Having not played chess for a bit, I've sort of dropped off following the chess scene. However, it is a huge week for chess internationally, and it's time to catch up a bit on what has been happening at the MCC, my local club.
Monday night is FIDE rated chess night at the MCC. The last tournament was the City of Melbourne open which finished with a dramatic last round. FM Domagoj Dragicevic had been leading the tournament by half a point going into the last round, but was held to a draw by junior Ray Yang. This allowed FM and top rated player Greg Canfell to catch Domagoj with a last round win over another junior talent, Tristan Krstevski. With his final round draw, Ray Yang was able to remain in third place equal with Vishal Bhat and Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. Tristan Krstevski's loss still left him in a strong equal 6th with David Cannon. These junior performances are a great boost for the future of chess at the MCC, and hopefully these players can make the transition to the wider Victorian and Australian top level, that previous MCC juniors like Ari Dale and Jack Puccini have done.
With one big tournament gone, another soon takes it place, and this Monday the MCC starts the 7 round Malitis Memorial. I was thinking about playing, but I will give it a miss and observe the happenings. The tournament is following the format of last year. The top 8 players will be arranged into a round robin, and everyone else plays a 7 round swiss system.Current entries confirm that the top section will include IM Mirko Rujevic, and FM Greg Canfell, but the final make up of the event will probably not be known until the actual start night. That can be a tough thing in a round robin, basically turning up without any preparation and then finding our you're playing a very strong opponent. It is the same for everyone, so that even things out, but elite round robins are about putting in top performances which involves preparation, so it feels as if this tournament in a 6 round RR with a single round of random chess.
You can sign up for the Malitis Memorial on the MCC website, or by visiting the club.
The MCC also runs faster time control events, with Allegro (what most people would call Rapid) and Blitz tournaments integrated into the weekly schedule. The Allegro events are run as 7 round 15-0 swiss tournaments and the turn out for these events has consistently been reaching around 40 players recently. There are players of all levels, from newcomers to chess tournaments to Masters, and in fact the last tournament had 2 IM's in the field of 39 players. Allegro tournaments run on Saturday afternoons at 2 pm (best to get there early, or the event starts later) and are a great introduction to chess, and can become addictive.
Personally, I'm more like ex World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik when it comes to fast chess. When interviewed in 1989 he said:
"Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929"
However, I am aware of the vast amount of players who enjoy fast time controls, and the MCC provides for them too! Tuesday night is blitz night, and this is still trying to establish itself like the Allegro. At the moment there are less than 10 players regularly showing up, which is a shame as blitz is a way of sharpening our game, especially when there are some strong players to contend with. The blitz tournaments start around 7 pm on Tuesday nights, and it would be really good if this event could build to about 12-16 regularly playing.
While there is no shortage of chess locally for those willing to make a little effort and get to the club, there is also a mass of chess about to be happening in the international sphere. My favourite place to watch games is the chess24 website, who not only show live games, but have excellent reports about tournaments and chess news. And good news for Australia is that there is a super GM elite event being played in China at a time zone to suit us. The Danzhou event features current world number 9 Diren Ling (and number 1 blitz rated in the world!) along with 8 other players over 2700, and Women's World Champ Yifan Hou. The tournament starts about the same time I will post this blog, at 4.30 pm AEST.
Then we get the following events following in short order:
Dortmund (Kramnik, Caruana, Vachier-Legrave) Saturday 9th
US Junior Ch (Jeffrey Xiong heads an impressive field) Saturday 9th
Benasque Op (8 2600+ players) starts today
Warsaw Op (25 2600+ players) starts tomorrow
And....
Bilboa Masters:
Carlsen, Giri, Nakamura, Karjakin, So and Wei Yi - what a field, what a tournament! Starts next Wednesday, 13th July.
(the busy European summer chess schedule makes things hectic for chess at this time of year. Already in progress are the Women's GP event in Chengdu and the Polugaevsky memorial)
So I guess what I'm saying is that it's a great time to watch, learn and practice your chess! Enjoy
Showing posts with label blitz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blitz. Show all posts
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Melbourne's Big Summer of Chess
There's going to be a mass of good quality chess in Melbourne, both to play in, or to spectate or follow this summer.
The fun starts this weekend, when Chess Kids, the company I work for hosts their National Interschool Finals. Actually, it's a huge junior chess festival starting on Sunday 29th November with a set of individual 7-round 15-0 allegro events. Then on the Monday and Tuesday the Chess Kids National Interschool Championship will take place. It is a 7-round 25-10 format with close to 300 players expected over both primary and secondary divisions.
