ACF NEWS

ACF OFFICE BEARERS

The following ACF non-elected office bearer position remains vacant:

• Olympiad Appeal Coordinator

The ACF is seeking expressions of interest from anyone wishing to fill this position. Please contact ACF Secretary, Jey Hoole             jeydh4@hotmail.com, or ACF president Gary Wastell gwastell@netspace.net.au  as soon as possible if you are interested.

APPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR EVENTS

from Shannon Oliver, Junior Selection Coordinator

Applications are now open for the various junior international tournaments. The website is www.australianjuniorchess.org.au. Tournaments for which you can apply are:

• World Youth Age Championships (U8-U18)
• Asean Age Championships (U8-18)
• Asian Youth Age Championships (U8-U18)
• World Junior Championships (U20)
• Asian Junior Championship (U20)

All of these have both an open and a girls division. The World U16 Olympiad is an open teams tournament.

The dates for these event are:

June 12-21
ASEAN Age Group Championships
(Note: Australian players are usually allowed to compete in ASEAN Championships)
Subic Bay, the Philippines

August 2-16
World Junior
Ankara, Turkey

August 15-24
World Youth Olympiad (U/16)
Ankara, Turkey

October 19-31
World Youth Championships (U/8-U/18)
Vung Tau, Vietnam

The dates for the Asian Youth and and Asian Juniors have not been released, and the ASEAN tournament dates have yet to be confirmed by FIDE, however if you are interested in going to either of these tournaments you must apply now (acceptance of these selections will be deferred until after the dates are announced).

The ASEAN tournament is a new tournament for Australia to enter, and the exact regulations and age divisions are still to be announced. In 2007 there were age categories, but unlike World Youths, there is no free accommodation for the first selected player. This may change for 2008. In order to play in this tournament you MUST apply for it and be selected.

There are a few other tournaments held during the year to which Australia is allowed to send players. These are:

April 26 - May 5
World Schools Individual Championships
Singapore

July 9-17
World Schools Championship
Pardubice, Czech Republic

September 1-7
ASEAN Youth U/9, U/12 and U/15 Youth Teams Championships
Venue as yet unknown

If you are interested in playing any of these please let me know. Selections will close on the 9 March 2008.

Email me if you have any queries/problems with the website. If you wish to see the selection procedure by-law please go to www.auschess.org.au/constitution/Selection_Procedures_By-law.txt, or request a copy from me.

Shannon Oliver
Junior Selection Coordinator
shan_o_86@hotmail.com

JUNIOR CHESS NEWS

from Denis Jessop, ACF Vice President & Presiding Member ACF Junior Chess Subcommittee

Australian Junior Championships 2009

To date the Australian Junior Championships 2009 have not been allocated.

A bid was submitted by Chess Victoria. Initially the bid contained three formats for the event but, following a meeting with the ACF President in December, the bid was revised so as to contain only one proposed format. The revised bid was considered at the ACF Council meeting held in Sydney on 6 January 2008.

The Council resolved as follows: "That the revised CV bid for the 2009 Australian Juniors is not acceptable in its current form, and the ACF respond to CV with the concerns that they need to meet in the resubmitted bid to make it acceptable to the ACF."

The motion was carried 9 – 0 with 2 abstentions ( the ACF President and the Chess Victoria delegate).

A further motion: "That CV respond to the ACF by 1 month from the date of the ACF response, and respond positively to the concerns raised by the ACF" was carried unanimously.

On 18 January 2008 the ACF Secretary sent the following message to the then Chess Victoria President:

"The ACF Council has decided not to accept the Chess Victoria bid for the Australian Junior Championships 2009 but to give CV the opportunity to submit a fresh bid after considering the reservations that the Council has with the bid in its present form.

Those reservations relate both to the proposed venue for, and to the proposed format of the Championships.

1. The Venue

On the information submitted the venue appears to be unsuitable for an Australian Junior Championships for the following reasons.

a. The playing area is too small.

b. The venue is not air-conditioned and no amount has been set aside in the draft budget for the hire of air-conditioning, despite the statement that it is available "if necessary". It is unclear how and when the need for air conditioning will be determined. temporary air- conditioning is notoriously noisy and inefficient.

c. There is insufficient space for players and their coaches to work.

d. There is insufficient space for players who have finished their games to discuss them or to socialise with their friends.

e. There is insufficient space for parents to spend their time while their children are playing their games.

f. It is unclear if there will be any space for spectators to watch the games or what arrangements, if any, are proposed for spectators.

g. There does not appear to be a safe area outside, and near, the venue for children to play after they have completed their games.

