Victorian Junior Championship Day 3

I am at Box Hill Chess Club again, and sat in the analysis room. There is total silence here as the draw for round 7 has just been published and all the players have made their way to the draw, and then on to their boards. All the spectators, coaches and parents are all awaiting the start of the next round as well. This is all in contrast to 5 minutes ago when it was bedlam in the analysis room. Transfer chess was being loudly contested, game analysis was being undertaken at rock concert decibel count, child-parent pre round discourses were being broadcast to the whole suburb…. Ok, it was fairly noisy in here.

The tournament has taken some unexpected turns, the main one being the great showing of Nathan Hibberd who is joint first with all 3 top rated players out of the way. He is joint first with top seed Laurence Matheson who is struggling to find his top form, a phenomenon that affects a lot of strong juniors at title events. Visitors to the event include IM James Morris and FM Bill Jordan.

Talking to James, he was impressed by Sasha Parsons in the last round, saying that the 11 year old showed good technique swapping the correct pieces and leaving himself with good pieces. This win was against Karl Zelesco who James feels a bit sorry for. Karl has been put under a lot of pressure recently with his big rating improvements, and James knows only too well the feeling of expectation that people can put on you. James is still impressed with Karl Zelesco’s progress and expects him to bounce back.

It’s great that strong juniors such as James Morris show up for events like this as obviously a number of players in the tournament look up to our top juniors. I have seen many juniors at this event such as Laurence Matheson,Nathan Hibberd, Frank Lekkas, Michael Chan, Ari Dale and Sasha Parson’s twisting the front of their hair while thinking, a trait that James himself has.

An early stroll round the room has shown me some interesting things. Frank Lekkas is playing the white side of the Maroczy Bind that he so often has to play against. On board 5 Nicholas Liu and Jonathan Tang are playing an ultra solid Symmetrical English which will probably go the distance. The most interesting position for me was between Kyle Gibson and Joseph Wong where a very interesting pawn structure exists which took me a while to work out how it had come about.

1 hour into the games:

Lekkas looks good against Tuncer, Liu-Tang is still a stale position, neither have really tried anything yet. But further down the boards there are some interesting positions. For instance, Sasha Parsons has grabbed  a pawn against Michael Chan and is trying desperately to prevent an attack. And the Loh-Addamo position looks good for Michael as black with the 2 bishops and an attack on the b-file.

And then there was this weird position Deverajh-Cannon….anyone care to assess who is better here?

Some interesting developments:

Max Chew Lee-Enoch Fan is an interesting king and pawn ending.

The Lekkas-Tuncer game in unclear, but Morris, Jordan and myself would all rather be white:

Ok, so what does IM Morris, FM Jordan and my good self know? In the above position black played 1..Rae8 and after 2.Qd3 [Perhaps 2.Qf1 was an option] 2..Bxf4 black neutralised white’s initiative and is a pawn up in the ending. White is fighting to draw.

Ok, it is time for me to go now so you’ll have to check out the final results on the CV website.

Keep fit for chess players

Well, let’s face it, chess is hardly the best recreational activity for keeping physically fit, so as a player hits middle age (I’m 44 in October) if they don’t have a ready made fitness regime, then the thought of starting one can be pretty daunting. There always seem to ne so many obstacles in the way of getting fit. For instance, I leave my house each weekday morning at between 7am and 7.30am (a lie in on Saturday’s as I leave at 8.20am). I then am working or travelling between work until at least 5pm every week day. On Monday night I am the arbiter at the MCC, Tuesday I’m home but have lessons online, Wednesday I run the MCC endgame group, Thursday’s are free though I have run the Phoenix event, and Friday evenings I have no excuse as I do nothing.

So, I have little time to keep fit and find the thought of getting fit in the first place intimidating. Well, I’ve found the answer. I am going to go back to something that I used to do a few years back. I am going to start juggling again. I took for granted the benefits of juggling when I was doing it before, but really I used to be doing myself quite a bit of good. Check out some of the facts here.

Juggling is fun and challenging. It’s challenging because there’s always another trick to try and master. Personally I like ball juggling rather than club, hoop or scarf juggling, and 4-ball juggling has always appealed to me the most for some reason. I think that cigar boxes are really cool to juggle, but have never had much of a chance to try them out.

Anyway, a good way to learn to juggle, or to improve is to join a juggling club, or check out some juggling video’s. If you want to know where a juggling club is near you, check out this site. And my inspiration when I was a young juggler in England was a guy called Sean Gandini. Check out this:

But if you really want to see some unreal stuff, and some football skills that would put the current World Cup teams to shame, then check out the following video featuring the great Francis Brunn.

Victorian Junior Championships

So I’m at Box Hill Chess Club as the final round of the day has just started. This is actually round 5 of the scheduled 9 rounds so it’s the half way mark of the event. With the absence of Bobby Cheng, James Morris and Eugene Schon the tournament is missing three of Victoria’s hottest young talents, but the event itself is certainly strong enough and hotly contested. Defending champion Jason Tang finds himself in joint first with Laurence Matheson, a late but very welcome entry into the tournament. Just with these 2 players the tournament would be excellent, but the field below them is long and there are few easy games. This is attested to byt he fact that neither Laurence nor Jason find themselves on maximum points. Laurence was held to a draw by Nathan Hibberd, while Jason conceded a draw to Ari Dale.

Ari is one of many players who are backing up from the under 12 Championship that was played at the weekend. Ari was disappointed with his his result in the under 12′s but is showing his quality in the under 18′s to be on 3/4 and in contact with the leaders.

Victorian Blitz Championship

This match is played between Igor Goldenberg and Leonid Sandler over 4 games with an armagedden game if necessary. Leonid has the white pieces in game 1. Besides the numerous parents, spectators include FM Bill Jordan.

