AUSTRALIAN CHESS FEDERATION
newsletter


Number 09/12B      .....      22 December 2009

 

 

 

Editor’s notes

 

A couple of major announcements in this newsletter (though both have appeared elsewhere); the field for the 2010 Australian Championship, and a major new sponsorship for junior chess. Not to mention some good results overseas by Australian players.

 

As this is the last newsletter of 2009, on behalf of ACF I would like to wish all our readers higher ratings and lots of norms in 2010. Publication will resume in January with, among other things, the results of the Australian Championship.

 

 

 

Ian Rout

Editor

 


Note: Links in light blue are to sections within the newsletter, those in grey are external and orange links are to the archive of previous issues.

Table of Contents

 

Notices

Major Events

Junior Chess Sponsorship

General News

Tournament News and Results

Coming Events

Overseas Tournaments and News

State News

Letters to the Editor

Tournament Reports

Games

Sundries / Late News

 


Medium watch

 

This ACF Newsletter is being sent to 1,524 addresses.

Table of Contents

 

 

NOTICES

Arlauskas Medal and Romanas Arlauskas Award

 

In addition to the ACF medals for which nominations have previously been invited, the ACF Council has approved details of a new medal to be presented each year, to be known as the Arlauskas Medal for Australian Junior Player of the Year.

 

The winner of each Arlauskas medal will also receive a Romanas Arlauskas Award in the form of assistance with the cost of travel to a major international or national chess event using interest generated by the investment of a $10,000 trust fund, which has been created thanks to the generosity of Jurate Naujalis, widow of Australian correspondence Grandmaster and former South Australian champion Romanas Arlauskas.

 

Romanas passed away in Adelaide in September, aged 92. Some details of his life and achievements in chess are set out below and additional information is in his Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanas_Arlauskas

 

Nominations for the first Arlauskas Medal and Award are now invited. Nominations must be sent so as to be received by 6 January 2010 and must comply with the same requirements as those for the other ACF medals.

 

Details of the Arlauskas medal and award, to be added to the ACF's rules governing other ACF medals are:


"The Arlauskas Medal is awarded annually to the Junior Australian Player of the Year, on the same basis as the Steiner Medal, but limited to nominees who at one time or another during the year of the award satisfied the ACF’s age-limit criteria for eligibility to participate in the Australian Junior Championship in the year concerned.


The winner of the Arlauskas Medal in each year is to be the recipient of a single grant by the ACF to assist the winner to meet costs related to his or her participation in a significant international or Australian chess event scheduled to begin or likely to begin within two years of the announcement of the name of the winner of the award.


The ACF Executive committee will have discretion to determine the significance of an event for the purposes of the award, to extend the 24-month period in exceptional circumstances, and to determine the amount of the grant in any year.


The Arlauskas Medal and Romanas Arlauskas Award may be won by the same person more than once."

 

 

Gary Wastell

ACF Medals Selections Coordinator

 

 

Romanas Arlauskas 1917 - 2009

 

The following information, kindly provided by Jurate Naujalis, is extracted from the eulogy presented at the funeral of Romanas Arlauskas.

 

Romanas Arlauskas was born in Lithuania on 11 June 1917. By age 13, his mother and father had both died, leaving him and his siblings to be raised by housekeeper and carer.

 

At age five, he was taught chess by an aunt and was soon recognised as having an intelligence suited to intellectual pursuits.

 

In 1942, he obtained a degree in architecture, a profession he sought to practice throughout his life and which suited his meticulous ways.

 

His achievements in chess were outstanding: a Lithuanian Master in 1935; in 1936, aged 18, he played for Lithuania in the Munich Olympiad without losing a game. He played chess in many countries, including Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Germany, as well as international correspondence chess.

 

Towards the end of World War II, at the age of 27, he travelled to Vienna, then Berlin, and was able to meet the cost of basic needs by playing chess for money in coffee houses.

 

In 1948 he was able to migrate to Australia. He landed in Fremantle and soon travelled to Barmera, via Adelaide, where he picked grapes for two years to serve out the contract under which he was given passage to Australia, after which his qualifications as an architect were recognised and he secured a position with the Department of Housing and Construction that led to a career from which he retired at age 65.

 

He won the State championship of South Australia in 1949 and, in 1965, attained the title of International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) Grandmaster after finishing third in the World Correspondence Championship.

 

In 1983, he met Jurate Naujalis, who became his partner and soulmate until his death from prostate cancer on 22 September 2009.    

Nominations for ACF Medals

 

(This notice first posted in 09/10A)

 

All ACF affiliates are reminded of the opportunity to nominate potential winners of the following ACF medals, to be awarded in January 2010 in accordance with the ACF Medals Procedures by-law, which may be viewed at the ACF website at

www.auschess.org.au/constitution/ACF_Medals_Procedures.txt

 

Medals

 

– Steiner Medal – Australian ‘Player of the Year’ 2009

To be awarded to the player who has made the greatest impact not necessarily the highest-rated – for the most notable achievement during 2009. The Steiner medal is an annual award and may be won by a previous recipient.

 

– Koshnitsky Medal – Chess Administration

This is a lifetime achievement award, not limited to accomplishments or services during a particular period, and cannot be awarded more than once to the same person. It is awarded for an outstanding contribution to Australian chess administration at national or state level.

 

A link [Chess Medals] to lists of previous ACF medal winners is at www.auschess.org.au/acfrec.htm

 

Nominations

Separate documents containing the following should be provided in respect of each nominee:

·         name (correctly spelt);

·         contact details (phone, email, postal address);

·         a citation describing relevant achievements, suitable for reading and/or publication when the medal is presented;

·         anything else relevant to the nomination.

A person submitting a nomination must retain at least one complete copy of each document submitted in connection with the nomination and must phone (03) 9787 7974 or 0409 525 963 to confirm that it has been received if delivery has not been acknowledged 24 hours after expected delivery time.

Nominations for the Koshnitsky medal must be sent to one of the following addresses so as to be received on or before Friday 18 December 2009:


— email: gwastell@netspace.net.au
— post: 22 Bruarong Crescent, Frankston South Vic 3199Nominations for the Steiner medal must be sent to one of the above addresses as follows:


— if sent by post – to be received on or before Wednesday 23 December 2009;
— if sent by email – to be received on or before Wednesday 6 January 2010.

Presentations

The announcement of winners and presentation of medals will take place at 5pm Wednesday 13 January 2010 in the Norths Celebrity Room, 12 Abbott Street, Cammeray, Sydney, immediately prior to the presentation of prizes for the forthcoming Australian Championship.

Distribution of This Notice

Recipients of this notice are asked to ensure that it is distributed as extensively as possible to maximize nominations in respect of the most suitable nominees.

 

Gary Wastell

ACF Medals Selections Coordinator

 


Previous Notices

 

The following notices from prior issues remain in force

 

2010 Olympiad: Activity Requirement and Application Deadline

- previously reported 09/09A

 

11th World University Championships - seeking informal expressions of interest

- previously reported 09/10A

 


Position Vacant – ACF Advertising Manager

 

The ACF invites expressions of interest from any reader who might be willing to oversee the appearance of suitable advertising material in ACF publications, principally this Newsletter, and on the ACF website.

 

For additional information please email gwastell@netspace.net.au with cc to secretary@nswca.org.au

Table of Contents

 

 

MAJOR EVENTS

2010 Australian Chess Championship – players

 

Following deliberations of the ACF Selections Committee on entries for the Australian Championship the following announcement of the field was made on 20 December:

 

The 2010 Australian Championship field is:

GM Zong-Yuan Zhao
GM Gawain Jones
GM Darryl Johansen
IM Alex Wohl
IM George Xie
IM Stephen Solomon
FM Vladimir Smirnov
IM Gary Lane
FM Tomek Rej
Moulthun Ly
FM Laurence Webb
Junta Ikeda
IM Vladimir Feldman
Christopher Wallis
FM Eddy Levi
Max Illingworth
FM James Morris
FM Douglas Hamilton
Andrew Bird
Barak Atzmon-Simon
Eugene Schon
Ben Lazarus
Malcolm Pyke
Andrew Brown
Yi Yuan
FM Gene Nakauchi
Laurence Matheson
Michael Morris

There are another 5 approved players whose entry is not currently confirmed.


They have until 11pm 24th December to have their entry confirmed.

 

Entries for supporting events are still open (see next column).

