"My Doeberl Cup 2004"

by Bas van Riel

I will hereby try to present some of the impressions of my participation in the 42^nd Doeberl Cup 2004 in Canberra. It probably was my fifth or so attendance.

I remember the first time that I tried to convince my then young family that it would be fun to spend Easter in Canberra. While dad, of course would play his chess. They did have a good time, visiting all the touristy things, but for me it was not completely ideal being somewhat distracted by the family things..

Since then, the kids have grown up (to a certain extent..), and my wife, Eef, still likes to explore Canberra finding different activities and galleries to visit.

In the past, I once went together with other Ballarat chess players and once on my own. This time, Jing Jia, last year’s national U12 junior champion, wanted to come together with his mother Rong. Since Eef and myself like to camp as often as possible, it would be interesting to see how our traveling companions would cope under the circumstances.

We lend them our spare tent, they packed their Chinese wok and other special ingredients, and the whole lot just fitted in our car. Soon after leaving Ballarat, Jing got tired of asking how far Canberra was and settled in the backseat scanning the road ahead for McDonalds, but he also demonstrated a mature, philosophical depth in the choice of his subjects. If only to cope with these discussions, Eef and myself alternated the driving turns regularly. Leaving Ballarat, late afternoon, we drove into a camping ground in Albury that evening.

The next morning, Good Friday, we packed up early, and hit the road again. Apparently, too much in a rush to reach Canberra in time for the first round! As not even one hour out of Albury we got booked for speeding! That woke me up sufficiently to see that there was plenty of police on the roads.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, and it was good to see the many familiar faces at the tournament venue. More than 220 entrees of which 66 in Jing’s and my section (the Majors/U2000). Surprising to find that another Ballarat player had turned up as well: John Frangakis, who had entered the Minor section.

Many juniors playing, therefore many mothers at the Doeberl.                       Guru David in action.....

The first round was interesting for me, as I had drawn Bill Egan. I had spent quite a few enjoyable hours with Bill during the Australian Open ’03 in Penrith, where we both stayed at the nearby camping ground. His wife is very much interested in basketry. So is Eef.  Bill had arranged for the women to meet a few days later, and swap notes about their hobbies.

Anyway, this first game against Bill didn’t go easy for me at all, especially after I overlooked a few simple possibilities for both sides. A sign of rustiness or travel weariness? A draw was probably a fair outcome at the end. In diagram 1, white played of course 40.Nf6, Bc8 41.Nxd5, but because Bill locked in his black bishop by g5 (ao) I later won a few pawns, and believing that I was cruising for a win in diagram 2. However, the last bit, resulting in the draw, was not very 'pretty' for me.

        1)B.Egan-BvR after 39..Nf5?                                                                       2)B.Egan-BvR after 51.Kd3,Ne5

                                                                                                                            Kc2,Ng4,Bf4,Ke7,h5,c4,Kb2, b3?

                                                                                                                            (Nf2!),Bg3,Kf7, Bxd6, Ne3,h6,

                                                                                                                            Nxd5,Be5,Kg6, Bg7 draw agreed.

For the second round (evening), I was paired against Jose Escrebano, a controversial character. I am finding him ‘a pain in the butt’, because of his on and off-board antics. When I was in time trouble in the previous rounds, he held a lengthy and loud conversation with his opponent after their game, and I had to get up and ask him to stop talking. When he still continued I felt the unusual  strong urge (?!) to throw a chess-piece at him to shut him up. The worst is that he himself seems very ‘sensitive’ to any distraction, as I experienced during our game. 

Also in this game, I was not in optimum form. In the position of diagram 1 for instance, I missed  21.f6, Bxf6; 22Nf5 and black’s position would have collapsed quickly. In diagram 2, I should have played 25.Rxe8, Qxe8;26. Nxd6!..

Near the end, Escrebano offered me draws in quick succession, while I was thinking about my moves. Very annoying, the more so after I realized that the position indeed had become very drawish...

Interesting to read in the ACF/Chesskits bulletin board that he had complained (through his alter ego CL) that he had suffered (?) during the tournament because of the lack of coffee cups amongst others. Curiously, during our game, I was surprised to see him visiting the coffee corner numerous times, returning always with two cups: one with water and one with coffee/tea.

No wonder that the plastic cups ran out so quickly, but he should not have blamed the organizers!

                                        1)BvR-J.Escrebano after 20…Bc4                                        2)BvR-J.Escrebano after 25.Kb1?