All these junior events are being held at Queen's College, Melbourne University near the centre of Melbourne.
The weekend after this (5th-6th December) sees Melbourne Chess Club's amazing summer schedule start with the traditional Christmas Swiss. Perhaps the publicity for this has been overshadowed by other events coming to the club, but make no mistake that this tournament looks likely to be a good one. Visiting GM Arturs Neiksans from Latvia will be playing in the weekender. He is currently rated 2602, but might be even higher after his performance at the European Team Championship where he scored 4.5/7 including a draw with Arkadij Naiditsch. There are currently over 20 players entered, and this is a good opportunity to get some practice for the Australian Championships.
The MCC then hosts the Australasian Masters which will consist of two 10-player round robins. Chess Victoria President, Leonid Sandler has worked hard to get a GM norm event, and an IM norm event happening, and according to Leonid, this GM tournament might be the strongest ever in Australia. It certainly looks to be one of the strongest, with foreign GM's Neiksans, and Papin competing, and a strong local field including Melbourne based GM Darryl Johansen. I'll be playing in the IM event, so I should be able to bring some first hand reports of the goings on. The tournament runs from 12th-20th December
The Masters then goes out with a bang as it is immediately followed by the Victorian Blitz Championship which will also be hosted by the MCC. In recent years this tournament has proved very strong as players from the Masters join in with the best local players. I don't have details of this event, but it will probably be held Monday 21st December, a good lead in to Christmas.
The Christmas break will bring only a short relief to the summer of chess, as Box Hill Chess Club hold their traditional Australian Championship warm up event, the Canterbury Summer Swiss. After their move to Waverley/Essex Hills last year, Box Hill Chess Club have had to reinvent themselves a bit. One issue is that the club cannot hold weekend events at their current venue, but thanks to their strong organisational background, they have managed to find a venue for their summer event, the German Club in Windsor. For anyone who is short on practice before the Australian Championships, this is a must! It runs from the 27th December through to 30th December, and you can follow details here.
Then comes the big one, the Australian Championships and Reserves. Hosted by the Melbourne Chess Club in their 150th anniversary year, this is already shaping up to be an amazing tournament. Defending Champion, IM Max Illingworth entered early making it clear he intends to defend his title. But with 2 GM's and another 5 IM's already entered, Max will have to work hard to take the title again. I also intend to play in this event, running from January 2nd-January 12th 2016 at Fitzroy Town Hall. There is a rest day on 8th January when the Australian Blitz Championship will be held.
Phew...that's an unbelievable amount of chess this summer. But that's not all!!! (I've always wanted to say that, like in the adverts on the shopping channels). The MCC continues as Australia's premier chess venue to host the Australian Women's Masters event. Starting on 14th January, this will be 10-player round robin event and is shaping up to be the strongest ever women's event in Australia.
The Women's Masters finishes on the 22nd January, which leads nicely into the last event of the summer, Melbourne Chess Club's Australia Day Weekender. The Australia Day Weekender is, and has traditionally been, the first weekender of the year, even though it will seem like the last in a long line of chess events. Another great field is promised by the very first entry, hanging around after the Women's Masters, WGM Julis Ryjanova of Russia rated currently 2387!
That is an amazing amount of quality chess in Melbourne for players of all standards of players, and at various time limits. Long play chess fanatics have a dream summer coming up. And with the Victorian and Australian Blitz Championships being held here, the fast players should also be satisfied. And even if you are not a fan of long chess, nor the very fast chess, the MCC holds it weekly allegro 15-0 chess tournaments, and these will continue over the summer of chess! I'll be trying to follow as many of these as possible, so stay tuned :)
The fun starts this weekend, when Chess Kids, the company I work for hosts their National Interschool Finals. Actually, it's a huge junior chess festival starting on Sunday 29th November with a set of individual 7-round 15-0 allegro events. Then on the Monday and Tuesday the Chess Kids National Interschool Championship will take place. It is a 7-round 25-10 format with close to 300 players expected over both primary and secondary divisions.
All these junior events are being held at Queen's College, Melbourne University near the centre of Melbourne.
The weekend after this (5th-6th December) sees Melbourne Chess Club's amazing summer schedule start with the traditional Christmas Swiss. Perhaps the publicity for this has been overshadowed by other events coming to the club, but make no mistake that this tournament looks likely to be a good one. Visiting GM Arturs Neiksans from Latvia will be playing in the weekender. He is currently rated 2602, but might be even higher after his performance at the European Team Championship where he scored 4.5/7 including a draw with Arkadij Naiditsch. There are currently over 20 players entered, and this is a good opportunity to get some practice for the Australian Championships.