2010 Australian Chess Championship

  

Venue: norths, 12 Abbott Street, Cammeray, NSW.

 

2nd to 13th January 2010 plus various supporting events: a Major Tournament, a Minor tournament, a shorter seven-round event and the Australian Lightning Championship.

 

More information at the official site
http://www.australianchesschampionship.com/

 

Note that entries for the Championship have closed but entries for other sections are still open. The early entry discount has expired but submitting entries by 28 December will avoid a late fee.

 

GM Ian Rogers will be giving commentaries throughout the tournament and will judge the best game prize.

 

All entrants in all divisions are offered a 25% discount on all goods at sponsor Chess Discount Sales at 72 Campbell St, Surry Hills (near Central Station) for the month of January 2010.

 

The organisers have announced that three copies of the latest Chessbase Magazine have been provided as additional lucky door prizes (4, 5 and 6), to be drawn at the tournament, for entries submitted on-line through the above web site. The first three prizes are listed as: 1st a top of the range DGT-XL clock donated by tournament sponsor Chess Discount Sales; 2nd $100 cash courtesy of PayPal; 3rd Fritz 12, rrp ~$95, courtesy of ChessBase.

 


2010 Australian Junior Chess Championships

 

The Tasmanian Chess Association will be hosting the Australian Junior 2010 in Hobart on behalf of the Australian Junior Chess League at The Hutchins School, Sandy Bay, Hobart from January 14th to 25th 2010. Equipment and scoresheets will be provided by Chess Kids.

 

In addition to the age group events there will be national rapid and lightning championships and a problem solving competition.

Details were previously reported in newsletter 09/09A.

 

More information at the official site
http://www.chesstasmania.org.au/AJCC/index.html

 

Table of Contents

 

 

 

JUNIOR CHESS SPONSORSHIP

New Sponsorship Deal for Australian Junior Chess

 

Australian junior chess, already feting their first World Champion in Melbourne’s Bobby Cheng, has a new reason to celebrate with the signing of a new sponsor for the national chess Junior Elite Training Squad, JETS.

 

The JETS squad, founded in 2000, features 30 of the best junior players from around Australia, with an emphasis on developing the skills of young talents of 14 years or less. Johns-Putra Limited has agreed to fully fund the 2010 JETS squad, including the national camp in Sydney in July.

 

Managing Director of Johns-Putra Limited, Geraldine Johns-Putra expressed her pleasure at the agreement struck with the Australian Junior Chess League, the organiser of the JETS squad; “As someone who has benefited tremendously from chess as a junior, I feel privileged to be in a position to do something for Australian juniors today.  Many of the opportunities I gained through chess would not have been possible without the support of individuals who donated time and money.  I wish all of the juniors in the JETS squad the best and hope that they learn and grow as much as they can from this wonderful initiative. "

Johns-Putra Limited is a London-based boutique legal consulting practice focussing on cross-border China mergers and acquisitions. Its mission is to help clients build bridges between China and the West and to secure success across cultures. It is committed to advancing cross-cultural business in China and is one of the few boutique legal consulting practices in cross-border corporate transactions in China.

 

The Australian Junior Chess League is dedicated to organising and promoting chess among young people around Australia. In January the AJCL will be backing the Australian Junior Championships in Hobart and later in 2010 will select players to represent Australia at the Asian and World Junior Championships.


For more information, please contact Geraldine Johns-Putra, on +44 (0)20 7286 7664 or at geraldine@johns-putra.com, or Ian Rogers, Deputy President AJCL, on +61 (0)416599230 or GMIanRogers@gmail.com

 

 

(by GM Ian Rogers)

 

Table of Contents

 

 

GENERAL NEWS

2009 Australian Schools Teams Championships

 

Some photographs by Mike Loh can be seen here and there is a report by Kerry Lyall and Charles Zworestine in Tournament Reports

 

 

CAQ – unapproved withdrawals

 

CAQ has followed up its warning to deal with unapproved withdrawals by suspending a player’s membership for three months.

 

The player’s explanation of his absence from the final round of the 2009 Queensland Minor was deemed not satisfactory by Council.

 

 

Gary Lane simul

 

IM Gary Lane gave a simul at Rooty Hill RSL on 21 December. Organiser Brian Jones reports:

 

From 33 players Gary had 19 wins, 10 draws, 4 losses (almost 73%)

 

Receiving book prizes were winners Peter Cassettari, Hans Muller, Leonardo Tenerio and Angelito Camer.

 

Also receiving book prizes for draws were: Noel Mangobang, Allan Butler, Ryan Lane, Lee Jones, Milko Banovic, George Smit, Andrew Pan, Rebecca Harris, Henry Rara and Peter Astorga.

 

The event raised $300 which has been donated to the 2010 Parramatta Chess Festival (Sydney International Open and Challengers).

 

 

Redlands RSL Chess Club (Qld)

 

Redland RSL has a new website here

 

”Biggest loser” loses again

 

According to this link (pointed out by Milan Ninchich) Stephen Mayne failed by one vote to be elected as Mayor of Manningham (Vic), taking his tally of election losses to 45.

 

One of Mayne’s rare wins was his election as President of Doncaster Chess Club in 1988. (His other activities, for those unfamiliar with them, can be researched with google.)

 

 

Chess in High places

 

chessexpress reports that the championship of the High Court was decided recently with Chief Justice Robert French (not listed by FIDE as an IA but obviously well qualified) as the arbiter. The site quotes a report from Rita Gibson:

 

Yesterday at lunchtime the final game of the High Court's inaugural chess tournament was played between associates Ben Mostafa and Zelie Wood, on a beautiful marble chess set presented to the Chief Justice in appreciation by the ANU law students' society. The game was limited to 20 minutes per player (thanks to Mr Paul Dunn who generously loaned the chess clock) and after considerable bloodshed (of chess pieces only of course) the time limit was reached without a checkmate. [Ed: Presumably this means the game was won on time.] Congratulations to the winner, Ben Mostafa, of Justice Hayne's chambers. The Chief Justice awarded the prize bottle of champagne and the winner's name will be inscribed on the Chief Justice's perpetual chess trophy.

 

Ben Mostafa, 25, played some chess in his junior years at Sydney Boys High School before swapping the hobby for more active pursuits. He nevertheless retains a soft spot for the game, though admits it has been some time since he had a game with a chess clock running. "I recall going to one tournament when I was quite young, but that would have been more than a decade ago now, and I haven't seen a chess clock since!" says Ben.

 

A photograph of the champion can be seen here

Table of Contents

 

 

TOURNAMENT NEWS AND RESULTS

2009 Australasian Masters

 

This tournament (5-13  December) was conducted at Box Hill CC with participation as listed in 09/12A except that Mehmedalija Dizdarevic (BIH) played in place of Vladimir Smirnov (Rus).

 

Top seed GM Darryl Johansen was in good shape for most of the event but lost his last two games against IM James Morris and Lee Wang-Sheng, leaving IM Stephen Solomon the winner on 6.5/9 with five wins, three draws, and only one loss to Johansen

 

IM Morris was second on 6 while GM Johansen finished in a tie for third on 5 with World U12 Champion FM Bobby Cheng and FM Eddy Levi.

 

Sponsors were Hallsteen P/L, FIDE, Chess Victoria and Chess Australia P/L. For the full table see here.

 

 

Recent 2009 GP weekend results

 

Christmas Open, Perth WA (Dec 5-6) Tristan Boyd, Stephan Kurniawan and Yita Choong tied on 5/6. (22 players).

 

See link for full GP scores.

 

 

2009 Australasian Universities Rapid

 

Host team Sydney University won this recent event. Moulthun Ly (UQ) and Jason Hu (Syd) topped the individual scores with 6.5/7. See the full report from arbiter Charles Zworestine in Tournament Reports

 

 

MCC Christmas Swiss

 

David Garner (Eng) 9.5/11 won the MCC Christmas Swiss rapid event from FM Michael Baron 9 and Domagoj Dragicevic 7.5. (22 players)

 

 

2010 O2C Doeberl Cup

 

Doeberl Cup organiser Charles Bishop has announced that GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Geo) 2635 will compete in the Doeberl Cup, with the possibility of as many as thirteen GMs in total. link

 

Canterbury Summer Swiss (Vic)

 

This is the final Grand Prix event of 2009, to be held at Box Hill Chess Club 3 Rochester Road Canterbury from December 27 to 29. It will be ACF and FIDE rated. link contact

Early bird entry fee $40 – pay before Christmas, or after that date full entry fee $60 (special discount of $10 for BHCC and Canterbury Junior members). Free entry for GMs and IMs provided their entries are received during the early bird period. Total prize fund is $1500, forfeit time 60 minutes.

