Upping the Anti(c)

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

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

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

Something amazing happened in round 3.

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

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

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









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

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



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



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

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

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



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



Other photos I took at the Australia Day Weekender:

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

Below: Robin May L and Lance Chiddy R

Wei, Lin Ahead

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

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

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

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

Time management

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

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

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

Catching up

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

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

In the Supporting events:

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

AND NOW

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

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

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

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

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

Ok thats it! Now i'll post regularly!

Back On Solid Ground

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

Here is a couple of photos:

Perfect Port Vila? Pissing down Port Vila

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

Stuff this computer keysdon work properly.

wonderful Wala to Perfect Port Vila

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

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

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

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

Happy New year!!!

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

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

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

Bye Peoples!

Chess Cruising

Hello peoples

I am writing this entry from the Pacific sun internet cafe. I wont be blogging often as the internet charges is 50cents per minute. although that is cheaper than at one backpackers i stayed at in Canberra!!!

On board the Pacific Sun there seems to be some chess players. And facilities to play chess. There is a large outdoor chess board alongside one of the pools and also provisions to play chess at the library although the pieces seem too small for my liking. Lucky i thought to take my own chess set on the cruise!

I will provide some photos when i get back from the cruise!!

Tomorrow we stop at Poum/ Emerald bay. The weather is currently beautiful with a thin layer of sun just blocking out the glaring light of the sun.

Cheers all. I'm off to have another cocktail

OMG I forgot to write a Merry Xmas peice

Hey Peoples I'll Say a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy new year to all.

Tomorrow My family and I set off on the Pacific sun on a 12 night holiday visiting 6 Ports: Poum in New Caledonia, Champagne Bay in Vanuatu, Wala in Vanuatu, Port Vila, Vanuatu's Capital, Mystery Island in Vanuatu and Isle of Pines in New Caledonia arriving back in Sydney on the 8th of January!

Although I'm not going to be around for the Australian Champs I will try to come up with a few blog entries assuming the internet on the ship is not too expensive.

Also Good luck to anyone who might be playing in the Aussie Millions Poker tournament starting in Melbourne on the 6th of January!

Now i'll leave with my favorite christmassy chessy webpages - namely those of David Evans at the Rooty Hill Chess Club.

06 Christmas story
05 Christmas story
o4 Christmas story

The Battle Continues: Matt Sweeney v NSWCA/ Bill Gletsos

This soap story contined recently when the NSWCA sent Matthew Sweeney a letter stating that if, at the end of his 17 month suspension (which is due to end 31 December 06) then "an apology for your crude, foul and vulgar language and an assurance that there will be a cessation of such language in the future" should be received with the membership form. The "foul and vulgar language" refers to the now defunct Uber Chess Jihad forum that This Uber chess Jihad is now not much other than a shell of a forum with all the incriminating items deleted a long time ago.

Now, apparently the letter states that the "foul and vulgar language" is still evident on chess related websites. AFAIK the only website that Matt Sweeney now posts on is his Australian Chess Club Forum which is very civil and does not have foul or vulgar or crude language. I would like to know what "foul and Vulgar language" the NSWCA is Referring to.

This movement has Bill Gletsos written all over it. I do not believe that there had been a vote on this and if there was I would like to know what the result was. The councils last meeting was after the NSWCA AGM as it always is. If no reply is recieved i will be requesting to see the minutes for that meeting. Further evidence; When I was on council, Bill was suggesting to the Council that Matt's membership does not have to be accepted on many occasions. I just thought that Bill was having a bit of a joke. I did not think that Bill or the NSWCA would fall that low.

In my oppinion Matt done the supposed crime, he did the time.
When a prisoner comes out of doing his full term he is then does not have to serve another sentence.

NSW Championship idea

I have had an idea for a little while for a better NSW Champs. This idea would need to have some sponsorship.

My idea came about when i was thinking about the schedule for 2007 for my home club, Campbelltown, I was thinking whether a South Western Sydney League would be worth investigating. I was thinking about inviting Liverpool chess club, and perhaps Mounties chess club. The format would be, say, 10 player round robins with participants split into divisions according to rating. As this thought was later in the year i decided to abandon this idea.

When thinking of the low turn out at the NSW State Champs I thought that the league system might work for a state champs.

Say the state is broken up into regions:
South West Sydney Region: Campbelltown, Liverpool, Mounties
Western Sydney Region: Rooty Hill, Parramatta.
Eastern Sydney Region: Manly, Nth Sydney and Hakoah
Southern Sydney Region: St George, Canterbury, Wollongong.
Central Sydney Region: Wests, Ryde Eastwood, Asquith.
Central Coast reigion: Gosford, Mingara, Toukley, Ettalong.
Newcastle Region: Newcastle, Cardiff, Maitland.
NSW Country region: all other chess clubs in country NSW.

Each region runs their own league except for the NSW Country Region. The top division of each region is the qualifying division for the state championship finals. The number of entries into the state championships depend on the percentage of players accross all the divisions in that league compared to that of other leagues.
Games are played on their club night.