It is noted that it is proposed that two rounds per day be played so that players will probably need to remain at the venue between rounds, adding weight to points c. to g. (except f.).

2. The Format

It is usual for all events - Open u18, Girls u18, Open u12 and Girls u12 - to be played at the same time and for nobody to be permitted to play in more than one event. The proposed format will allow anyone to play in the open u18 even if they have already played in the Girls u18, the Open u12 or the Girls u12. This gives rise to some difficulties.

a. Though an u12 boy will be able to play in both the Open u12 and the Open u18, a player in the Girls u12 will not be able to play in the Girls u18.

b. The established rule is that no player may win more than one title and a person qualifying for two or more titles must take the highest one. If a player wins a title in the u12 event and then plays in, and wins a title in, the u18 event (for example Open u12 and Open u14) the final result of the event held in the first set of tournaments will not be known until the completion of the second set.

c. The same comment applies to the Rapid and Lightning events. It is noted that there are to be two of each and, though it is not stated in the bid, it is assumed that those in the first set will be limited to those persons who could play in the first set long-time-control tournaments. Any other course would not be acceptable as the Rapid and Lightning events are title events.

d. It is noted that the proposed time control for the u18 and U12 events has an increment of 30 seconds per move (Fischer). The currently approved time control increment is 60 seconds per move.

e. The number of rounds for the Girls events is only 9 rounds. It should be the usual 11 rounds.

f. The proposal to hold the play-offs on the day after the final round adds an unnecessary additional day for those players involved. The play-offs should be scheduled immediately after the last round is completed.

Conclusion

If CV wishes any subsequent bid to be favourably received they need to ensure that the above points are suitably addressed with particular focus on the following:

1) All events are held over the same time period and are to be 11 rounds at a suitable air-conditioned venue (see points 1. a. to g., above).

2) There is only one Lightning and one Rapid event.

3) The time control is the currently approved time controls of 90 + 60 secs for the U18 events and 60 + 60 secs for the U12 events.

To these ends we note that if a venue cannot be found to cater for 160-200 players concurrently then it would seem possible for the above time controls to be used if the U12 Open & U12 Girls start at 10am daily with the U18 Open & U18 Girls starting at 2pm.

The Council resolved that your response is requested within one month of the date of this message."

The ACF was also aware that Chess Victoria would be holding its AGM on 4 February and that the composition of the new Committee, and hence its views about the bid, might be different from the old. But this was not a major concern influencing the substance of the ACF's view as reflected in the motions and the message to Chess Victoria. To date no response has been received from Chess Victoria.

Whatever the outcome, the ACF is confident that it will be able to allocate the event in the near future.

ACF Junior Selection Co-ordinator

The Council meeting on 6 January appointed Shannon Oliver to be the Junior Selection Co-ordinator for 2008. I understand that Shannon proposes to call for applications for selection for various overseas junior events soon and that she will provide an on-line application system to facilitate their submission.

Ergas Elite Junior Development Squad

The ACF Council has appointed Kerry Lyall, who is also Secretary of Chess Victoria, to be the Co-ordinator for the Ergas Elite Junior Development Squad for 2008.

ACF Junior Chess Subcommittee

This Subcommittee was first established in 2004 to advise the ACF Council on Junior Chess matters. It comprises a Presiding Member from the ACF Executive and one person nominated by each State Association after consultation with any affiliated junior chess body. The ACF President is also an ex-officio member.

The Subcommittee was not particularly successful due mainly to lack of interest on the part of many of its members and the failure of some State Associations to nominate a member.

Recently the ACF decided to reconstitute the Subcommittee by calling for fresh nominations. So far these have been received only from Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. I am the Presiding member.

The value of a successful Junior Subcommittee would be that it would provide specialist knowledge on junior chess matters to the ACF Council that the Council may otherwise lack. State Associations that have not yet made nominations of a member are urged to do so and readers who have a mind to do so are encouraged to urge their State Associations to make a nomination.

Denis Jessop
ACF Vice President
Presiding Member ACF Junior Chess Subcommittee

2008 OLYMPIAD SELECTIONS

from Kevin Bonham, ACF Selections Co-Ordinator (Senior Events)

The 38th FIDE Chess Olympiad will be held in Dresden, Germany, from 12-25 November 2008.

