THE 2002 BALLARAT SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP

 SWISS FORMAT, 6 ROUNDS/WEEKS

FROM OCTOBER 24TH (RND 1)-NOVEMBER  28TH 2002

Cross Table

Results from round 1 (October 24th 2002).

An encouraging number (16) of club members have entered this years Summer Championship with a few players expected due back from holidays to join next week. Our 'regular' guest from faraway Barkers Creek/Castlemaine again is prepared to travel several hours, each Thursday night, to participate in this event..

After a few hours of play it looked like it was going to be a good night for the white players and it was looking ominous for the seeded players still struggling to complete their games. Kevin Perrin was one of these, being a piece down against Clint Stewart, who had played very well until then. However, Clint lost the plot when Kevin complicated matters too much..

By then, the surprise of round 1 had already occurred with the loss of 3rd seed John Lavery against 11 year  young Jing Jia, after committing a blunder in an unclear position. Jing is only 11 year old and has joined the club recently. He has already established a reputation of great skills, and his much older opponents will have to tread carefully when they are facing him.

Judd Madden resisted for a long time via a solid game against Scott Stewart, but at the end had to surrender.

Detailed results with ratings and numbers of seeding::

9.Darren Young (918)-1Bas van Riel (1820)           0-1

2.Patrick Cook (1708)-9.Michael Schreenan (822) 1-0

10.Jing Jia (Unr)-3.John Lavery (1706)                   1-0

4.Charlie Andrews (1650)-11.Patrick Lenne (Unr)  1-0

13.Judd Madden (Unr)-5.Scott Stewart (1640)       0-1

6.Geoff Davis (1547)-14.Owen Sargisson (Unr)      1-0

15.Clint Stewart (Unr)- 7.Kevin Perrin (1521)         0-1

8.Tim Commons (1267)-16.John Abson (Unr)        1-0

 Results from round 2 (October 31st 2002).

On the top boards Tim Commons blundered a piece against Charlie very early in the game. Patrick Cook had more trouble disposing of Kevin Perrin. And just when it became interesting with advantage, Kevin embarked on a wrong plan which surprisingly quickly decided  the game in Patrick's favour in no time.

Geoff Davis had defended heroically for about 40 moves, when both players believed that they were playing for a sudden death finish. With each player having 1-2 minutres left on their clocks, they banged another 20 or so moves when the arbiter informed them that the timecontrol  was at move 40. Total confusion, as by then move 60 or so was reached, with total lost position for Geoff. It was decided to go back to the last recorded move (ie 45). However, after all the discussion, excitement and the reconstruction of the positions, Geoff had a long think and.... blundered a piece.

Jing tried hard to win against Scott Stewart in the endgame from a slightly better position, but couldn't convert the full point.

Bas van Riel (1)- Geoff Davis (1)              1-0              

Kevin Perrin (1)-Patrick Cook (1)             0-1

Tim Commons (1)-Charlie Andrews (1)     0-1

Scott Stewart (1)-Jing Tia (1)                    0.5-0.5

John Lavery (0)-Judd Madden (0)             1-0

John Abson (0)-David Young (0)               0-1

Michael Schreenan (0)-Clint Stewart (0)    0-1

Owen Sargisson (0)-Darren Young (0)      1-0

Patrick Lenne (0)-John Frangakis (0)         0.5-0.5

Standing after 2 rounds: 1-3 B.van Riel, P.Cook, C.Andrews 2 pnts; 4-5 S.Stewart, J.Tia 1.5 pnts; 6-12  J.Lavery, G.Davis, K.Perrin, T.Commons, O.Sargisson, C.Stewart, Dav.Young 1 pnt; 13-14 J.Frangakis, P.Lenne 0.5 pnt; 15-18 J.Madden, Dar.Young, M.Schreenan, J.Abson 0 pnt.

 Results from round 3 (November 7th 2002).

Remarkably, all the (6) black players won their games.

A crucial game was played between the numbers 1 and 2 seeds: the current Ballarat champion (PC) and the highest rated Ballarat player (BvR). In fact, comparable to the Kasparov versus Kramnik situation. Comparable??? Indeed, meeting each other already very early in the tournament. Patrick was in the defensive from the opening. Missing chances for counterplay twice, he overlooked a little combination which gave Bas a devastating and decisive attack.

