Queensland Under 8 Championships: Brilliant Bristow by DOP Charles Zworestine Thought I’d be different, and give the little ones a full report this time! After all, it is not very often that they get a whole tournament report all to themselves. And while we saw the usual quota of dropped queens and missing pieces at this level, this 15 player nine round Swiss event (time limit 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move from the start) nonetheless produced some very exciting chess; there were even some well played endings! There were very few upsets in Round 1, except for unrated Harry Hughes beating Felix Tan. The latter did win a piece in the opening, but then gave it back and gradually lost all his pieces! In Round 2 Harry struck again, drawing by repetition in a drawn rook ending against Jared Louie; while Felix was upset once more, this time by Jordan Vico. Round 3 was the time when the top seeds started meeting; and Number 1 seed Laurence Bristow won queen and game against second seed Brody Seignior. This enabled Laurence to take the outright lead on 3/3 after Jared Louie’s queen fork won an exchange against Martin Jack, and Jared made it count! Laurence maintained his lead in Round 4 when, from a fairly equal ending, he ended up checkmating the enemy king on a5 with his only remaining piece, a Black bishop on c3! David Hughes upset Brody Seignior by winning his queen, surviving Brody’s counterplay and then swapping down to a won ending a rook ahead. Sam Barrett stunned Martin Jack by winning his queen. Fewer shocks in Round 5, as Brilliant Bristow really started to assert his dominance! He beat Matthew Pyper quite convincingly to get to 5/5. David Hughes (White) and Sam Barrett played an excellent game to draw a difficult rook ending with passed pawns on both sides of the board: Play continued 1.a8=Q Rxa8 2.Kxa8 h2 3.Rc1 Kg4 4.Kb7 Kg3 5.Kc6 Kg2 6.Kd5 h1=Q 7.Rxh1 Kxh1 8.Ke5 f4 9.Kxf4 Draw. YOU try to improve upon the play by either side… After Round 6 it was 6/6 for Laurence, while David Hughes was outright second on 4.5; Brody Seignior and Matthew Pyper (who upset Martin Jack) were on 4. Another upset in round 7 saw Sam Barrett beating Jared Louie to get to 4.5; but the others at the top all won except for Matthew Pyper (who lost to David Hughes). Then Round 8 saw Laurence march on to 8/8! Brody moved into outright second with a win after David Hughes sadly moved his queen en prise to lose to Jordan Vico. Poor David realised just a bit too late; he had earlier queened first and been winning… So to Round 9, where Bristow won to make it a picket fence; well done Laurence! Jordan continued his fine late run by beating Brody to join him in second place. This was a reward for being the player most prone to actually use his time and think… David Hughes was dead lost, with nothing but his king left against Jared Louie, but never say die: his king then captured all his opponent’s extra material to force a draw! This left David in the tie for second with Jordan and Brody, while Jared had to be content with joining a group of 4 players in equal fifth on 5/9: the others were Felix Tan, Matthew Pyper (little Felix beat Matthew in the last round) and Callum Gray (who upset Sam Barrett in the last round). Queensland Under 10 Championships: Yi Ha! by DOP Charles Zworestine Look at the title: doubtless “Yee Ha!” is what Yi Liu would have been crying with delight after this event… A recent arrival to Queensland, Yi’s ACF rating of 1052 made him second seed behind Lachlan van den Bergh (1054), with two other players over 1000: Daniel Arase (1031) and Alan Lam (1009). Time controls were 35 minutes each, plus ten seconds per move from the start (Fischer); and I am pleased to say that the Under 10s moved relatively slowly, and used their time well (perhaps even better than the Under 12s). With the ratings of the top seeds so close, this was always going to be a very competitive event… Mind you, this was not clear from Round 1, where they all won handily and there were no