IM Leonid Sandler (left) starts the match against IM Igor Goldenberg.

Game 1: A lot of slamming of clocks and a victory for Igor Goldenberg.

Game 2: English Opening, black plays an early b6, a bit like a Queen’s Indian but white has played d3 instead of d4. It’s now officially a Hedgehog against a Maroczy Bind. Another win for Igor Goldenberg who held a slight edge for the whole game.

Game 3: Leonid has to win this game to stay in the match. 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. b3….definite middlegame aadvantage to Leonid who has control of a-file and the h1-a8 diagonal, and is 30 seconds ahead on the clock. Igor making holding moves….a draw and he is the champion, Leonid has to win. Igor misses a fork and loses a piece, Leonid is still alive! One game to go.

Game 4: Leonid with the black pieces must win to force a play off game. QGD with ..h6 and Bxf6. Igor still happy with a draw. White minority attack. Igor covering bases with a wait and see policy. he knows Leonid has to risk something. Leonid a pawn ahead now in an ending queen’s rook and opposite bishops. Queen’s off, time scramble. Leonid wins on time….armageddon game to decide things.

Play-off game: Leonid chooses the white pawn and plays white. He will have 6 minutes, Igor has 5 minutes, but White (Leonid) has to win, a draw will result in black being the champion. Typical Reti where black plays Bf5. Leonid has fianchettoed both bishops. 30 second think by Sandler…40 seconds, times close to level now. Igor’s turn to think, Sandler 30 seconds up on the clock, but the position is level. Flurry of activity sees Igor win an exchange. Sandler has started to speed up to put time pressure on his opponent. Leonid is an exchange up and ahead on the clock after mistakes by Igor. Victorian Blitz Champion is Leonid Sandler who won the must-win match.

Ok, back to the main plot, the Victorian Junior Championships round 5.

A quick draw in the QGD Exchange Variation on the top board was a bit of a disappointment. I saw the game and it was an interesting variation by Jason Tang to try to play a Tartakower-Makogonov-Bondarevsky Variation. Laurence was not happy with his position though the position at the end was probably level. Nathan Hibberd is having a great tounament with a draw in the previous round with top seed Laurence Matheson and a share of the lead after 4 rounds. He plays another top player in Michael Chan in this round. Jonathan Tang has joined Matheson and defending Champ Jason tang on 4 points while Ari Dale and Zach Loh drew to stay just behind. The other player near the top of the leaderboard is Max Chew Lee who is playing black against Gene Lai. A king and pawn ending is on the board at the moment with Gene a pawn ahead.

Black to play, but is there any way he can hold? Surely white’s plan is to play f4 and create an outside passed pawn?

The hall is emptying now as the games finish. A lot of the kids look fairly exhausted and I’m sure that quite a few would prefer not to have 3 games in a day. The other thing that has been an issue in this tournament is the time allowed for rounds. There is a 3 hour window for games that have a time control of 75 minutes plus 30 seconds increment. This means that a 30 move game that goes close to the time control will take 3 hours. Longer games, and there have been longer games in every round, result in the following rounds being delayed. This needs to be examined for future tournaments.

Tournament arbiter David Hacche says that the event has run smoothly and he’s had no issues to resolve.

An interesting conversation with Bill Jordan. Bill, an FM and strong player noticed that Laurence was playing his moves very quickly and he was a bit disappointed with the lack of fighting spirit. A skill to loearn is making the most of slight advantages and Bill wonders that Laurence certainly didn’t maximse his chances in this game.

City Of Melbourne Open Round 8 Live

A depleted field tonight as withdrawals and postponements due to the Victorian Juniors takes it toll. There is no live transmission tonight due to some technical issues with our computers and my lack of ability in solving these problems. We have postponements to the games Fitzpatrick-Addamo and Lekkas-Shanks (good luck to Michael Addamo and Frank Lekkas in the Victorian Junior Championships) and Ian Sutton has had to go to Sydney for a while and has withdrawn from the tournament so his game against Thai Ly has resulted in a victory by forfeit to Thai. One game was played yesterday, where Domogoj Dragicevic beat Pano Skiotis.

Ok, I will try to post some info about the top game as we have no live transmission. So far it’s a closed Spanish which I know very little about.

Rujevic-Tan

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3

The early news is that Laurie Dalton is a winner due to a no show by Alp Akverdi, Dusan Stojic has tried the opening 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 against Sylvester Urban. This is a sideline that both Stojic brothers have played a fair bit over the past few years so they know the resulting positions pretty well. Victor Kildisas has stodged a Bb5xc6 Sicilian against Sam Low. Roger Beattie appears to be an exchange down for no compensation and the interesting game is shaping up to be Schmidt-Voon with an opposite castled Sicilian.

At the request of a well known IM and Victorian chess personality I have taken a picture of Sam Low as it seems that it’s such a long time since he played that people need reminding what he looks like.  If anyone else has any requests for pictures of chess players, then feel free to ask and I’ll see what I can do. Perhaps a beachwear modelling photo session?

Board 1 update

Not very exciting, Mirko has chased the light squared bishop.

Rujevic-Tan

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4
Bg6 16. Bxg6

Approximately 1 and a half hours into the games:

Board 1 has not moved on much:

Rujevic-Tan: times 67-53

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4
Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. b3 Nb6 18. a5 Nbd7 19. Be3 Rc8 20. b4 *

Board 3 has come down an endgame where white (Urban) has a majority on the queen side, but black (Stojic) has a more central king.

White to move here, and Sylvester is having a good long think.