Charlie Andrews against Scott Stewart treated the c3 variation of the Sicilian a bit too optimistically by sacrificing a piece in exchange for pawns and attack. He may have missed an opportunity somewhere in a complex position, but Scott converted his material advantage to a win without many problems.

Geoff Davis spoiled a good game and a promising position by taking a poisoned pawn, costing him a full piece and the game. This result brings the unrated Jing amongst the three leaders.

Kevin Perrin had to fight hard in a rook endgame to score his point against the strongly playing Owen Sargisson. 

    P.Cook (to move after 1...d4!)

            B.van Riel

2.exd4, e3; 3.Qxe3 (3.Nxe3, gxh3+ and Bxh4 is nearly as bad for white).,...gxh3; 4. R1d2, Bxg2; 4.Kh2, Bxh4; 5. Rxg2, Rxg2; 6.Rxg2, hxg2+;7. Kxg2, Qg4; 8.Kh2, Rxf4 and white resigned 1-0.

Patrick Cook(2)-Bas van Riel (2)            0-1

Charlie Andrews (2)-Scott Stewart (1.5) 0-1

Geoff Davis (1)- Jing Lia (1.5)                 0-1

Owen Sargisson (1)- Kevin Perrin (1)      0-1

John Frangakis (0.5)-John Lavery (1)       0-1

John Abson (0)- Patrick Lenne (0.5)        0-1

Darren Young (0) bye

Standing after 3 rounds: 1. B.van Riel 3pnts; 2-3.S.Stewart, J.Tia 2.5pnts; 4-7.P.Cook, J.Lavery, C.Andrews K.Perrin 2pnts;  8.P.Lenne 1.5pnts; 9-14.G.Davis, T.Commons, O.Sargisson, C.Stewart, Dav.Young, Darr Young 1pnt; 15-16. J.Frangakis, J.Madden,  0.5 pnt; 17-18. M.Schreenan, J.Abson 0pnt.

Results from round 4 (November 14th 2002).

Its is getting serious just past the halfway mark, reflecting in quite a number of draws in this round. Bas van Riel improved his position at the top of the leaderboard as most of his challengers drew against each other. Kevin Perrin took advantage and moved up to joint second spot.

John Lavery and Charlie Andrews played a very lively game, after it looked for a long time that John had an advantage, but at the post-mortem this could not be clearly substantiated. So, a draw probably was the correct result.

However, the most interesting and complicated game of this round and most likely of the tournament went between Scott Stewart and Patrick Cook Patrick sacrificed a piece for ultimately 3 (passed) pawns in a very unbalanced position.Both opponents looked like winning at various moments. I have reproduced the whole game (for posterity). In particular the concluding stage where Scott managed to drag a draw out of the fire, is most instructive, albeit that Fritz showed that Patrick was winning when he accepted the draw...

It should be noted that snippets of Patrick Cook's games have featured for the third consecutive time in this page. One starts wondering whether this is coincidental, or due to his recently "re-invigorated" style. Knowing how much he likes to read about himself (who is not?) and knowing that he is one of the regular readers of this page, is another good reason to include this exciting game, well played by both sides. .

Jing Lia (2.5)- Bas van Riel (3)                      0-1

Scott Stewart (2.5)-Patrick Cook(2)           0.5-0.5

John Lavery (2) -Charlie Andrews (2)         0.5-0.5

Kevin Perrin (2) -Patrick Lenne (1.5)             1-0

Darren Young (1) -Geoff Davis (1)               0.5-0.5

Clint Stewart (1)-John Frangakis (0.5)            1-0

Judd Madden (0.5)-Michael Schreenan (0.5)  0-1

Owen Sargissan (1)-John Abson (0)              0.5-0.5

Scott Stewart - Patrick Cook [C11]
Ballarat Summer Championship Round 4.