I am writing to advise strong players intending to apply for the Olympiad teams for Australia for 2008 of the expected date on which applications for selection will close. This will have a bearing on any intending applicants who are short of game practice and need to get rated games played by that deadline to meet the ACF's 20 games rule which comes into effect at this Olympiad.

The intended selection deadline is Friday 20 June 2008. If any change to this is expected I will notify it to this list, but I do not expect it to change.

The 20 games rule, adopted a few years ago but only now coming into effect, requires each applicant for the Australian Olympiad teams to have played 20 rated games in the previous year by the selection deadline (ie 20 June 2007 - 20 June 2008). The definition of a rated game includes any game rated by the ACF and/or FIDE that is not a rapid play game. A game rated by another federation (eg BCF) will also count where requested, provided that an adequate formula for converting that federation's ratings to either ACF or FIDE ratings exists. Of course, any game can only be counted once.

Players should also note that the number of players per team has been changed. Both open and female teams will now consist of five players each, of whom four will play in each round.

I expect to declare applications open, via the ACF Newsletter and via a post to the Olympiad Notices thread on the ChessChat forum (http://chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=7026) around early April.

Best regards,
Kevin Bonham
ACF Selections Co-Ordinator (Non-Junior Events)
k_bonham@tassie.net.au

ACF SELECTIONS EMAIL LIST

A backup email list exists for people interested in receiving calls for applications for adult-event selections when these are sent out. I may also use this list to send out advance information about upcoming events for which selections will be called, before the formal selections process has been determined. This list will be additional to, and not a replacement for, use of the ACF Newsletter to call for selections.

TO JOIN THIS MAILOUT LIST:

Simply email k_bonham@tassie.net.au with "join selections mailout list" in the subject field of your email, and I will add you to the list for the next email (messages are sent infrequently, and mainly in the leadup to particular FIDE events). If you wish to join from a different or any extra email addresses, include a note to that effect. You can unsubscribe or change email address by emailing me at any time.

THE FINE PRINT:

The list is intended as a backup for the process of announcing calls for selection in ACF Newsletter only. Anyone with an interest in applying for ACF selections is expected to subscribe to the ACF email newsletter and remain subscribed at all times to the best of their ability. All care will be taken with the upkeep of this list, but as email is not completely reliable, no responsibility for delivery failures of emails sent to the address subscribed will be accepted. Subscribers are responsible for ensuring their email address remains current, and any address that bounces repeatedly will be dropped. This list will not cover junior-only events.

I hope this list will assist in ensuring more players are aware, well in advance, of upcoming opportunities to represent Australia.

Best regards to all,
Kevin Bonham
ACF Selections Co-Ordinator (Senior Events)
k_bonham@tassie.net.au

MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS GRAND PRIX

http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/grandprix/

The provisional list of 2007 Myer Tan Grand Prix prizewinners was published in the January/February 2008 issue of Australasian Chess. The ACF Grand Prix Director, Brian Jones, has now provided a final list:

Coming Grand Prix Events

EVENTS CALENDAR

2008 Gold Coast Tin Cup

The 2008 Gold Coast Tin Cup is for players rated under 1750. Come join this fun event where the titled players can only watch and wish that they were playing. February 16 & 17th at Somerset College Sports Pavillion, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba (300m west of Somerset College). Prizes include $500 for 1st, $200 for 2nd and $100 for third. Rating groups will have $100 for 1st and $60 for 2nd. New this year is the awarding of medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the divisions for players under 1000 (no cash prizes for these divisions). For details and an entry form just visit Tin Cup entry form, email outreachchess@bigpond.com or call Peter Bender on 07 5556 0434.