Victor Kildisas is a pawn up, though it doesn’t seem like much against Sam Low who has some pressure along the h1-a8 diagonal. Roger Beattie is a ton of material down against Gary Lycett and the only other interesting point is Jim Papadinis’ orange coloured pen. If I was his opponent I would be complaining about the brightness on Jim’s scoresheet, that contrasts dramatically with the greyness on the board.

2 hour update

I’m finding it difficult to pick winners tonight. Roger Beattie still looks gone but is playing on. Ari Dale looks exhausted after playing non stop for the past 3 days at the Victorian under 12′s and under 18′s. He has already won 2 games today at the Vic Junior’s but is a pawn down against John Dowling. The game between Simon Schmidt and Richard Voon is heating up:

White to move, but who will smash through first?

The board 1 game has moved on a bit with Justin pressuring Mirko’s d5 pawn.

Rujevic-Tan
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4
Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. b3 Nb6 18. a5 Nbd7 19. Be3 Rc8 20. b4 Qc7 21. Qb3 Qb7 22.
Rd1 Rc4

And from this position, Justin has taken the lead in this game with excellent calculation:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4
Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. b3 Nb6 18. a5 Nbd7 19. Be3 Rc8 20. b4 Qc7 21. Qb3 Qb7 22.
Rd1 Rc4 23. Na3 Nxd5 24. Nxc4 bxc4 25. Qxc4 Nxe3 26. fxe3 Qxf3 27. Kh2

Mirko looks disgusted with himself, and if Justin can press home his advantage then we will have a new leader before the final round.

2 and a half hours

The game between Richard McCart and Felix Wyss has an interesting material distribution, as Felix has a rook for a bishop and 2 pawns. The queens and other pieces are still on so at the moment, the rook looks threatening. Jim papadinis’ orange pen hasn’t helped him as he is a host of pawns down to Paul Kovacevic. Alex kaplan finds himself with a huge time advantage against Adam Lovegrove even though Adam might have a positional advantage in the game. He will find it difficult to play this game out with only 3.27 on the clock compared to Kaplan’s 64 minutes.

The board 1 game now sees an overwhelming advantage to Justin Tan.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4
Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. b3 Nb6 18. a5 Nbd7 19. Be3 Rc8 20. b4 Qc7 21. Qb3 Qb7 22.
Rd1 Rc4 23. Na3 Nxd5 24. Nxc4 bxc4 25. Qxc4 Nxe3 26. fxe3 Qxf3 27. Kh2 Bh4 28.
Qf1 Bg3+ 29. Kg1 Qxe3+ 30. Kg2 e4 31. Ra2 Be5 32. c4

Here is the position which Adam Lovegrove is having to play with under 2 minutes left.

And big news from board 1. After the moves

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. d5 Na5 11. Bc2 c6 12. a4 cxd5 13. exd5 Nc4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4
Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. b3 Nb6 18. a5 Nbd7 19. Be3 Rc8 20. b4 Qc7 21. Qb3 Qb7 22.
Rd1 Rc4 23. Na3 Nxd5 24. Nxc4 bxc4 25. Qxc4 Nxe3 26. fxe3 Qxf3 27. Kh2 Bh4 28.
Qf1 Bg3+ 29. Kg1 Qxe3+ 30. Kg2 e4 31. Ra2 Be5 32. c4 f5 33. Qf2 Qb3 34. Qe2
fxg4 35. hxg4 Qg3+ 36. Kh1 Qh3+ 37. Kg1 Rf4 Mirko resigned.

This was Justin’s first win against an International Master

3 hours update

About half the games have finished now. The ending between Urban and Stojic is looking better for Dusan and if he wins, he will join Domagoj Dragicevic in first place, half a point ahead of Rujevic. Sam Low has broken through a lot of stodge that Victor kildisas put in front of him, and looks to have a good advantage. Richard Voon is an exchange up and should convert, while Richard McCart and Rad Chmiel have a long way still to go with hardly any pieces or pawns off the board. Some diagrams to follow soon.

MCC life member Marcus Raine has been a welcome visitor to the club this evening. Marcus has some time off from his university studies and has come into the MCC after a full day at Box Hill Chess Club where he was present for the Victorian Junior Championships. I asked him about the hat imitatation perpetrated by Elliott Renzies and Serif Tuglaci. Marcus said he had no problems with having the same fashion sense as Tasso.

A big disappointment for Richard Voon who just lost an absolutely crushing position against Simon Schmidt after overlooking a threat of mate in 1 which forced him to give up some material. Dusan is now 2 pawns up in an ending where he has rook and knight against Sylvester’s rook and bishop. Sam Low is also 2 pawns up against Victor Kildisas while the McCart-Chmiel game continues on its long course.

Actually, as I was just writing that the 2 top boards ended with wins for Dusan Stojic and Sam Low. This means we have joint leaders going into the last round with Domagoj Dragicevic and Dusan Stojic on 6.5 with Mirko Rujevic just half a point behind on 6.

There is still one game going on, and it is getting to the finale between McCart and Chmiel. Last I looked it was double rooks, a minor piece each and about 5 pawns each, but both are down to the last 5 minutes so time may be a factor. It has now clarified to rook and 5 (Chmiel) v rook and 4 (McCart). Time will definitely be a factor in this result, they are both less than 5 minutes.

This is the end of the blog for tonight. Thanks again for watching and I will be posting the last round draw on the MCC website by Wednesday at the latest. This will mean calculating the draw based on some unplayed games, but that is the way it has to be. I will not be at the club next week so I’d like to thank the players for making the tournament an easy one to be the arbiter of. I have thoroughly enjoyed being arbiter and live blogging from the event. I will definitely be doing this agin in the future.

