The FIDE World Seniors Chess Championship and FIDE Womens World Seniors Chess Championship 2008 will take place in Bad Zwischenahn, Germany, 28 Oct to 8 Nov 2008. Official website: www.seniorenschach.de/en/index.php. Entry is restricted to male players born before 1.1.1948 and female players born before 1.1.1958.
FIDE Oceania Zone is entitled to official representation in each event and the appointed representative receives free board and lodging. The ACF will nominate an Australian nominee for each event. The final decision on whether the Australian nominee represents Oceania shall be made by the FIDE Oceania Zone President, but this has historically generally been the case on account of the greater playing strength of our senior players.
Strong senior players (>1700 FIDE or ACF) wishing to express an interest in being nominated on Australia's behalf must contact the ACF Selections Director at k_bonham@tassie.net.au (call 0421 428 775 if necessary to arrange a non-email application, or if an application has not been acknowledged within seven days) by the deadline stated below. An expression of interest must state the player's year of birth. Players who have already advised me of their interest in selection for this event since 1 Jan 2008 do not need to apply and will be ranked automatically.
Players will most likely be ranked solely according to their average of ACF and FIDE rankings (or ACF ranking only for a player possessing only an ACF rating). However, I may invite the ACF Council to determine otherwise should a player with no *active* rating apply.
It was a cold and wintry July morning when 27 of Australia’s top junior chess players congregated at the Emulation Hall in Canterbury, Melbourne for intensive chess coaching and a chess competition.
Mr Henry Ergas has very generously sponsored the Ergas Elite Chess Training Squad for a number of years, and kindly donated the funds for the Melbourne camp in July 2008. The Australian Chess Community is very grateful to Mr Ergas for his contribution to coaching and training for our talented juniors.
The children were most fortunate to have the following wonderful coaches at the camp - GM Dejan Antic, GM Darryl Johansen, GM Ian Rogers, GM Zong Yuan Zhao, IM Robert Jamieson and IM Andras Toth. They were provided with outstanding coaching over the first three days of the camp.
The following children attended the camp: Stephanie Ang, Cedric Antolis, Andrew Brown, Alistair Cameron, Michael Chan, Bobby Cheng, Alana Chibnall, Yita Choong, Sam Dalton, Alistair Dyer, Sam Grigg, Emma Guo, Vincent Horton, Ben Lazarus, Lawrence Matheson, Mirakla Mithran, Andrew Pan, Luthien Russell, Annurag Sannidanam, Eugene Schon, Caroline Shan, Leteisha Simmonds, Justin Tan, Jason Tang, Peter Wallmeuller, Derek Yu and Sally Yu.
As it was IM Robert Jamieson’s birthday, there was a wonderful birthday cake and candles for him to blow out, prior to starting his lecture for all the children. Robert Jamieson IM provided an interesting introduction to the training camp with advice about how to become a chess nut with plenty entertaining commentary about his own competitive chess life. This included snippets on psychology, training methods and some Australian chess history. The squad really enjoyed his lecture. At the end of the lecture Robert had a few trivia questions. Robert showed a photo of a famous Australian chess player – Cecil Purdy. Eugene Schon correctly identified the photo and won a copy of "The fifty most amazing moves of all time".
After lunch the squad broke into five small groups for specialised training and coaching from GMs Rogers, Antic, Johansen, Zhao, and IM Toth. They were provided with material on endgames, tactics and openings in each of the sessions. Each group received slightly different material and the variety in presentation styles and content kept the enthusiasm high. The groups rotated amongst the coaches over the next few days.
Ian Rogers presented background on the Ruy Lopez and its unveiling as the Spanish Torture. Yuan Zong Zhao unravelled the Sicilian Dragon and showed solutions to even the most outrageous novelty moves suggested by the juniors. Dejan Antic challenged the players with end game technique until all well and truly knew how to play knight and bishop, and rook and bishop. Darryl Johansen used a selection of his own games to work on the greatest common weakness of juniors - positional play. He completed his session with amusing anecdotes about ethics. Andras Toth had many cool things to show each of the groups ranging from game analysis to tricky puzzles.
On Wednesday 9 July 2008 there was a problem solving competition. The puzzles were kindly prepared by which was much appreciated by the children. Lawrence Matheson won the under 14 prize, with Emma Guo coming second and Yita Choong won the over 14 prize with Sam Grigg and Ben Lazarus coming equal second.
All the children enjoyed the classes. They were so engrossed that they often did not want to stop for lunch or morning and afternoon tea breaks and had to be chased out of the building to go home. It was a wonderful, stimulating environment with much concentration and the occasional laughter when a difficult problem was mastered.
On Thursday 10 July, a group of 12 children and 10 parents and Grand Master Yuan Zong Zhao visited the State Library of Victoria.
First stop was to see the wonderful dome and the octagonal room of the reading room. Then we looked at Ned Kelly’s armour that he wore during the shootout against the police at Glenrowan. You could see the bullet holes in his armour. Only one of Ned’s boots was there – the marks where is had been cut off his foot were still visible. In addition, we looked at Ned’s death mask. His face looked much smaller than in the photos – because his bushy hair and beard were not visible.
Then we went to the rare books collection where a number of rare books were placed on white pillows. First, there was a front piece from a 1483 chess book printed by Caxton. The oldest complete book was from 1528. Then there was a 1561 book written in Latin that had no pictures or diagrams by Ruy Lopez. In addition, we saw a 1656 book entitled the Game of chess play. Philidor edited the earliest chess book written in English held by the library. One book was published in the year 10 – or so the front cover stated. This was because books printed in France after the French Revolution used this event to date their books. The earliest color book was from 1802. This was a wonderful opportunity to see these rare books and the group was very grateful for the State Library for organising this for us.