upsets whatsoever! There were already some interesting games at the top in Round 2, however. Lachlan won a queen (against Kenji Nakauchi), then walked into a discovered check allowing his opponent to promote and get his queen back! The top seed eventually recovered to win a rook and force mate. Yi Liu checkmated Ryan Louie’s king trapped on h1 with only a pinned knight on g1 to protect it. Daniel Arase beat Jared Louie, while Alan Lam had to work very hard to do the same from a drawn king and pawn ending against Leteisha Simmonds. Come Round 3, and Daniel Arase won quickly against the diminutive Wilbert Tan. Indeed the games this round were almost all over quickly, with the higher seeds all winning: only Yi took a while but eventually subdued Callum Leggett, while Lachlan joined Yi and Daniel in the lead by beating Alan Lam… So to Round 4, and the critical meeting between the top two seeds in the last game of Day 1, with Yi Black against Lachlan: and it was Yi who prevailed, winning a long game by first winning several pawns, then watching his opponent overstep the time limit (in a position which was lost anyway). Yi was joined in the lead by Daniel Arase, who beat Alan Lam quite quickly by winning lots of material! A group of 5 players were still in contention on 3/4: Lachlan, Steve Charalambous, Callum Leggett, Ryan Louie and Blair Carey (who upset Kenji Nakauchi in Round 4). At the dawn of Day 2, it was clear that it is good to be White in the Under 10s: the first 9 games finished in Round 5 (Board 1 and Boards 5-11 inclusive) saw White win all of them! On top board Yi took the outright lead on 5/5 by beating Alex Arase, winning a pawn early (a powerful protected passed pawn on d5) and cashing in to beat the birthday boy. Steve Charalambous and Lachlan van den Bergh spoilt the pattern of White wins with a long draw, although Steve (White!) should have won this one too – he missed a forced mate at the end, and took a perpetual check instead – but Boards 3 and 4 were also White wins, with a nice combination on Board 3 winning Ryan Louie two pawns and game against Callum Leggett… In Round 6 the games were all fast again, with Yi (6/6) winning quickly against Steve to maintain his lead, but Daniel (5/6) remaining in contention by beating Ryan Louie. Lachlan was on 4.5/6 after beating Wilbert Tan, while a group of players on 4/6 included Alan Lam (defeated Jared Louie), Callum Leggett (beat Blair Carey) and Leteisha Simmonds (winner against Kenji Nakauchi). Round 7 saw Yi win pawns and eventually force mate after his opponent, Alan Lam, fell for a tactic; this left Yi the guaranteed victor on 7/7 after Daniel Arase lost a long game to Lachlan. The latter thus moved into outright second on 5.5/7, half a point ahead of Daniel who was joined on 5/7 by Ryan Louie (beat Leteisha) and Callum (who defeated Martin Jack)… So to the last round, where Yi showed us why you should “never take the queen knight pawn with your queen”: he got his queen trapped, lost it for a rook and eventually suffered his only loss of the event to Leteisha! He still won the title outright on 7/8, but the screams of “Yee Ha!” were a little less vocal… Callum’s upset win over Daniel Arase and Ryan Louie’s stunning mate in one a piece down against Lachlan snared these two players equal second on 6/8, and completed a thrilling event of upsets, good sportspersonship, good chess and generally good fun! Queensland Under 12 Championships: Genius Gene, or Legendary Liam? by DOP Charles Zworestine Yes, from the start this event already looked like a two horse race: would it be top seed Gene Nakauchi (1574), or second seed Liam McGarity (1383)? Since third seed Alex Arase (1159) was rated more than 200 points below Liam, it was always going to be hard to see anyone else winning – although we certainly expected them to have to work… With the same time limit as the Under 10s (35 minutes each, plus ten seconds per move from the start: Fischer), it was surprising to see the Under 12s move so fast: they often finished