 and Mounties on 6 points.

Division D consisted of the u1500, u1400 and u1300 teams. The tournament was won by Parramatta u1400 on a score of 17.5 followed by Rooty Hill u 1500 on 16 then Rootyhill under 1400 team on 13.5. Bringing up the rear end of the tournament was Parramatta u1300 and Wests Tigers u1400 with 10 and 7 points respectively.

The lightning on the night was won by new Parramatta Chess club member Dejan Antic followed by Johny Bolens in second place. Jason Hu and Jason Chan shared third place. the u1600 prize was shared between Shane Burgess and George Smit.

I will update this post with Performance prizes when they come to hand.

Australian Championships – Where are we now?

2007-04-22T18:27:00.000+10:00

Head Honcho of the ACF Gary Wastell convened a meeting of parties interested in the holding of the Australian Championships on the Friday night during the Sydney International Open. The people at the meeting were: NSWCA Prez Bill Gletsos, NSWCA Clubs man and Parramatta CC Treasurer Shane Burgess, Parramatta CC President Bob Sewell, Sydney International Open Organisers Brian Jones and Vasil Tulevski, as well as Peter Parr and one or two other people.

As people probably already know, there was an email from Peter Parr to the ACF early this year (late last year?) stating that the UTS could be available for free or a minimal cost. Alternatively, the email said, Hakoah Club or the Bridge Centre of NSW could be used. For me the UTS would be the best option, as Hakoah just didn’t give me a good impression when the NSWCA held its NSW Open there last year. As for the Bridge Centre I’m not sure. I have heard however that it is not very junior friendly. How would UTS go with this issue?

After reading about Peter Parr’s “proposal” I decided to drop the idea of holding the Championships at Campbelltown. But nothing happened. After the meeting I decided that I’d try again at holding the Championships at Campbelltown. However I have since found out that the Championships could be held at the Parramatta RSL. Dr Vasil Tulevski and the Parramatta chess club could be giving it a go.

Further more to Peter Parrs “proposal” a meeting of Peter Parr, Bill Gletsos and UTS officials had been agreed upon at the meeting. I wonder what will come out of that meeting? Has it happened yet?

There was also some talk on Noble Park Chess club in Melbourne holding something there but no representatives were at the meeting.

The NSW Junior Chess League have already put in a bid for the juniors.

As a side note, one comment at the meeting indicated that there is a possibility that there could be another Queenstown-like tournament in 2009!

IM Norm chances for Oliver, Rej and Chow

2007-04-14T15:05:00.000+10:00

Tomek Rej needs to obtain at least half a point from Gary Lane in the final round of the Sydney international Open in order to obtain an International Masters norm. Tomek will have the white pieces. Gareth Oliver only needs a draw against Moulthun Ly in order to obtain an International Master norm.

It was originally thought that Sam Chow would be inelligible for the chance to obtain an IM norm but nope some people forgot that The WIM title of Laura Moylan counted as part of the required titled players. Sam Chow will play Tejas Bakre and will need to win to obtain the norm.

Draws in round 8 included:

GM Rogers against IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (5.5), GM Murray Chandler against IM George Xie Sam Chow against Moulthun Ly, Wallis v IM Ansell, Gutierrez Castillo against FM Smirnov, Repplinger drew against Ilia Zvedeniouk, Ikeda against Mendes da costa, Andrew Brown against Domagoj dragicevic, Selnes against Cvetkoski, Harris against Mike Canfell, Guo Yutok against Aisa, Maroroa against Setiabudi, Ren against Mario Pleno.

Upsets were scored by:

Results to follow after this round.

Leading scores:Timoshenko 7, Rogers, Antic, Mikhalevski 6.5,
9 players on 6

SHIPOV Loses!!!! XIE Draws

2007-04-14T13:20:00.000+10:00

Early Results before I left the venue saw George Xie draw against Murray Chandler. The other Shock loss was Shipov being defeated by Pinoy Almario Marlon Bernardino, who apparently started crying tears of Joy upon realising the victory.

A bit of Trivia

Did you know? That IM Guy West has Played Gary Kasparov!

I'm late for a very important date

2007-04-14T03:01:00.000+10:00

Hello peoples! sorry i havent updated the blog. I was too tired Thursday night and ended up going to bed relatively early. And then Friday afternoon i was in an internet cafe typing up my Blog entry when the Internet explorer decided to die on me. I was not happy so they didn't charge me for using the internet.

The chess playing public not playing (or had finished their games) in the SIO were treated to a commentary by Smerdon on his draw against George Xie. There is a lot of things for chessplayers who are not in the tournament to participate in. Simuls, Large outdoor chess set, game commentary. or just watch from the sidelines.

Now to the chess:
Round four saw Antic and Timoshenko draw on top board, Bakre and Carlos Matamoros Franco draw on the third board and no less than ten other boards: IM Smerdon drew with IM Xie, Vincent Suttor drew with IM Guy West. Tredinnik against Voon, Max Illingworth had a "grandmaster draw" with Zhigen Lin, Paloma Gutierrez Castillo against Fedja Zufric, Contreras Nelson Munoz against Edwin Wu, Benjamin Harris against Jason Chan, Alexander Stanke against Kumar Uttam, Norm Greenwood against Ian Dickson and down on board 37 two Australian WIMs drew against each other: Narelle Szuveges and Laura Moylan

There were no less than 12 upsets. Biggest of all Manthan Chokshi defeating GM Sergei Shipov. Other Upsets: Gareth Oliver over Vladimir Smirnov, Lazarus defeated Bucher, Angelo Tsagarakis defeated "Dancing with the Stars" Stunner Ariane Caoili, Gene Nacauchi defeated Karenlampi, Rob Hvistendahl defeated Ilija Ilic, Johnathan Yuen defeated Tony Davis, Dennis Wan defeated Anthony Pickering, Jason Cohn defeated Sue Marora, Shirley Wu defeated Vaness Reid and Krishna Kumar defeated Ely tacorda.