 

2010 Redland Summer Cup (Allegro)  (Qld)


When: Sunday January 17th 2010
Venue: The Legends Bar at the Redlands RSL, 8 Passage St, Cleveland QLD 4163
Prizes: Trophies for Open Division, Under 1600 and Best Local Player
Medallions for Under 1200, Under 1000, Juniors and Unrated
Entry fee: $5 per person. ottomless tea and coffee available for $2:50 per person.
Register your details by Friday January 15th and go into the draw for lucky door prizes!

Time Controls: 15 minutes. Check In 9:45am – 10:15am
Round One Starts 10:30am Seven Rounds. Presentations 3pm

Entries to be emailed to ang001@tpg.com.au or posted to Redlands RSL Chess Club, Angela Ruhland, 13B Yeo St, Victoria Point QLD 4165. Contact No: 0404 912 284. Payment to be made at check-in. Further information here.

 

2010 Australia Day Weekender (Qld)

 

The 2010 Australia Day Weekender is the first ACF rated GP Class 2 weekender in Qld for 2010.

 

This event is also FIDE RATED.

 

DATES: Saturday January 23 till Tuesday January 26

VENUE: Queensland Contract Bridge Club, 67 Ipswich Road Woolloongabba

FORMAT: Seven round individual swiss

TIME CONTROL: 90 minutes per player plus 30 seconds per move (Fischer)

PLAY STARTS: 11am Saturday January 23

 

For further information or to register, please contact:

Garvin Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further information here.

Table of Contents

 

 

COMING EVENTS

Grand Prix events

 

Dec 27-29 Canterbury Summer Swiss [2], Melbourne, Vic  link

 

Jan 23-26  Australia Day Weekender [2], Brisbane, Qld  link

Jan 23-24  Australia Day Weekender [2], Sydney, NSW  link

Feb 6-7  Ranges Summer Sizzler [1], Upwey Vic  link

Feb 13-14  Launceston Cup [1], Launceston Tas  link

Feb 13-14 Newcastle Open [1], Newcastle, NSW  link

Feb 20-21 Kingsley Open [1], Perth, WA  link

Mar 6-8 Tasmanian Championship[1], Hobart, Tas  link

Mar 20-21 10th Anniversary Dubbo RSL Open [3], Dubbo, NSW  link

Apr 1-5 Doeberl Cup [5], Canberra, ACT  link

Apr 2-5 Queensland Open [3], Toowoomba, Qld  link

Apr 4-5 Gufeld Cup [1], Perth, WA  link

Apr 7-11 Sydney International Open [5], Parramatta, NSW  link

 

Other events may be interpolated in the above list when the calendar is completed. The number in brackets is the GP class of the event.

 

Full 2009 GP calendar: link

2010 GP calendar (in progress): link

Register for 2010:  link

 


South Australia

 

Lidums Australian Allegro Chess Championship Glenelg; 26 Dec link

 


Please notify forthcoming tournaments to auschessnews@gmail.com

Table of Contents

 

 

OVERSEAS TOURNAMENTS AND NEWS

World Cup

 

Boris Gelfand (Isr) met Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr), who has already won one World Cup in 2002, in the final of the 2009 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from December 10 to 15.

 

The two had survived a series of two-game knockout matches, with rapid and blitz play-offs where necessary, from an initial field of 128. David Smerdon played as the sole Oceania holding the fifteenth seed to 1-1 before being eliminated in the rapid phase of their match.

 

For the final the match was extended to four games, though this made little difference as the match opened with two quiet draws. The next two games were more eventful with both players having prospects with the white pieces but both games also finished in draws.

 

This took the match to a four-game rapid series. At this point the match became more dramatic with Gelfand scoring a win and two draws to need only a draw with White to win the tournament, but Ponomariov took the last rapid with Black to send the match to a series of two-game blitz matches.

 

Gelfand created another “match point” winning the first blitz game, but Ponomariov saved it by winning the next game. However when the same scenario was created in the next blitz game Ponomariov was unable to scramble back, leaving Gelfand the victor.

 

In addition to the prize and trophy, Boris Gelfand qualifies for the eight-player candidates’ series to determine the Challenger for the 2012 World Championship. See here for the official site.

 

 

Commonwealth Championship

 

The Commonwealth Championship was held in Singapore. The event was won by home player IM Enrique Paciencia with 7.5/9.

 

Best of the Australians was CM Max Illingworth who finished equal third on 6, losing only to the eventual winner in the first round and performing at over 2400. Ben Lazarus and Dusan Stojic both scored 4.

 

Three other events were held in conjunction with the Championship, the Commonwealth U20 and U16 in a combined event, the Commonwealth U12 and a Singapore Challenger.

 

Devappa Yashas of India won the U20/16 with 7.5/9. Emma Guo was =6th with 6; Sam Grigg and WIM Alexandra Jule both scored 5.5, Thomas Feng and Joshua Ng 4, and Abbie Kanagarajah 4.

 

WCM Maria Furtado Ivana 7.5/9 won the U12. Isaac Ng was equal second on 7, with Sean Gu 6.5 and Cedric Koh 5.5.

 

The Singapore Challengers was won by Jedara Docena (Philippines) with 8/9. Stephen O’Reilly and James Attwood made 6.5.

 

Spassky v Korchnoi

 

Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi are contesting the latest blast-from-the past spectacular (though at 78 Korchnoi is also still very much active in the present) in Elista, Russia from 18 to 27 December. The eight-game encounter is billed as the Battle of the Giants.

 

The two played five matches for the World Championship between them, though none against each other.

London Chess Classic featuring Magnus and Arianne

 

The London Chess Classic, which was partly responsible for some absences from the World Cup, was played from 8 to 15 December. The event was a round robin featuring the top four British players Short, Adams, McShane and Howell (or that might simply be the top four English players – as with soccer, Britain doesn’t exist) and four leading overseas players, Carlsen (Nor), Kramnik (Rus), Nakamura (USA) and Ni Hua (Chn). link

 

Carlsen emerged the winner with 13/7 (the tournament was scored as win=3, draw=1) from three wins and four draws, with Kramnik 12 and Howell and Adams 9. The decisive game turned out to be in the first round where Carlsen won against Kramnik.

 

The result extends Carlsen’s lead on the “live” rating list, which unofficially calculates rating movements as they happen.

 

The accompanying Women’s Invitational was comfortably won by WIM Arianne Caoili with 8/9 from IM Susan Lalic (Eng) 6 and WIM Arlette Van Weersel (NED) 5.5. England’s top woman player won the individual encounter but Arianne took eight straight wins from the rest of the field. See link - also Chessbase has some photographs.

 

Two clichés are that chess players take a long time over apparently minimal activity and that journalists can take a lot of words to express fairly basic thoughts – both of these are at work in this report of the event, which confirms the notion that chess is not a great spectator sport for non-players.

 

GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor), one of the top performers at the recent European Teams Championship, won an Open which accompanied the event. Australian player Robin Shaw scored 4.5/9.

 

 

Russian Championship

 

The superfinal of the Russian Championship is being contested as a ten-player round robin from 20 to 29 December in Moscow. GM Peter Svidler is the top seed.

 

 

2010 World Championship

 

FIDE reports (with photographs here) that contracts have been signed for the world title match between Anand and Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria from 23 April to 12 May. Dignitaries in attendance included Bulgarian PM Boiko Borisov.

 

 

2014 Olympiad bids

 

FIDE has also announced that bids for the 2014 Olympiad will close on 30 April 2010. Offers which incorporate bids for the 2013 World Cup will be given preference.

 

 

FIDE Minutes

 

FIDE has published the Minutes and many of the Annexes from its October meeting. link

 

 

Otago Summer Rapid (Dunedin, NZ)

 

Tony Dowden (Tas) won this event on 12 December with 5.5/6.

 

For chess tourists

 

The ACF receives information about a wide variety of chess happenings in other parts of the world, and it is sometimes difficult to rank the likely levels of interest among Australian players. The following is a summary of events about which information has been received in recent times. In some cases, additional information may be obtained by contacting the Editor or ACF Councillor for your State Association.

