Malitis Memorial Wrap Up

Last night was the final round of the Malitis Memorial. This year the tournament had been split into 2 sections, an 8-player round robin for the top rated players, and a swiss for all others. This had the desired effect of getting a larger than usual number of players to attend. A total of 43 players competed across the 2 divisions and I'm sure this is something the MCC will look at repeating in the future.

The Round Robin section had already been decided before yesterday's final round. IM Mirko Rujevic was 1.5 clear before the last round, but relentlessly won his final round game to score a clean 7/7 picket fence. Second place on an excellent 5/7 was junior David Cannon. I'm not sure if this is David's first breakthrough performance, but it will certainly not be his last. The improving youngster deservedly came clear second. I managed to salvage a bad start by claiming third place on 4.5/7. Not a brilliant performance, but not bad either. Somehow, I felt that I didn't play well enough to credit the +2 score.

The Swiss section was won by another veteran, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, with an excellent 6.5/7. Mehmedalija could still have been overtaken going into the last round, but he secured victory with a win against Irishman Eamonn O'Molloy. The field was very competitive, which makes the winner's result even more impressive. Second place was shared by David Lacey, Rad Chmiel and Gary Bekker on 5/7. The strength of the field can be seen by the fact that no one in the top 18 was FIDE rated below 1700, with the top rated player being 1946. Roger Beattie proved to be the best under-1700 player, though Axel Ahmer finished on the same score as Roger, 3.5/7 but couldn't receive a rating prize because he is unrated. I don't think it will be long before Axel has a rating of at least 1700.

The MCC offer brilliancy prizes for each of their FIDE rated tournaments. I am, unfortunately, probably my own harshest critic, and instead of seeing the brilliant in my games, I tend to focus on that which was less good. Oh, and endgames, but it isn't often that an endgame wins a brilliancy prize! So while I've played some ok chess in this tournament, I haven't been too impressed overall with my play. Last night against Malcolm Pyke, I was gifted a positionally strong position out of the opening, and then converted it. There were some interesting tactics, but as is often the case, these were in the variations, rather than that which was played. The key position was:

This is a fairly typical Sicilian Rauzer type position. I can't say I know too much Rauzer theory, but I know that if white castles king side, it takes a little out the sting of a black exchange sacrifice on c3, but offers little in the way of playing for an opening advantage. As I tend to be the safety first type of player, this suited me. I thought that the game would continue with 8..Qa5 which virtually forces white to play 9.Bxf6 when we have  dynamically difficult position for both sides to play. I was also considering 8..Be7 in the above position, where it looks more like a Scheveningen, though white has played Bg5, rather than the more common Be3.

I was surprised to see 8..Rc8?! played. It is obviously what a Sicilian player is thinking of, putting a rook on the semi open c-file, but it leaves d6 weak. In the game, I was thinking that I'd seen this type of thing but without black having played e6. However, I haven't looked at the Rauzer for quite a while so I might have been mixing things up. Anyway, I played 9.Ndb5 hitting d6 twice, and black is already on the defensive. Malcolm saved his pawn with 9..Qe7, but it is not the sort of move that he would have wanted to play.

Black's pieces are all in the way of each other. I chose a plan to weaken black's light squares, and it worked out nicely. 10.Bf4!? e5 11.Bg5 losing a tempo, but taking over the d5 square, and the light squares.

Now, a white knight is going to land on d5 with plenty of force. After the moves 11..a6 12.Nd5 Qd8 13.Na3 Be6 14.Bxf6 gxf6 15.Bg4 black is in a very difficult position, which I was able to maintain, and develop into a winning advantage later in the game. 

By pinning the Be6, white maintains the knight on d5. Black is cramped for space, has weaknesses to aim at, and no counterplay so the win was relatively straightforward from here. I think that if I was black here, my chances of surviving against an equally rated player would be close to 0%.

My play in this tournament hasn't been brilliant. I have played some solid positional chess and some decent endgame play, but my openings are still rather shaky, and my calculation has been off at times. I can't play in the next event, The MCC Open which starts next Monday. It's a shame as it looks as if it's going to be another good field.

Malitis Memorial

Last night saw the penultimate round of the Malitis Memorial at the MCC. The tournament has been split into 2 sections, and 8 player round robin for the 8 highest rated players in the field, and a swiss for the rest of the field.There is still a lot to play for in both sections, but one thing is for sure. IM Mirko Rujevic has won the round robin with one game to spare. Mirko has been in great form in this tournament, hang tough from some not so good positions and given himself chances in all his games. He has an amazing 6/6 which is likely to take him back above 2200.

After Mirko, David Cannon has continued his excellent form drawing last night with Simon Schmidt to sit on 4.5/6 and clear second place. David is a point clear of myself in third place, so even if results go against him, he will finish equal second at the worst, which will be a fantastic result. My 3.5/6 is back above half points, but is still only about par, or a little worse. I have had an issue with over extending my positions which I'm trying hard to work on, and last night I played a nice game to win with black against Omar Khaled Bashar. So along with most of the field, I'm fighting for third place, which doesn't sound too bad, but it is only an 8 player event!

The swiss is more competitive. Veteran Mehmedalija Dizdarevic is the clear leader on 5.5/6. He is half a point ahead of David Lacey but they have already played. So teh final round will see Mehmedalija play Eamonn O' Molloy while David plays Rad Chmiel, both tough games. Eamonn sits on 4.5 in clear third, while Rad is part of a group of players on 4/6. Whoever ends up winning this tournament will have deserved it as the field is quite evenly matched at the top end.