Rogers took the lead in round five with a win over GM Murray Chandler.

There were thirteen draws and thirteen upsets in round five:
Draws: IM Garbett against GM Matamoros Franco, GM Bakre against IM Zhao, Sam Chow drew with englands Simon Ansell, Chris Wallis drew with Igor Goldenberg, Hilton Bennet confirmed that Shipov was having a bad tournament, Young ACT up and comer Andrew Brown drew against strong Victorian Dusan Stojic, Shon drew with Castillo Gutierrez, Hvistendahl drew with Moylan, I (Trent Parker) snatched a draw from the clutches of defeat when I was able to push my passed pawns up the board and in time pressure Ian offered a draw due to the threats of my pawns. Carla Wettstein drew with Anthony Pickering and Dhirendra Kumar drew with Korenevski.

Upsets were scored by Marc Rupplinger over IM Gary lane. Barak Atzmon Simons over Pinoy Jesse Sales, Greth Oliver steamed ahad by beating Steadman, Sydney Academy of chess Student Max Illingworth defeated Sydney Academy of Chess Coach Neil Wright, Tredinnik defeated Bernardino, Gregs father Mike Canfell defeated Tony Dowden, Leonardo Tenorio defeated Robert Gibbons, Gene Nakauchi defeated Vilestri, Antheny Lo defeated Dennis Holland Sue Maroroa lost to Carrie Evans, Sarah Anton defeated Sally Yu,Ido Tullic defated Gor Neegam.

So after five rounds we had Rogers on 5/5 as sole leader followed by Antic, Timoshenko and Smerdon on 4.5, Chandler, Toth Bakre, Matamoros Franco, Solomon, Zhao, Garbett, Chokshi, Oliver, Mikhalevski, Repplinger, Rej, Bjelobrk, Ly and Atzmon Simon all on 4/5. Further back in the pack are GM Johanson on 3.5 and top Seed Shipov on 3.

Now to Thursdays Rounds.

I missed my regular train on this day so i was rushing to the venue and arrived 3 minutes before forfeiture time! I always play too quickly when i arrive late. I hate arriving late I had an alright opening but i missed a combo that won a pawn. Oh well......

After my game I was lucky enough to get a seat to play against local player Adrian Rose in a Simul. I was the only one to beat him!

In round 6 the top board clash ended in a draw between Ian Rogers and GM Antic. Timoshenko defeated Smerdon and Mikhalevski defeated Moulthun Ly. FM Igor Bjelobrk kicked off the upsets by defeating GM Carlos Matamoros Franco, and Tomek Rej defeated IM Stephen Solomon.

Gareth Oliver continued his excellent run by drawing against IM Andras Toth. Other Draws for the round included Vincent Suttor against FM Igor Goldenberg, Ilia Zvedeniouk against GM Sergei Shipov, Eugene Shon against Angelito Camer, Julius Caesar Marquez against Anthony Pickering, Dhirendra Kumar against Michael Gearing, Mario Aisa against Milan Ninchich, Matthew Sweeney against David Evans.

Christopher Wallis had a huge win against Victorian IM Guy West. Other upsets include Ivan Zirdum over Jesse Sales, Svetosar Stojic over Michael Wei, Andrew Brown over Malcolm Tredinnik, Blair Mandla over Ilija Ilic and Alexandra Jule downed Alan Tankel.

Round 7 saw draws on 6 of the top 8 boards and upsets on the other two. GM Timoshenko drew with GM Rogers, GM Antic played against Mikhalevski's Grunfeld for a draw, Bakre - Chandler ended in a draw, Zhao Bjelobrk ended in a draw, IM Simon Ansell was defeated by Tomek Rej
Gareth Oliver was playing strong enough to defeat David Smerdon. GM Johansen drew with Chow, FM Smith drew with Andras Toth and Vladimir Smirnov was held to a draw by Vincent Suttor

On Lower boards draws were agreed upon by: Paul Broekhuyse against Marc Repplinger,WIM Moylan against Zhigen Lin, WIM Arianne Caoili drawing with Blair Mandla, Ian Dickson drawing with Tony Dowden, Eugene Shon drawing with Contreras Nelson Munoz, Edwin Wu drawing with WFM Helen Milligan, Joshua Christensen drawing with Oleg Korenevski, Dennis Wan against Sue Maroroa, Michael Gearing and Alexander Stanke drew, and Jean Watson and Justin Tan Drew.

Top Seed Sergei Shipov finally got a win against Svetozar Stojic.

After holing Shipov to a draw Ilia Zvedeniouk defeated IM Guy West. Other Upsets included:
Max Illingworth over Dusan Stojic, Fedja Zulfic over Jason Chan, Gordon Dunlop against Pirkka Karenlampi, David Lovejoy was defeated by johnathan Yuen, Gene Nakauchi defated Tony Davis, Vivian Smith defeated the doctor of the house Vasil Tulevski, Anthony Lo defeated Willian Forster, I defeated Vaness Reid's Bird like Dutch, Matt Sweeney defeated Ido Tulic and Karishma Kumar defeated Gor Neegam.

Will update round by round today.

So at the moment we have three equal first: Rogers Timoshenko and Rej all on 6 points, followed by Antic, Chandler, Bakre, Zhao, Xie, Mikhalevski, Oliver, Bjelobrk all on 5.5/6!