We then visited the Anderson Collection. We saw a replica of a chess set that had been made from a chess set that was discovered in the sand on a beach in Scotland. Of course, there were the many thousands of chess books and magazines – that make up the third largest chess collection in the world. Then we walked to the Shark Fin Inn for dim sum. Ian and Cathy Rogers joined us. We had wonderful food – one parent gamely tried chicken feet.
On Friday 11 July the seven round Ergas chess competition commenced with the following guest players from 4 Victorian Clubs:
The idea was to give the juniors an opportunity to try out their new skills gained from the extensive training over the last few days against some of Melbourne's adult chess players. At the end of Day 1 the invited guests were out scoring the juniors!
Mr Desmond Cheung kindly donated tickets to the AFL on Friday night at the MCG for squad members. The cultural differences across Australia were highlighted by the explanations and commentary from Derek Yu for Ben Lazarus. Despite the vocal urging from the squad St Kilda beat Carlton.
The juniors struck back on Day 2 of competition and at the end of the day Ben Lazarus defeated Bill Jordan on board 1. The tournament finished on Sunday with close competition cross for group prizes.
Results Ergas tournament
| First | Bill Jordan |
| Second | Domagoj Dragicivic |
| Third | Yita Choong |
| Rating Group 1 | Eugene Schon, Bobby Cheng, Ben Lazarus, Sam Dalton |
| Rating Group 2 | Derek Yu, Justin Tan, Cedric Antolis, Lawrence Matheson |
| Rating Group 3 | Michael Chan |
| Rating Group 4 | Andrew Pan |
| Best girl(s) | Emma Guo, Luthien Russell and Sally Yu |
| Best handwriting | Sally Yu |
There are plenty of photos of the camp – to view the detailed results and photographs, go to
www.boxhillchess.org.au/junior/2008/ergas/index.htm.
MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS
GRAND PRIX
http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=grandprix
Coming Grand Prix Events
| Event |
Place |
Class |
Start |
Finish |
Contact |
| North Queensland Open |
Townsville, Qld |
1 |
9/8/08 |
10/8/08 |
www.caq.org.au |
| Bundaberg Open |
Bundaberg, Qld |
2 |
16/8/08 |
17/8/08 |
Website |
| Hobart Weekender |
Hobart, Tas |
1 |
16/8/08 |
17/8/08 |
www.chesstasmania.org.au/ |
| Surfers Paradise Open |
Surfers Paradise, Qld |
5 |
29/8/08 |
31/8/08 |
www.kingsofchess.biz/ |
| Blayney Open |
Blayney, NSW |
1 |
6/9/08 |
7/9/08 |
www.nswca.org.au/index.shtml |
| Nell van de Graaf Classic |
Gold Coast, Qld |
1 |
20/9/08 |
21/9/08 |
www.caq.org.au/ |
| Ryde-Eastwood Weekender |
Sydney, NSW |
4 |
4/10/08 |
6/10/08 |
www.nswca.org.au/ |
| Wendy Terry Memorial |
Rothwell, Qld |
1 |
4/10/08 |
5/10/08 |
www.caq.org.au/ |
| Labour Day Weekender |
Adelaide, SA |
1 |
4/10/08 |
5/10/08 |
www.sachess.org/ |
| Burnie Shines Weekender |
Burnie, Tas |
1 |
25/10/08 |
26/10/08 |
www.chesstasmaina.org.au/ |
| Elwood Bendigo Bank Open |
Melbourne, Vic |
5 |
31/10/08 |
4/11/08 |
chessvictoria.netfirms.com/ |
|
EVENTS CALENDAR
August 15 - September 1 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
Malaysian Chess Festival 2008
ChessBase article
ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team Event, August 15-17.
IGB-5th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship 2008, August 18-24.
ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team Event, August 30 - September 1.
Flyer here.
Enquiries Some financial assistance may be available for interested players. Contact Brian Jones for more information.
August 18-24 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
IGB-5th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship 2008
Venue Ballroom, 5th Floor, CitiTel Mid Valley Hotel, Mid Valley Megamall, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 KL.
Format 11 Round Swiss.
Entry fee Unrated US $200, 1600-1999 $150, 2000-2199 $125, 2200-2299 $100, 2300-2399 $75, 2400-2499 $50.
Prizes See flyer.
Registration 7.30 to 8.30 a.m., Monday, 18 August.
Enquiries aham@pc.jaring.my
Flyer
here.
August 27-28 | Surfers Paradise, Qld |
Surfers Paradise Open
Venue Quality Hotels, Mermaid Waters, cnr Markeri Street and Sunshine Boulevard,
Mermaid Waters, Gold Coast, QLD, 4218.
Format Three 6 Round Swisses. 'Paradise' August 29 - August 31. 'Surfing' August 30-31. 'Fun' August 30.
Entry fee 'Paradise' $90 (GMs free), 'Surfing' $60, 'Fun' $30.
Prizes 'Paradise' $2000, $1000, $500, $200, $100. 'Surfing' $500, $200, $100 (& rating group prizes). 'Fun' $100 (& runnerup medal).
Registration Entries and payments closing on Monday, 25 August 2008.
Enquiries info@kingsofchess.biz or (0061) 07 5578 5872
Flyer
here.