The MCC then hosts the Australasian Masters which will consist of two 10-player round robins. Chess Victoria President, Leonid Sandler has worked hard to get a GM norm event, and an IM norm event happening, and according to Leonid, this GM tournament might be the strongest ever in Australia. It certainly looks to be one of the strongest, with foreign GM's Neiksans, and Papin competing, and a strong local field including Melbourne based GM Darryl Johansen. I'll be playing in the IM event, so I should be able to bring some first hand reports of the goings on. The tournament runs from 12th-20th December
The Masters then goes out with a bang as it is immediately followed by the Victorian Blitz Championship which will also be hosted by the MCC. In recent years this tournament has proved very strong as players from the Masters join in with the best local players. I don't have details of this event, but it will probably be held Monday 21st December, a good lead in to Christmas.
The Christmas break will bring only a short relief to the summer of chess, as Box Hill Chess Club hold their traditional Australian Championship warm up event, the Canterbury Summer Swiss. After their move to Waverley/Essex Hills last year, Box Hill Chess Club have had to reinvent themselves a bit. One issue is that the club cannot hold weekend events at their current venue, but thanks to their strong organisational background, they have managed to find a venue for their summer event, the German Club in Windsor. For anyone who is short on practice before the Australian Championships, this is a must! It runs from the 27th December through to 30th December, and you can follow details here.
Then comes the big one, the Australian Championships and Reserves. Hosted by the Melbourne Chess Club in their 150th anniversary year, this is already shaping up to be an amazing tournament. Defending Champion, IM Max Illingworth entered early making it clear he intends to defend his title. But with 2 GM's and another 5 IM's already entered, Max will have to work hard to take the title again. I also intend to play in this event, running from January 2nd-January 12th 2016 at Fitzroy Town Hall. There is a rest day on 8th January when the Australian Blitz Championship will be held.
Phew...that's an unbelievable amount of chess this summer. But that's not all!!! (I've always wanted to say that, like in the adverts on the shopping channels). The MCC continues as Australia's premier chess venue to host the Australian Women's Masters event. Starting on 14th January, this will be 10-player round robin event and is shaping up to be the strongest ever women's event in Australia.
The Women's Masters finishes on the 22nd January, which leads nicely into the last event of the summer, Melbourne Chess Club's Australia Day Weekender. The Australia Day Weekender is, and has traditionally been, the first weekender of the year, even though it will seem like the last in a long line of chess events. Another great field is promised by the very first entry, hanging around after the Women's Masters, WGM Julis Ryjanova of Russia rated currently 2387!
That is an amazing amount of quality chess in Melbourne for players of all standards of players, and at various time limits. Long play chess fanatics have a dream summer coming up. And with the Victorian and Australian Blitz Championships being held here, the fast players should also be satisfied. And even if you are not a fan of long chess, nor the very fast chess, the MCC holds it weekly allegro 15-0 chess tournaments, and these will continue over the summer of chess! I'll be trying to follow as many of these as possible, so stay tuned :)
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Double Take
When was the last time you were playing a game in one of your favourite openings and someone comes up with a move that makes you do a double take? One of the best reasons for playing a lot of blitz chess is in order to perfect your openings, and to see lots of ideas very quickly. I've recently started playing blitz chess again and I'm having a lot of fun trying out some new openings and some old favourites that I haven't played for a long time. One opening that I've played quite a bit is the Ponziani 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3. Of course with these classic old opening games there are often the most bizarre variations hidden somewhere, and these can be so obscure that they are forgotten or rarely mentioned. I came up against one of these the other day.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nxe4 5.d5 Bc5
I had never seen this move before, and it certainly won my opponent some time on the clock. It is typical of the 19th century, and it had been analysed by Steinitz.
Unfortunately for the online game I didn't know about any of this, but I do now. So I played terribly for one online game but have learnt some theory about an odd variation and seen some crazy variations. Take this queen sacrifice variation.
And finally, here's a game where white turns the table on black and answers black's quick attack against f2 with an even deadlier attack on f7.
I'm enjoying playing blitz chess again, and funnily enough I get a kick out of my opponents playing moves which make me do a double take. These moves help me to further understand the openings I play, and usually lead to interesting and unbalanced positions.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nxe4 5.d5 Bc5
Unfortunately for the online game I didn't know about any of this, but I do now. So I played terribly for one online game but have learnt some theory about an odd variation and seen some crazy variations. Take this queen sacrifice variation.