Top Board Graveyard

2007-04-12T04:42:00.000+10:00

The top board has not been a happy hunting ground for our visiting GM's this tournament. In round two Samuel Chow was able to hold GM Shipov to a draw on the top board and in round three IM Simon Ansell defeated second seed GM Victor Mikhalevski.

One player who is performing outstandingly well is my mate Josh Christensen. I hope to post his third round win against Domagoj Dragicevic. Josh is now on 2.5/3 A excellent effort for a playerwith a rating of 1605.

Round two Upsets included:

Draws:
Manthon Chokshi against Z-Y Zhao
IM Paul Garbett could only draw against Jason Hu
Angelito Camer drew with FM Robert smith.
Milan Ninchich and Hamish Selnes
Dennis Holland drew against lower rated Jason Cohn
I (trent parker) drew a good game against Gary Bekker. at one stage i could have won.
Angelo Tsagarakis was only able to score a draw against Allen Setiabudi.
Alexander Stanke drew with the highly rated junior Edwin Wu

Defeats
Gareth oliver defeating FM Igor Bjelobrk
Robert Gibbons defeating Moulthoun ly
Marc Vietstra defeated Dusan Stojic
Alex Mendes da Costa defeated Armen Ayvazyan
Max Illinworth Defeated Malcom "Macavity" Pyke
Joshua Christensen over Uttam, Kumar Saha.
Leonardo Tenorio lost to Dhirendra Kumar

In round 3
draws were played by
Narelle Szuveges against Almario Marion Bernardino
Jason Cohn against Hamish Selnes
Ian Dickson v Yuen
Leong v Bekker

Wins were had by
Alexander Stanke againstMarquez
Korenski was defeated by Norm Greenwood
Gene Nakauchi defeating Lorenzo.

Another notable game for the round was Max Illingworth against Sergey Shipov. Will hopefully bring that game to the blog as well.

Laterz people!!! Day three is coming up!

You aint seen nothing yet!!

Doeberl is Over SIO Started!

2007-04-11T01:14:00.000+10:00

Congratulations to the Home grown talent that took out the major placings in the Doeberl this year! Congratulations to Rogers on winning another Doeberl Crown. There was some very interesting chess played by the grandmaster. Especially his game against IM Solomon (who came equal second with Smerdon and Lane). The Closet GM and Shaun Press cover the tournament well so i won't say much more other than that I was lucky to get second.

The first round of the SIO started today. I rocked up just before the opening ceremony started as I had other things to do earlier in the day. The Parramatta Town hall seems to be a cozy set up with plenty of room between the aisles of seats which is good for those overly swolen people.
LOL.

Anyhow The first round went much to ratings except for New Zealands Vivian Smith (1742) defeating Malcolm Tredinnik (2205). Upset draws occured between Joshua Christensen against Ariane Caoili in an interesting Queens Gambit Declined, Blair Mandla against Neil Wright, Fedja Zulfic against Domagoj Dragicevic, Anthony Lo against Paloma Gutierrez-Castillo, Carla Wettstein against Contreras Nelson Munoz, Johnathan Ren against Jens Boe Hornsgaard, and Northern Territory's Mario Aisa drew against Indian Kumar Saha Attum.

Now I'm going to be a little cheeky here and subtitle this:
Hu's been a naughty boy then?
Apparently someone has been knocking people about. First Arthur Huynh using a walking frame thing due to some sort of foot injury and then apparently today someone had been kicking assistant to the arbiters Nick Chernih in the somewhere but Nick fought off Huever the person was. I wonder Hu it was??? ROTFL be nice!!!

OK i'll blog tomorrow. bye!!!

Black Jacket Required - Bluff Australia's profile on Gary Benson

2007-03-14T15:31:00.000+11:00

As we all know, Poker has taken off in Australia. I play it, my mates play it, everyone's playing it.It is possibly even hurting chess a bit. But could chess gain some players from the Poker playing arena? I know that Parramatta Chess Club have gained at least one member from the poker ranks when Shane Burgess and a few other Parramatta Chess Club members took to their local Poker competition with a chess board or two and at Campbelltown Collegians chess club we have had one enquiry from a poker player willing to give up a nights poker for chess.

Chess got some good publicity in the recent issue of Bluff Australasia with a profile on Gary Benson.

In 1970, aged just 13, Benson started plaing competitive chess and joined the
Correspondence chess league of Australia. In 2003, he became the australian
champion and 12 months later, he was awarded the International Master title for
Correspondence chess in 2004, and later earned the Senior International Master
title.

As for his Poker milestones: Played in First Australian Poker Championship played in Adelaide in 1987 and has played in every major tournament in Australasia since then. Gary Benson took out the 7 card Championships in 1989. Benson became the first Australian born player to win a WSOP Bracelet, less than 12 months after quitting his partnership in an accounting firm. The gold bracelet was won in the seven card Stud title in 1996. Benson became Australian Champion in 1997 and again in 2001.

A full profile on Bensons Poker career can be found in the March/April 2007 edition of Australasian Bluff Magazine.

Anyhow back to Chess. What Conclusions can we draw from this article. Perhaps that because Poker players are so fixated about their game over the table they do not have time to go to a chess club. Perhaps the Correspondence Chess League of Australia should attempt to get more members by chucking in an ad every now and again in the Bluff Magazine? Other peoples comments are welcome!

Too Low Key Toukley

2007-03-14T00:43:00.000+11:00

Once again i trek off on the 4.53 train from Picton, heading from toukley. And i'll first say that Toukley is a beautiful place for a tournament but a bitch to get to by public transport. From Wyong train station one must catch a bus from Wyong to Lake Haven shops and another bus to Toukley. But, hey, Busways was the bus operaters and I know Busways Campbelltown/ Camden do a reasonably good job at providing public transport.... so i thought. Getting to Toukley on the Saturday was the easy bit.