                                                                                                                                    25..Re5.26.Rxe5, Bxe5.27.Rf1 draw

So all in all, the start of the tournament was not too impressive for me, also considering my opponents ratings. Worse happened to Jing, who scored only half a point against two juniors, who of course are extra keen to take points of him. And Jing is very conscious of that. As a result, the mood in the Ballarat camp was rather subdued that night.

The worse was to come when I didn’t see a tree branch when I made my way to our tent in the dark, and fell awkwardly on my hand. At the time, I thought that I had badly bruised a little finger, but back in Ballarat later, it was diagnosed as broken. “Did you break a finger when playing chess” has been a common reaction, when I informed friends. Naturally, I now feel very brave having played chess with a broken finger. I also now feel strongly for those rough AFL players who often play on with broken 'items' in plaster, or with pain killers. I am now one of them! Piece of cake!

Of course under these circumstances, camping became a bit more difficult. So was playing chess: before and after the game I had to inform my opponents that I was unable to shake hands and that it was not personal.... Moving pieces left-handed, and keeping the score became explorations in mobility. Not surprisingly, I once did knock over a cup of coffee in one of my stunted and ‘unhandy’ moves.

Nevertheless, my chess seemed to improve, starting in round 3. Not completely convincing, but after I had pressure for most of the game, white choose to defend his a-pawn instead of preventing checkmate within a few moves. 

                                    1) M.Barakat-BvR after 37.Kxf3, followed by 37...Rd3+.38.Re3, Rd2.39.Qc3,Rxh2

                                        40.Qxa5??,Qd1.41.Kf4, Rf2.42.Ke5, Qh5 0-1

A real battle occurred in round 4 against Christopher Tran, a promising junior. We played the Benko gambit, of which I had studied a peculiar variation. But without too much of an effort, my opponent found all the right answers until the difficult position in diagram 1. 

He perhaps should have tried 28…Nxb2 or 29..Nxb2, hoping to create a passed c-pawn.

1)BvR-C.Tran after 27..d5                                                                          2)BvR-C.Tran after 33.Nd4..

  28.e4!? dxe4 29.Rd7 c3? 30.bxc3 Nxc3                                                33.Ne2+ 34.Rxe2 Rc1+ 35.Kh2 Bxe2

  31.Rc2 Now, white is out of trouble 31...Rc4                                           36.Nxe2 Rxc6 37.Bxe4 Re6

  32.Nxe6+ Kf6 33.Nd4                                                                             38.Bf3 Rb2 39.Nd4 Ra6 40.Bd5! Rxf2+

                                                                                                                    41.Kg1 Rd2 42.Rxf7+ Ke5 43.Nf3+ 1–0

After this win, I had a respectable score of 3/4, and I felt good about it. Meanwhile, Jing had a disastrous 0.5/4, but he 'promised' us to try harder. Which he subsequently did..!

The three Ballarat players:     Jing Jia                          Bas van Riel                 John Frangakis

While many of the others, including Jing, played the lightning tournament that (Saturday) evening, we had a nice and relaxed meal at Manuka, taking it easy.

By then, I had become used to my troublesome finger and I was ready for some really serious games against higher rated players. That was Richard Voon on Sunday morning in round 5 on board 5. He allowed me to play my favorite variation of the King’s Indian, which went along the usual lines until diagram 1, where I decided to bite the bullet: 

                                                                            1)       R.Voon-BvR after 21...g4

The beginning of a 16 move combination which seems to lead to a forced win. Of course I had not calculated all the details, but I had a fair idea about the resulting possibilities and variations. Another reason why I played the following exchange sacrifice was that I could not see anything else (=better) to do!

                                                                                    2)R.Voon-BvR after 30...Rh2

Black’s problem here is how to prevent white’s king to escape to e2 after Qh4 and Rh1+. At the moment, the king is still tied to g1.

31.Qd3 Nh4! All black's pieces are to be involved in the final assault. However, an elegant finish would have been: 31.. .Rh1 32.Kxh1, Bf2 and checkmate follows 32.Nb5? There was no saving white anyway after Nxf3, Qxf3 Qh5 and Bg4 32...Nxf3+ 33.Qxf3 Qh4 34.Rc8+ all rubbish.. 34...Bxc8 35.Kf1 Rh1+ 36.Ke2 Bg4 0-1.

So, was black's win forced after his exchange sacrifice on move 23, I still wonder. I was as proud as punch.....