And finally, here's a game where white turns the table on black and answers black's quick attack against f2 with an even deadlier attack on f7.
I'm enjoying playing blitz chess again, and funnily enough I get a kick out of my opponents playing moves which make me do a double take. These moves help me to further understand the openings I play, and usually lead to interesting and unbalanced positions.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Spectator vs Player
I have to say that watching the 2014 Australian Championships has been far harder for me than any tournament I've played in. After today, I arrived home, went for a run, showered and then promptly fell asleep. It's close to midnight now and I'd better post or it will be back to bad days of procrastination.
So yesterday there was a the Australian blitz championship which holds little interest for me. Bobby Cheng won the title though Vietnamese GM Hoang Thong Tu won the event. There was also an ACF AGM held, but this holds about as much interest for me as the blitz event. Apparently, the ACF have decided to sponsor the Australian Championship to the tune of $5000 in the future, as averse to offer $5000 as a guarantee against losses. Personally, I think the ACF should be directing the running of the event anyway so while this is a welcome step, I guess I'd still like to see more central involvement from the ACF in organisation of the Championship.
And talking of the Championship, 3 rounds have happened since I last wrote. At the top we have 3 leaders on 5.5/7 and they've all played each other: GM Papin, IM's Cheng and Ly. They are followed on 5/7 by IM Bjelobrk and GM Tu, so the top 2 pairings of round 8 are:
Bjelobrk-Papin
Ly-Tu
Bobby Cheng is floating further down to meet IM Max Illingworth who is one of 7 players on 4.5, while a further 5 sit on 4. I know a lot can happen in the last 4 rounds, but I can't see anyone from below this group taking a high position (though I'd be happy to eat my words if this happens).
The Reserves tournament is being led by the popular Doug Hamilton. Doug has won the actual championship 3 times, and there was some controversy over whether he should be playing in this year's Championship or not (check out Alex Wohl's latest blog post). Whatever, he is playing and leading the Reserves, ahead of a pretty strong field. The Challengers is the third tournament for players under 1600. It is only a 9 round event (compared to 11 for the Championship and Reserves) and tomorrow will see round 8. There is a large bunch within striking distance, but a single player, Calixto Dilag currently leads by half a point. Today I'll leave you with some images from the event :)
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| Australian Blitz Champion 2014, IM Bobby Cheng. Can he do the double? |
So yesterday there was a the Australian blitz championship which holds little interest for me. Bobby Cheng won the title though Vietnamese GM Hoang Thong Tu won the event. There was also an ACF AGM held, but this holds about as much interest for me as the blitz event. Apparently, the ACF have decided to sponsor the Australian Championship to the tune of $5000 in the future, as averse to offer $5000 as a guarantee against losses. Personally, I think the ACF should be directing the running of the event anyway so while this is a welcome step, I guess I'd still like to see more central involvement from the ACF in organisation of the Championship.
And talking of the Championship, 3 rounds have happened since I last wrote. At the top we have 3 leaders on 5.5/7 and they've all played each other: GM Papin, IM's Cheng and Ly. They are followed on 5/7 by IM Bjelobrk and GM Tu, so the top 2 pairings of round 8 are:
Bjelobrk-Papin
Ly-Tu
Bobby Cheng is floating further down to meet IM Max Illingworth who is one of 7 players on 4.5, while a further 5 sit on 4. I know a lot can happen in the last 4 rounds, but I can't see anyone from below this group taking a high position (though I'd be happy to eat my words if this happens).
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| 3 times Champion, Doug Hamilton adjusting his pieces against Derek Yu |
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| Springvale Town Hall, with great viewing balcony |
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| WGM Sukander-GM Johansen (a win for the WGM) |
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| Karl Zelesco-Max Illingworth |
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| WCM Vineetha Wijesuriya |
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| WIM Alexandra Jule |
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| Zhi Lin Guo |
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| Alanna Chew Lee |
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| David Beaumont |
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Chess Camp Day 3
The weather took a turn for the worse today, but when you're a chess player that's usually a good thing as it means more indoor time. Unfortunately, today was scheduled as excursion day, which meant we spent quite some time outside. The day started with a round of tournament chess before breakfast, and there is no doubt that the games are becoming tougher as the tournament goes on. Any early nerves, or excitement are over and the kids are just getting down to fighting it out with other kids around the same strength. With every game a tough game, and with chances of the result going any way, I am even more convinced that round robin formats are the best test of skill for players.