With a disappointing field of 20 starters there were two clear cut contenders for the top two prizes. IM Gary Lane and former ACF Webmaster and Newsletter editor were the only two players rated over 2000. Andrew Phillips was the Third seed with a rating of 1717 and an astonishing 9 players rated in the 1400-1500 bracket.

In round One I was lucky enough to play Gary Lane who smashed me in the Ruy Lopez. The upsets had already started when Paul Broekhuyse could only muster a draw against Radislav Ivanovic. I reckon there must be a curse or something at Toukley. Players who have good results against much higher rated opponents early in the tournament seem to get low scores. This year it was Ivanovic's turn. He only ended up on 2/7 for the tournament. Last year I defeated Johny Bolens in the first round and I only ended on 1.5/7! However the Radislav - Broekhuyse result could have been different though because Radislav's phone went off during the first round but apparently the Director of Play Kieth Farrell was out of the room and his opponent did not claim the win. Lets just say that i have already learnt my lesson.....
Other upsets includedGary Losh (1438) over Victor Liuga (1676), Graeme Deacon (1403) drew with Bill Egan (1530), and on the 10th board father Aurel-John Buciu (1485) travelled all the way from Queensland to be defeated by his son Alex Buciu (833).

Round Two saw Lane Defeat Joe Frias while Paul Broekhuyse started climbing his way to the top by defeating Bill Egan. Meanwhile Andrew Phillips (1717) was knocked off the top of the leaderboard by drawing to Luka Tubic (1486). Meanwhile in other upsets Radislav Ivanovic (1449) started his slide down the boards by drawing with Graeme Deacon (1403). and tournament organiser Gary Losh (1438) drew with Stephen Barnes (1653).

So by Round three there were only two players on two points: Gary Land and Richard Eccles. After round three Garry Lane was the sole leader through to the end of the tournament. He started in round three by dispatching Richard Eccles. Meanwhile on board two Paul Broekhuyse defeated Stephen Barnesand on Board three it was a battle of the locals. Andrew Phillips of Warnervale against Gary Losh of Budgewoi. Andrew Philips won on this occasion. There were no real upsets except for Graeme Deacon (1403) defeating George Smit (1429) and Michael Weltner (1530) drawing with Bill Egan (1530).

On the top board a long battle from a Saemich Kings Indian Defence occured with Gary Lane on the black side with a knight up giving two pawns as compensation for Andrew Phillips. Both in time trouble, Gary lane was able to find a way to swap off the Queens which brought the resignation. On board two Broekhuyse defeated Luca Tubic. Board three and board four both had minor upsets with Richard Eccles (1611) drawing with Ben Ryan (1448) and Joe Frias (1507) drawing with the undefeated 17th seed Graeme Deacon (1403). Gary Losh (1438) also caused an upset by defeating Bill Egan (1530). Young Alex Mehan (1390) defeated the out of practice Victor Liugia (1676).

And at the conclusion of round 4 it was time to get to my accomodation; a friend of the family at Wyee. Discovering earlier in the day that the last Busways bus from Toukley to Lake Haven was at about 7-7.30 I had to find a lift to a station or otherwise i had to pay for a taxi. I ended up getting a lift from Andrew Phillips to Wyong station where I was able to catch a train two stops (or one stop express) to Wyee..... With fun to come in the morning....

I caught the 8.18 train from Wyee to Wyong to catch a bus to Lake haven to discover that the next bus to Toukley was at 10.12 arriving at the RSL 10.20 - 20 minutes past the scheduled start time for round 5! And i was at Lake Haven at 9.30. So I decided to pay the $15 taxi fare to get from Lake haven shops to Toukley so that i wouldn't be late. And it paid off!

In round 5 It was the battle of the big guns on board one. Lane won to extend his lead from half a point to one and a half points. Whilst Broekhuyse was joined in equal second by Andrew Phillips, Richard Eccles, Ben Ryan and Luca Tubic who were all on 2.5 and won their games. Out of those games Ben Ryan (1448) defeated Joe Frias (1507) and Richard Eccles (1611) defeated Stephen Barnes (1653) to clam minor upsets. Other upsets included an improving Alex Mehan (1390) defeating Michael Weltner (1422) and Alex Buciu (833) drawing with Victor Liuga (1676).

In round 6 Gary lane secured the top prize by defeating Luka Tubic, Paul Broekhuyse defeated the well performing junior Ben Ryan and Richard Eccles drew with third seed Andrew Phillips. I racked up a minor upset when i (1483) defeated Joe Frias (1507) in a Nimzowitch come Scandinavian come Kings indian Attack where Joe at one stage missed mate in two. Other upsets included Alex Mehan drawing with Gary losh, Graeme deacon drawing with Stephen Barnes and Victor Liuga losing to Aurel-John Buciu.
After 6 rounds Gary Lane had it all wrapped up on 6/6 followed in second by Paul Broekhuyse on 4.5/6. Equal third was shared between Andrew Phillips, Myself and Richard Eccles. In contention for podium honours: Ben Ryan, Alex Mehan and Luca Tubic on 3.5/7

Round 7 saw the Top seed play the number 18 seed. Gary land defeated Alex Mehan to take out the Toukley Open with a Picket fence score of 7/7. Paul Broekhuyse defeated Andrew Phillips to bump him out of podium contention. I offered a draw to Richard Eccles quite early in the game where i had a bit of a spacial advantage after an Anti Grunfeld. He declined but later offered the draw once again. Ben Ryan Defeated Luca Tbic on Board 4 to claim equal 3rd. Other upsets included Stephen barnes drawing with Bill Egan, Gay Losh defeating Joe Frias, Victor Liuga drawing a very long game with Michael weltner, Radislav Ivanovic losing to George Smit. But the unluckiest person on the sunday was Alex Momot. Alex Momot is the blind person who plays at a lot of country tournaments and he is a very nice fellow. But he left his mobile phone on going into the 7th round. And it rang....And the arbiter was in the room to forfeit him. Just when he had a player close to his rating of 848, Alex Buciu rated 833. They played out the game anyway and Alex Momot won the game. Due to this forfeiture he ended up on 0/7.