 

The date listed is the start date, see the link for the full schedule.

 

Hastings international Chess Congress: 28 Dec 2009, Hastings, England  link contact

Schachfestival: 1 Jan 2010, Basel, Switzerland  link contact

9th Prague Open: 8 Jan 2010, Prague, Czech Republic  link contact

Bela Perenyi Memorial: 8 Jan 2010, Budapest, Hungary  link contact

Delhi International Open: 13 Jan 2010, New Delhi, India  link contact

Marienbad Open: 16 Jan 2010, Marianske Lazne, Czech Republic  link contact

2nd Chennai International Open: 25 Jan 2010, Chennai, India  link contact

Gibtelecom International Chess Festival: 26 Jan 2010, Gibraltar  link contact

Bermuda International Open: 5 Feb 2010, Southampton, Bermuda  contact

Cappelle-la-Grande: 13 Feb 2010, Cappelle-la-Grande, France  link contact

1st Novy Bor Open: 13 Feb 2010, Novy Bor, Czech Republic  link contact

26th Budapest Spring Festival Open: 19 Mar 2010, Budapest, Hungary  link contact

World University Chess Ch 2010: 4 Sep 2010, Universitätsstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland link - also refer Notices

Table of Contents

 

 

STATE NEWS

Queensland

 

The Queensland Teams Championship was played in two Divisions, Premier and Junior, on 13 December at the Gardiner Chess Centre, Mudgeeraba. Both sections were at the rate of 20 minutes plus ten seconds per move.

 

The Premier was a double round robin between four teams of eight. Club Bullwinkle (Moulthun Ly, Jacob Edwards, Bruce Williams, Kevin Casey, Brian Thomas, Nik Stawski, Michael van Pelt, Craig Stewart and Regina Edwards) 35.5/48 won from Gardiner Chess 27, Logan 18 and Brisbane 15.5. Moulthun Ly was the best individual scorer with 5.5/6.

 

The Junior was a seven-round Swiss involving eleven players in three teams. Gardiner Chess One (Daniel Lapitan, Martin Jack, Keith Chan and Oliver McCarthy) 20/28 won from Gardiner Chess Two 14.5 and Brisbane 7.5. Keith Chan (Gardiner One) with 5.5/7 was the top individual scorer.

 

The Queensland Lightning Championship on the evening of the same day was a nine-round Swiss with 21 players. FM Gene Nakauchi, Patrick Byrom and Kevin Casey tied on 7/9.  A double round-robin playoff was won by Kevin 3/4 from Gene 2 and Patrick 1.

 

The Queensland AGM was held on 12 December at the Queensland Contract Bridge Club, Woolloongabba. The following were unopposed.

 

President: Garvin Gray

Vice President: Gail Young

Secretary: Patrick Byrom

Treasurer: Jim Rogers

Membership Secretary: Gail Young

Ratings Officer: Patrick Byrom

Tournament Officer: Garvin Gray

Regional Liaison Officer: none

Junior Chess Coordinator: Michael Corner

Publicity Officer: none

Development Officer: none.


State associations are invited to submit regular round-ups for inclusion, as are clubs and other bodies.

New South Wales

 

The 2009 Integra NSW State Championship and Reserves were conducted at the Sydney Academy of Chess, Burwood, from 30 September to 2 December.  Six players contested a double round robin in the main event.

 

Vincent Suttor, who qualified as winner of the 2008 Reserves, won the State Championship with 7.5/10 from FM Tomek Rej and FM Jesse Sales 7 and defending champion FM Greg Canfell 6.5.

 

The Reserves was a ten-player round robin won by Johnny Bolens with 7.5/9 from Arthur Huynh 7 and Sean Arundel 6.5.

 

 

Australian Capital Territory

 

The ACT Rapidplay Championship was held in Garema Place, Civic on 19 December, run by Street Chess with 42 participants.

 

Junta Ikeda won with 6.5/7 from GM David Smerdon 6, Tuan Le 5.5 and FM Endre Ambrus, Andrew Brown, Yi Yuan and Allen Setiabudi 5.

 

 

Victoria

 

Chess Victoria has commenced putting up the calendar of 2010 club and other events (still under construction). link

 

 

 

 


State pages (links)

 

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

Western Australia

South Australia

Tasmania

Australian Capital Territory

Table of Contents

 

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

From: IM Guy West

 

Hi Ian.

 

Well done on taking over the job of ACF newsletter editor. You mentioned early on that we should assist by providing feedback on any ways the newsletter might be improved.

 

I’d like to find out what people think of the split page format. Personally I’d much prefer to just have a single, broad, page of content and have to scroll down further. I find the current split format very distracting to read, as my attention keeps jumping from the left column to the right, which is often not the correct progression. It seems a natural thing to read right across the page from left to right, and having to filter out content on the right hand side feels a bit jarring to me. Chessplayers like to scan the whole board!

 

Given that this sort of layout is often encountered in newspapers, but for some reason doesn’t jar on me the way it does in this e-mail format, it’s possible I am unique in wishing that the layout was just a single, scrolling page. However, it would be good to get comments from others in case I’m not the only one. For me it detracts somewhat from the pleasure of reading it.

Other than that, I’m enjoying it very much.

 

Kind regards,

 

Guy West.

 

 

Ed: I don’t have any strong preference for one vs two columns - my priority is for something low maintenance so I can spend time on the content rather than the artistry, and especially something that can be extended or changed at the last minute.

 

This is why the newsletter exists purely in an on-line format – organising pagination for a print version would not be viable.

 

I chose the two-column layout as merely the first thought I had as something compact for what would be mainly small self-contained pieces, in some cases with a number of short lines. If anyone strongly agrees or disagrees with Guy please contact the usual address. I’m happy to change in whole or in part, and the Tournament Reports this time are in single column as they are (I think) more readable that way.

 

Table of Contents

 

 

TOURNAMENT REPORTS

Sensational Scotch!: The 2009 Australian Schools Teams Championships

(by Kerry Lyall and Charles Zworestine)

 

The 2009 Australian Schools Teams Championships were held in the beautiful grounds of Scotch College, Hawthorn, Victoria in the Cardinal Pavilion on 5-6 December 2009. There were over 110 children competing in four separate competitions: Open Primary, Girls Primary, Open Secondary and Girls Secondary. In 2009, the following states were represented – Victoria, SA, QLD, NSW, ACT and WA. In some instances, not all states fielded a team for every competition, and Victoria provided a fill-in team to try and avoid byes: Spensely Street Primary School back-filled WA in the open primary section, Mount View Girls Primary School back-filled WA in the primary girls section and Lauriston back-filled South Australia in the primary girls section. Unfortunately, a backup team to fill the WA vacancy in the secondary girls section could not be organised in time for the competition; so this event had a bye (5 teams).

 

Teams started arriving around 8.15 am on 5 December ready for the Opening Ceremony at 9.00 am. Mr Tom Batty, Principal of Scotch College, welcomed competitors, parents, teachers and coaches to the competition. Games started shortly after 9.30 am. All four divisions were played at a time control now common to Australian weekenders: 60 minutes for the whole game, plus ten seconds per move from the start (Fischer). Of course, only the secondary players ever really use this allotted time; with a few notable exceptions, the primary school players usually play blitz, and often all their games are over inside the first hour!

 

Round 1: The Primary Girls saw convincing 4-0 wins by Somerville House (QLD) over Mount View (VIC) and Curtin (ACT) over Summer Hill (NSW); while Lauriston drew 2-2 with fellow Victorian side PLC. In the Primary Open, Victorian favourites Mount View showed no mercy to fellow Victorians Spensely Street, beating them 4-0. The NSW side, Carlingford West, were 3-1 victors over Magill (SA). Meanwhile the match between Kings (QLD) and Kaleen (ACT) looked closest on paper, ratings leaving them very evenly matched. The result, however, was a 3-1 triumph to Kings, Martin Jack defeating Yijun Zhang on Board 1 and Kees Huband-Lint beating Jamie-Lee Guo on Board 3, but Matthew Pyper losing to Marat Rostov on Board 2.