City of Melbourne Open Round 7 Live

A prompt start to the round has caught a few latecomers out, but the boards are gradually filling up. There are 2 postponed games, Lovegrove-Ro. McCart to be played on Tuesday and Wyss-Ly to be played on Thursday. I’ll be posting the draw for round 8 after Wyss-Ly has been played. A prize fund has been announced now, there being over $1000 in the pool with a first prize of $350. The live game tonight is the top 2 rated players in the tournament, Dragicevic-Rujevic.

The first winner of the night, was also the first forfeit of the tournament as Ari Dale took the full point when Jack Shanks failed to show up for his game in the 30 minute allotted time.

1 hour update:

Evergreen Felix Wyss is in the club despite his game being postponed until tomorrow. He is currently blasting out some blitz against Ari Dale who is a little disappointed to have had no game tonight. Board 1 times: 63-66. Both players look quite relaxed at the moment. Board 2 is a messy Kalashnikov, while board 3 sees Pyke, as white, with a central pawn wedge guaranteeing him more maneuvering space. Ian Sutton has chosen the Samisch against the KID rather than the 4 pawns which he played earlier in the tournament. Pano Skiotis arrived a bit late and is now down on the clock 79-42 against John Dowling. Richard Voon has a big centre and the 2 bishop’s against Justin Tan, a similar sort of game to that which Richard had against Sam Low earlier in the tourney, but Sam was able to create some play and win. Board 7 sees the early stages of a Benoni, while Sam Low on board 8 has the 2 bishops and a nice position against Frank Lekkas. Roger Beattie has his dark sunglasses on tonight, and that distracted me from looking at his game. And alex Kaplan has a queen for 2 knights against John Beckman and looks to be winning.

Battle of generations: Felix Wyss on the left has his mug, while Ari Dale has his water bottle.

2 Hour Update:

First game to finish was Pyke-Kildisas where Victor made too many slow moves allowing Malcolm to win an easy miature.

[Event "City of Melbourne"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2010.06.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Pyke, M."]
[Black "Kildisas, V."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E18"]
[PlyCount "39"]
[EventDate "2010.05.12"]
[SourceDate "2010.06.21"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 b6 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. O-O Be7 6. c4 O-O 7. Nc3 Ne4 8. Bd2 f5 9. d5 Nxc3 10. Bxc3 Bf6 11. Rc1 a5 12. Nd4 Qc8 13. e4 c5 14. Nb5 Bxc3 15. Rxc3 fxe4 16. Bxe4 Na6 17. Qh5 g6 Up to this point Malcolm has played simple chess and built up a winning position. He now wins in nice fashion.

18. Bxg6 hxg6 19. Qxg6+ Kh8 20. g4 1-0

Board 1 times: 36-48, and Mirko looks the more relaxed at the moment. FitzPatrick has managed to create a typical Kalashnikov mess against Stojic. Paul Kovacevic looks to be in trouble with his king caught in the centre against Sylvester Urban. The Lekkas-Low game has become quite interesting:

Which pawn should black recapture with and who is better?

Meanwhile, Roger beattie looks comfortable at 2 pawns up against Simon Schmidt. A very interesting ending is just beginning between Gary Lycett and Laurie Dalton:

White to move, but does he have any advantage here?

Unfotunately for us, Malcolm Pyke is not going to be able to play the rest of the tournament. Malcolm is taking the chance for the trip of a lifetime and going to Europe for a couple of months. He will be spending some time in England (he will be able to work out for himself why I decided to emigrate from that country) and then touring around some of the mainland. We all wish him a great time, and good luck if he gets to play any chess while he’s there.

I couldn’t work out which was Malcolm’s best side, so here are both: Malcolm Pyke from both the King Side and the Queen Side

3 Hour Update:

Board 1 times: 18-30. Voon-Tan has become interesting with Justin grabbing some pawns on the queenside, but Richard creating threats.

Also interesting is the ending between Roger Beattie and Simon Schmidt, the latter having fought back somewhat.

And the game between Alex Kaplan and John Beckman has been a topsy turvy affair, where Alex was a queen for 2 pieces up, then a piece for 2 pawns down, but it has now come down to a rook ending where it seems both players want to play to the bitter end.

White played Kc4 in this position.

On other boards, Sam Low is an exchange up, Gary Lycett is trying to win the double bishop ending and Sutton-Addamo is a crazy opposite side castling game that is poised to explode.

3 and a half hours:

Not many games left. Justin Tan looks good against Richard Voon, a clear exchange up but they only have one pawn each, so there are slight drawing chances for Richard. Gary Lycett is still trying to win a position against Laurie Dalton where there are opposite bishops and 5 pawns each, and no pawn stands on the colour of the opposite bishop. Roger Beattie is now 2 pawns up again in the following position.

Roger as white just played 1.g4.

The other game still going is between Dowling and Skiotis, where black is pressing. Oh, and of course Beckman-Kaplan where K, R, + P is taking on K, R + P. I think there has been no pawn move for at least 200 moves but neither side is budging!

4 hour update:

Only one game left in what has been an exciting night, with a number of interesting endgames. The final game of the night sees Roger Beattie with K, Q + NP v Simon Schmidt’s K + Q. It’s a hideously difficult endgame which I’ll probably use as the basis for the Wednesday night Endgame Group this week. Highlights tonight have been Michael Addamo’s draw with Ian Sutton, Malcolm Pyke’s win over Victor Kildisas, and Domogoj’s excellent effort to defeat the hitherto undefeated IM Mirko Rujevic on the live board.

Once again, thanks for looking at this blog. I will be posting the pairings for the next round after the postponed game that is due to be played on Thursday.