With all proceedings over and done with, it was time to go home..... and i had no lift to the railway station.... The time is 5.40. Oh Well there's a bus from Toukley at 6.14. Caught this bus to Lake Haven to find out that the next connecting bus to Wyong was at.......7.22!!!! And the one previously was at 6.12. Talk about connectivity......So I get to Wyong at about 8.00pm......The next train to Sydney isn't until 8.45!!! Streuth this is beyond a Joke. I finally arrive at campbelltown just after midnight. I am lucky that i have a great mother otherwise i would have had to wait on Campbelltown Station for hours to get a train to Picton....Thanks Mum!

So - To next years Toukley. I think improvements can be made in several areas. Circluation of flyers to clubs rather than just relying on everyone to view the tournament details on the internet, perhaps the RSL club could be convinced to use their courtesy bus to pick up participants from the local railway station and back for a fee. This would drastically reduce the burden on people who have to rely on public transport. For me, I have decided that i will not play this excellent tournament this year unless the Public Transport problem is ironed out.

Boom Crash Opera

2007-03-09T03:53:00.000+11:00

Hello folks!

I really appologise for the anticlimax that was my coverage of the City of sydney. I had intended to do a post earlier in the week but we have had lots of thunderstorms and electrical storms in the area and Telstra have had to do some works to the telephone lines in the area so every time i went to post on my blog I had no dial tone.

Anyhow in the Open section Ronald Yu drew with Johny Bolens and Swiercz defeated Jason Hu to be joint City of Sydney Champions. Congratulations to them both.

In the under 1700 Division I lost my game against Dennis Wan, David evans drew and Herman rachmadi won. Evans and rachmadi took out equal first whilst I and Dennis Wan equaled for third

Who turned out the lights?? Was it Yu?

2007-03-03T23:57:00.000+11:00

Round 5 started late today as the DOP couldn't figure out how to open the combination lock to access the pieces!! Finally Amiel Rosario (The Closet Grandmaster) finally figured it out. so we got under way a bit late today.

I appologise but i dont have the results of Round 5 for the Open. Some person decided to make the results disappear from the table. Will get them tomorrow hopefully.

In the Under 1700 division saw the David Evans match up with Myself on board one, Rachmadi against Horst Bleicher on two and Mary Wilkie against young Kinto Wan on board three. Rachmadi defeated Bleicher and Kinto Wan won a rook and eventually the game agains Wilkie. On the top board I blundered away a knight however on the next move David Evans allowed me to exchange knights to get a passed pawn which i used in an elaborate combination that allowed me to come out with a queen and a pawn for three minor pieces. We eventually agreed on a draw after I attempted some tactical tricks that were easily parried by David.
Upsets for the round include Phil Willis drawing with Thai Pham, Dennis Wan (1525) defeating Mark Baterowicz (1625).
Leaderboard: Rachmadi 4.5, Parker, Evans, Kinto Wan 4

Round 6 started a bit late as there were some late running games. Half way through round 6 the Norths Club had a blackout! some players stopped their clocks and some one was bright enough to pull up the blinds to let some sunshine in but the lighting was still poor in the u1700 division area which was further away from the windows that the Open division. After a while lighting was restored.
In the Open division Ronald Yu and Dariusz Swiercz occupied top board where at one point Dariusz had an extra pawn on the queenside but ronald had good kingside pressure in what looked to be a Grunfeld. Yu was the victor in this game. On board two Zirdum and Bolens played out a draw whilst sebastian Herman had his kingside pawns smashed to smitherines against Greg Canfell. Herman's Queenside pawn majority was not compensation enough. Canfell won. So with one round to play Ronald Yu leads on 5 points, Swiercz holds second with 4.5 points and Canfell, Rej, Bolens and Zirdum all have 4 points. Upsets in the open division included Emil-Lion Nomat defeating Amiel Rosario and Ilija Ilic losing to Anthony Lo.

In the under 1700 division: Evans had to play Rachmadi on board one. Rachmadi lost a rook and could not get enough counterplay to avoid his first loss of the tournament. On board two I played Kinto Wan. It was a very tough game! It took a possibly dubious move to allow me to fork two unprotected pawns in a knight and pawns endgame to gain the edge. I had to slowly grind his counterplay down. He had chances but he just didnt take them. I had ended Kinto's unbeaten run. I have to say Well Done to Kinto for lasting so long without loss for his rating. Meanwhile on Board three Father Dennis Wan dispached of Horst Bleicher.
Standings: Evans, Parker 5, Rachmadi 4.5, K Wan, D Wan, Greenwood 4

So can Yu become a multiple City of Sydney Winner? Can I win my first tournament? All these questions and more will be answered tomorrow

PS the lightning will be on tomorrow as well.

I'm sure i published the second installment: City of Sydney half way point

2007-03-03T00:00:00.000+11:00

Open division round three saw no players on a perfect score after Canfell and Bolens drew as well as Yu and Rej. Swiercz defeated chan to be equal to the leaders on 2.5/3. Upsets for the round included Hamish Selnes (1770) draw against Ivan Zirdum and Joseph Nguyen defeating Ilija Ilic.

