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)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Rogers to give simul and Blindfold simul
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.....
I'm going to try to get down there on the friday assuming i'm not working on the friday.....
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Rogers Retired, Or is he?
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.
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.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Time to Mince and grind
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.....
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
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
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
Thursday, July 12, 2007
A Few Tournaments Coming Up
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
GM ROGERS PULLS UP THE STUMPS ON AN OUTSTANDING INNINGS
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).
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.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Diamonds are a chessplayers best friend
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
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
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
"Squeeze his Balls! But Just Squeeze One, Not Both!
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.
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.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Hu Drew with two GMs? Antic Wins NSW OPEN
"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.
"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.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Vishy Anand on the Particitpation of chess in the Olympic Games
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 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.
"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
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.
He also had other Motifs for going into Politics:
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!
"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
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
An interesting read: http://blog.magnuschess.com
Saturday, June 02, 2007
The Closet Grandmaster: I'm thinking maybe it's time to close down TCG!
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Mate in Mingara
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
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
Monday, May 21, 2007
Antic Wins the John Kellner Memorial Tournament
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).
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).
Sunday, May 20, 2007
John Kellner Memorial Weekender Day One
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!
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!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
John Kellner Memorial On today
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!
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!
Friday, May 18, 2007
Blitz Ruling: Mate with K+N
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......
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
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.
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.
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