 

Only 2 matches in the Secondary Girls; and while PLC enjoyed the bye (4 points), St Peter’s (SA) and Hornsby (NSW) had a dogfight resulting in a 2-2 draw. Meanwhile Somerset (QLD) beat Radford (ACT) 3-1, winning the bottom two boards and drawing Board 1 (Jessica Kinder vs Tamzin Oliver) and Board 2 after Joanne Mason agreed to a draw in a won position a pawn ahead against Danielle Kinder! The Secondary Open saw more ACF rated players than any of the other events; but it did not help Radford (ACT), who went down 4-0 to the overwhelming favourites Scotch College (VIC) despite Derek Yu having initially slightly the worse of a drawn knight vs bishop ending against Willis Lo on Board 3 and Nicholas Liu sacrificing a piece unsoundly against Bevan Lee on Board 4. The 4-0 win by Kings (QLD) against Seton (WA) was less eventful. Meanwhile North Sydney (NSW) did well to defeat Prince Alfred (SA) 3.5-0.5, Board 1 Kevin Tan agreeing to a draw after a wild game against Anthony Milton and Jack Ruan positionally beating Fabian Ivancic in a pure opposite coloured bishop ending on Board 2.

 

Round 2: Once more Somerville House were too strong for their opposition in the Primary Girls, 4-0 victors over Lauriston. PLC did likewise to Summer Hill; but Curtin dropped a point to Mount View, winning 3-1 after Lucinda Flood was upset on top board by May-Yi Foo. In the meantime, the Primary Open saw Mount View motor along to 8/8 with a 4-0 win over Magill; but the other two matches were far tougher! Carlingford West won 2.5-1.5 against Kaleen, losing Board 3 and drawing Board 4 but Raymond Han scoring an upset win over Marat Rostov on Board 2. Meanwhile Lauriston scored upsets on both the top two boards to draw 2-2 with Kings.

 

So to the Secondary Girls, where St. Peter’s relaxed in the luxury of the bye while Radford were 3-1 winners over Hornsby, losing only on Board 4. The match between PLC and Somerset was crucial, ending up 2-2 after the Victorians won on Board 4 but lost on Boards 2 and 3, leaving Sally Yu to level by tying up Jessica Kinder on Board 1. Scotch confirmed their tag as favourites by beating Kings 3.5-0.5 in the Secondary Open, Jaydon Blackman drawing with Nicholas Liu in an upset result on Board 4. But Zhigen Lin positionally outplayed Sam Grigg, winning a pawn; Eugene Schon won two bishops for a rook to defeat Sebastian Jule; and a knight fork saw Derek Yu beat Caleb Eriksson. North Sydney joined Scotch on 7.5/8 by beating Seton 4-0; while Prince Alfred beat Radford 2.5-1.5, winning Boards 3 and 4 but Anthony Milton suffering an upset loss to Edward Xing on Board 1 and Fabian Ivancic an upset draw with James Li on Board 2.

 

Round 3: Somerville College rounded off a perfect day in the Primary Girls with another 4-0 win (against PLC) to reach 12/12; but even then they were not safe, as Curtin’s own 4-0 win against Lauriston left them on 11/12 and only a point behind! Summer Hill’s Board 4 snared them their first point in their 1-3 loss to Mount View... The same school (Mount View) were still dominating the Primary Open, despite conceding three draws in their 2.5-1.5 win against Kings; the Kings players were all thrilled to register the upset draws on Boards 1, 3 and 4, but Zachary Loh put paid to Matthew Pyper on Board 2 to give Mount View the win. Carlingford West suffered a massive blow to their chances with a shock 2.5-1.5 loss to Spensely Street, their top board Andrew Pan pushing too hard to win a drawn position against Ari Dale and losing instead! Meanwhile Magill stunned Kaleen 3-1, Natasha Bortsova beating Yijun Zhang and Ted Wachtel upsetting Jamie-Lee Guo.

 

It was Somerset’s turn to rest in the Secondary Girls; but PLC ensured that they went into Day 2 level with them on 9/12 after beating Hornsby 3-1, suffering a shock loss on Board 3. The other match between Radford and St. Peter’s resulted in a tough 2.5-1.5 win to the ACT team, Radford losing on Board 3 and Board 1 seeing a tough fight between Sophie Eustace (White) and Tamzin Oliver end in an agreed draw despite White’s weak pawns. Meanwhile the Secondary Open saw the crucial battle between Scotch and North Sydney begin well for Scotch, Eugene Schon winning the exchange to grind down Jack Ruan after Derek Yu had earlier crushed Oscar Wang with tactics in 20 moves (see game below). But Jerry Xu had winning chances before drawing his Board 4 ending with Nicholas Liu; and Scotch completed a 3.5-0.5 victory when Kevin Tan on Board 1 missed a golden winning opportunity against Zhigen Lin, winning his queen for rook and bishop but soon allowing him back rank counterplay and a forced winning combination in time pressure. (See game below). Kings thus entered Day 2 half a point ahead of North Sydney in second place after beating Radford 4-0; while poor Seton were still yet to register a point after going down to Prince Alfred 4-0.

 

Wang, Oscar - Yu, Derek, 2009 ASTC Secondary Open Board 3, Round 3 05/12/2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.e5 Ng4 9.Bf4 f6 10.exf6 0–0 11.0–0 Qxf6 12.Bg3 Bd6 13.h3 Bxg3 14.fxg3 Qd4+ 15.Kh1 Nf2+ 16.Rxf2 Qxf2 17.Qh5 h6 18.Rf1 Qxg3 19.Bh7+ Kxh7 20.Rxf8 Bxh3 0–1

 

Tan, Kevin - Lin, Zhigen, 2009 ASTC Secondary Open Board 1, Round 3 05/12/2009

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.c3 0–0 9.Bd3 b6 10.0–0 Bb7 11.Re1 Be7 12.Qc2 c5 13.dxc5 bxc5 14.Rad1 Qc7 15.Neg5 h6 16.Bh7+ Kh8 17.Rxd7 Qxd7 18.Nxf7+ (Ne5 wins even more easily!) Rxf7 19.Ne5 Bf6 20.Nxd7 Rxd7 21.Be4 Bd5 22.c4 Bxe4 23.Qxe4 Rad8 24.b3 Rd2 25.Qxe6 Bd4 26.Re2 Rd1+ 27.Re1 Rd2 28.Re2 Rd1+ 29.Re1 Bc3 30.Qe8+ Rxe8 31.Rxd1 Re1+ 32.Rxe1 Bxe1 33.Kf1 Bb4 34.Ke2 Kg8 35.Kd3 Kf7 36.Ke4 Ke6 37.f4 g6 38.g4 Bc3 39.Kd3 Ba1 40.Ke4 g5 41.f5+ Kd6 42.a3 a5 43.f6 Bxf6 44.Kf5 Bb2 45.a4 Bd4 46.Kg6 Ke5 47.Kxh6 Be3 48.Kh5 Kd4 49.h4 gxh4 50.Kxh4 Kc3 51.Kg3 Kxb3 52.Kf3 Bd4 53.Ke4 Kxc4 54.g5 Kb4 55.g6 Bg7 56.Kd3 c4+ 57.Kc2 Kxa4 58.Kb1 Kb3 59.Kc1 c3 60.Kb1 c2+ 61.Kc1 Bh6# 0–1

 

The competitors had earlier been very excited to obtain their lunches, which most people had ordered from Subway. There was an opportunity for participants to catch up with friends from interstate before the third round. After Round 3, most people stayed for the evening meal. There was a long queue for the 10 types of entree and the many varieties of pizza and salad, as almost 180 people waited to collect their dinner. Leteisha Simmonds, who was celebrating her birthday, cut the ice cream cake – which had three different flavours – one cake had a chess board decorating it, one had the Australian Junior Chess League written on it and the final cake had Australian Schools Teams Championships decorating it. No one went home hungry!

 

Round 4: Another beautiful Melbourne day dawned on the 6 December for the final two rounds. Excitement pervaded the girls events, starting with the Primary Girls where Curtin, having drawn Board 3 against Somerville House, actually took the lead when Yi-Jing Zeng upset Jenny Yum on Board 2! Then Emma Dunstone (Curtin) won Manasi Hegde’s queen on Board 4, and it looked like Curtin would pull off an upset win; but Manasi fought back to draw an exciting ending, and Leteisha Simmonds was always in control with her extra pawns to beat Lucinda Flood and level at 2-2. So Curtin stayed a point behind, while Summer Hill leapt out of last place with a 4-0 win over Lauriston. PLC then beat Mount View 3-1 to all but sew up third place.