March Madness Open

Venue Zillmere & Districts Community Sports Club, O'Callaghan Park, 360 Zillmere Road, Zillmere, Qld, 4034.
Format 7 rounds.
Entry fee Open $60, Under 1000 $50. ($10 discount if paid by 14/2/08. $10 surcharge to unregistered players on 1/3/08).
Prizes Open $600; $500; $400; $300; $200 (+ rating group prizes). Under 1000 $125; $100; $75.
Registration 8.30-9.00am 1/3/08.
Session times 4 rounds on Saturday, 3 rounds on Sunday, starting at 9.30am.
Rate of play 60 mins + 10 secs per move.
Enquiries Gail Young, 0411 704 815, qwcl@hotmail.com
Webpage http://www.caq.org.au/htm/2008MarchMadnessOpen.pdf

Doeberl Cup

Venue Hellenic Club of Canberra, Matilda Street, Woden, ACT, 2606.
Format Premier Tournament 9 round Swiss. Major, Minor and Senior Tournaments 7 round Swiss. Under 1200 Tournament 6 round Swiss.
Entry fee Premier $140 (Free to GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs). Major, Minor & Senior $120 (U/18 $80). Under 1200 $60.
Prizes Premier $4000, $2500, $1500, $800, $500, $400, $350, $300, $250, $200. Major $1,500, $800, $450, $250, $150, $100. Minor $750, $400, $250, $150, $100 & Unr $100. Senior $450, $300, $150, $100.
Registration By midday, 19/3/08.
Session times Premier Thursday 1.00pm, 7.00pm; Friday 1.00pm, 7.00pm; Saturday 10.00am, 3.00pm; Sunday 10.00am, 3.00pm; Monday 9.00am. Major, Minor & Senior Friday 1.00pm, 7.00pm; Saturday 10.00am, 3.00pm; Sunday 10.00am, 3.00pm; Monday 9.00am. Under 1200 Friday 1.00pm, 4.00pm, 7.00pm, Saturday 10.00am, 1.00pm, 4.00pm.
Rate of play Premier, Major, Minor & Senior 90 mins + 30 secs. Under 1200 60 mins + 10 secs.
Enquiriesinfo@doeberlcup.com.au
Webpage http://www.doeberlcup.com.au

Sydney International Open

http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/open/index.cfm

1^st Mumbai International Open

Venue Goregaon Sports Club, New Link Road, Malad, Mumbai.
Format 11 Round FIDE Swiss.
Entry fee Free to GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. Entry fees depending of rating.
Prizes for 1^st to 30^th, Rs. 2,75,000/-, Rs. 1,70,000, Rs. 100,000, etc. and rating prizes. Total cash prizes 11,00,000/-.
Registration by 25/3/08. Late fee of Rs. 500/- by 2/5/08 or Rs. 1000/- by 20:00 8/5/08.
Enquiriesvenuschessacademy@gmail.com or venuschess@gmail.com
Flyer PDF

COMPLETED EVENTS

Australian Schools Teams Championships

Website

Souvenir Bulletin

2008 Australian Chess Championship

Chief Arbiter, Charles Zworestine's round summaries conclude...

Today was the day when Solo was finally caught in the lead, as his attempts to grind down Max Illingworth were thwarted by a determined and well prepared opponent who ended up forcing a draw in an opposite coloured bishop endgame. This left us with 3 joint leaders on 7/9 with two rounds to go, the others being Dejan Antic (who exploited weak pawns to beat Jesse Sales) and Herman van Riemsdijk (whose two bishops beat Sam Chow’s rook and pawn). An interesting set of Round 10 pairings was set up by there being three players on 6/9, Max being joined by Felix Klein and George Xie. Felix stopped Moulthun Ly’s undefeated run by winning pretty much all of MM’s pawns into a won opposite coloured bishop endgame, while George took advantage of Darryl Johansen moving the wrong rook to inflict the GM’s first loss. Joining MM on 5.5/9 was Igor Goldenberg, whose attack smashed through very early in the game to beat Gareth Oliver.

While Tristan Boyd was drawing a long endgame struggle the exchange down against Doug Hamilton, Junta Ikeda blew a near certain win against Ronald Yu in Junta’s inevitable time trouble (they ended up drawing). Greg Canfell just kept winning material to convincingly beat Paul Broekhuyse, and Tomek Rej disposed of Michael Morris by finally getting at his king. Barak Atzmon-Simon and David Hacche agreed a draw in an equal middlegame position; Ben Lazarus’ two bishops and passed d-pawn took care of Jason Hu; Gary Lane’s kingside attack made short work of Ascaro Pecori; and Igor Bjelobrk’s passed c-pawn won a rook and pawn endgame against Malcolm Pyke. Gareth Charles was unfortunately over an hour late and forfeited to Stewart Booth, but to his credit still came in and apologised. Andrew Bird won an exchange to a tactic to beat Michael Wei; James Morris won pawns to upset Dusan Stojic in an endgame; and Hani Malik agreed a draw in an equal and locked ending against Vincent Suttor.