September 20-21 | Mudgeeraba, Qld |
Nell van de Graaf Classic & teams event
Come and celebrate the last Outreach Chess run tournament at the Nell van de Graaff Classic and
teams event. There are prizes for individuals and teams. Saturday will also include a free sausage sizzle at lunchtime.
The event will be held on September 20th and 21st at Somerset Sports Pavillion at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast.
We'd love to see you at Australia's 'funnest' tournament so we can say thanks and goodbye.
Venue Somerset College Sports Pavilion, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba (300m west of Somerset College).
Format 6 Round Swiss.
Entry fee $50. $10 discount if paid by 18 September. Second and subsequent members of the same family receive a $10 discount. Non-CAQ members add $10.
Prizes $500, $200, $100. Rating groups $100. U/1000 medals. Team prizes $300, $200, $100.
Registration 8.30 - 9.00 am, Saturday, September 20.
Enquiries outreachchess@bigpond.com or Peter Bender, 5556 0434
Flyer
here.
June 20-26, 2009 | Tweed Heads/Gold Coast, NSW/Qld border |
Oceania Zonal Chess Tournament for Men and Women
Website in preparation.
Venue Outrigger Twin Towns Resort
Format Nine round swiss for Men and Women (or a round robin if appropriate).
DOPs Chief Arbiter: IA Charles Zworestine. Assistant Arbiters: IA Gary Bekker & Graeme Gardiner.
Entry fee dependant on rating. See flyer.
Prizes Men: $1500, $1000, $750, $500, $400, $250, $150. 1st under 2000 $300. 1st under 1800 $300. Women: $750. $500, $300. 1st under 1800 $300.
Registration by Friday, 6 June, 2009. The organiser may, at his discretion, accept late entries.
Enquiries to Graeme Gardiner, 11 Hardys Road, Mudgeeraba Qld 4213. Phone 5522 7221. Fax 5522 7760. Email ggardiner@gardinerchess.com.
Flyer
here.
COMPLETED EVENTS
2008 Freytag Checkmate Weekender
from DOP Charles Zworestine
Smoking Smurf!
Following up on last year’s success, this year’s Freytag weekender was even better, attracting as it did 108 players (compared to 100 last year). These were evenly spread across two tournaments: 54 in the Open, and 54 in the under 1600! A new venue at Prince Alfred College went down well, as did the strength of the event: 2 GMs, 7 IMs, plus locals Trevor Tao (who should be an IM!) and James Obst were always likely to make for a highly competitive event. Top seed was GM Dejan Antic, followed by IMs David “Smurf” Smerdon, IM George “Sango” Xie and GM Darryl Johansen. Apart from our “overseas Aussies” (Serbian Antic and Hungarian IM Andras Toth), there were also players from every Australian state except WA and NT. So a thrilling event was in prospect, at the standard weekender time controls of 60 minutes plus 10 seconds per move from the start (Fischer); let’s see how it went!
Freytag Checkmate Open
Upsets occurred already in Round 1, where Ralph Jackson stunned George Xie and Bernard Rigo drew with local IM Mark Chapman. Ralph won on time; but he was already in a won position after he had forced through a powerful passed d-pawn all the way to d2, from where George could not prevent its queening. Mark had to fight hard from a positional disadvantage to draw rook and three pawns vs rook, knight and pawn. The only other upset was scored by Luthien Russell, who beat Justin Freytag after the latter ran his good position downhill, losing a pawn then the exchange in time pressure… Round 2 was more predictable, except for a few draws: Darryl Johansen was defending in his draw with Domagoj Dragicevic, while Ralph Jackson continued his good form with an upset draw with Gareth Oliver. Sponsoring the event seems to be bad for your chess: Justin Freytag was upset by Bernard Rigo…
Five leaders emerged on 3/3 after some tough battles in Round 3: Antic, Smurf, Guy West, Tao and Mirko Rujevic. Mirko was a bit lucky to upset Toth, who was the exchange ahead for much of their game but blundered his queen in time pressure! Antic beat Ratty convincingly, while Smurf took care of IM Leonid Sandler by forcing him to give up a rook to avoid his queen being trapped. Tao beat Ronald Scott, and West accounted for Dusan Stojic. Upsets were scored by Ralph Jackson, beating Jason Hu; and Dragicevic, drawing with Chapman.
West took a previously requested half point bye in Round 4, leaving us with only two leaders on 4/4 after Day 1: Smerdon and Tao. Trevor beat Antic on time, while Smurf attacked to beat Rujevic. Darryl joined West on 3½/4 by beating Gareth Oliver, while Toth ended Ralph Jackson’s good run to join a large group of players on 3/4. These included Edgar Mdinaradze, who upset Ronald Scott in a big time scramble; and Alistair Dyer, who shocked Dragicevic. In the last game to finish, Alan Goldsmith won a typical thriller, beating Sandler in another upset after taking forever to win bishop, knight and pawn vs opposite coloured bishop.
A fantastic dinner on Saturday night (complete with orchestra!) did not inspire Tao, who was convincingly beaten by Smurf in Round 5. This left David outright leader on 5/5, with Darryl Johansen beating West to reach 4½/5 alone in second place. All the higher seeds won in Round 5 to join Trevor in a group of 6 players on 4/5… Effective use of the White pieces then guaranteed Smerdon at least equal first after Round 6, where he ground down Darryl Johansen with superior activity and better time management! So 6/6 for Smurf, with Toth and Xie the only ones on 5/6 who could catch him: Xie easily refuting Tao’s unsound piece sacrifice, and Toth winning a nice game to account for James Obst (see game below). Meanwhile Antic could not crack Rujevic, drawing to leave them on 4½/6 with Darryl and Dusan Stojic, who upset Sandler. Gareth Oliver was also solid in his upset draw with Guy West.