The NSW Country Region representative(s) will be selected by a GP of Country weekenders comprising of Dubbo, Coffs Harbour, Laurieton and any other NSW Country region tournament that pops up.

Now there is the problem of when to play these Leagues. In sydney there is always some club based competition going on whether it be the Grade Matches or the Western Sydney Chess Premiership or Club champs etc etc. So in my opinion it would happen over an 18 week period starting in February thus allowing two weeks per league game. This would hopefully gel with the players playing in the WSCP and Grade matches. Now dont get me wrong, I support the WSCP but if it was not possible to play the games over the 18 weeks then perhaps Sydney could convert to only having one teams event in the Grade Matches and forgoing the WSCP to have some variety in the sydney chess scene!?

The State Champs Final
The state champs final will have at least 16 competitors, 9 round Swiss over 5 days. GM's, IM's, WGM's, WIM's recieve entry without having to qualify in the Regional leagues. If more than 8 positions are taken up by the titled players then every division will get one position in the State Champs final (thus potentially increasing the field). A couple of oversease IM's / GM's may be invited to play to make the event a possible norm producing tournament. These players would not be elligible for the title of State Champ.

Here is where the sponsorship needs to come in. I think for making it this far all divisional players must be rewarded with a cash prize. But with titled players now in the mix there is the chance that the qualifiers would miss out. So a cash prize for everyone in the Finals would be Ideal. Perhaps someone like Star City could be approached to hold the premium tournament there with some sponsorship and possibly some TV coverage. Maybe a weekly show covering the game of the round or something like that.

I'd like to know what others think of my Idea. Its a pipe dream, i know, but it is an idea!

Chess Nuts Unite.....or should that be untie?

I came accross this site couple of weeks ago. Seems to be a pretty good site. Pity it appears to be not updated for a while. The Email address I used to send them an email bounced. Apparently one of the sites organisers plays on FICS. Maybe i might be able to speak to them on that medium......

Anyhow this site has different types of articles on chess. Also a database of the editors games (and others) as well as a database of openings and games of that opening.

Ever heard of the Chameleon Variation in the Sicilian?

New Beginnings

I've had some waning interst in chess of late and an increased interest in Poker. However i find that i spend more money at poker overall consiering i go to poker tournaments more than one or two times a week. I wan to cut back on my poker playing and increase my chess strength. So next year i think i'll only play poker once a week and study chess the other nights a week. Hey perhaps i'll go over the 1600 mark next year........??

I also want to blog often. More often than the inconsistent blog that i have at the moment.

2006 was a bit of a tragic year for me. With the death of my brother in april. I've had massive downs and little highs. On the 27th of December my extended family and I will be cruising to New Caledonia and Vanuatu for 13 nights. Leaving 2006 on a high note and keeping spirits high into what will be a happy 2007 a new year...... a new beginning.

One major issue with me is that i dont time manage very well. I am all over the place and i cannot seem to find a routine. My new years resolution is to manage my time more effectively. I think this will help me in many facets of life: finding work, improving my chess, losing weight, consistent blogging etc etc.........

Lets see if it works this time. C y'all soon!

How to lose a winning game

Fair bloody dinkum.

I should write a book on how to lose a winning game. In my first game i was winning..... whould have won a piece..... instead i went the wrong way.... walked right into a clearly seeable tactic that lost me the exchange. Thats ok, i have N+4 pawns v R and 2 pawns..... I had an opportunity to draw but i thought i could get my pawns through. Nope i lost the knight. So I lost a game that i should have won, the game went for ages so i had about half an hour t'il the next game. I was stuffed already. Perhaps i should listen to my mother and go to bed a little bit earlier on tournament nights. In my second game i come up against someone again rated lower than me and again i stuffed up. I missed how she could win an exchange by threatening the knight and queen smother mate combination. Bugger me. What the hell is wrong with me?

I lose my first game and i feel quite down in the dumps. I lose my second game and i feel even more depressed. I've been feeling a bit more depressed lately since my brother died...... maybe i should see a counsellor or something. Anyhow thats not what we're here to talk about.

I do not know who is leading the tournaments because i was pissed off with my self and left the building. I will give everyone an update tomorrow morning before the round starts....

Grade Matches

While i'm here i'll dicuss the Grade matches.

Under 1600
In round two the North sydney Grizzly Bears had to travel the long journey to Campbelltown.... And it must have had an effect on them. Campbelltown won 4-0. Our board one had a forfeit as the North Sydney board one thought that they had to play on the Tuesday instead of the monday. 1-0 to campbelltown.

Secondly Mick Rogosic won in his usual fianchettoing, axe wielding way. 2-0.

Then a while passed until i defeated Norm Greenwood in an interesting KR+7pawns v KR+7pawns endgame. My rook had the more dominant position which enabled my king to infiltrate norms position. My pawns were also more advanced than his. I picked off a pawn, then gave up two to clear a path for promotion. 3-0

Finally Peter Brennan had an interesting engame and was eventually able to block out the black king in order to promote his rooks pawn - the only other piece on the board other than the two kings. 4-0 Campbelltown

However, where the Grizzlies failed, the Brown bears took revenge. We lost on boards 1,2 and 4, and Peter Brennan was lucky to win on board 3.