A successful opening led to a beautiful attacking position for James Watson as White against Jason Cohn on Board 1 of the Major; the resultant victory (Jason resigned when 3 pawns down!) left James still in the outright lead on 7.5/9. Breathing down his neck on 7/9 were Sanghoon Lee, whose extra piece defeated Adrian Rose’s three pawns in another long endgame; and Yongtae Kim, who defeated Tim Hare by refuting the latter’s exchange sacrifice. Just half a point further back on 6.5/9 were Kevin Sheldrick and Blair Mandla, after Blair’s strong initiative and powerful passed d-pawn as White beat Dizdarevic and Kevin defeated Mendes da Costa in a long queen and rook endgame two pawns ahead. Two youngsters scored upset draws: Arthur Huynh against Phil Viner in a bishop vs knight ending, and Joshua Lau (continuing his good run) against Ben Harris in a locked opening position. It was Ben’s sister Rebecca who upheld the family honour more effectively, continuing a poor tournament for Svetozar Stojic with another upset win.

Excitement plus abounded on Board 1 of the Minor, where the critical game between joint leaders Howard Duggan and Bob Liang resulted in a topsy turvy draw in one of the most thrilling games of the entire event! Howard had what should have been a winning attack, but misplayed it trying to force mate instead of taking back sacrificed material; Bob was then winning, but behind on time swapped into a drawn ending; even then Howard may have misplayed it, but Bob made one more inaccurate move and they drew after all! Anthony Villanueva was just half a point behind after his win against Michael Courtney; but David Evans only drew with Tereza Grbin to join a group of five players on 6/9 a full point behind Anthony. A fascinating last two rounds were in prospect… Upsets this round were scored by Vince Chiara over Alex Mehan, and Mary Wilkie over Michael Tracey; finally, a few blows struck for the more experienced players…

A foreign invasion of the Australian Championships became a distinct possibility after today’s second last round, as Herman van Riemsdijk took the outright lead for the first time on 8/10 with a lengthy knight vs bishop endgame win against Felix Klein’s isolated d-pawn. Dejan Antic pressed hard to join him, but could not quite make an extra pawn count in a double rook endgame against Max Illingworth and ended up having to settle for a draw. He was joined in equal second place on 7.5/10 by Stephen Solomon, still the leading Australian by a full point (and hence favourite for the title of Australian Champion) after simplifying to a drawish rook and opposite coloured bishop ending against George Xie. Four players on 6.5/10 could still catch him, Xie and Illingworth being joined there by Igor Goldenberg and Moulthun Ly. Goldenberg got too many pawns for the exchange and cashed in to beat Greg Canfell; while MM positionally ground down Ronald Yu, ending up winning the exchange for his ultimate triumph.

One of the more bizarre but exciting games of the event occurred between Darryl Johansen and Jesse Sales, all begun when Darryl missed a knight fork early (move 21); he was still winning despite his opponent’s many attempted tactical tricks, but they ended up settling into what should have been a drawn bishop ending. It was a shame, therefore, when the GM misplayed it and ended up losing in a bishop and pawn vs bishop endgame instead… Tomek Rej’s win against Doug Hamilton (in a knight vs bishop ending with an outside passed pawn) was somewhat less eventful. Draws on the next four boards included Lazarus-Boyd in a rook ending; Hacche-Chow with rook and opposite coloured bishops; Oliver-Lane in a double rook and minor piece ending; and Ikeda vs Atzmon-Simon after Junta was happy to accept a draw when he had a bad bishop against the enemy knight! Igor Bjelobrk won Paul Broekhuyse’s queen and hence their game; Stuart Booth beat Michael Morris, ending up in a won rook endgame a pawn ahead; and more draws occurred in Pecori-Hu (pure opposite coloured bishop ending) and Stojic-Wei (long rook ending). Tactics won Bird lots of material to beat Pyke; Suttor won a piece early to beat James Morris; and Gareth Charles’ queenside pawn expansion accounted for Romeo Capilitan.