Live from the final round of the Vic Open

With one round to go there are 6 leaders of the tournament so it’s going to be an amazing last round. There’s a remarkably relaxed feeling around. I’ve just had a coffee in Maling Road with a very laid back Igor Goldenberg. However, I know that underneath there are some pulses racing and some thoughts about tournament victory. I suppose from the point of view as a bloggist, I’m hoping to see few short games in the last round, but I’m guesing there’ll be a few quick draws.

Elliot Renzies sporting a blue beanie (actually Serif Tuglaci has an almost identical hat, so this must be the winter chess collection)  behind MCC member John Beckman while IM Mirko Rujevic gets ready for his last round game against talented junior Michael Chan.

A fantastic community spirit exists at this tournament with all age groups catered for.

Tournament director Gerrit Hartland giving announcements before the last round, while IM Goldenberg and FM Cheng listen carefully before their last round game.

1 hour into the games:

There are 3 games being transmitted live so I’ll talk about some of the other games here. The Urban-Solomon game on board 4 is a mess that I can’t assess. Dragicevic chose the English against Morris and James countered with a king side fianchetto. Rujevic has also fianchettoed king side, but it is a Czech Benoni type position against Michael Chan. The game between Ng and Tang is heading for the endgame while Dizdarevic has gone for opposite side castling while Allen Yu is trying to exchange rooks in the centre to simplify the position. Leon Kempen has a typically closed position against Jamie Cross which is in stark contrast to the game between Flitny and Gibson where both kings are dangerously placed in the centre.

Some more interesting developments:

Morris has offered the exchange. Solomon looks to be winning material but the position is complicated with lots of possibilities. I’m sure Stephen is on top of all the variations. Rujevic has got his queen from d8-h5 in a King’s Indian type structure. Jason Tang has taken a lot of time over his last move and is down to 35 minutes. Allen Yu has managed to exchange a pair of rooks but the position is still very unclear against Dizdarevic. Flitny has got his king safely tucked away against Kyle Gibson but Kyle’s is precariously placed in the centre. Frank Lekkas is 2 pawns up while Zac Loh is a rook up. Vinay Lakshman has the best piece in the round, a beautiful knight outpost on d6 as white against Elliot Renzies.

Visitors so far are CV President Leonid Sandler, and Jamie Kenmure.

How about this for an eye-catching position:

Paul Bearup-Geoff Cook

2 hour update:

Solo is an exchange up while Morris next to him is an exchange down. Michael Chan has blocked the e4 square against Rujevic and an interesting position has arisen.

Jason Tang is pressing on the queen side against Isaac Ng, the queens have come off in this game. The queens also just came off in Allen Yu-Dizdarevic with an ending of R+B v R+N. The same ending appears in the game Liu-Feng, where white with the knight, has an extra pawn (albeit doubled). And a couple of other interesting endings lower down:

Kildisas-Lai with Black to move

This ending is from the board 40 game between Jimmy Ying and Tim Forster. White took on f4.

2 and a half hours:

Thai Ly has come to spectate and is immediately drawn into a blitz series with Richard Voon.

David Smerdon holds his head in his hands while concentrating on his move. Chris Wallis puts a hand on his forehead as if feeling his own temperature. Bobby Cheng looks relaxed, while Igor Goldenberg nods and chews his nails as he calculates. Teichmann leans forward across the board at Hamilton who leans back with his arms folded. Solomon looks bored, while Morris twists his front hair curl. So perhaps we can learn from poker and gain some tells about how our opponents are feeling?

Solo is a clear exchange up against Sylvester Urban and must be technially winning. Morris is an exchange down to Dragicevic and is probably technically losing. Jason Tang’s king is just about to break into Isaac Ng’s position. Jason must be close to winning this position.

This position is from Allen Yu-Dizdarevic:

It’s white’s move

Close to 3 hours:

Dragicevic has given back the exchange and the position looks a little better for him. Isaac Ng has somehow created a winning passed pawn in a bishops of the same colour ending. And Ari Dale is better against Angelo Tsagarakis in an all MCC clash of generations.

The Ng-Tang ending looked like this:

After the moves 1… Bb7 2. Ke2 (2. Ke1) 2… Ba6+ 3. Kd1 Ke3 4. b7 Bxb7 5. Bxb7 this position is at the board now:

I have just been analysing with Leonid Sandler and we think that white must be winning this, the unofficial Brighton Grammar School Championship.

ACF President Gary Wastell is in the building! Leonid Sandler has just told me of a very strong entry for the Vic Champs this year. I won’t divulge names here, as that is for CV to do, but the field looks incredibly good.

There are 8 games still going including all the top boards. The Dragicevic-Morris game is in this state with black to move. Times: 10.56-16.00

This game has now been agreed a draw, so we are left with the top 3 boards for the prizes. All the talk is of Hamilton’s sacrifice against Teichmann.

3 and a half hours:

Most of the analysis is finished and the juniors are hammering the clocks in their blitz transfer games. There are 3 monitors displaying the live games at the front of the hall which have quite a crowd around, and there even more people crowded around the top boards. Can Smerdon exploit Wallis’s pawn weaknesses in the heavy piece ending? Is Bobby Cheng beating Igor Goldenberg, or will the IM hold? Can Doug Hamilton win in sacrificial style against Eric Teichmann or will the Englishman repulse the attack and remain material ahead?

Ok, it’s now time to follow the games live at the site as I have to leave the building. It has been great blogging from the Vic Open, and I thank everyone who has watched this blog

For the pleasure of the audience, BHCC provide screens of the top games.

For all the winners, check out the CV website

Live from the Vic Open

I walked into Canterbury Chess Club today at about 1pm expecting to say hello to a few people, but was amazed that the majority of games were still going strong. There are many pairings in the third round which were more competitive than the first 2 rounds, the juniors are becoming more accustomed to long-play chess, and the adults are giving their less experienced opponents the respect they deserve. This should give the organisers some well earned satisfaction as they have assembled afield both large and strong. I will try to get some words from Trevor Stanning or Gerrit Hartland a bit later as they are the main architects behind a club which is successful for its large membership base, its great venue, and its successful tournaments and coaching programs.