In the under 1700division Rachmadi defeated Thai Pham in a Kings indian where black left his king too open on the light squares; Trent Parker defeated Mary Wilkie in an interesting battle where TCN was able to go a pawn up due to Mary's poor Queenside pawns. So only two people remained on the top score of 3/3: Trent Parker and Herman Rachmadi.
Upsets included Michael Tracey (1486) losing to Kinto Wan (847). Also Phil Willis (1323) defeated Terence Wall (1488).

In round 4 the top two seeds played out a draw in the Open division. Swiercz defeated the eccentric Johny Bolens who put on an act for the youngster and German Sebastian Herman drew with Yu; Whilst Hu defeated Illingworth to join Canfell, Rej and Hu in second place on 3/4. The sole leader was Dariusz Swiercz on 3.5/4.

In the under 1700 division Parker drew with Rachmadi and David Evans recovered from being a piece down to defeat Norm Greenwood. Kinto Wan (847) drew with Phil Willis (1323). On the lower boards Charmaine Zhang (777) upset Nicholas Mann (1186). So leaders in the U1700 Division are: 3.5, Herman Rachmadi, David Evans, Trent Parker
3, Kinto Wan, Mary Wilkie and Horst Bleicher.

In Profile: Dariusz Swiercz

2007-03-02T02:38:00.000+11:00

Dariusz Swiercz is currently leading the City of Sydney on 3.5/4 (which everyone would know the results if i had published my blog correctly on Monday night. Will try to repost it today).

Dariusz in a young FM from Poland. Dozy from Rooty Hill RSL gives the following information:

It's not surprising if you know his background. He's the top player in Poland
for his age group, finished level with Raymond Song in the U12 World Youth
Championship last year (just two points behind the winner), has a FIDE rating of
2235, and has already earned his FM title.

Dariusz has been a busy little boy - In the last lot of fide ratings he played 21 Fide rated games consisting of the European Youth Championships where he scored 4/5 fide rated games of which he was the higher rated of all his opponents. He also played in the world Youth Championships, and played in the Polish Mens Championship (maybe second division?)

Earlier in the year Dariusz played in the 14th international E Lasker memorial "A" tournament scoring 4.5/6 Fide rated games of which only one player had a rating close to his fide rating. He also has played in tournaments in Poland and greece in thi past year.

So My question now is..... What is Dariusz doing in Australia??? Just on Holiday or here for longer??? For such an active young player it would seem a shame to take him away from the abundant availability of FIDE rated tournaments thet could broaden his chess.

Canfells on Board 1, Hu's on board 2?

2007-02-25T01:27:00.000+11:00

The City of Sydney Championships started yesterday (24 February) and continues today and next weekend in it's new weekender format of 2 rounds per day over the first weekend and second saturday and one round on the second Sunday with the City of Sydney Lightning to follow afterwards. The time control is 90 minutes + 30 seconds a move

This years turnout was once again disappointing with approximately 21 players in the open section and 22 in the under 17 section. The Open section is extremely strong with 11 players rated over 2000.

Round 1 almost had a false start when the pairings had to be changed for both the Open and u1700. Play got under way a little bit late. On board one of the Open division Greg Canfell, being top seed, defeated Max illingworth where Max's shattered queenside pawns could not all be defended. Meanwhile on board two, second seed Tomek Rej disposed of The Closet Grandmaster : Amiel Rosario. Upsets of the round were: Dariusz Swiercz (2231) drawing with Hamish Selnes (1770) and Michael Dunn (1878) Defeating Ilia Ilic(2150).

In the Under 1700 division the first round brought about a number of upsets. Phil Willis (1323) defeated Mark Baterowicz (1623), Supergranny Mary Wilkie (1281) defeated Dennis Wan (1525), Horst Bleicher (1489) lost to Kinto Wan (847), Michael Tracey (1486) drew with C Zhang (777).

In round 2 Zirdum could not hold Canfells King from infiltrating the position in a 5 pawns + Bishop each with the bishops being of the same colour. Meanwhile on board two Jason Hu did not get enough compensation, getting only a Rook and Bishop for the loss of his Queen. When asked how he lost it he said: "i just lost it" Did we leave a queen en prise Jason? lol Just kidding mate.Upsets included Hamish selnes draw against Ilia Ilic.
Leaders on 2/2:Canfell, Rej, Bolens Yu.

In the u1700 Division, top seed Herman Rachmadi defeated Terence Wall. On board two Kinto Wan had an upset draw with David Evans and on board three another upset: Parramatta chess club member Thai Pham defeated Norm Greenwood. No other upsets occured except for the possibility that Michael Tracey defeated Mark Baterowicz which that game was the only game going when i left (at that time it was already a marathon....)
Leaders on 2/2: Herman Rachmadi, Trent Parker, Mary Wilkie and Thai Pham.

I'm going to take my camera tomorrow. Expect photos either tomorrow night or Monday.

Broekhuyse, Hu not quite up to speed for the fast Lane version 2

2007-02-19T00:01:00.000+11:00

I woke up at 3.15 on saturday morning to get ready for the journey up North to a tournament that i thoroughly enjoy participating in year after year (although i might have missed one year). The 2001 Newcastle Open was my very first tournament. The people i played in my very first Newcastle Open were: Mal Murrell, Arthur Huynh (1480), Goran stankovic, Bruce Parr (1066), David Behne Smith (789) , Andrew Robinson, Fergus Ly (1093). In that tournament I scored a grand total of 0 points. disappointingly out of these players only one played this year (David Behne Smith) and one (Bruce Parr) assisted with the organisation. [EDIT: David Behne Smith did not particpate this year. His Brother and sisters did however.]