James Obst (2250) - Andras Toth (2401)
Freytag Checkmate Open (6.4) 6/07/2008
1.e3 g6 2.e4 c5 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.d3 Nc6 5.Be3 d6 6.Qd2 e6 7.g3 Nge7 8.Bh6 Bxh6 9.Qxh6 Nd4 10.0–0–0 Qa5 11.Qg7 Rg8 12.Qxh7 b5 13.Kb1 b4 14.Nce2 Nb5 15.Ka1 Rb8 16.Qh6 Nc6 17.Nf3 Rb6 18.Nc1 Nc3 19.bxc3 bxc3 20.Nd2 Nd4 21.Ncb3 Rxb3 22.Nxb3 Nxb3+ 23.cxb3 c2 24.Qd2 Qxd2 0–1
Sadly Toth was not in a fighting mood in the last round, offering a draw on top board in 12 moves as White! Smurf accepted, thus guaranteeing himself outright first on 6½/7. Antic won a long game against Xie on Board 2, to be joined in second place by Toth and Darryl, who ground down Rujevic in another long game. Fifth to eight place was then shared by Xie, Tao (whose pawns beat Dusan Stojic’s extra piece in Dusan’s time pressure), Obst (beat Dragicevic) and Alan Goldsmith, who upset Gareth Oliver by winning on time after a tough struggle. Failing to join them were Mark Chapman, after an upset draw with Hacche; and West, who survived Jason Hu’s attempts to win their rook and pawn ending as they both sacrificed rook for passed pawn to draw by playing all the way down to a king each!
Checkmate Under 1600 Event
No shocks at all in Round 1 here; every single game went according to rating! But in Round 2 top seed Trent Parker lost to Alistair Cameron, who played a good positional game to grind him down; and defending champ Howard Duggan also lost in an upset, to local junior Thomas Milton after the clock got Howard, and Thomas promoted a pawn and checkmated Howard with two queens against queen and bishop. Upsets in Round 3 then saw Vincent Horton lose to Sophie Eustace, who won a piece to a removing the guard tactic; and Tom Milton stun Vaness Reid in a nice attacking game. This left 5 joint leaders on 3/3: Pavel Turcaj, Gavin Haydn, Sophie, Tom and Alistair Cameron. More Round 3 upsets saw Zachary Searle beat Howard Duggan, and Hugh Perks shock Trent Parker (nearly 1000 points higher rated!).
Just two players shared the lead on 4/4 after the first day: Pavel Turcaj and Sophie Eustace. Pavel won several pawns to a tactic to beat Tom Milton, while Sophie scored a good upset win against Gavin Haydn, winning a pawn early and then triumphing when Gavin miscalculated tactics in time pressure. Zachary Searle reached 3½/4 by beating Alistair Cameron, where he was joined by Fabian Ivancic after his four connected passed pawns upset Vaness Reid’s extra piece… Round 5 saw Pavel beat Sophie to reach 5/5; in a fairly even position Sophie miscalculated a forced capturing sequence, lost material and ended up queen for rook down (see game below). Sophie joined a big group on 4/5, including Thomas Milton and John Thon Mading after upset wins against Brandon Low and John Hatch respectively. Fabian Ivancic and Zachary Searle were also part of this group after their Board 2 draw.
Pavel Turcaj (1536) - Sophie Eustace (1448)
Freytag Challenge (5.1) 6/07/2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.a3 Bc5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Be3 a6 9.Be2 Qc7 10.0–0 0–0 11.Qd2 b5 12.f4 d6 13.Bf3 Bb7 14.Rad1 Rfd8 15.Qf2 Qc8 16.e5 dxe5 17.Bxc6 exf4 18.Bxb7 fxe3 19.Qf3 e2 20.Bxc8 exd1Q 21.Rxd1 Raxc8 22.Rxd8+ Rxd8 23.Qb7 Rd7 24.Qxa6 Ng4 25.Qxb5 Rd8 26.h3 Ne3 27.Qe2 Nf5 28.a4 1–0
A patient and solid Pavel beat Gavin Haydn in Round 6, thus guaranteeing himself at least equal first by reaching 6/6. Three players on 5/6 could still catch him: Zachary Searle, Fabian Ivancic and Thomas Milton. Of these, Zachary upset Anurag Sannidhanam, as did Thomas against Andrew Sag… Then just when we thought Pavel Turcaj was safe, a sharp Zachary Searle upset him in the last round on top board to share first place! Fabian Ivancic’s win against Thomas Milton thus enabled him to make it a three way tie for first on 6/7. They were all inspired by the presence of the great revered doyenne of Australian chess, the lovely Evelyn Koshnitsky; we hope to see her back again for an even better event next year!