14.11.2002

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Qb6 8.Na4 Qa5+ 9.c3 c4 10.b4 Nxb4 (?! opinions are strongly divided about the correctness of this sacrifice. But white is to be complimented for his bravery..) 11.cxb4 Bxb4+ 12.Kf2 b5 13.Nc5 (13.a3 would have been a strong alternative) Nxc5 14.dxc5 Qa3 15.Nd4 Bxc5 16.Qc1 Qxc1 17.Rxc1 a6 18.Nc2 Bxe3+ (?, better would have been to preserve the bishop pair by retreating to e7 instead)19.Kxe3 Bd7 20.Be2 Ke7 21.g4 (? A mistake: white underestimates the power of black's passed pawns. However, later on black returns the favour allowing some kind of justification of g4 after all. 21.Rb1 and Kd2 or Rhc1 was needed to stop black's following pawn push effectively) a5 22.a3 Rhb8 ( See diagram) 23.Rb1 b4 (! strong move) 24.axb4 Ba4 25.Nd4 axb4 26.f5 Bd7 (!) 27.Ra1 Rxa1 28.Rxa1 b3 (? this seems to spoil a slightly better position for black) 29.Kd2 (stops the pawn march for the time being. White is slightly better now) Rb6 30.Kc3 exf5 (? this should have been a decisive mistake, but white does not take his chances..) 31.gxf5 Rh6 32.Rh1 (? here we go. The hard-to-find 32. Bf3! would have slowly destroyed black's pawn chain at the end) Rh3+ 33.Bf3 Kd8 34.Kb2 ( Rf1! could have preserved white's advantage) Bxf5 (Rh4 is given by Fritz as the preferred move) 35.Bxd5 Rd3 36.Nc6+ (! a nice manoeuvre found in time trouble) Kc7 37.Nb4 Re3 38.Bxf7 (? 38.Bxc4, and capture of the b3-pawn would have almost certainly be 'curtains' for black. Now white will be fighting for survival) Re2+ 39.Kc3 (? even more so now in sever time trouble. 39.Ka3, b2;40.Nd5 and Nc3 would have restricted white's damage).b2 40.Bxc4 Rxh2 (! of course and it is hard to see how white can escape) 41.Nd5+ Kd8 42.e6 Bxe6 (?? overlooked the win after 42...Rxh1 and wrongly believing that 43. e7; 44.Ke8, Bb5 would be checkmate, but not realising that the simple 44...Bd7 would have solved everything for black) 43.Rb1 ½-½ Oeff, what a tension in a rollercoaster game!

Patrick Cook (after move 22...Rhb8)

Scott Stewart (to move)

Standing after 4 rounds:

1. B.van Riel 4pnt; 2-3.S.Stewart, K.Perrin 3pnt; 4-7.P.Cook, J.Lavery, C.Andrews, J.Tia 2.5pnt; 8. C.Stewart 2pnt; 9-12.G.Davis, O.Sargissan, P.Lenne, Darr Young, 13.M.Schreenan 1 pnt; 14-16.J.Frangakis, J.Madden, J.Abson 0.5 pnt; (Dav.Young & T.Commons have withdrawn).

Results from round 5 (November 21st 2002).

This, penultimate, round was to be a "round of truth". Was Scott Stewart, the steadily improving young player, and still without a loss in the tournament finally going to stop Bas in his picket fence score?

And was Kevin Perrin, who had suddenly appeared near the top of the leaderboard going to consolidate his position against Charlie Andrews? The answers in both cases was no, as both these 'guns' lost their games, but not without good fights.

This result leaves Bas' the winner still with one round to go.

Another important game went between Patrick Cook and John Lavery. John lost after he missed a chance in a favourable position. However, Patrick managed to swap all the pieces into a winning pawn-ending.

Jing Jia continued his good form after deposing of the other youngster, Darren Young. He is in equal second spot.

Bas van Riel (4)- Scott Stewart (3)             1-0

Charlie Andrews (2.5)-Kevin Perrin (3)      1-0

Patrick Cook (2.5)- John Lavery (2.5)       1-0

Jing Jia (2.5)- Darren Young (1.5)              1-0

Geoff Davis (1.5)-Michael Schreenan (1.5) 0-1 (F)