before the Under 10s! This already cost Alex Arase in Round 1, as he was held to a draw in a well played rook and pawn ending by Rhys Davies while seventh seed Danielle Kinder was upset by Alex Miles; but the top two seeds both won handily… Then in Round 2 we saw more convincing wins by the top seeds except for fifth seed Oliver McCarthy, who lost an ending to Tomotaka Onoda. They continued to move too fast in Round 3, as most games were over inside half an hour and again the higher seeds mostly won. Only Gene Nakauchi took a while, but could not win rook and pawn vs rook against Brandon Leggett despite at one point missing a forced win (which was even seen by Graeme Gardiner – yes, he really can play chess!). This left Liam (who beat Tomotaka) alone in the lead on 3/3, with three players on 2.5: Alex Arase (who defeated Oliver), Brandon and Gene. The vital game between the top two seeds thus took place on Board 1 in Round 4, the last game of the first day; and Liam was duly soundly beaten despite a good start. He missed one critical move and suddenly he had to drop an exchange to a knight fork; he sacrificed a second one to the same theme to try to get counterplay, but failed and lost in what seemed like double quick time! So Gene started Day 2 outright first on 3.5/4, but with 5 players breathing down his neck on 3: Alex Arase and Brandon Leggett (who drew a rook ending in their individual game), Liam, Danielle Kinder and Tomotaka. So to the second day, and the critical game between Gene and Alex Arase: Gene was worse early, but fought hard as he always does and ended up coming back to win a long game and get to 4.5/5. Liam stayed in contention on 4 by beating Danielle, as did Brandon against Tomotaka… Then while Gene moved to 5.5/6 with a solid win over Darren Ooi, Liam won a critical game of his own! He beat Brandon as Black, thus moving to outright second on 5/6. Meanwhile Danielle put Alex Arase out of the running with a nice win by a knight fork in a topsy-turvy game. Danielle gave Gene probably his toughest game of the event in Round 7, as she won an exchange for two pawns and had him under some pressure for much of their game; but in the end Gene got his passed pawns through to win and maintain his lead on 6.5/7. Liam was not going to make it easy for him, though, beating Oliver convincingly to get to 6/7. Brandon moved to outright third with a win over Rhys Davies… As we reached the final round, Liam beat Darren Ooi quickly to move to 7/8 and keep the pressure on; but Gene apparently feels no pressure, as he won a rook early against Alex Miles and cashed in to a won ending to get to 7.5/8 and win the title outright. Liam had to be content with second, while Brandon’s connected passed queenside pawns were eventually enough to win his rook and opposite coloured bishop endgame against Oliver; this enabled Brandon to claim outright third on 6/8. Queensland Juniors Under 18/16/14: Which Ben? by DOP Charles Zworestine OK, I admit it: I am running out of corny titles! It is true, however, that it was not enough for top seed Ben Lazarus to say “Ben won” in this event. Visiting Queensland for coaching, Ben Harris (NSW) was also allowed to play (and was third seed) – thus making an event with second seed Daniel Anderson (equal first last year), fourth seed Alex Jule and fifth seed Yitao Lei (all rated over 1600 on the ACF list) potentially even more interesting. With Shayne Hunter and Jessica Kinder the next two seeds – it was good to see two females at or near the top – and a slow time control of 60 minutes each plus 30 seconds per move from the start (Fischer), the tournament was clearly always going to be a very competitive one. We were happy right from the start, as this 22 player 8 round Swiss was up 9 players on last year – and this has to be a good thing! Round 1 saw Ben Lazarus make pretty hard work of it, but eventually win a rook ending against Daniel Ford. All the other top seeds won fairly handily – except for one… There was already a big upset on Board 3, as it