July 19-20 | Coffs Harbour, NSW |
5th Coffs Harbour Open
from DOP Charles Zworestine
2 Down, 38 To Go…
It was sad: a change of date was supposed to bring more players, not less! Yet when the final numbers were confirmed, it was two down on last year’s 40… Still, 38 players did make the fifth Coffs Harbour Open the largest of all the NSW country events; and they were thrilled to welcome back their prodigal son, the relatively recently crowned GM Zong-Yuan Zhao. He was the beneficiary of a lovely presentation at the start of the event, befitting the social nature of a tournament that always features a very nice BBQ at the end. Mind you, he was always likely to be challenged: not only by IM Stephen Solomon (the Australian Champion), but also by FM Brian Jones (who upset him here in 2005), and those ever dangerous Gold Coast juniors (headed by Gene Nakauchi). The standard one hour plus 10 seconds per move Fischer time limit made things even more dangerous; like last year, we were in for some fun right from the start…
Round 1 featured even more upsets than usual, although the top four seeds (Zhao, Solomon, Gene Nakauchi and Brian Jones) all won fairly comfortably. But fifth seed Sam Grigg did not, as he was stunned by rapidly improving local Sam Brown! Brown’s active pieces won him a key pawn, and with Grigg in time pressure this was always going to be a problem; Brown blundered back the pawn trying to blitz, but in a double edged position ended up winning on time. Another upset occurred on the next board, as sixth seed Alan Tankel was lucky to draw with Robbie Peck when tactics won the latter a pawn; if he had played on a bit he would have seen he had virtually a forced win… Other upsets were scored as usual by juniors: Alex Miles won material to beat a rusty Edward Zhao (Zong-Yuan’s father!), and Daniel Lapitan did likewise to Matthew Stevens.
The top four seeds kept winning in Round 2, although Stephen Solomon made hardest work of it against Milorad Lukic; but in the end his two pieces triumphed over his opponent’s rook and pawns. Rated just 985, it was little Daniel Lapitan who pulled off the biggest upset, beating Richard Eccles (1642) after a topsy turvy game where both players had the advantage at different times, but Richard ended up losing a rook to tactics in time pressure. Alex Stahnke was lucky to draw his game with unrated local Neil Riding, who chose to win the exchange rather than open lines to splatter the enemy king – thus walking right into a forced perpetual check! Alan Tankel, on the other hand, gave his opponent Alf Klinkby too much play for his extra exchange, and in the end had to settle for a draw by repetition. Meanwhile the juniors were at it again: Robbie Peck upset Edward Zhao, while Matthew Stevens walked into a mate to lose to Martin Jack.
Fighting chess was definitely being played in this event, as there was not even a single draw in Round 3… The top four seeds still all won: Zhao beat Alkin convincingly, as did Solo by attacking Jonas Muller to death as White. Gene was also a fairly comfortable winner against John Marsden, but BJ had to struggle a lot more in an unbalanced position with the players castled on opposite sides before his attack won a piece to beat Daniel Lapitan. Alex Stahnke won a piece to a bishop fork to upset Alan Tankel; he was joined on 2½/3 by Robbie Peck, who won a knight ending a pawn ahead to defeat Neil Riding. Upsets this round were scored by adults for once: Sam Brown over David Mearns, and Alf Klinkby against Matthew Stevens.
In the last game to finish, Zong-Yuan convincingly beat Gene in Round 4; superior activity and a powerful passed pawn saw him clean up, winning a piece in the end. This catapulted him to 4/4, sharing the lead with Solo after the latter beat Brian Jones. BJ, a pawn up after a better opening, joined a large club of players who have been “Soloed”: fighting as ever, Solo got counterplay with a potent a3-pawn to end up triumphant. Alex Stahnke defeated Robbie Peck on Board 3 to reach 3½/4, in spite of blundering his queen for two minor pieces; as the activity of his pieces compensated, they got in and ended up mating! Sam Grigg recovered to 3/4 with a “chainsaw massacre” (his words) of Lukic from a good French Defence as Black. Sam Brown and Daniel Lapitan continued their good runs: Sam upset John Alkin, while Daniel drew with Ken Creech.
Everyone was expecting a thriller between the top two seeds on Sunday morning; and Solo and Zong-Yuan did not let them down... From a locked position that looked hard to break through, suddenly Yuan sacrificed a piece; and a fascinating game ensued, where neither player seemed willing to capture the enemy piece! With pieces left en prise for many moves, it was a hard position to calculate; and sadly for Solo he lost on time in a probably lost position while trying to do so (see game below). Meanwhile BJ ground down Alex Stahnke positionally in an ending to reach 4/5, where he was joined by Gene and Sam Grigg who were much more tactical in beating Sam Brown and Richard Eccles respectively. Gene got the better of a forced capturing sequence, while Sam Grigg forced through a mating attack in a miniature. Jonas Muller was also on 4/5 after beating Neil Riding. Upsets were scored by Martin Jack over Edward Zhao, Alex Miles against Bill Ross, Robbie Peck’s queen against Lukic’s rook and minor pieces and Daniel Lapitan over Trent Parker; the latter two thereby joined Alex Stahnke still in contention on 3½/5.
Stephen Solomon (2441) - Zong-Yuan Zhao (2591)
Coffs Harbour Open (5.1) 20/07/2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0–0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0–0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Nd3 f5 11.f3 Rf7 12.Bd2 f4 13.g4 Bf6 14.b4 h5 15.h3 Rh7 16.Kg2 Kg7 17.a4 Bh4 18.Be1 Ng8 19.Rh1 Nh6 20.a5 Nf7 21.c5 Bxe1 22.Qxe1 Nf6 23.Nf2 Bd7 24.a6 b6 25.c6 Be8 26.Nd3 Ng5 27.Qf2 Bf7 28.h4 Nxf3 29.g5 Nd4 30.Nxf4 Ng4 31.Bxg4 hxg4 32.Kg3 exf4+ 33.Kxg4 Qc8+ 34.Kxf4 Nf5 35.h5 Qe8 36.h6+ Kg8 37.Kg4 Qe5 38.Rac1 Bxd5 39.exf5 gxf5+ 40.Kh5 Bxh1
... and White lost on time just before playing Ne2.