In this mood and noticing that my opponent, Andrew Blisnyuk, in round 6 had a rating of ‘only’ 1811 and playing white, I was optimistic. Strangely enough after the good effort earlier in the morning, many things went wrong in this game: after a nice opening, I completely overlooked the loss of a centrepawn. However, Blisnyuk let me stay in the game by presenting me with the opportunity to give him two double pawns. Which should have been sufficient for a draw, I believe: 

                            1) BvR-A.Blisnyuk after 24..g6                                                   2) BvR-A.Blisnyuk after 27.....Qc6

                                25.Bxe6 fxe6 26.Qe4 Qc6

A weak move by black (diagram 2). At first, I believed that I could win via Qxe5 and Bd4 with mate, until I saw Bc7. I should have realized that 27.Qxc6 was drawish in view of the double pawns. 27.Qxe5 Bc7 28.Qe4 Rxf3 29.Qxc6 bxc6 30.Ke2 Rf5 black has very little advantage, but my awful endgame technique is telling from here on. My next move was an unnecessary disaster, weakening the g5-pawn. 31.Rd1, Rd5 32.Re4, Rxe4 would have secured the draw fairly easily 31.h5? Bd8 32.hxg6 hxg6 33.Rh4? after a long think.. 33...Re5 34.Rg4 Bb6 35.Rg3 Kf7 36.Kd2 Rxe3 37.Rxe3 Bxe3+ 38.Kxe3 e5! 39.Kf3 Ke6 40.Ke4 c5 41.Ke3 Kf5 42.Kf3 Kxg5 43.Ke4 Kh4 44.Kxe5 g5 45.Kd5 g4 46.Kxc5 g3 47.Kxc4 g2 48.Kb5 g1Q 49.Kxa5 Qa7+ 50.Kb5 0–1

Auch! That hurts!.

In the last round, on Monday morning, and starting one hour earlier than usual , I spent much time waking up and making weak moves. My opponent, George Winter, wanted to go home early, I believe, and rattled his moves off without much thinking at all. After 40 moves, his clock was still at the original 1.30 hours, while I had about 10 minutes left. 

                                                                                1)      G.Winter-BvR after 23.Na4?..

23...Nd7! 24.Nxb6 Qxf2+ 25.Kh1 Nxb6 26.R3e2 Qf3+ 27.Qxf3 Rxf3 28.Re3 Rxe3 29.Rxe3 Nc4 30.Rc3 black has an extra pawn, all the trumps and a winning endgame 30...b5 31.Kg2 Rf8 32.Bg3 Kh7 33.h3 g5 34.Bc7 Rf7 35.Bg3 Kg6 36.Bb8 Rb7 37.Bg3 Rf7 38.Bb8 Kf6 39.Kf2 Ke7+ 40.Ke2 Kd7 41.Bg3 Kc6 42.Bh2 Kb6 43.Bg3 a5 44.Bh2 axb4 45.axb4 Ra7 46.Rc2 Ra4 47.h4 Rxb4 48.hxg5 hxg5

                                                                                        2)G.Winter-BvR after 48..Rxb4

Does anyone doubt that black should easily win from here?

49.Bg3 Rb2 50.Rxb2 Nxb2 51.Bf4?! Bluff and incorrect, but I fell for it after a long think. Na4, Nc3+, Nf5, Nf6 would have stopped the white g-pawn from queening, but I did not see it. I only looked at Nc4 etc. Don't ask me why. 51...Nc4 52.Bxg5 Kc6 53.Be7 Kd7 54.Bc5 Ke8 55.Kd3 Kf7 56.Kc3 Kg6 57.Kb4 Ne3 58.Kxb5 Nxg4 59.Kb4 Kf5 60.Kc3 Ke4 61.Bd6 Nh6 62.Bh2 Nf5 63.Be5 Nh4 64.Bh2 Nf3 65.Bg3 Ng5 66.Bh4 Nh3 and here white (unnecessarily!) resigned in view of Ng1 and Ng4. He didn't realize, though, that 67. Bf6, Ng1 68.Kb4 etc would have been a draw! 0–1

Apart from the last round, I felt that my other points were truly deserved, and I was happy with my final result of 5/7, an equal 6-10th position, originally being seeded 16^th.

Jing managed to win his last three games and finished on 3.5/7, whereas John Frangakis finished on 4/7 in the Minor group.

The winner of the Doeberl Cup '04, Zong-Yuhan Zhao, with his trophee

Our trip back home went smoothly, stopping and camping in Holbrook on the way. At home, I was happy to sleep in a bed again. And for the next few days, I was also happy to do things unrelated to chess.

But one thing is certain: the tournament was great. And if I can, I will be back next year....