was clear from the start that the Queenslanders would show no mercy on their interstate visitor; although Daniel Barrett’s unsound piece sacrifice really should have lost against Ben Harris. However, a time scramble saw Ben blunder the piece back in a longish forcing variation, and then he resigned when he was about to be checkmated! There was another upset lower down, where Sam Grigg blundered a piece to lose to Robert Shinnie. There were already very competitive games on the top two boards in Round 2, where first of all Big Ben (Lazarus) walked into an opening trap and was in big trouble against Jonas Muller! Instead of sacrificing material for initiative and complications, he went into an inferior line; but he got away with it when his opponent accepted his draw offer. Jessica v Daniel (Anderson) was a much longer game, and resulted in a topsy-turvy ending; a draw was probably an appropriate result after both players were winning at different stages. Daniel could have forced a won king and pawn ending, but misjudged it and stayed in a rook ending; but then Jessica misplayed rook against two connected passed pawns and allowed him to escape with a draw. Alex, Yitao and Shayne all won to be the only players on 2/2; Ben Harris got on the board by beating Robert Shinnie; and Sam Grigg blundered a piece again, this time to be upset by Sebastian Jule. Alex Jule played one of the better games of the event so far in Round 3 to beat Yitao Lei (see game below). Despite allowing him an opportunity to equalize with 20…Bxe5 (which he missed), her active pieces ended up checkmating him or forcing huge material gain… This left Alex outright first on 3/3, after Board 2 where Big Ben put paid to Shayne Hunter; sadly for him, Shayne dropped a piece late in the game in an equal position. Joining Big Ben on 2.5/3 were Daniel Anderson, who beat Jonas Muller; and Jessica Kinder, whose aggressive style left Jayden Fisher cramped and unable to defend his weak pawns. The Queenslanders were giving Ben Harris a hard time again; this time it was Kieton Beilby who took half a point from him… Jule, A (1703) - Lei, Y (1619), 2006 Queensland Juniors U18/16/14, Round 3 Board 1 28/06/06 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 b6 4.e3 Bb7 5.Nbd2 d6 6.Bd3 Be7 7.0–0 0–0 8.e4 Nbd7 9.h3 Re8 10.Bh2 Bf8 11.e5 dxe5 12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.dxe5 Nd5 14.Qh5 g6 15.Qe2 Bg7 16.Rad1 Qe7 17.a3 c5 18.Be4 Qc7 19.c4 Ne7 20.b4 cxb4 21.Bxb7 Qxb7 22.axb4 Nc6 23.Ne4 Qe7 24.Nd6 Red8 25.b5 Na5 26.Qf3 Rf8 27.Qe3 Rad8 28.c5 bxc5 29.Qxc5 f6 30.f4 Ra8 31.Rfe1 fxe5 32.fxe5 Nb7 33.Qc6 Na5 34.Qe4 Rab8 35.Qa4 Qc7 36.Kh1 Qb6 37.Qa2 Qc7 38.Qxe6+ Kh8 39.Rf1 Nb7 40.Nf7+ Kg8 41.Rd7 1–0 Speed seemed to be of the essence in Round 4, although I am not sure why! All the games bar one (and that was bottom board!) were over within an hour and a half… Alex Jule was winning after ten moves, but missed the opportunity and was lost by Move 15; she duly lost the lead by going down to Daniel Anderson. Ben Lazarus joined Daniel Anderson in the lead on 3.5/4 with a quick win over Jessica Kinder, who blundered a piece in the opening; while Shayne joined Alex on 3/4 by beating Sebastian Jule (her brother!). Lachlan Pedersen-Lee held Yitao to a draw; they were joined on 2.5/4 by Kieton (who upset Daniel Barrett) and Ben Harris, who won a long game against Jonas Muller. The top board Round 5 game between the top two seeds proved to be a rather interesting one, starting with a Nxd6 combination by Big Ben which gave Daniel Anderson the opportunity to sacrifice his queen for massive compensation (see game below). Not having taken this opportunity Daniel lost the exchange, but he still had two beautiful bishops as compensation; he then missed a forced win on Move 20, and four moves later (sadly for him) he blundered a piece and lost! This left Big Ben outright first on 4.5/5, but only half a point ahead of Alex Jule whose centralized queen and open files took care of Shayne Hunter. The other Ben (Harris) was still