0–1 [C. Zworestine]
Zong-Yuan reached 6/6 by scoring a crushing attack on the king to beat Sam Grigg in Round 6, thus guaranteeing himself at least equal first. But the player still on 5/6 who could catch him was a surprise, as Gene Nakauchi did not fall for any of Solo’s usual tricks! Having achieved a vastly superior position a pawn ahead, Gene went on to win another pawn and calmly close out their ending. Hotly pursuing him were three players on 4½/6, after Brian Jones’ exchange sacrifice achieved only a perpetual check against Jonas Muller and Alex Stahnke refuted an unsound Daniel Lapitan trick to beat him. The usual upsets occurred on the next few boards, as Robbie Peck drew with Marsden, Buciu won a piece to beat Tankel and Gary Losh defeated Richard Eccles. Upsets also happened lower down, as blind star Alex Momot stunned Edward Zhao and Mary Wilkie won the prize for the cutest stalemate trick in her draw with Axel Stahnke!
History was created when Zhao became the first player to win the event with a perfect score, his win against Brian Jones coming after the latter sacrificed a piece for an attack which failed. The real excitement was on Board 2, where Jonas Muller played a top game to win the exchange and eventually upset Gene Nakauchi (see game below). So outright second for Jonas on 5½/7, with Solo, Gene and Sam Grigg sharing third on 5/7 after Solo ground down Alex Stahnke, and Sam got another crushing attack through to beat Aurel-John Buciu. Alex had to be content with equal first Under 1650 with Ken Creech, who drew with Robbie Peck; Robbie shared first Under 1500 with Gary Losh, who drew with John Marsden. Phil Patterson’s upset win over Bill Ross earnt him outright first Under 1200, with a four-way tie for second only being joined by Martin Jack after he upset Axel Stahnke in a lengthy queen and pawn ending a pawn up.
Jonas Muller (1679) - Gene Nakauchi (2020)
Coffs Harbour Open (7.2) 20/07/2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.Nc3 b5 8.0–0 Qc7 9.f4 d6 10.Qe2 Nd7 11.Bd2 Ngf6 12.Rae1 Bb7 13.Kh1 Rc8 14.e5 Nd5 15.Nd4 Nc5 16.Qg4 g6 17.Ne4 Nxe4 18.Bxe4 Qd7 19.f5 gxf5 20.Nxf5 dxe5 21.Ng7+ Kd8 22.Ba5+ Rc7 23.Bxc7+ Kxc7 24.Bxd5 exd5 25.Qxd7+ Kxd7 26.Rxe5
... and White eventually won.
1–0 [C. Zworestine]
Prize List: 1st GM Zong-Yuan Zhao 7/7; 2nd Jonas Muller 5½; = 3rd IM Stephen Solomon, FM Gene Nakauchi, Sam Grigg 5; = 1st Under 1650 Ken Creech, Alex Stahnke 4½; = 1st Under 1500 Gary Losh, Robbie Peck 4½; 1st Under 1200 Phil Patterson 4; = 2nd Under 1200 Martin Jack, Daniel Lapitan, Alex Miles, Mary Wilkie 3½.
2008 ANU Open and Minor
from DOP Charles Zworestine
Nineties Not So Nervous
Yes indeed: getting a grand total of 94 players (38 in the Open and 56
in the Minor) made the organisers of this year’s 16th ANU Open anything but nervous! Actually, they were
absolutely thrilled to have 31 players more than last year – although as Shaun Press said at the opening ceremony,
they were at a loss to explain why the numbers were down last year but back up this year… What we do know for sure is that
the same organising team as last year (Shun Ikeda, Paul Dunn and Shaun Press, aided and abetted by Jim Flood and Charles
Bishop) did exactly the same fantastic job, but with even better results! Not quite our premier 2-day weekender –
the fabulous Freytag weekender recently held in Adelaide had that honour with well over 100 – but close. A few years ago
the event got exactly 100 players – the aim is to get over that figure next year…
Although not featuring quite as many titled players as last year (we were missing
the defending champion, recently crowned GM Zong-Yuan Zhao, for example), the Open was still top heavy, with 11 players
ACF rated over 2000 battling it out. Headed by top seeded IM David “Smurf” Smerdon (having recently become a local), even
the 10th and 11th seeds were tough: Board 3 of our women’s Olympiad side, Giang Nguyen, and FM
Brian Jones… In between were players like IM Andras Toth, FMs Igor Bjelobrk and Jesse Sales, WIM (and women’s Olympiad
Board 2) Arianne Caoili and Australian Junior Champion Junta Ikeda. We even had visiting British WIM Heather Richards
(FIDE rated 2150). The Minor (Under 1600) was even more random, with top seed Stephen Mugford (1515) the only player
over 1500! An even more widespread field than last year featured players from overseas and every Australian state
except the Northern Territory. So the usual weekender Fischer time controls of 60 minutes plus 10 seconds per move from
the start were all set to produce the usual thrills and spills; let’s see what happened!