James Watson's opening was a success against Yongtae Kim on Board 1 of the Major, resulting in a slight edge for the outright tournament leader in a double rook and opposite coloured bishop endgame; but James judged it was not enough, and quickly agreed to a draw. He then thanked Kevin Sheldrick, who converted a strong attacking position against Sanghoon Lee into a winning mating attack to leave James still in the lead by half a point on 8/10. Blair Mandla joined Kevin and Yongtae on 7.5/10 by turning a slightly inferior ending (knight and bishop vs two bishops, with each player having a pawn chain on the e through h files) that should have been drawn into a win against Junil Choi when the latter blundered his e pawn! Wins by Dizdarevic over Rose in a strong attacking performance and Bolens tactically over Cohn left these two players still near the top with Sanghoon Lee on 7/10. Joshua Lau continued his great run by upsetting Phil Viner (who popped a queen!), as did Luthien Russell with a surprise victory over Jose Escribano.

The Minor saw no change at the top, as Bob Liang beat top seed Abel Urdanegui and Howard Duggan accounted for Michael Courtney for these two players to still share the lead on 8.5/10. Anthony Villanueva’s upset loss to Trent Parker meant that the event had become a two horse race between Bob and Howard, with the fast finishing Trent thereby joining Anthony on 7/10. Patrick Beahan and Richard Davies continued their good runs, Patrick scoring an upset draw with David Evans and Richard an upset win against Valsalan Karayi.

Thrills and spills are often the order of the day for the final round of important events like this one; and today proved no exception! It all began when Herman van Riemsdijk lost his first and only game for the event, getting into awful trouble out of the opening and never recovering to go down to George Xie. Stephen Solomon could thus have overtaken Herman, but found himself being mercilessly attacked by Tomek Rej; it looked hairy, but in the end Tomek settled for a perpetual check to leave Solo level with Herman on 8/11. Thus Solo was the new Australian Champion; but could Antic win and hence win the tournament? The answer should have been no as Igor Goldenberg, after an exciting game, had a forced draw in a rook ending; but he misplayed it, and Dejan ended up winning to reach 8.5/11 and win the tournament!

Peaceful finishes were the order of the day on the next few boards, as Max Illingworth hung on despite being under pressure to draw with MM and share fifth place with him on 7/11. (George Xie was fourth on 7.5/11). The prizes were then rounded off by four players tying on 6.5/11: Goldenberg and Rej joined by Klein and Sales, who drew their individual game after Jesse could not quite win a difficult queen ending. Tristan Boyd could have joined them, but missed a real chance to beat Sam Chow when he blundered back his extra pawn to draw. Darryl Johansen ground down Ben Lazarus, but Lane could only draw a locked position with Hacche and Yu and Bjelobrk also swapped down to a draw. Gareth Oliver trapped a bishop to upset Greg Canfell; Hamilton’s c-pawn killed Atzmon-Simon; Junta Ikeda’s queen beat Stewart Booth’s two rooks; Bird won a long knight ending against Jason Hu; and Michael Morris crashed through to mate Pecori. Vince Suttor won a long queen ending against Paul Broekhuyse; Pyke and Charles simplified to draw; Malik upset Wei; and James Morris beat Capilitan to round off the event.

The excitement was even greater in the Major, where James Watson and Blair Mandla played a thrilling and topsy-turvy top board game that could have gone either way! James was better out of the opening, but Blair defended well; Blair then tried too hard to win, lost a piece and should have lost the ending; but James lost a key pawn, and was lucky to draw against Blair’s connected passed pawns! So James found himself equal first with Yongtae Kim on 8.5/11, after the latter moved faster than Sheldrick and watched Kevin crumble to lose in time pressure. With Joshua Lau hanging on to draw despite Sanghoon Lee’s pressure, Lee was overtaken for equal third place not only by Mandla but also Bolens (won a long game vs Mendes da Costa) and Dizdarevic (won a piece to beat Junil Choi). Honourable mention also to more upsets: Myers over Rose, Cohn over Hare and Fell over Viner to share the title of Senior Champion with Mike Canfell.

More excitement ensued when a playoff was held to determine the Major trophy winner, and who could next play in the next Championships: two Rapid games between Watson and Kim. It looked bad for James when he lost a piece to lose the first, but he fought back with a strong attack to win the second. So to two blitz games, where James started out behind on time but kept catching up to end up winning both – and James Watson was thus the Major Champion… As if this was not enough, there was also much excitement in the Minor, where first Bob Liang had to hang on with his weak pawns to end up drawing with Tereza Grbin; and then Howard Duggan had to give back an exchange he had won, was under huge pressure and lost a long game to Trent Parker! So neither leader won; but Bob was Minor Champion on 9/11, with Howard second on 8.5/11 and Trent third on 8. Last round upsets were scored by Richard Davies over Villanueva, Beahan over Chiara and David Soul over Alex Mehan – a great tournament for all.