So what do you do when you walk into Canterbury Chess Club near the end of a round but without many people to talk to? The simple answer is to walk about 4 minutes across to Maling Road for some excellent cafes and restaurants…..however, I will do a full review of the fantastic eating and drinking places in Maling Road in another post someday, hopefully with a member of BHCC to show me their favourite haunts.

It’s about 20 minutes before round 4 and I’ll try to post some things about this round which may interest people. There are still some games going so the feeling at the moment is one of expectancy in the analysis room.

Nicholas Liu, playing blitz in the analysis room. Nicholas is a very dangerous blitz and allegro player, but his draw with David Hacche earlier in the tournament shows he is no push over in long play chess.

Some early insights:

Firstly check out the live boards here. The top 3 boards are mouth watering affairs with IM Morris-GM Smerdon on board 1, the all IM battle of Rujevic-Goldenberg on 2 and Teichmann-Wallis on 3.

Stephen Solomon was held to a draw in the previous round and finds himself relegated to board 5 where he is facing Hacche’s Modern Defence. Nicholas Liu faces Jason Tang on 6. These 2 must have played each other hundreds of times over the years in blitz, online and tournament games. Nicholas has set up a very solid Colle formation as white. Frank Lekkas has played the Accelerated Fianchetto Sicilian against FM Doug Hamilton. Frank has had a lot of experience in this opening at the MCC recently, but Doug has a wealth of experience. Dizdarevic had a long game against Goldenberg in the previous round which probably explains why he chose the Centre Game, 1.e4 e5 2.d4 against Sally Yu. Karl Zelesco is level with Sylvester Urban but is moving very quickly. He is already over 10 minutes up on the clock after about half an hour. And finally on board 10, David Flude appears to have lost his queen to Victor Kildisas. I’m sure we’ll find out soon here in the analysis room exactly how sound this sacrifice was.Of the other games, the one that interests me is Kempen-Dale where Leon is sat statue like, while his young opponent is very fidgity. A great contrast of styles!

Trevor Stanning, one of the chief organisers of the event is very happy with the way the event has been running. There were a couple of minor glitches early in the tournament, such as faulty clocks, but essentially the tournament has gone smoothly. Trevor is “very happy” with the turnout of 90 “which compares favouably with the NSW Open” which had 66 players.

STOP PRESS!!!

A brief walk around the tables allowed me a glimpse of Leon Kempen’s left hand middle finger twitch slightly. Ari Dale was thinking about his move against Leon and and had sat stock still for possibly 8 seconds, which perhaps unsettled Leon’s stauesque pose. I asked David Smerdon how he felt about playing someone in a Hawthorn scarf. Did it make him want to beat James Morris even more. David admitted that it wasn’t a factor in his ambition to win but he felt it ironic that before the first round, James had asked why David was “wearing that ridiculous scarf?” I haven’t seen David’s scarf so I’ll await judgement.

A couple of interesting positions after an hour an a half:

Hamilton-Lekkas times: 35-61 with Black to move.

Hamilton has the 2 bishops but Black’s pawn structure is fine and white has used a lot of time.

Urban-Zelesco times: 48-103 Black to move

This double rook ending is very difficult to play. I will be very interested to see how both younger players fare in these endings.

The game between Dragicevic and Cheng started a little late as both players had long games in the previous round. They have reached the following tough position with Bobby Cheng as Black to move.

Times: 36-58

2 and a half hours into the games:

A lot of games are finished but their are still quite a few going on. David Smerdon doesn’t look happy….he also doesn’t look overly unhappy, he looks resigned to a hard slog for the full point. Goldenberg and Rujevic are mirroring each other in their appearance, both seemingly happy with their positions when it’s their opponent’s move, and agonising at their own turns. Hacche is solid, but pinned back by Solomon who will be looking for a breakthrough in the centre and the kingside soon. Liu-Tang is an equal ending. Frank Lekkas has developed some queen side pressure doubling rooks on the c-file. Doug had pushed his b-pawn to b4, so his c-pawn is a little weak. Denis Tuncer has a rook and pawn for 2 pieces in an ending against Richard Voon. Gene Lai seems to be developing an attack against Bosko Mijatovic, but if it doesn’t work he will pay dearly as his structure is very compromised. There are also 2 interesting endings and the Dragicevic-Cheng game has moved forward a little:

Bobby sacrificed his d-pawn to bring his queen into the game. The next few moves will have to be played accurately by white.

Thomas Feng and Jim Cannon are fighting out this pawn endgame. It surely looks even, but who knows?

And this is how the game Urban-Zelesco has progressed. Without any analysis I am guessing Sylvester has an edge, but again, who knows in pawn endgames?

An Interview with an interviewer.

Hello Elliott Renzies:

1. Who will win the World Cup? Spain, Argentina or Brazil, but Argentina most likely.

2. Fave Melbourne Cafe? Acland Street, Cicciolina

3. Fave cafe in Maling Road? Cafe 88

4. Fave Chess Player? Alekhine

5. A must read book? One Flew Read Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

6. How can chess improve in Victoria or Australia? More involvement by professionals ie coaches. A cooperative agreement where coaching organisations utilise their professional approach to run tournaments and events.

Thanks very much Elliott, we love your interviews, and I hope you have a good tournament.