Round 1 produced few shocks, although fourth seed in the Open (Endre Ambrus)
struggled a bit against Tasmanian senior Glen Gibbs; he was in a drawn rook and minor piece endgame, but then won a pawn
and ended up prevailing. Yi Yuan should have lost to Sally Yu, but sadly for the latter she walked into a mate. Mark
Baterowicz scored an upset draw with James Watson, who was winning but then popped a piece and was lucky to draw. In the
last game to finish Luthien Russell scored the biggest upset, winning pawns and forcing a won endgame to beat Mehmedalija
Dizdarevic. The Minor, on the other hand, saw virtually no upsets at all, with the sole exception of local junior Stefan
Qin winning a rook to beat Sydney parent Jin Shan.
It was a different story in Round 2, although Smurf ground down Giang Nguyen
in a long ending, and Andras Toth’s more active pieces and powerful passed d-pawn defeated Brian Jones. While Bjelobrk
and Ambrus both won, Jesse Sales was not so lucky, being attacked by Andrew Brown (who sacrificed a piece) and finding
himself defending, then in a messy position in time pressure; poor Jesse ended up losing on time… More upsets occurred
on the next couple of boards, where Andrey Bliznyuk swapped a complicated position all the way down to a pure opposite
coloured bishop endgame to score an upset draw with Junta Ikeda; and Ian Rout went one better, winning a long and tough
endgame against Arianne Caoili when he won a pawn and forced the Lucena position. Dizdarevic also lost an ending a pawn
down to go down to Justin Tan, while Simon Mitchell drew with Narelle Szuveges… Shocks also occurred on Boards 2 and 3 in
the Minor: second seed Vaness Reid was attacked and lost a rook to be upset by Alana Chibnall, while Megan Setiabudi
also displayed “junior power” in stunning third seed James Satrapa.
Excitement really occurred on the top boards in Round 3, especially on Board 1
where Smurf sacrificed first a piece for three pawns and then the exchange (thus being a whole rook down) to get at
Heather Richards’ king! Unfortunately for David, Heather defended well; and in the end he had to settle for a draw by
perpetual check (see game below). Andras Toth also had a hard time with Tuan Le, being worse and offering a draw; but
Tuan stuffed up in time pressure, so Andras got what he admitted was a lucky victory. Igor Bjelobrk also had to work
hard to join Andras as the sole players on 3/3, but eventually got his attack through to beat Andrew Brown. Ian Rout
and Endre Ambrus joined Heather, Smurf and Junta Ikeda on 2½/3 after drawing a random game which started in a rook
and opposite coloured bishop ending, and ended up with bishop and three pawns (Endre) drawing with rook, bishop and pawn!
In another upset, Luthien Russell defeated Leon Kempen… Meanwhile seven year old Anton Smirnov caused the shock of the
Minor so far, winning pawns and then a piece to defeat Stephen Mugford. He thus joined a group of 5 players in the lead
on 3/3; this included Satthya Chitturi after he also won a piece to upset Sunny Yoon.
David Smerdon (2463) - Heather Richards (2150)
ANU Open (3.1) 26/07/2008
1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 c5 4.exd5 exd5 5.d4 Nc6 6.Bb5 c4 7.Ne5 Nge7 8.Bg5 Qd6 9.Bf4 Qe6 10.0–0 f6 11.Re1 fxe5 12.Rxe5 Qf7 13.Nxd5 Kd8 14.Bg5 h6 15.Bxe7+ Nxe7 16.Bxc4 Be6 17.Qe1 Bxd5 18.Qa5+ b6 19.Bxd5 Nxd5 20.Rxd5+ Kc7 21.Qc3+ Kb7 22.Qb3 Re8 23.a4 Bb4 24.a5 Rhf8 25.f3 Rd8 26.a6+ Kc7 27.Qc4+ Bc5 28.Rxc5+ bxc5 29.Qxc5+ Kb8 30.Qb5+ Kc7 31.Ra5 Rd7 32.Qe5+ Kd8 33.Rb5 Rc7 34.Rb8+ Kd7 35.Qb5+ Ke6 36.Qe5+ Kd7 37.Qb5+ Ke6 38.Qe5+ Kd7 39.Qb5+ ½–½
For whatever reason, Igor Bjelobrk played a poor game on Board 1 in Round 4, being
smashed by Andras Toth (our CLH = cheeky local Hungarian!) who won one pawn after another until Iggy resigned on move 30!
This left Toth outright leader on 4/4, from two players on 3½/4: David Smerdon and Ian Rout. Smurf had to fight very hard
to get out of difficulties, but eventually got a passed h-pawn through in a complicated endgame to defeat Ambrus; while
Ian got to a drawish-looking rook and pawn ending a pawn ahead against Junta Ikeda, but somehow managed to win it! Jesse
Sales joined a group of 4 players on 3/4 by stopping Heather Richards’ run, while Yi Yuan scored an upset draw with Arianne
Caoili and Tamzin Oliver an upset win against Glen Gibbs… Things were hotting up in the Minor too, where 15 year old
Sophie Eustace beat someone less than half her age when she won Anton Smirnov’s queen to a discovered attack! She thus
joined Phil Bourke (beat Joe Marks) and Satthya Chitturi (upset Mark Scully) in the lead on 4/4, by half a point from
Andrew Farley and Alana Chibnall after the latter upset Sunny Yoon.