 

The Secondary Girls was almost as thrilling, Radford’s bye leaving them likely third while PLC and Somerset fought for the title. Sally Yu’s positional win against Sophie Eustace, cramping her up and winning a key pawn, left PLC looking good after their 4-0 win against St. Peter’s; but Danielle Kinder fought from behind to draw by perpetual check in Somerset’s 3.5-0.5 win against Hornsby, leaving them only half a point behind. Less excitement in the Primary Open, where Mount View wrapped it up with a 4-0 win over Kaleen; Spensely Street beat Magill 3-1 (Ari Dale upset Natasha Bortsova – see game below), and Kings looked good for second after drawing 2-2 with Carlingford West. Of course Sensational Scotch already had the Secondary Open wrapped up after beating Prince Alfred 4-0; while Seton scored their first point on Board 4 in their 3-1 loss to Radford (Taiga Yano beating Jak Carty). The key match for second between North Sydney and Kings saw the Sydney side prevail in spite of Sam Grigg’s exciting win against Kevin Tan on Board 1 (see game below); but Jack Ruan was too active for Sebastian Jule, and wins on the bottom two boards gave North Sydney a decisive 3-1 victory.

 

Dale, Ari - Bortsova, Natasha, 2009 ASTC Primary Open Board 1, Round 4 06/12/2009

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bg5 Bg7 5.f4 Bg4 6.Nf3 a6 7.h3 Bd7 8.g4 h5 9.gxh5 Nxh5 10.e5 Ng3 11.Rg1 Nxf1 12.Rxf1 Bxh3 13.Rg1 Nd7 14.Nd5 f6 15.Bh4 Bf5 16.Ne3 Be4 17.Rg4 dxe5 18.fxe5 Bxf3 19.Qxf3 g5 20.0–0–0 Nb6 21.e6 Bf8 22.Bxg5 fxg5 23.Qf7# 1–0

 

Grigg, Sam - Tan, Kevin, 2009 ASTC Secondary Open Board 1, Round 4 06/12/2009

1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 e5 7.0–0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.c5 Nf4 11.Bxf4 exf4 12.Rc1 f5 13.e5 dxe5 14.d6 Nc6 15.Qd5+ Kh8 16.b5 Nd4 17.Nxe5 Nxe2+ 18.Nxe2 Qe8 19.d7 Bxd7 20.Nxd7 Rd8 21.c6 bxc6 22.bxc6 Qxe2 23.Rce1 Qg4 24.Qb3 Rfe8 25.Rxe8+ Rxe8 26.Qf7 Qe2 27.Qd5 Qe6 28.Qf3 Qe4 29.Nc5 Qc4 30.Nb3 Qc2 31.h4 Qxa2 32.h5 a5 33.h6 Bf6 34.Qd5 Qe2 35.Nxa5 Bc3 36.Rb1 f3 37.gxf3 Qe7 38.Qd7 Qg5+ 39.Kf1 Rd8 40.Qxc7 Qh4 41.Nc4 Qh1+ 42.Ke2 Re8+ 43.Ne5 Bxe5 44.Rb8 Qe1+ 45.Kxe1 Bc3+ 46.Kf1 1–0

 

Round 5: No more thrills in  the Primary Girls, as Somerville House were clinical in dispatching Summer Hill 4-0 to claim first on 18/20. Curtin were shocked by PLC’s resistance in their 2-2 draw, happy in the end to take out second on 15/20 after upset losses on Boards 2 and 4. This left PLC third and Mount View fourth after they drew 2-2 with Lauriston. Mount View were just as clinical in the Primary Open, drawing Board 1 but winning the rest against Carlingford West for a 3.5-0.5 win to leave them first on 18/20. Kings were second on 12.5/20 after dispatching Magill 4-0; while Kaleen finally got it right in their 4-0 win against Spensely Street, not soon enough for them but happily for Carlingford West who thus took out third place on 9.5/20.

 

There was still some excitement left in the Secondary Open, despite Scotch predictably beating Seton 4-0 to finish first on 19/20; but Jack Ruan on Board 2 dropped queen for rook in his upset loss to James Li, and when Jerry Xu on Board 4 declined Jak Carty’s draw offer and went on to lose instead, North Sydney were only able to draw 2-2 with Radford. Could Kings beat Prince Alfred 4-0 to overtake them? Tough wins by Sam Grigg over Anthony Milton and Sebastian Jule against Fabian Ivancic gave them a chance; but Caleb Eriksson pressed too hard on Board 3, and his loss to Owen Yang left Kings 3-1 victors, third on 12.5/20 half a point behind North Sydney in second on 13/20. Meanwhile the Secondary Girls saw a less thrilling finish than expected, when Tamzin Oliver maintained her good record against Sally Yu and Joanne Mason won Sakthi Ravitharan’s queen to leave Radford level at 2-2 with PLC. Somerset thus needed only 3 points, and duly registered them on the bottom three boards to leave Jessica Kinder’s draw with Sophie Eustace irrelevant; so Somerset took out first with 16/20, PLC second with 15/20, Radford third with 12.5/20 and Hornsby fourth when their 4-0 bye enabled them to overtake St. Peter’s.

 

At the Closing Ceremony Kerry Lyall, the Chief Organiser of the tournament, thanked the many people who had assisted with the competition – especially Howard Chan and Michael Loh, two parents from the Mount View Primary School. Zhigen Lin, Board 1 for Scotch College, was presented with a book by FM Geoff Saw for his exemplary competition website. (Geoff also worked tirelessly over the weekend entering the games from the event). Kerry then introduced Mr Hugh Delahunty, Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation, Youth Affairs and Veterans’ Affairs who gave a short speech and presented the certificates of participation to team captains and the trophies to the prize winners. Feedback from the tournament was that participants really enjoyed it, that everyone was nice and that they liked the trophies: a most successful event!

 

The final standings were as follows:

 

Primary Girls    1st Somerville House (QLD) 18/20; 2nd Curtin (ACT) 15; 3rd PLC (VIC) 11;

                          4th Mount View (VIC) 7; 5th Summer Hill (NSW) 5; 6th Lauriston (VIC) 4.

 

Primary Open  1st Mount View (VIC) 18; 2nd Kings (QLD) 12.5; 3rd Carlingford West (NSW)

                          9.5; = 4th Spensely St (VIC), Kaleen (ACT) 7.5; 6th Magill (SA) 5.

 

Secondary Girls   1st Somerset (QLD) 16; 2nd PLC (VIC) 15; 3rd Radford (ACT) 12.5

                          4th Hornsby (NSW) 8.5; 5th St. Peter's (SA) 8.

 

Secondary Open  1st Scotch College (VIC) 19; 2nd North Sydney (NSW) 13; 3rd Kings (QLD)

                          12.5; 4th Prince Alfred (SA) 8; 5th Radford (ACT) 6.5; 6th Seton (WA) 1.

 

2009 Aust. Universities Rapid: Only 18, But Fun Had By All (by DOP Charles Zworestine)

 

Well, we are now up to the fourth incarnation of this event; and nothing much has changed! It is still a fun tournament, with a wonderful social element (more on this later); it is still played at Sydney University; and it still attracts only a small number of players. The latter fact is sad, given what a wonderful tournament it is; but I guess we just need to market it better, to ensure that everybody knows what a wonderful tournament it is! At least this year attracted a team from the University of Queensland for the first time, and a strong one at that; but again, you will have to read on to find out who they are... And I suppose 18 players still made it a reasonable turnout, with 5 different universities represented (Sydney University, NSW University, University of Queensland, UTS and Notre Dame); we’ll just have to try harder to get more players next year...

 

In case you don’t already know, this event was conceived years ago by Jenni Oliver and Sydney Uni postgraduate Jason Chan; and it always gets excellent sponsorship from the lovely Jenni... The idea was to lure young chess players out of their inevitable “chess retirement” while they study in Years 11 and 12; and the way to do this is to make the event as much fun as possible! Hence a fun variants event run by Jason Chan, with some of the most absurd variations of chess conceivable; food and drinks aplenty; relaxed starting times; and a rapid time control so nobody takes it all too seriously or worries about their rating. A social steakhouse dinner and bowling on the first night completed the package this year. Needless to add, much fun was had on this night; for those of you who have not seen it, apparently Charles bowling is a sight to behold...