Anyhow back to this year...I left home at 3.45 for the hour walk to Picton station to catch the 4.53 train from Picton to Campbelltown, then had to change at campbelltown for a city service then had to change at Central for a Newcastle train (exquisite views between Cowan and Gosford) to finally arrive at Civic Station at 10.00, the train was a couple of minutes late, but to my surprise (not) when i arrived at Newcastle Panthers the tournament had not started yet, but i dont think anyone really cared much for the lateness..... Its a fairly laid back tournament.

The tournament attracted 37 players from as wide as Melbourne, Canberra, Armidale, Laurieton and of course Sydney. There were 5 players rated over 2000: International Master Gary Lane, Former Newcastle Open winner R0n Scott, Johny Bolens, Jason Hu and Paul Broekhuyse. There was also last years Coal City Open winner James Morris. I was on the top half of the draw! A strange occurance. Even the blind were attraceted to this tournament (visually blind, not drunk!)

Round One saw no upsets according to rating however apparently unrated player Emil Nomat defeated Michael Weltner (1394).
On Board one it was the battle of the Lanes. Laurieton's Endel Lane had the task of playing against Gary Lane (no relation).

Round two saw Richard Eccles (1589) defeat Johny Bolens (2106). I nearly caused an upset against Paul Broekhuyse when my knight sac evenually won me a pawn and my piece back and stopped him from castling. There was one draw for the round; Unfortunately the O'rourkes had to play each other and agreed to a draw. Johnathan Behne Smith (1211) defeated former Newcastle (now Orange?) resident Colin Parsons (1371).

Round 3 saw what could have been an attempt at a swiss gambit by some of the over 2000 rated players when James Morris drew with Ronald Scott, Ben Harris drew with Jason Hu and Paul Broekhuyse drew with Robert Hvistendahl, leaving Gary Lane as the sole leader after 3 rounds.
Upsets for round 3 included Ryan O'Rourke (938) defeating Colin Parsons (1375) and Emil Nomat hammered Me! Mary Wilkie (1281) drew against Ian Dickson (1575).

Round 4 saw Gary Lane and Ron Scott battle it out well into their time allocation for the International master to break through and rack up his 4th win to complete the day. On other top boards: Jason Hu drew with Paul Broekhuyse, and Robert Hvistendahl defeated James Morris after apparently being a piece down. Whilst Ben Harris defeated Alex Mendes Da Costa to join Hvistendahl on equal second. Upsets for round 4 included Ryan O'Rourke (938) defeating Michael Weltner (1394), Ben Ryan (1460) holding Vaness Reid (1629) to a draw and Mary Wilkie (1281) using her granny gambit against Gary Losh (1462).

So at the end of the first days play we have the following leaderboard:
1st Lane 4/4 \
2nd Hvistendahl, Harris 3.5/4
4th Bolens, Hu, Broekhuyse, Guo-Yuthok, Nomat on 3/4

Round 5 saw Hvistendahl lose to Lane, Bolens Lose to Ben Harris
Sherab Guo-Yuthok lose to Jason Hu, Broekhuyse defeat Nomat. The only game that resembles an upset on the lower boards was Michael Weltner drawing with Rebecca Harris.

It was a battle of Master and apprentice on the top board in round 6. Gary Lane defeated his student Ben Harris to clinch the 2006 Newcastle Open outright. Paul Broekhuyse defeated Scott to take equal second with Jason Hu . Broekhuyse and Hu did not have the opportunity to play Lane. Upsets for round 6 include: Weltner defeating losh and Luthien Russell drawing with Ben Ryan.

After a short presentation it was time to head off back to Picton. I look forward to the 2007 Newcastle Open.

Fide Presidential Board Meeting

2007-02-04T13:26:00.000+11:00

On the 29th of January Fide released a press statement outlining what had been discussed over the past three days.

There had been many Items outlined:

1. The goals and tasks of FIDE in the year 2007.
Apart from the change in the management style of FIDE introduced last year in the Elista Board meeting and the fruitful results of which can be already seen, President Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov gave a positive summary of the work of FIDE of the last year. He emphasized that the President and the Board members should be more active in connection with the national federations. Since his re-election, he has visited more than 20 chess events and 12 national federations and in the year of 2007, he will visit and consult around 25 national federations, particularly in Latin America and Africa for exchanging views and collecting suggestions....

Good on him! But what is in it for Australia? Sure he has lots on his plate but..... I would like to see Fide push chess to be recognised as a sport in countries which chess is not currently recognised as such. Below i believe is an excellent step in the right direction.

Among the important practical tasks for FIDE, he mentioned the amendment of the Statutes, the revision of the membership, the increased activity of the work of the Commissions and Committees, more intense consulting with the professional players on playing conditions etc., and a more efficient communication of FIDE toward and with the chess players, international sport organizations, global chess audience and IOC. In the last respect, he emphasized the importance of the forthcoming meeting with Mr. J. Rogge, President of IOC. A special part of his speech was devoted to the most important chess events of the year, the World Chess Championship process, which will culminate in Mexico City in September-October this year.

Will Chess become an olympic sport in the future??? Oviously the possibility would have been talked about with Mr Rogge. It will be interesting whether he believes that chess deserves a place in the Olympic games or not. I would like to see chess recognised as a sport in this country; Getting chess in the olympic games would really help this.

2. World Championship Match proposal (separate announcement)

I believe this is the proposal that Topalov and Danilov suggested which was rejected by FIDE

3. World Chess Championship Tournament in Mexico City
The Presidential Board listened to and approved the report of the Organizer regarding the preparation for the World Chess Championship tournament to be held on September 11 – October 1st, 2007 in Mexico City. All the key conditions in the contract have been fulfilled, the website of the event is: http://www.chessmexico.com/.The Presidential Board gladly took note of the announcement that current World Chess Champion, Mr. Vladimir Kramnik will play in the Mexico City tournament. A special committee has been established for reviewing the processes of the world chess championship system. The committee will forward its report on the options of improving and stabilizing the system as well as its recommendation to the President for decision after gaining the views of about 160 top chess players and the national federations. The decision will come in due course that all the players be prepared for the next WCCh cycle.