Sunday morning dawned, and the CLH was no longer the leader – that honour went
to the small blue fictional creature after Smurf got an advantage out of the opening, and went on to score a convincing
positional victory. So, 4½/5 for Smurf, half a point ahead of three players on 4/5: Igor Bjelobrk, Jesse Sales and the
CLH. Iggy reached an ending two pawns up to beat Ian Rout, while Jesse beat Giang Nguyen after superior activity netted
him an exchange. Endre Ambrus won a long struggle against Tuan Le to join a group of 5 players on 3½/5, the others being
Rout, Brian Jones (upset Junta Ikeda), Milan Grcic (won a rook from a lost endgame to stun Arianne Caoili) and Luthien
Russell (who won an exchange to pull off another shock victory, this time against Heather Richards)… Long struggles were
also par for the course in the Minor, as Satya Chitturi won pawns to upset Phil Bourke, and Sophie Eustace won on time
against Andrew Farley after being better for most of the game. These two thus shared the lead on 5/5, by half a point
from Alana Chibnall who followed Sophie’s lead by winning a piece to defeat young Anton Smirnov.
With Iggy having the White pieces, an exciting game ensued between Smerdon and
Bjelobrk in Round 6; but Smurf eventually got a passed b-pawn through to prevail and thus maintain his lead on 5½/6. The
CLH was just half a point behind him after outlasting Jesse Sales, while Ambrus made short work of Luthien Russell to
join surprise packet Milan Grcic on 4½/6. Milan got there by upsetting Tuan Le, who popped a rook in a queen and rook
ending. Brian Jones’ attack against Ian Rout produced only a perpetual check; but Sam Grigg’s attack was more successful,
leading to a forced mate and an upset victory over Andrey Bliznyuk (see game below). Yi Yuan refuted Junta’s attack
in another shock victory, while unrated Singaporean Timothy Wee held Arianne Caoili to a draw in a queen ending… In
the meantime the Minor saw more fight at the top, with Sophie Eustace and Satya Chitturi swapping everything off to
draw their top board game after a long fight. They thus maintained their lead on 5½/6, by half a point from Phil Bourke
(won a complicated game against Alana Chibnall) and Erik Jochimsen (beat Yutta Mantoro).
Sam Grigg (1783) - Andry Bliznyuk (1921)
ANU Open (6.8) 27/07/2008
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4 Nbd7 4.e4 e5 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Be2 0–0 7.0–0 c6 8.h3 Qc7 9.Rb1 a5 10.a3 exd4 11.Nxd4 Nc5 12.Qc2 a4 13.Be3 Re8 14.Rbd1 Bf8 15.Bf3 Nfd7 16.g4 h5 17.Nf5 Ne5 18.Be2 hxg4 19.hxg4 g6 20.f4 gxf5 21.gxf5 Ned7 22.Bh5 Nf6 23.Qg2+ Bg7 24.Bd4 Ncd7 25.Kf2 Nxh5 26.Rg1 Kf8 27.Bxg7+ Nxg7 28.Qxg7+ Ke7 29.c5 Nxc5 30.e5 d5 31.Qf6+ Kf8 32.Rh1 Ne4+ 33.Nxe4 Qb6+ 34.Kg2 Qxb2+ 35.Nd2 1–0
As usual the cream came to the top in the last round, with Smurf a convincing
victor over Ian Rout to win the event outright on 6½/7. The CLH had a fairly quick draw with Ambrus to guarantee himself
at least equal second on 5½/7; this became outright second after Iggy ended Milan Grcic’s chances by winning two knights
and two pawns vs rook. Iggy thus claimed equal third on 5/7 with Ambrus, Giang Nguyen (who beat Brian Jones), Sam Grigg
(attacked and beat Luthien Russell) and Michael Dunn (upset Jesse Sales after the latter blundered a rook to a removing
the guard tactic). The latter two won rating prizes, while an unlucky Milan missed out on the prizes… The Minor saw Satya
Chitturi defeat Erik Jochimsen to reach 6½/7; this was enough for him to claim outright first after Phil Bourke
patiently converted an initiative into a winning attack to defeat Sophie Eustace and take outright second on 6/7. Sophie
had to be content with equal third on 5½/7 with Andrew Farley (who beat James O’Brien); Alana Chibnall was also on the
same score after upsetting Mario Palma to claim a rating prize.
Prize List: Open 1st David Smerdon 6½/7; 2nd
Andras Toth 5½; = 3rd Endre Ambrus, Igor Bjelobrk, Michael Dunn (Best 1800-1999), Sam Grigg (Best
Under 1800), Giang Nguyen 5; Andrey Bliznyuk (Best ANU player), Arianne Caoili, Zhengbo Wang 4; Biggest
Upset Luthien Russell (for her win over WIM Heather Richards).
Minor 1st Satya Chitturi 6½/7; 2nd Phil
Bourke 6; = 3rd Alana Chibnall (Best 1200-1399), Sophie Eustace, Andrew Farley 5½; Best
1000-1199 Yijun Zhang 4½; Best Under 1000 Caroline Shan, Joshua Walker 4½; Best Unrated Ian Sears 3;
Biggest Upset Jamie Lee Guo (for his win over Charles Bishop).
The venue (Fenner Hall) was terrific, and the event was dispute-free and most
enjoyable! There was even a fabulous canteen, with great food keeping everyone well fed and watered. Thanks to all those
who helped there, and indeed to all the organisers. Thanks also to the Oliver family for their usual magnificent
hospitality, and to all those who billeted interstate guests. There remains only to make the event even better
next year; I look forward to seeing you all again then…
TAILPIECE
I rely on your valued contributions to the ACF Newsletter concerning state, national and international chess happenings.
Please email your submissions to auschessnews@gmail.com. Thanks.
Joseph Tanti
ACF Newsletter Editor
P.O. Box 16, Palmer, SA, 5237
Mob. 0418 856 394