 

As planned, the easygoing, social nature of this event was definitely helped by the rapid time controls: 20 minutes each, plus ten seconds per move from the start (Fischer). As stated above, not so many players this year: the representation went 7 from Sydney Uni, 6 from NSW Uni, 2 from UQ, 2 from UTS and 1 from Notre Dame. What made this interesting for the teams event was the strength of the players, with top seed Moulthun Ly (rapid rating 2393) and 7th seed Ben Lazarus (1785) the 2 players from UQ; and 3rd seed Blair Mandla (2142) and 4th seed Arthur Huynh (1963) the 2 players from UTS. Sydney Uni were favourites, as the teams prize was determined by the top 3 scorers and they had 2nd seed Jason Hu (2231) and 5th seed Robert Hvistendahl (1884). But I was pretty sure right from the start that UQ and UTS would give Sydney Uni and UNSW a run for their money; and subsequent events proved me correct...

 

After the usual “Charles standard time” late start, the scheduled 10:00 am first round began even later than last year (11:00); but we still got in 2 rounds before lunch! Results were predictable as usual in Round 1, although a couple of the higher seeds did struggle. Rob Hvistendahl was last to finish, winning a long game against Richard Hua; and Shan-Shan Qiao looked to be in trouble against Victor Teng’s powerful passed c6 pawn, but found a way to get her pieces in and checkmate him! Round 2 saw our first upsets, with Nicholas Leung winning a piece to a trap to beat Egon Cardenas; and Ben Lazarus drawing a topsy-turvy game with Arthur Huynh after Ben was better, then worse (bad bishop vs good knight), then finally drew with bishop and wrong coloured rook pawn! Moulthun won quickly against John Stuart Plant; Jason Hu took a bit longer but still convincingly beat Rob Hvistendahl. Meanwhile, Blair was cruel to his good friend Shan-Shan Qiao, the only female in the event; lucky she never takes these things too seriously...

 

Lunch followed (Turkish PIDE and pizza like last year), and disappeared at the usual rate; and then it was time for the variants fun event... It is impossible for me to describe the chaos this event brings with it! You win games by getting two pieces to the back rank at the same time; or by capturing an opposing knight; or where you can teleport your king anywhere safe (including capturing an unprotected enemy piece) and win by taking the enemy king. Think about it – you must always leave your king protected... Suffice it to say that fun was had by all; the event (at blitz time controls) was won by Moulthun on 8.5/9, with John Stuart second on 6.5.

 

The chess part of the day concluded with Round 3 – and a battle between the top two seeds! Magic Moulthun (MM) was attacking, but Jason “The Doctor” Hu handled everything he could throw at him; until he ran out of gas, and then it was Jason’s turn! But sadly all he could do was swap off into a drawn opposite coloured bishop ending... This enabled Blair and Ben to share the lead with MM and Jason on 2.5/3 going into Day 2. Blair was two pawns up against Arthur, but blundered one pawn back and ended up having to settle for a draw; while in another topsy-turvy game, John Stuart came back from miles down to force a drawn ending with rook, king and two rook pawns each against Ben, only to blunder in the king and pawn ending and lose!

 

About half of us then went to a very social and enjoyable dinner at a steak house, $10 of which per person was subsidised by the tournament – another invitation for more university students to play next year... Bowling followed, with competition bowler Rob Hvistendahl giving everyone a lesson in how to spin the ball; despite his skills, everyone on his lane was more than competitive with him. As for me, for the record I managed to win my lane – but only by fluking a spare and a strike in the last frame, narrowly overtaking Big Ben and MM by a handful of pins!

 

So to Friday, the second day; and sadly for him Blair’s attempt to sacrifice a piece to attack MM was a miserable failure, as he moved his king instead of blocking a check (which lost) and ended up trapping Blair’s queen! (Blair had missed this...). Magic thus stayed in a share of the lead with Dr Hu, who converted enormous pressure as White against Big Ben into first the win of a pawn, then another and then two connected passed pawns marching easily to victory. Upsets saw the unrated Tuan Diep (“he’s actually pretty good”, said the others) draw with Rob Hvistendahl; and Albert Teo beat Egon Cardenas despite conceding a 500 point rating gap. Apparently Albert was struggling to break a blockade of his opponent’s two knights (and queen and rook) against his knight, bishop, queen and rook; but then he found a way past the knights and ended up winning!

 

I missed a large chunk of Round 5 while helping Kai Meng get lunch; it was fortunate Kai had the bye due to Richard Hua missing two rounds because of an exam, as Kai thus became Sydney University’s new “lunch person”... Apparently Arthur had quite a solid start against Moulthun, and his position early looked OK; but Moulthun is not called Magic for nothing, and went on to triumph. But he still only shared the lead on 4.5/5 with Dr Hu, who convincingly defeated Johny Shih. Blair Mandla pulled off a typical comeback against Rob Hvistendahl after a terrible opening, losing his queen but winning it back straight away to end up triumphant. Tuan Diep managed an even bigger swindle against Ben Lazarus, coming back from three pawns down to draw their game after Ben “accidentally” walked into a perpetual check!

 

A nice Thai lunch followed, followed by a transfer (“bug”) tournament where the arbiter (me!) chose the teams “randomly” to ensure closer competition. This was won by Moulthun Ly and Kai Meng on 6/7, followed by Rob Hvistendahl and Albert Teo sharing second with Jason Hu and Johny Shih on 5... Round 6 then saw Jason defeat Blair after the latter underestimated his opponent’s pressure, and just what a terrible position he had gotten himself into! Jason was thus still equal first on 5.5/6 with MM after Magic beat his UQ teammate Big Ben, getting the better of their piece play and winning tactically. Most of the other higher seeds won this round, although Ulas did win two pawns to upset the luckless Shan; and John Stuart was rather lucky to beat Tuan Diep after the latter mistakenly swapped queens when attacking, having earlier missed an opportunity to push his advanced passed e-pawn to e2 and win!

 

Thus the final round began with The Doctor and Magic still joint leading on 5.5/6; would the tie be broken? Moulthun ensured himself at least equal first by quickly and convincingly beating Rob Hvistendahl; but despite taking longer, Jason was still too strong for Arthur Huynh to share the first place prize money. Only a Buchholz tiebreak could separate them, this unfortunate method leaving MM with the first place trophy. John Stuart Plant then stunned by winning a piece to upset Blair after the latter misplayed the tactics. So, third place for John Stuart; Sydney Uni claimed the first placed team, with University of Queensland second and NSW Uni third.

 

Individual Prizes

 

= 1st Moulthun Ly, Jason Hu 6.5/7

 3rd John Stuart Plant 5/7

 

Team Prizes (Top Three Scorers From Each University Only)

 

1st Sydney University 14.5  (Jason Hu 6.5, Tuan Diep 4, Ulas Agceli 4)

2nd University of Queensland 10.5  (Moulthun Ly 6.5, Ben Lazarus 4)

3rd NSW University 9 (Nicholas Leung 3, Albert Teo 3, Shan-Shan Qiao 3)

Table of Contents

 

 

GAMES

Caoili,A (2206) - Yurenok,M (1968) [B10]

London Classic Womens (2), 09.12.2009

1.c4 c6 2.e4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Qb3 Bg7 7.g3 0–0 8.Bg2 Nbd7 9.d4 a6 10.Nge2 Ra7 11.a4 b6 12.Na2 a5 13.Nac3 Ba6 14.Nb5 Bxb5 15.Qxb5 Ne8 16.0–0 Nd6 17.Qb3 Qb8 18.Bf4 Rc8 19.Rac1 Rxc1 20.Rxc1 Rb7 21.Bh3 f5 22.Qe3 Nf8 23.Be5 Qd8 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 25.Nf4 Qd7 26.b3 Rc7

27.Rc6 Ne4 28.Qxe4 fxe4 29.Bxd7 Rxd7 30.Rxb6 g5 31.Ne6+ Nxe6 32.Rxe6 Kf7 33.Rxe4 Rxd5 34.Kf1 Kf6 35.Ke2 Rd8 36.Kd3 Rb8 37.Kc4 Rb4+ 38.Kc3 Rb7 39.Re5 Rc7+ 40.Rc5 Ra7 41.Kc4 e6 42.Rc6 Kf5 43.f3 h5 44.Kb5 Rb7+ 45.Rb6 Rd7 46.Kc5 Re7 47.Rc6 Rb7 48.Kc4 Ra7 49.Rb6 Rc7+ 50.Kd3 Ra7 51.Ke3 Rc7 52.Rb5+ Kf6 53.Rc5 Ra7 54.Ke4 Ra6 55.h4 gxh4 56.gxh4 Kg6 57.Rg5+ Kh6 58.f4 Rb6 59.Rxa5 Rxb3 60.Ra6 Rh3 61.Rxe6+ Kg7 62.a5 Rxh4 63.Kf5 Rh1 64.a6 Ra1 65.Re7+ (Remainder unrecorded) 1–0