3 hour update

David Smerdon has resorted to wearing his scarf, a nice black and grey thin striped number. Morris needs to learn dress sense! Victorian Junior Champion Jason Tang is a pan up in an ending of rook and opposite bishops against Nicholas Liu but with only 3 pawns it will be difficult to convert. Hamilton has advanced on the queen side and has a dangerous initiative against Frank Lekkas now. Jamie Cross looks to be causing a big upset against Tony Davis. And a very interesting ending is happening on the lower board game between Savithri Narenthran and Shane Lawson. Shane as black has just played ..d5.

It is really encouraging to see so many juniors honing their endgame skills in events like this and then analysing deeply afterwards. I have just witnessed the final of Feng-Cannon in analysis and Jim unfortunately tried too hard to win, and eventually lost.

PUZZLE of the DAY

Black to play in Narenthran-Lawson, what should be the result?

Not too many games left. Solomon is a pawn ahead against Hacche, but the position is not easy, and Stephen has only a minute left. Igor Goldenberg looks bewildered by his position. He is a pawn ahead in a rook ending against Rujevic, but the position seems unclear to me.

Only 5 games left

The top 3 boards, and Tuncer-Voon with Deniz having King, Rook and 2 pawns against Voon’s King Bishop, Knight and 1 pawn. This should end a draw. The other game is Nigel Cooper against Nathan Hibberd where white has a knight against a bishop but his king is very strong. I am expecting a white win here.

Who has the better scarf, the GM on the right or the IM on the left? Morris and Smerdon analysing their game.

IM Igor Goldenberg (left) isn’t happy during the analysis, while IM Mirko Rujevic (right) always seems happy with his position. FM Eric Teichmann in the background is more interested in working out how much time he has before the next round.

Ok, with the round over it is time for me to leave. Thanks for looking at the blog and I will be back here tomorrow for the last round. The full results can be seen on the CV website.

ICC Team 45 45 League

It is the final round of the group stages of the ICC Team 45 45 League and teams are trying to make the playoffs. My team had put themselves in with a chance and a win in the last round would give us every chance of progressing. So with this in mind, I felt absolutely terrible with my performance last night when I lost my game, letting the rest of my team down. I have had a good season but at the crunch fell down badly. I have to admit that this loss felt really bad, and I don’t remember feeling this bad about a loss for quite a while. This is one of the powers of team chess, the great feelings when wins bring victory to your team, and the depression when your losses cost both yourself and your team dearly.

I have already analysed the game at a basic level, and will go on to some deeper analysis later.

[Event "icc 45 45"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2010.06.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Anon"]
[Black "sandham"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D05"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "2003.12.21"]
[EventType "team-match"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 c5 5. b3 Nc6 6. O-O Bd6 7. Bb2 O-O 8. Nbd2 Qe7 9. c4

(9. Ne5 {is the main move here, preventing Black from playing e5.} Qc7 10. f4 cxd4 11. exd4 Nb4 12. Ndf3 Nxd3 13. cxd3 {is a typical variation}) 9… cxd4 (9… e5 {doesn’t work because of} 10. cxd5 Nxd5 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Bxe5 13. Bxh7+ Kxh7 14. Qh5+ {and white is a solid pawn up}) 10. exd4 (10.Nxd4 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 e5 12. Bb2 e4 13. Bc2 Bxh2+ {wins material} 14. Kxh2 Ng4+ 15. Kg1 Qh4 16. Be5 {only move} Nxe5 17. f3 exf3 18. Nxf3 Nxf3+ 19. Qxf3 dxc4 20. bxc4 Qxc4 21. Bb3 Qc7 {with a close to winning advantage for black}) 10…dxc4 11. bxc4 (11. Nxc4 Bc7 (11… b6) 12. Ba3 Nb4 13. Qd2 Nfd5 {with equal chances. White has some pressure, but the IQP is a long term weakness.}) 11…Ba3 (11… b6) 12. Qb3 Bxb2 13. Qxb2 Rd8 14. Rfe1 {An interesting position. White’s hanging pawns are a target, but black is passively placed for the moment} Qb4 15. Nb3 Na5 16. Qc2 Nxb3 17. axb3 Bd7 {Black is close to equalising here with his main idea being ..b5 attacing white’s pawns.} 18. Ng5

(18. Ne5 Be8 19. Red1 a5 {inteding a4 should be ok for black}) 18… h6 (18…g6 {may have been safer} 19. Ne4 Nxe4 20. Bxe4 (20. Rxe4 Rac8 21. Rxa7 Bc6 22. Rh4 Qb6 23. Ra1 Rxd4 =) 20… a5 =) 19. Ne4 Nxe4 20. Rxe4 (20. Bxe4 Bc6 ({I would probably have played} 20… a5) 21. Bxc6 bxc6 22. Red1 Qb6 23. Qc3 Rab8 {is level}) 20… Rac8 21. h3 (21. Rxa7 Bc6 22. Rg4 Qb6 23. Ra1 Rxd4 {is level}) 21… a6 (21… a5) 22. Qe2

{A risky play but very interesting. It was about here that I started to miscalculate} Qxb3 23. Rb1 Qa4 ({Much better was} 23…Qc3 {and even now I am trying to work out why I didn’t choose this move as it was a candidate in my mind.}) 24.Rxb7 ({I looked at} 24. d5 {and was pretty concerned by it as white is getting very active. However, it seems that black doesn’t have to worry after} exd5 25. cxd5 Qa5 26. Rxb7 Qxd5 27. Rbb4) 24…Bc6 25. Ra7 Bxe4 26. Qxe4

{So now white is an exchange down, but his activity ensures him at least equality. If black considers his position to be better then he could make some bad choices. This is what happened in the game.} g6 {Only move} 27. Qb7 Rf8 {Black has to defend f7, which he can do now or after a check on the back rank.} 28. Bxg6

Qe8 ({Black should take a draw here with} 28… Qd1+ 29. Kh2 Qxd4 30. Bxf7+ Kh8 31. Bxe6 Qf4+ 32. Kh1 Qc1+ 33. Kh2 Qf4+ {Unfortunately, I chose to keep the position alive, which only helped my opponent}) 29. Bd3

Qd8?? {A terrible move, giving my opponent a mate in 4} (29…Qc6 {and the game is still alive, but black’s position is precarious}) 30. Qe4 f5 31. Qxe6+ (31. Qxe6+ Kh8 32. Qxh6+ Kg8 33. Qg7#) 1-0

So congratulations to my opponent from the Ukraine, ser-enigma and his team for progressing to the playoff stages. I wish them the best of luck in the finals. As for my team, we will have to come back next season and try again.