Australian Junior Chess Championships

Website

Chief Arbiter Charles Zworestine's report has been held over for the next ACF Newsletter.

Australia Day Weekender

Bjelobrk’s Brilliant Burst

by DOP Charles Zworestine

A satisfactory field of 56 players competed in the 2008 version of the NSWCA’s Australia Day weekender; a bit down on 62 last year, but still not too bad… The venue once more was North Sydney Leagues Club in Sydney’s inner north, a nice club with a spacious enough room for the players to feel comfortable and not too crowded. Top seed was GM Dejan Antic (ACF 2490), followed by FM Igor Bjelobrk (2416), IM George Xie (2414), FM Jesse Sales (2280 – and newly moved to Sydney!), Tomek Rej (2279), Neil “Tricky” Wright (2199), Jason Hu (2118), Paul Broekhuyse (2100), Barak Atzmon-Simon (2086) and Johny Bolens (2072). With ten players over 2000 and eight 2100 or above, this was a very strong field! The standard weekender time controls of one hour plus ten seconds per move from the start (Fischer) made for the usual fun chess, with unpredictable results right from the beginning; let’s see how the players fared…

Johny Bolens was our first scalp of note in Round 1, going down to Michael Tracey (1470). Apparently Johny sacrificed a piece unsoundly, and Michael refuted the combination and defended well to end up bringing home the full point… One junior, Jason Cohn (1729), was the victim of an upset draw against Nicholas Mann (1174); while another, little 12 year old Kinto Wan (1128), scored his own upset draw with 89 year old Lloyd Fell (1722). Round 2 saw the top seeds all win, but Igor Bjelobrk (as Black) had to work hard before beating Milan Grcic; he sacrificed the exchange but had pawns for it and was always better, although interested spectators may have been a bit nervous about his king on g4! (See game below). Michael Tracey continued his excellent start to the event with another upset win, this time against Michael Dunn (1888).

Milan Grcic (1824) - Igor Bjelobrk (2416)
Australia Day Weekender 26/01/08 (2)

1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.c4 Bg7 5.Nc3 0–0 6.Nf3 d6 7.0–0 Nc6 8.d5 Na5 9.Qd3 e5 10.e4 fxe4 11.Nxe4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Bf5 13.Qe2 Bg4 14.Qe4 Bxf3 15.Bxf3 Nxc4 16.Bg4 Nb6 17.h4 Qe8 18.Bg5 c6 19.dxc6 d5 20.Qb4 bxc6 21.Be7 Rf7 22.Be6 e4 23.Bxf7+ Kxf7 24.Bc5 Rb8 25.Bd6 Rb7 26.Rac1 Qd7 27.Qc5 Bxb2 28.Rc2 Ke6 29.Bf4 Nc4 30.Qf8 Bf6 31.Qg8+ Kf5 32.Be3 Ne5 33.Qf8 Qe6 34.Kg2 Kg4 35.Qh6 Qf5 36.Bf4 Rf7 37.Rh1 Bg7 38.Qxh7 e3 39.Rb2 Qe4+ 40.Kg1 Nf3+ 41.Kf1 Bxb2 42.Qg8 e2+ 43.Kg2 Ne1+ 0–1

The top seeds began meeting in round 3, with Dejan Antic too good for Jason Hu (who previously had a good record against the GM) and Igor Bjelobrk gratefully accepting pawns to take care of Barak Atzmon-Simon. While George Xie handled Paul Broekhuyse and Jesse Sales beat 11th seed Ben Harris (1943), Brendon Norman (1884) was ruing missed chances to win against Tomek Rej; he scored an upset draw in the end, but it could have been even better… Jason Cohn ended Michael Tracey’s run, while poor Michael Dunn was the victim of an upset for the second consecutive round (this time against Joshua Christensen).