I was impressed by this position today. Mikaela, as black is a pawn down, but found a way to become material ahead. Can you beat the tactical vision of a kid? Black to play and win.
After the morning game we took off on our excursion for the day. First stop was A Maze n' Things in the centre of Phillip Island. Besides having a very big fence maze (the biggest in Australia), there are lots of interesting attractions to explore, including sensory illusions. The kids had great fun going round this (the adults did too!) and then we held a blitz chess tournament through lunch which included a barbecue. The blitz session was held outside, which was a bit cold, but none of the kids seemed bothered and the tournament was hard fought with Max Phillips (1212) being the winner on 6/7.
After the blitz, we all got back on the bus, and headed to Phillip Island's chocolate factory. As can be imagined, this brought great excitement to everyone. The chocolate factory has an interesting tour exploring how chocolate is made, it's origins, history, flavours, manufacture and some activities for kids (and adults) to take part in. Of course, there's a shop and cafe with many specialty chocolates and other goods for sale.
After all that, and some sports when we arrived back at the camp (basketball, rock climbing), the kids still had the energy to go through another coaching session on endgames before the evening meal. I obviously can't speak for the other coaches, but the group I worked with tried really hard, and the session went very well (we were talking about minor pieces in the endgame, and the differences between knights and bishops.
It's been a pretty exhausting camp but thoroughly enjoyable. Tomorrow we will all be heading off home (though not before more games and coaching) and hopefully all the kids will be taking some fond memories away with them. Friendships have been developed, chess skills have been improved, and fun has been had by eveyone.
After the morning game we took off on our excursion for the day. First stop was A Maze n' Things in the centre of Phillip Island. Besides having a very big fence maze (the biggest in Australia), there are lots of interesting attractions to explore, including sensory illusions. The kids had great fun going round this (the adults did too!) and then we held a blitz chess tournament through lunch which included a barbecue. The blitz session was held outside, which was a bit cold, but none of the kids seemed bothered and the tournament was hard fought with Max Phillips (1212) being the winner on 6/7.
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| First stop for the day |
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| None of the players lost their heads during the day |
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| Al fresco blitz tournament and barbecue |
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| Chocolate sculpture of "David" |
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| Chocolate Moose :D |
It's been a pretty exhausting camp but thoroughly enjoyable. Tomorrow we will all be heading off home (though not before more games and coaching) and hopefully all the kids will be taking some fond memories away with them. Friendships have been developed, chess skills have been improved, and fun has been had by eveyone.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Glen Eira Chess Club
Last night was the final one for Glen Eira Chess Club at its first home, Tucker Road Primary School. It was great of the school to offer us a temporary accommodation while we were looking for a place where we could call home. So we will next be meeting in 3 weeks time at the new venue of Carnegie Library, again from 6 pm for Juniors and then from 7 pm for adults.
Last night, as a fun way of seeing off the old venue, the juniors played a Transfer tournament (Bughouse to those of you in the USA) while after we had a blitz event which was won by David Beaumont (his son Fitzroy had been part of the winning Transfer team earlier, with Michael Gershenzon). David, who has just competed in the Victorian Championship, is looking forward to other strong local players coming to the club. IM James Morris lives close to Carnegie, and David relishes seeing James come along to challenge his blitz prowess! It was all played in a fun spirit and was an enjoyable evening.
The new venue, Carnegie Libaray will see us start a new initiative that seemed to appeal to those who were at the club last night. We intend to make the club specialise in round robin tournaments, so members get to play a group of players near their own standard. This might take a bit of time to sort itself out, but it is different from most clubs who are running large swiss events. We envisage running small round robin events with maybe 6 or 8 players, and having regular promotion and relegation between sections. The concept of running a club like this is fairly new to us, so we're still trying to decide on the exact format, but it should be exciting. There should still be time enough in the year to run a regular swiss system tournament, and at some stage in the future we would like to get a weekender on the map. But you have to walk before you run, so establishing the venue, and building a membership is the first priority. As Carnegie Library is close to train and tram stops, and close to main freeways (Monash and Princes) it is a perfect place for players to come to.