Big Week of Chess in Australia

It’s a long weekend in Australia coming up, as we celebrate the Queen’s Birthday. Funnily enough, I never even knew the date of Her Majesty’s birthday while I was living in the UK for the first 40 years of my life. Actually I am a definite republican but like most people, I won’t say no to a day off work!

With a long weekend in all states barring Western Australia, a lot of chess tournaments are happening across the country, and all the tournaments seem to be attracting quite a crowd. In Tasmania, the Burnie Chess Club is hosting the Tasmanian Open and most of the top Tasmanians will play in a field which already is approaching 30 players. In Adelaide there is a Queen’s Birthday Weekender and while I don’t have details of entries to hand, I’m sure it will be well attended and a good event. NSW has already attracted a huge field of over 130 players, including a very strong top section in what looks to be the pick of the events. The New South Wales Open sees Australia’s current number 1 player, Zong-Yuan Zhao playing and it seems that a number of players who will be representing Australia at the upcoming Olympiad are on show.

I leave the Victorian Open till last as I will be attending on Sunday and Monday as a spectator and probably as a live blogger. Australia’s number 2, David Smerdon will be travelling down from Canberra, and Stephen Solomon is coming down from Queensland to take on the best of Victorian players in another big field.

All this comes on the heels of the reintroduction of the Victorian Chess Magazine, On The Move. With IM and former Olympiad player Robert Jamieson editing the publication, and providing much of the content we can hope for good things. It is basically a Victorian bulletin but everyone will get something from this. Some highlights of this edition are Jamieson looking at the World Championship and Sydney International, and noted chess historian Tony Wright examining Joseph Blackburne’s tour of Australia in 1884-85.

All in all it’s been a big week in chess in Australia!

City of Melbourne Open round 6 Live

Tonight I finally produced a paper crosstable of the event, my least favourite job of arbitering an event.  Besides that, there are a couple of late arrivals. Michael Addamo turned up within 5 minutes of the start time, but we are still waiting for Thai Ly and neither player on board 5 has shown up yet. In the case of neither player showing, I am not sure of the firfeiture ruling which I’ll consult in a minute.

The game between Mirko Rujevic and Ian Sutton is on the featured board which should be interesting as they are both undefeated so far in the tournament.

With the exception of one postponed game between Ari Dale and Daryl Prasad to be played this Wednesday, all are here and all games have started. Pano Skiotis arrived with 10 minutes to spare, and Roger Beattie trumped him by arriving with more like 10 seconds to spare! My first impression of the games is that Justin Tan’s game will be a feature again. He is playing the white side of an English Attack against Domagoj’s Sicilian. And lower down the boards, Alex Kaplan has somehow managed to get a dark squared bishop to e5 in a Stonewall Attack. Jack Shanks has played the Stonewall defence to this!

1 hour update

BIG NEWS….Roger Beattie has fallen asleep at the board! Board 1 times: 64-55. Interesting games include board 3 where Domagoj hasn’t castled into Justin’s king side pawn avalanche, but has sacrificed the exchange on c3; more on this soon. Frank Lekkas is a tight spot against Victor Kildisas with Frank as black to move:

Sam Low sacrificed a pawn on e6 to hassle Dusan Stojic’s development. Paul Kovacevic and Gary Lycett are both a solid pawn up, while Thai Ly is a piece ahead.

At the back, Roger Beattie following the TAC advice and taking a 15 minute powernap!

2 more positions of interest:

The ending of the game Kaplan-Shanks with white to move.

Tan-Dragicevic with black to move.

2.5 hours update

Ian Sutton is down to 10 minutes against IM Rujevic on board 1 and is a pawn down in a tough position. The rest of the games from boards 2-5 are all in the balance. Sylvester Urban is still a solid pawn up and Simon Schmidt looks to be a rook up against John Beckman. The game between Papadinis and Dowling looks interesting.

Meanwhile, the interesting game Tan-Dragicevic has only seen the moves 1..Qc6 2.Kb1 to the above position.

3 hours update

Not many games left now, but it is still tense on the top boards.

Malcolm Pyke has a very active king compensating for his pawn weakness on e6.

All the other games have either just concluded or should do soon. Pano Skiotis is a pawn up and winning against Roger beattie who looks more awake now than all evening. Michael Addamo looks to be a piece up against Felix Wyss which is good as Michael’s Dad has just turned up to pick him up.

Well, it’s an early finish to the night with the last game finishing to a 3-fold repetition claim, though Brian FitzPatrick did think that his claim had been premature. Malcolm was a pawn ahead, but the position was difficult as he had a typically backward French e-pawn as his extra pawn and his pieces were passive with the exception of his king.

Due to the long weekend, and the excellent tournament being held at Canterbury CC this weekend, we will be having no round next week and the next games will be played on Monday 21st June. There is one adjourned game to be played on Wednesday and after that the pairings will be made. Thanks again for checking out this blog, I’ll try to put some games from this tournament up this week.