So to Round 4, the final round of the first day, with many thanks to Brian Allison for deputising for me on this Saturday; and fatigue had clearly set in for Australian Championship winner Dejan Antic, who offered a draw (accepted) with Jesse Sales on top board although in a slightly better (and risk free) position at the end. Perhaps George Xie, who like Dejan had just come off coaching for NSW at the Australian Juniors, was also a bit tired; in any event he was comprehensively outplayed by Igor Bjelobrk, who won first a pawn then the exchange to tactics for a strong victory. Meanwhile, “The Bomb” (A-Tomek) accounted for “Tricky” to leave Iggy sole leader on 4/4. Joshua Christensen drew with Brendon Norman, as did Jason Cohn with Barak. Trent Parker was thrilled to upset Lloyd Fell in a strong attacking game.

Round 5 dawned bright and happy for Igor Bjelobrk, whose quiet positional style as White clearly troubled Dejan Antic; try as he might Dejan could not get an attack through, and then he blundered a piece to a removing the guard tactic to leave Iggy still outright leader on 5/5! (See game below). Jesse Sales, though, was still breathing down his neck on 4.5/5 after winning a time scramble against The Bomb. As George Xie was taking care of Brendon Norman, Blair Mandla was up to his usual swindling tricks in Neil Wright’s time pressure: in a dead won ending a piece up Neil failed to push his passed pawn correctly, enabling Blair to draw by liquidation of pawns! (You see, Neil, you are not the only one who is Tricky)… Of course, the juniors were also still scoring upsets as usual: Emma Guo (1525) beat Amiel Rosario (1748), Kinto Wan defeated Roy Banicevic (1512) and Jonathan Ren (1378) drew with Lloyd Fell.

Igor Bjelobrk (2416) - Dejan Antic (2490)
Australia Day Weekender 27/01/08 (5)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 b6 6.e3 0–0 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.f3 d5 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Ne2 c5 11.0–0 Re8 12.Ng3 Nc6 13.Ra2 Ne7 14.Raf2 Ng6 15.Re1 Rc8 16.Bb2 h5 17.Qb1 h4 18.Nf1 Nf8 19.e4 cxd4 20.cxd4 Nh5 21.e5 Nf4 22.Bf5 Rc6 23.g3 N4e6 24.f4 Bc8 25.Bd3 Nc7 26.f5 Nh7 27.Kh1 Ng5 28.gxh4 Ne4 29.Rf4 Rh6 30.Ng3 Bb7 31.Qc2 Rxh4 32.Rxh4 Qxh4 33.Bxe4 dxe4 34.Qxc7 Ba8 35.e6 1–0

Amazingly, Iggy was still not guaranteed outright first even after having beaten his third titled player in Round 6 to reach 6/6… His Black win against Jesse Sales was his longest game of the event, but never really in any doubt after he won a piece quite early in the game. With George Xie beating Bolens and Jason Hu accounting for Paul Broekhuyse, both of these players reached 5/6; still just a point behind Iggy. Meanwhile 5 players were on 4.5/6: Sales, Antic (beat Jason Cohn), Tomek (beat Bec Harris), Atzmon-Simon (beat Blair) and Ben Harris (who upset Neil Wright). Emma Guo could perhaps have drawn her ending against Milan Grcic, but misplayed it in time pressure and ended up losing.

It was all a bit of an anti-climax in the last round, as Jason Hu agreed a quick draw with Iggy to guarantee himself a prize – thereby guaranteeing Iggy outright first on 6.5/7! A sensational tournament by the number two seed, who beat all his main rivals and was never really in any trouble. George Xie claimed outright second with a fighting win against Dejan Antic, after a bad opening where he sacrificed a pawn; Dejan was convinced he was winning, but ended up being mated in time pressure by George’s queen and opposite coloured bishop. So Jason Hu had to be content with equal third on 5.5/7, with Jesse Sales (ground down Barak) and The Bomb (beat Ben Harris). Mos Ali defeated NSWCA Treasurer Norm Greenwood to claim first Under 1800 on 4.5/7; Emma Guo took first Under 1600 by beating Gary Losh; and another ACT junior, Luthien Russell, claimed first Under 1400 by upsetting fellow junior Benjamin Cheung.

Dubbo Summer Junior Chess Tournament

Report in Dubbo's Daily Liberal of 6 February 2008.

OVERSEAS NEWS

AUSTRALIA'S THIRD GRANDMASTER!

Zong-Yuan Zhao will be awarded the Grandmaster title at the next FIDE Congress after scoring three GM norms in a short seven weeks. (ABC News, 1 February 2008)

TAILPIECE