ACF NEWS

NOMINATIONS INVITED FOR WHYATT MEDAL

from Gary Wastell, ACF Medals Coordinator

The ACF invites nominations for possible recipients of the second Whyatt medal for achievement in the field of chess problem composition. The medal is to be awarded in keeping with the following extracts from related ACF rules and resolutions.

The Whyatt medal, first presented in 2003, is to be awarded every five years for outstanding success as a chess problem composer, taking into account the composer's published problems. It may not be won more than once by the same person.

Selectors will not be asked to undertake the difficult, time-consuming and error-prone task of judging particular problems as if they were freshly submitted to them, but instead to rely on the work already done by competition judges, perhaps taking into account also the comments of editors and solvers.

The setting out of achievements should include a listing of published problems and of any awards received in competitions, giving full publication details and a reproduction from the publication itself. Published commentary on the problems may be attached, including the comments of competition judges and, if desired, also of editors and solvers. No limit is placed on the number of problems that may be listed.

The winner will be asked to prepare a short note dealing with at least one of the problems that resulted in the award. This note should be aimed at explaining to the general chess-playing public in simple language (defining technical terms when needed) some of the ideas involved in the problem(s). Attention may be drawn to intellectual, artistic and other features. A way should be indicated by which readers can follow up any further interest they might then have in problems as a result of their having read this note.

Joint winners of the first Whyatt medal were Denis Saunders and Peter Wong.

A separate document or message containing the following should be provided in respect of each nominee:

• name in full (correctly spelt);
• contact details (phone, email, postal address);
• description or list of relevant achievements suitable for reading at the time of presentation;
• anything else relevant to the nomination.

Nominations may be forwarded as follows:
    email: gwastell@netspace.net.au
    post: 22 Bruarong Crescent, Frankston South, Vic 3199
    fax: (03) 9525 9632

A person submitting a nomination should retain a complete copy of every document submitted as part of the nomination and must phone 0409 525 963 to confirm that it has been received if delivery has not been acknowledged 24 hours after expected delivery time.

The deadline for nominations is 30 June 2008.

Gary Wastell
ACF Medals Coordinator

JUNIOR EMAIL LIST

from Jenni Oliver

An e-mail list is planned for 2008. It is for juniors, coaches, parents and interested people. It is envisaged that it will be used for distributing information on events such as overseas selections, Ergas selections, etc. Initially it will also be used as a discussion mechanism for concepts such as the need for a national body to deal with junior affairs (AusJCL). Can interested people please send their e-mail address to jenni@stratagemcc.com.au

2008 OLYMPIAD SELECTIONS

chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=7026

ACF SELECTIONS EMAIL LIST

chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=5913

MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS GRAND PRIX

http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=grandprix

Coming Grand Prix Events

EVENTS CALENDAR

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.
Enquiries venuschessacademy@gmail.com or venuschess@gmail.com
Flyer PDF

COMPLETED EVENTS

Tasmanian Championships 2008

Website

from Kevin Bonham

Tony Dowden completed the first hat-trick of Tasmanian state championships in 25 years when he comfortably won the 2008 state titles. Dowden went into day two tied with top seed Neil Markovitz and fourth seed Ian Rout (ACT), but both soon came off second-best in tactical skirmishes, leaving Dowden with a one-point lead which he conserved with draws in the final two rounds. In the final round Dowden had to carefully fend off an unusual knight sacrifice from Ramin Rezaie, but was clearly much better when a draw was agreed. Markovitz and Rout had earlier drawn their final round game to take second and third respectively.

Markovitz faced very stiff resistance in his games with Glen Gibbs (who easily retained his Tasmanian Seniors Champion title) and Nigel Frame, but eventually overcame both. Rout had some nice wins including a rather elegant one against Gibbs (where he had queen for two rooks in the late middlegame, but all Gibbs' pieces were on the back rank!), and also demonstrated coolness under pressure against state junior champ Alastair Dyer. Dyer was attacking material down, and ultimately sacrificed a rook, but Rout simply gave up his queen and consolidated the rook and two pieces that he had for it into a watertight position, which Dyer lost on time looking for play against (there wasn't any).

Third seed Kevin Bonham started badly by blundering a knight against Carey Kuzmic in the only game not to follow the ratings in the first round; Kuzmic forced a draw in a won position but under some time pressure. Subsequently Bonham saved several lost positions following poor opening play, but conceded four more draws.

Ramin Rezaie was remarkably unlucky. In round two he had a clearly won same-colour bishop ending against Vincent Horton, but missed a critical move and his young opponent pulled off a resourceful and determined save. Worse was to come in round three when, following a long, sharp and complex middlegame, Rezaie reached an ending where he won Michael Lucht's bishop with check, leaving Ramin with queen knight and pawns versus queen and pawns, plus an opponent in time trouble. But Lucht had threats to win back the knight or force a perpetual, and as Rezaie dodged Lucht's constant threats to draw, the 1989 co-champion picked off pawn after pawn after pawn, ultimately swapping queens and winning (!) with five pawns against a knight and one.