Chess Championships in Mexico City. Good.. A change of scenery (although Argentina did hold them not long ago....). It would be nice to see this event somewhere in Asia.... just to spread it around...... (and have similar time frames to watch the games....)

4. World Cup 2007

The final contract between FIDE and the Organizer of the World Cup 2007 to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk region has been signed. The preparation for the 2007 event has been made in the proper manner and the Cup will take place at November 23-December 14th, 2007 in Ugra, Siberia, Russia. The website of the 2007 World Cup is: www.ugra-chess.ru

Ha!! well i hope the participants have fun in this cold region.... lol

5. Candidate Matches
The Candidate Matches will be held on May 26-June 14th, 2007 in Elista and sponsored jointly by the President and FIDE. The Presidential Board reviewed the Rules and Regulations of the Matches, the process of the preparation and the media plan for the event. The Internet communication channel can be found on the FIDE official website: www.fide.com

Elista, Elista FiretrUCKing Elista. Why Elista??? What a stingy place to play the candidates. doesnt Elista get enoughtournaments as it is? How about sharing the tournaments around.... give Asia or Africa the Candidates matches...

6. Other tournaments and bids for tournaments
The Presidential Board reviewed preparations and decided on bids regarding the following chess tournaments: - Women`s World Team Chess Championship 2007 will be held on May 19-30th, 2007 in Yekaterinburg, Russia- Women`s World Chess Championship 2008 will be held on March 8-25th, 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic- World Junior Chess Championship 2008 will be held on August 2-16th, 2008 in Ankara, Turkey- World Youth U-16 Chess Championship 2008 will be held on August 15-24th, 2008 in Ankara, Turkey- World Amateur Chess Championship 2007 will be held on August 10-19th, 2007 in Predeal, Romania- the Presidential Board set-up a committee to conduct on-site inspection regarding the offers of the 8 bidders for the World Youth Chess Championship 2009 and will present its recommendation to the next Executive Board/General Assembly meeting for final decision- established a June 30th, 2007 deadline for submitting bids for the World Amateur Chess Championship 2008,- established a December 31st, 2007 deadline for submitting bids for the World Junior Chess Championship 2009

ZZZZZ

Yekaterinberg, Russia

Prague, Czech Rep

Ankara, Turkey

Predeal, Romania

Why are all these tournaments in basically the same area of the world. Fide needs practice to branch out a bit. If Chess wants to Be a popular sport it needs to be played in popular destinations. IMHO

7. Review of the 2006 Turin Chess Olympiad and the preparations for the 2010 Chess Olympiad
The Presidential Board reviewed the Turin 2006 Olympiad and drew conclusions regarding the quality of the organization, accommodation, the participation level, etc. The Board took note of the report that the preparations for the 2010 Chess Olympiad are in line with the time schedule and the contract was signed between FIDE and the organizer.

8. Development of FIDE Chess Academy
The Presidential Board reviewed the development of the Chess Academy and found it satisfactory, emphasizing the excellent work done in Singapore and further encouraged the people involved to extend the activities of the Chess Academy.

It will be Interesting to see how far this chess academy will go.

9. Title Applications
The approved title applications can be seen of the official website: www.fide.com

Wont be long until George Xie is on that list :D

10. Procedure for the Ethics Commission
In order to make the work of the Commission more effective, its chairman Mr. Rivello presented several modifications in the working procedure of the Commission. The Board decided for additional consultations before the changes can be introduced.

11. FIDE 2007 budget and administrative issues
The Board approved the budget for the year 2007 with the request to some Commissions and the PR and Marketing Directorate to modify their needs within the accepted limit.The Presidential Board decided to open a branch FIDE office under the guidance of the General Secretary in Singapore.

So the ACF won't have to go through Elista I presume. A step in the right direction!

12. Tournament regulations
The Presidential Board finalized the changes of the Tournament Regulations and Rules initiated at the Turin General Assembly meeting. The Rules will be in effect after July 1st, 2007 and can be soon downloaded from the FIDE website.

13. Global Chess company
The Presidential Board expressed its satisfaction that the initial meeting and discussion between FIDE and Global Chess company about the marketing and organization of world chess events were successful and that the company has been registered and the share-capital paid. The negotiations will continue between the representatives of FIDE and the company.

14. Greeting Honorary President Florencio Campomanes on his 80th birthday
The Presidential Board warmly greeted Mr. Florencio Campomanes, Honorary President on the occasion of his forthcoming 80th birthday and wished him good health, energy to be able to work for the interest of chess for a long time. A blitz tournament among the Board members has been organized to honor Mr. Campomanes.

As readers of the Closet Grandmaster will know, Florencio Campomanes was involved in a car accident not long after the Presidential board meeting. Recently chessbase.com showed a photo of Campomanes in traction with a head, neck and back brace. We all wish you well Florencio!

Newcastle Open - 17th-18th February.

2007-02-03T15:25:00.000+11:00

The next tournament in New South Wales will be the Newcastle Open which will be held at the Newcastle Workers club. This generally is an excellent tournament run by the locals. Director of Play for this tournament will be local George Lithgow.

It is a little bit disappointing though that the Newcastle open will be a six round tournament when it has traditionally been a 7 round tournament. This is due to the room not being available for the sunday afternoon. The format will be 4 games on the sunday and 2 games on the sunday. Oh well looks like i'll get home earlier than usual!

I expect an excellent roll up for this event. I urge all sydney chess players to go!

Details of this tournament can be found here