in contention on 3.5 after his active pieces eventually won a piece against Lachlan Pedersen-Lee. Jessica and Yitao made it hard for themselves as far as winning the event was concerned, drawing in a locked position. Lazarus, B (1965) - Anderson, D (1719) [B33] 2006 Queensland Juniors U18/16/14, Round 5 Board 1 29/06/2006 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 Be6 9.Nc4 b5 10.Ne3 Be7 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.a4 b4 13.Ncd5 Bg5 14.Nc4 0–0 15.c3 Rc8 16.Nxd6 Bxd5 [16...Qxd6 17.Nf6+ gxf6 18.Qxd6 Rfd8 19.Qc5 Bd2+ 20.Ke2 bxc3 21.bxc3 Bxc3 22.Qxc3 Nd4+ 23.Qxd4 Rxd4 and Black is better] 17.Nxc8 Bxe4 18.Nd6 Bg6 19.Nc4 Qe7 20.Qd5 Qf6 [20...bxc3 21.bxc3 Nb4 22.cxb4 Qxb4+ 23.Nd2 Rd8 and wins] 21.Be2 e4 22.0–0 Rd8 23.Qc5 bxc3 24.bxc3 Qe6 25.Qxg5 1–0 It was draw city on the top boards in Round 6! Ben Harris and Daniel Anderson drew ridiculously early (rather too early, I thought); they claimed to be tired… There was a much tougher fight on Board 1 between Ben Lazarus and Alex Jule; but in the end Alex could make no headway against Ben’s solid play as Black, and so agreed a draw. Yitao Lei and Jayden Fisher ended up in a locked rook and knight vs rook and bishop ending on Board 3, and agreed a draw after a long fight when neither side could see any way to make progress. Jessica Kinder was the only one of the top players to win, staying in the hunt with a win over Shayne Hunter; she won a pawn in the opening to a tactic, then made it count in an ending where she ended up checkmating her opponent! Ben Lazarus (6/7) had a full point lead by the end of Round 7, after winning a double rook endgame a pawn ahead against Ben Harris. In the battle of the females, Jessica Kinder (as White) pushed hard to beat Alex Jule, attacking and sacrificing an exchange and then a bishop; but Alex did not take the poisoned bishop, instead fighting hard, remaining solid and ending up drawing. Daniel Anderson sacrificed pawns in the opening against Yitao Lei, and ended up at one point three pawns down; he claims that he had compensation and the further course of the game bore this out, as he ended up (after a five pawn turnaround) winning a rook and pawn ending two pawns up! Jonas Muller took care of Sebastian Jule pretty quickly, winning a rook and then eventually checkmating his younger opponent. Sam Grigg completed a remarkable comeback from 0/2 with a win over Jayden Fisher to get to 4.5/7 and top board in the last round… Daniel Anderson cracked Lachlan Pedersen-Lee with a pretty mate fairly early in Round 8, thus guaranteeing himself at least outright second on 6/8 after Alex Jule drew her game with Jonas Muller. Jonas was up a piece, but Alex had three pawns for it, including a dangerous passed pawn on c2; and in the end, neither player could make progress… So we all waited with bated breath for the result of Big Ben’s game, Black against Sam Grigg. Sam was better early, nearly trapped Ben’s queen, and won a pawn; but despite holding on to the extra pawn, Sam could make no progress in a rook ending against Ben’s outside passed a-pawn, and ended up agreeing a draw to give Ben the title outright on 6.5/8. Ben Harris was better against Jessica Kinder, but ended up having to swap off pieces into a drawn ending (which they did draw). All in all this was a fantastic event, dispute-free and played in a great spirit by all. Ben Lazarus had some scares, but was undefeated and deserved his win – in my opinion he played the most consistent chess. Daniel Anderson still keeps trying, and may get there next year; Alex Jule was up there all the way but drew her last three games; and Jessica Kinder played some great chess, but still needs more confidence to convert her good positions into wins. Thanks to Gardiner Chess for staging the event, and for all their hospitality towards yours truly – I had a great time! Finally, special mention should be made of GM Ian Rogers’ great coaching and post game analysis: everyone benefited, and will be better players next year for his efforts…