Patrick Lenne (1.5)-Judd Madden (0.5)     1-0

John Frangakis (0.5-John Abson (0.5)        1-0

Bas van Riel (1820) - Scott Stewart (1640) [B78]
B'rat Summer Swiss, 22.11.2002

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.f3 Bg7 7.Be3 0-0 8.Bc4 Nc6 9.Qd2 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Or immediately 10.h4! 10...Ne5 11.Bb3 Qa5 It seems book, but the queen doesn't fit in with the following sequence. It merely serves to allow the f-rook to move to c8, in my view. 12.Bh6 Bxh6? This draws the white queen away, but on the other hand it prevents black to counteract with h5 after white's h4 in the near future 13.Qxh6 Rfc8 14.Nde2 A very useful move, as it prevent the well-known exchange sacrifice on c3 as well as opening up the d-file for white. 14...b5 15.Kb1 A waiting move. Not clear if it was useful, though. 15.h4 would probably be more efficient and to the point. 15...Nc4 16.Nd5 A tricky move and hard to assess the consequences. 16...Nxd5;17. Rxd5, Bc6? 18.Bxc4 would be bad for black
16...Nxd5 17.Rxd5 Be6 18.Rd3 After a long thought. Suddenly, black is in some trouble: his bishop at e6 is awkwardly placed and white's rook is centrally positioned 18...Qb6 19.Nf4 a5 Also a hard decision to make, but black does not have much of a choice. 20.h4! Finally, the thematic attack is coming after all black's defenders are distracted. White's attack, in fact, is unstoppable now. 20...a4 21.h5! (see diagram) axb3 21...g5 would have held longer, at least holding off white's attack along the h-file 22.hxg6 bxc2+ 23.Kc1 Of course! 23...fxg6 24.Qxh7+ Kf8 black resigned in view of Nxg6 and Qe7 checkmate. 1-0

Scott Stewart

Bas van Riel after 21.h5!....

Standing after 5 rounds:

1.B.van Riel 5pnt; 2-4.P.Cook, C.Andrews, J.Tia 3.5pnt; 5-6.S.Stewart, K.Perrin 3pnt; 7-8.J.Lavery, P.Lenne 2.5pnt; 9-10.C.Stewart, M.Schreenan 2pnt; 11-14.G.Davis, J.Frangakis, O.Sargissan, D. Young, 1.5 pnt; 15. J.Abson 0.5; 16. J.Madden 0 pnt;

Results from (last) round 6 (November 28st 2002).

Quite a few surprises in the last round with 11-year old Jing Jia beating Patrick Cook (the current club champion) in 20 moves. A good result was John Abson's win over Clint Stewart.and Patrick Lenne's (albeit somewhat lucky) win over Scott Stewart. Bas van Riel consolidated his final position with a regular victory against Charlie Andrews, scoring a picket fence in the process.

In the final wash-up, the young guard of Jing Jia seond) and Patrick Lenne (equal third) seem to have upstaged the 'older' generation of Patrick Cook, Charlie Andrews, Kevin Perrin and John Lavery.

Bas van Riel (5)- Charlie Andrews (3.5)         1-0

Patrick Cook (3.5)-Jing Jia (3.5)                     0-1

John Lavery (2.5)- Kevin Perrin (3)               0.5-0.5

Scott Stewart (3)- Patrick Lenne (2.5)            0-1

Darren Young (1.5)- Michael Schreenan (2.5) 1-0

John Frangakis (1.5)-Geoff Davis (1.5)          0.5-0.5

John Abson (0.5)-Clint Stewart (2)                  1-0

Final standing after 6 rounds:

1.B.van Riel 6pnt; 2.J.Tia 4.5 pnt; 3-6.C.Andrews, P.Cook, P.Lenne, K.Perrin 3.5 pnt; 7-8. J.Lavery, S.Stewart 3 pnt; 9. D. Young 2.5 pnt; 10-13. G.Davis, J.Frangakis, C.Stewart, M.Schreenan 2 pnt; 14-15.O.Sargissan, J.Abson 1.5 pnt; 16.J.Madden 0 pnt;

Club Lightning Tournament on December 12th 2002

The last activity of the year was a well and enthusiastically attended lightning tournament with 20 players. Everyone was loosing points in the process except Charlie Andrews, who finished with a perfect score of 6/6. Jing Tia tried hard in the last round but also lost to Charlie. Bas van Riel finishd second on 4.5/6 followed by Jing, Peter Lumsdon and Scott Stewart on 4 points.