 

Caoili,A (2206) - Smith,O (2026) [C28]

London Classic Womens (1), 08.12.2009

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d3 Bb4 5.Nge2 d5 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.a3 Nxc3 8.Nxc3 Ba5 9.0–0 0–0 10.f4 Bb6+ 11.Kh1 exf4 12.Bxf4 Nd4 13.Ne4 Ne6

14.Qh5 Bd4 15.Bg5 Qd7 16.c3 Be5 17.Rae1 Qc6 18.Be7 1–0

 

Illingworth,M (2211) - Tan,W (2168) [B53]

2009 Commonwealth ch (2), 10.12.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.Bg5 Nf6 8.Nc3 e6 9.0–0–0 Be7 10.Qd3 Qa5 11.Bd2 Qc7 12.Nd4 0–0 13.f4 d5 14.e5 Ne4 15.Nxe4 dxe4 16.Qc4 Qb6 17.Nxc6 bxc6 18.Qxe4 Rab8 19.Bc3 Qa6 20.Kb1 Rb7 21.g4 Rfb8 22.Ka1 h5 23.b3 Bb4 24.Bb2 Rb5 25.Rd4 hxg4 26.f5 Qa5

27.fxe6 Rxe5 [27...fxe6 28.Qg6] 28.exf7+ Kxf7 29.Rf1+ 1–0

Lazarus,B (2168) - Lo,K (2174) [B30]

2009 Commonwealth ch (4), 11.12.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Na5 4.Be2 e6 5.c4 Qc7 6.Nc3 a6 7.0–0 Ne7 8.a3 Ng6 9.d3 Be7 10.Be3 0–0 11.Rc1 Nf4 12.Re1 Nxe2+ 13.Rxe2 b6 14.Na4 e5 15.b4 Nb7 16.Nc3 d6 17.a4 a5 18.bxc5 bxc5 19.Rb2 Nd8 20.Nd5 Qa7 21.Rcb1 f5 22.Nb6 Rb8 23.Nxc8 Rxc8 24.exf5 Qd7 25.Nd2 Nc6 26.g4 Nb4 27.Ne4 d5 28.Ng3 h6 29.Re2 Rfd8 30.Re1 Kh7 31.Qe2 Qxa4 32.g5 Bf8 33.gxh6 gxh6 34.Qg4 Qe8 35.Kh1 Rc7 36.Nh5 Qf7 37.Rg1 Rd6 38.Rg3 Nxd3 39.f6 d4

40.Qf5+ Kh8 41.Rg7 Bxg7 42.fxg7+ Qxg7 [42...Kg8 43.Rb8+] 43.Nxg7 dxe3 44.Rb8+ Kxg7 45.Qf8+ 1–0

 

Koh,J (2211) - Stojic,D (2201) [B22]

2009 Commonwealth ch (3), 11.12.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.c3 d6 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 Nc6 7.Bc4 e6 8.0–0 Be7 9.Re1 0–0 10.Nc3 Nxc3 11.bxc3 dxe5 12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Rxe5 Qc7 14.Qd3 Bd7 15.Bb3 Bf6 16.Re3 e5 17.Ba3 Rfe8 18.d5 g6 19.Ree1 Bf5 20.Qg3 Rac8 21.Rac1 e4 22.Bd6 Qd7 23.c4 b6 24.Bf4 Bb2 25.Rc2 Ba3 26.Be3 a5 27.Rc3 Bb4 28.Bd4 a4 29.Bd1 b5 30.Be2 bxc4 31.Rb1 Bxc3 32.Qxc3 e3 33.Rf1 exf2+ 34.Rxf2 Qxd5 35.Bh8 f6 36.Qxf6 Qf7 37.Qc3 h5 38.h3 Kh7 39.Bd4 Qe6 40.g4 Bd3 41.Bxd3 cxd3 42.Qxd3 Rc1+ 43.Kh2 Qd6+ 44.Kg2 Qd5+

45.Kg3 [45.Qf3 Qxd4 46.Qf7+ Kh6 47.Qxe8 (47.g5+ Kxg5 48.h4+ Kh6) 47...Qd5+ 48.Rf3 Rc2+ 49.Kg1 Qd1+ 50.Rf1 Qd4+ 51.Kh1 Qd5+; 45.Rf3 hxg4 46.hxg4 Rf8 47.Bf2 Qxf3+ 48.Qxf3 Rxf3 49.Kxf3 Ra1] 45...Rg1+ 46.Kh4 hxg4 0–1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Diagrams by http://www.chessvideos.tv/

Lee,W (2228) - Johansen,D (2435) [C01]

Australasian Masters (9), 13.12.2009

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.exd5 exd5 5.Qf3 Nc6 6.Bb5 Nge7 7.Nge2 Bf5 8.a3 Be4 9.Qh3 Bxc3+ 10.Qxc3 Bxg2 11.Rg1 Be4 12.f3 Bg6 13.Bg5 f6 14.Bh4 Qd7 15.Nf4 Kf7 16.0–0–0 a6 17.Bf1 Bf5 18.Bf2 Rhe8 19.h4 Nd8 20.Nh5 g6 21.Ng3 Ne6 22.Qd2 Qd6 23.Be3 Rg8 24.Re1 Rae8 25.Kb1 h5 26.Ka2 Qc6 27.Rc1 b5 28.b3 Rb8 29.Kb2 Qb6 30.Bf2 Qd6 31.Be3 Ra8 32.Ra1 c6 33.a4 b4 34.a5 c5 35.Ra4 cxd4 36.Bf2 Nc6 37.Nxf5 gxf5 38.Rxg8 Kxg8 39.Qh6 Ng7 40.f4 Qe7

41.Ra1 Qc5 42.Bd3 Kf7 43.Rg1 Rg8 44.Qg6+ Ke7 45.Re1+ Kd8 46.Qxf6+ Kc8 47.Bxa6+ Kb8 48.Qf7 1–0

 

Levi,E (2242) - Dragicevic,D (2223) [B48]

Australasian Masters (7), 11.12.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 a6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Qc7 7.Bd3 Nf6 8.0–0 Ne5 9.h3 Nc4 10.Bxc4 Qxc4 11.e5 Nd5 12.Ne4 Qc7 13.Qh5 Be7 14.c4 Nxe3 15.fxe3 g6 16.Qf3 Qxe5 17.Qxf7+ Kd8 18.Rad1 d6

19.Nxd6 Qxe3+ [19...Bxd6 20.Nf3 Qxe3+ 21.Kh1 Qc5 22.Qf6+] 20.Kh1 Rf8 21.Nc6+ bxc6 22.Nf5+ 1-0

 

Morris,J (2200) - Solomon,S (2427) [E11]

Australasian Masters (9), 13.12.2009

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.e3 b6 6.Bd3 Bb7 7.Qc2 0–0 8.a3 Bxd2+ 9.Nbxd2 c5 10.0–0 d6 11.b4 Nbd7 12.Rfd1 Rfd8 13.Rab1 h6 14.h3 Rac8 15.Qb2 e5 16.dxe5 dxe5 17.e4 g6 18.b5 Nh5 19.g3 f5 20.Re1 f4 21.g4 Ng7 22.Rbd1 Ne6 23.Nb3 Nd4 24.Nfxd4 exd4 25.f3 Ne5 26.Kg2 h5 27.Nc1 Kf7 28.Qd2 g5 29.Be2 hxg4 30.hxg4

30...Nxg4 31.Rh1 [31.fxg4 Qxe4+] 31...Rh8 32.Nd3 Ne3+ 33.Kf2 g4 34.Rdg1 g3+ 35.Ke1 Rxh1 36.Rxh1 g2 37.Rh7+ Kg8 0-1

 

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SUNDRIES / LATE NEWS

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Tuesday 26 January 2010 (deadline Friday 22 January)

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Thanks to our contributors to this issue including Charles Zworestine, Kerry Lyall, Ian Rogers, Guy West, Milan Ninchich, Brian Jones, anyone else I overlooked and those whose information I purloined from other sources. 

 

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