This week coming we travel to St George to play Wollongong.

The Under 2000 team are doing reasonably well. They are currently coming 2nd behind St. george but only half a point in front of Parramatta and Manly.

NSW OPEN! RU READY?

Hello all!

Sorry i haven't blogged for almost a month.

Today the NSW Open starts. I am here early so i thought i would cover the NSW in depth, round by round. There is a chess cafe right next to the venue that is slightly on the expensive side but not as expensive as the internet cafe at Victor Lodge at Canberra.

Well, IMHO it has been a pretty disappointing early entry list. I would have expected much more to enter. Perhaps it has something to do with the location. The NSW Open is being held at the Hakoah club in Bondi Beach. The rounds will finish so late that i have decided to get accomodation for a tournament in sydney. i would not be able to get home to have an adequate amount of sleep. I think this venue would be a turn off for a number of players from the west. I wonder how many rooty hill members will be playing in this tournament (Other than maybe Shane Burgess... who is really from Parramatta). I hope there is at least two. There will be at least two from Campbelltown, Myself and Jamie Boyce, who is a promising junior and generally plays above his rating. He came equal second with Johny Bolens in the 2005 Fischers Ghost tournament.

Anyhow i'm excited to be playing in this event.

Speak to y'all later.

St Lance of Tahmoor

Been such a long time since i have blogged :(

Anyhow the grade Matches started last night and Campbelltown under 1600 team had to travel to Manly for their first round encounter.

Now Let me set the situation up. The Previous Monday the campbelltown under 1600 team had arranged to get a lift with one of their original players. He had to withdraw from the team on the thursday and all of a sudden we had a problem. We were down a player and without a lift to manly. I do not drive, nor does one of the other players and another did not want to drive over to Manly. So..... we had to find a lift as well as another player. I emailed around to try to see if i could swap the round one and two draws to enable the U1600 team to travel to Manly with the U2000 team. After a day of begging and pleading Saint Lance of Tahmoor came to the rescue! He would drive and fill in Board 4. He was not really expected to win with his 1013 rating. It would have to be the other 3 boards that would have to perform.

The plan was to pick one guy up from near his home at minto at about 5.30.... the second guy near Brooks road onramp to the M5 motorway. Picked up the first player just a little earlier than schedule. Then we got to Brooks Road and..... no one was there.......

We then get a phone call.....
"where are ya"
"at Brooks Road, where you told me you were meeting us"
"s**t! i'm at Minto McDonalds" (we had originally planned on meeting there before hand but we decided to leave at about 5.30pm instead of 6.00pm, thus the first player's lift couldn't take him to the McDonalds so we picked him up from near his place.)
"ok we'll come and pick you up"
"ok i'll be near the roundabout."

We get to McDonalds..... nope he wasn't there..... Do a lap of the block...... no sight of him......
"Where are you?"
"i'm near minto station."
"Bugger, McDonalds side or other side"

"ok be there soon."

Get to Minto station....... no where to be seen!
"Where are you?"
"Just walked over the pedestrian bridge"
"well you can walk back over it! we are on the other side"

several minutes later we are all in the car heading towards Brookvale..... our half an hour earlier leaving time has now evaporated and were about ten minutes late.

As it turned out we ended up getting there about ten minutes early.

My game was an interesting Kings indian Defence which i think i might have misplayed. But was able to salvage a draw. Next thing i know our board one comes in and tells me that both our boards one and two have lost. "Damn we're looking at a 3.5-0.5 slaughter here.......and Lance is down on time. At this point i decided to go for a non alcoholic beverage. When i came back Lance was up on time! And Attacking! And the time control of 30 moves had just been played in the 75 minutes so they had 30 min each to finish the game. Lance won his opponents queen for a rook in a combination involving a pin, bishop on king. Lance had defeated his higher rated opponent!

Yes, our last minute ring in saved the day for us. We still lost 2.5-1.5 but it was now a respectable loss.... not a huge loss.

Former NSW Chess Tournament site goes up in flames

Yesterday 150 year old St Barnabas Church was destroyed by a fire. The fire also effected the church's community hall which at one point before my time held chess tournaments.

So much Chess coming up! Olympiad / Mtel

Well where do i start. The first of the Australian Olympiad team fly off today. Gary Lane is visiting the UK before going on to the Torino Olympiad. Accourding to the Torino website there is 9 days 9.5 hours until the olympiad starts.

Good luck to the Australian Team!

The Turino 2006 website looks excellent. I just hope that they will be putting all the games live over the internet so that we Aussies can follow the progress of our team. If so I'll be watching :)

On the right hand side i noticed that there are odds for the Mtel masters that start today. Topalov leads the betting, paying $2.36, closely followed by Anand, $2.5, Svidler $13, Bacrot $30, Ponomariov good value at $13, and Kamsky $50. (I think all prices are in US Dollars)