With Dyer apparently a little out of form (but still doing not too badly) the junior stars of the tournament were Vincent Horton and Mason Carter. Vincent's fighting qualities were evident in all his games, especially a great win over Lucht in the final round, and his time management has improved; his performance here (topping his rating division and both junior age groups!) suggests his play is moving up another level. It was a great weekend for the Horton family generally, with dad Russell tying for a ratings prize and daughter Nina the new Tasmanian Womens Champion. Nine year old Carter (1087), from a tiny town in the far south of the state, has been playing for just over a year and took out the U1400 prize, defeating Hood (1426) and convincingly outplaying Fry (1374).

(Nina Horton, McCulloch and Tandori each received one half-point bye and Tandori had a zero-point authorised last-round absence. Harry Briant, Falloon, Ben Dowden, and Ellyn and Adam Carter each received one full point bye.)

Neil Markovitz (2067) - Tony Dowden (2010)
Launceston 2008
(Notes by Tony Dowden)

1.Nf3 e6 2.c4 f5
  As a recent convert to the White side of the English, I've found that a Dutch set-up can be irksome. In this game it works to a tee.
3.g3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.d3 d6 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Rb1 Qe8 9.Nb5
  The first sign an early morning round might not agree with Neil. 9.b4 looks more logical.
9...Bd8 10.Bg5 a6
  10...e5
11.Bxf6 Rxf6 12.Nbd4 Ne7 13.c5
  Interesting, but Black can safely decline the pawn.
13...e5 14.cxd6 cxd6 15.Qb3+
  It looks wrong to block the b pawn.
15...Kh8 16.Nc2 f4 17.d4
  White is struggling to find a constructive plan. His attempt to blow up the centre soon goes badly awry.
17...e4 18.Ng5?
  18.Ne1
18...d5 19.Nh3??
  White had to try a piece sac on e4.
19...f3! 20.exf3 exf3 21.Rfe1 fxg2 22.Qxd5? Bxh3 23.Qxb7 Rc8 24.Nb4? Rb6 0-1

Ian Rout (1846) - Glen Gibbs (1786)
Launceston 2008
(Notes by Ian Rout)

  White contrives to get an improved Milner-Barry. Although Black nominally escapes to a material advantage of two Rooks plus pawn versus Queen, in practice these positions with the Rooks disconnected and the King stuck in between are better for the Queen, though White has to find a way to ooze round the central pawns before Black gets organised.

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Bd3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Nf3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. O-O Qb6 8. Re1 Be7 9. Na3 cxd4 10. cxd4 Nf8 11. b3 Bb4 12. Re3 Bc3 13. Rb1 Nxd4 14. Nxd4 Bxd4 15. Nb5 Bc5 16. b4 Be7 17. Qc2 Kd8 18. Rf3 f5 19. exf6 Bxf6 20. Rxf6 gxf6 21. Be3 Qc6 22. Qb2 e5 23. Rc1 Qd7 24. Rc7 Qxc7 25. Nxc7 Kxc7 26. Qc1+ Kd8 27. Bc5 h5 28. f4 e4 29. Qc3 Nd7 30. Bb5 Rh6 31. Qg3 Nxc5 32. Qg8+ Kc7 33. bxc5 1-0

A full crosstable, another fifteen games and discussion at http://chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=7692.

OVERSEAS NEWS

AMBER 2008

Official website

The 17^th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament took place from March 15 ^th to 27^th in the Palais de la Mediterranée, Nice, France. Twelve leading grandmasters played blindfold and rapid games against each other.

Armenia's leading grandmaster, 25 year old Levon Aronian, tied with Kramnik and Morozevich in the blindfold section with 6/11. In the rapid section he scored 7½/11, ahead of four players with 5½ points each. The combined scores gave Aronian a 2½ point margin over his nearest rivals, Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko and Topalov.

Boris Gelfand (2737) - Viswanathan Anand (2799)
Amber Blindfold Nice FRA (10) 26/3/2008

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.a3 Bd6 10.0-0 0-0 11.Qc2 a6 12.b4 a5 13.Rb1 axb4 14.axb4 Qe7 15.e4 e5 16.dxe5 Nxe5 17.Nxe5 Bxe5 18.Ne2 Qe6 19.f4 Ra2 20.Qd1 Ba1 21.e5
  The tournament bulletin writes: "... another example of the extraordinary depth of preparation on the highest level. As he revealed after the game, Anand had prepared the amazing bishop manoeuvre to a1 on move 20 for last year’s Amber tournament. Funnily, he came to the right assessment of the position thanks to a mouse slip. When he looked at the position after 21.e5 he touched his mouse by mistake and inadvertently pushed his c-pawn to c5. And before he could correct his mistake the engine he was running indicated that this move was bull’s eye! The machine’s verdict was correct, as Gelfand had to discover in the remainder of the game."
21...c5 22.exf6 Bd4+ 23.Rf2 Bxf2+ 24.Kxf2 Qd5 25.Bb2 Qxg2+ 26.Ke1 c4 27.Bc2 Bf3 28.fxg7 Re8 29.Be5 f6 30.Bxh7+ Kxh7 31.g8Q+ Kxg8 0-1

TAILPIECE