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| Local news coverage |
The new venue, Carnegie Libaray will see us start a new initiative that seemed to appeal to those who were at the club last night. We intend to make the club specialise in round robin tournaments, so members get to play a group of players near their own standard. This might take a bit of time to sort itself out, but it is different from most clubs who are running large swiss events. We envisage running small round robin events with maybe 6 or 8 players, and having regular promotion and relegation between sections. The concept of running a club like this is fairly new to us, so we're still trying to decide on the exact format, but it should be exciting. There should still be time enough in the year to run a regular swiss system tournament, and at some stage in the future we would like to get a weekender on the map. But you have to walk before you run, so establishing the venue, and building a membership is the first priority. As Carnegie Library is close to train and tram stops, and close to main freeways (Monash and Princes) it is a perfect place for players to come to.
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| David's: blitz winner Beaumont (right), sits next to club founder Cordover |
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
MCC
It's an exciting time of year at my chess club, the Melbourne Chess Club. The current Monday night tournament is reaching it's climax, a big weekender is coming up, the next tournament is on the horizon and the state body is holding its AGM at the MCC soon.
The MCC Cup Weekender is a 9-round swiss held over the long weekend at the start of November. With just under 2 weeks to the start there are already a fair number of entries including 3 IM's and it promises to be a high class event.
The current Monday night event, the MCC Open has now had 7 of the 9 rounds and still the same 2 players dominate the field, as they have done all year at the club. FM Dusan Stojic had a potentially dangerous match up with Ari Dale who has already beaten Guy West this tournament. But Dusan held it together to notch up another victory to take him to 6/7. The only game he has lost was to IM Guy West who also won his 7th round game against Dizdarevic. These 2 are a point clear of myself, Ari Dale, Richard McCart and Jason Chew. I guess we can assume that one of these players will take the title, but it seems hard to see who will stop Guy and Dusan from their winning streaks. I won a hard game against David Beaumont to keep me just a point behind the leaders. The position was highly unbalanced for a while in the middle game before David got short on time and lost the thread. It was interesting as the game seemed to revolve around my light squared bishop and I had to use some imaginative methods to prevent it being trapped.
When this tournament ends, the most unusual tournament of the Monday night calendar starts. The last tournament of the year on Mondays is a series of 6 player round robins. Players are assigned into groups based on their ratings, with the highest rated 6 players in the first group, then the next 6 in the second group and so on. As all other Monday night events are run on the swiss system, this can be a refreshing change. These tournaments start on Monday 19th November and run through till just before Christmas.
Chess Victoria, the state administrative body for chess will be holding their AGM at the MCC on Sunday 11th November, and this will be preceded by the Victorian Blitz Championship. The AGM is mainly for electing or re-electing members of CV's committee, and rumour has it that some of the current members are ready to stand aside, though I have heard of no one new on the horizon to fill any positions. The current President of CV, IM Leonid Sandler is also one of the strongest blitz players in the state, though I guess he will have his hands full if some of our young players decide to try their luck.
The MCC Cup Weekender is a 9-round swiss held over the long weekend at the start of November. With just under 2 weeks to the start there are already a fair number of entries including 3 IM's and it promises to be a high class event.
The current Monday night event, the MCC Open has now had 7 of the 9 rounds and still the same 2 players dominate the field, as they have done all year at the club. FM Dusan Stojic had a potentially dangerous match up with Ari Dale who has already beaten Guy West this tournament. But Dusan held it together to notch up another victory to take him to 6/7. The only game he has lost was to IM Guy West who also won his 7th round game against Dizdarevic. These 2 are a point clear of myself, Ari Dale, Richard McCart and Jason Chew. I guess we can assume that one of these players will take the title, but it seems hard to see who will stop Guy and Dusan from their winning streaks. I won a hard game against David Beaumont to keep me just a point behind the leaders. The position was highly unbalanced for a while in the middle game before David got short on time and lost the thread. It was interesting as the game seemed to revolve around my light squared bishop and I had to use some imaginative methods to prevent it being trapped.
When this tournament ends, the most unusual tournament of the Monday night calendar starts. The last tournament of the year on Mondays is a series of 6 player round robins. Players are assigned into groups based on their ratings, with the highest rated 6 players in the first group, then the next 6 in the second group and so on. As all other Monday night events are run on the swiss system, this can be a refreshing change. These tournaments start on Monday 19th November and run through till just before Christmas.
Chess Victoria, the state administrative body for chess will be holding their AGM at the MCC on Sunday 11th November, and this will be preceded by the Victorian Blitz Championship. The AGM is mainly for electing or re-electing members of CV's committee, and rumour has it that some of the current members are ready to stand aside, though I have heard of no one new on the horizon to fill any positions. The current President of CV, IM Leonid Sandler is also one of the strongest blitz players in the state, though I guess he will have his hands full if some of our young players decide to try their luck.
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