Next Monday is the last round, and the following Monday the MCC already start their next event, the MCC Open.This is a 9-round swiss which already has a field of over 30 players entered, so it looks like being a good tournament which means the Monday nights of 2015 have proved a great success for the MCC.

This was a position from my game last night. I was black against Omar Khaled Bashar, and I'd managed to create an immense passed pawn on b2. The next part of the game was a fight for this pawn, and finding a way for each side to activate their dormant king side minor pieces.

29.Rb1 Bb4 30.Na4

30..c3! Now I'm not saying that this was a difficult exchange sacrifice to play, but I was very happy to be considering these types of plans, as I am usually too materialistic. 31.Nxb6 axb6 32.a4

White has blockaded my pawns on the light squares. There is only one piece that can break that blockade. 32..Nd7! 33.Rd1 Qd5 34.f4 a bit of desperation and to retreat the bishop to e1 to fight against black's advanced passed pawns.

34..b5 making way for the knight 35.axb5 Nb6! There is no need to take the pawn back now, improving pieces is the most important thing at the moment. While this line of play might seem sharp, it is wholly positional and I was very happy with it. My exchange sacrifice was to secure a pair of advanced passed pawns, and then I moved queen and knight to their optimum squares. All that is needed now is a breakthrough, which my opponent allowed after 36.Be1 Qxb5

White's position is pretty hopeless, but the game finished after 37.f5 when I was finally able to take charge of the light squares by 37..Qa4. Omar thought for a while before resigning. It will be massive material loss for white after black plays c2.

Malitis Memorial Past the Half Way Mark

We're already into the end stretch of the Malitis Memorial at the MCC. In fact, the committee were already finding out who was playing in the next tournament, the MCC Open starting at the end of August. I expect the MCC Open to be massive, as virtually all the Monday  night events have been heavily subscribed to this year.

The Malitis Memorial has been split into 2 groups, a top 8 round robin, and a swiss section for the rest of the field. I suggested the system of 2 swiss sections to committee member Simon Dale last night, and he seemed pretty interested in the idea. The system I suggested last week was to scrap the Round Robin and replace it with a small elite swiss event, with maybe the top 16 players represented in one tournament, and another swiss for the lower rated players. Saying that, I'm pretty happy at whatever system is thrown at me, so long as I get to play some chess.

The round robin section is looking like a 2 horse race. IM Mirko Rujevic is leading with 4/4, while junior David Cannon is second on 3/4. Both of these players won last night to extend their lead over the field. The 2 other games ended in draws leaving no one else above half points. There is still one game left to be played, but even a result in that game won't take anyone above half points. Still, with 3 rounds to go, there could still be some twists.

In the swiss section Mehmedalija Dizdarevic held on to his lead after drawing with Tristan Krstevski. Tristan was half a point behind, which is where he remains. He is joined by David Lacey, Ray Yang, Felix Wyss, Tom Kalisch and Sarah Anton. There's a further group of players another half point down, so this is still anyone's tournament. There haven't been too many big upsets through the swiss section of the Malitis this year, though I guess with the top 8 players out, it means there are less big rating differences. Saying that unrated Axel Ahmer won against MCC regular Alex Kaplan, while Sarah Anton defeated Justin Penrose rated 200 points higher.

My own game was a painful affair. I grabbed a pawn in a Catalan against Thai Ly and grimly held on to it enduring an awful position in the hope that I would at some stage come out of things still with that extra pawn. To be honest, I never got out of the difficult position, Thai won his pawn back and the game looked bleak. And then when I thought I'd got through the worst of it Thai simplified to the following pawn endgame.

I was black here and things look bad. Black's passed c-pawn is not dangerous while white's protected passed e-pawn most certainly is. Based on the general idea that the defending side should trade pawns, I managed to find the only drawing line, 52..g5!! This is probably the best move I've played this year, saving the game. 53.fxg5 [53.hxg5? loses as black will have distant passed pawns that white's king won't be able to cope with] 53..Kxe5

This position is a draw, but you have to know how to draw it, or it is very losable. White's king intends to head over and take black's extra pawn and black must be ready to defend his pawn, but he mustn't move it. The black king is inside the square of white's passed g-pawn and can remain inside that square as long as it sits on the d-file. So when white's king gets to c4, black must be ready to play Kd6. The game continued 54.Ke3 Kf5 55.Kd3 Ke5

A key position. If white now plays 56.Kc4, black will reply 56..Kd6, and the follow up 57.Kb5 is then met by 57..Kd5 bringing about the following position.

White can make no progress. His king has to retreat when black's king will do the same. If white pushes the g-pawn, black's king runs over and takes it, and even if white wins black's h-pawn, the game is a draw. Without going into all this Thai saw that there was no way through and offered a draw which I was very happy to accept.

Malitis Memorial Update

Last week the British Championships started. This is a tournament I enjoy following as I knew many of the players involved. Some of the younger ones I never met as I left the UK over 10 years agao. Funnily enough, I spent years trying to qualify for the British Championship when the qualification criteria was tough. You either had to have a rating of 2320 or pick up a place from one of the qualifiers on the weekend circuit. Then, I finally qualified for the 2005 Championship, only to leave England a few months before the tournament.

No regrets though as I've made a great life here, and enjoy the chess scene in Australia. In fact, it is likely that I'll play in the upcoming Australian Championships being held in January 2016 in Melbourne. The tournament is being run by my club, the Melbourne Chess Club. Currently, the tournament in progress on a Monday night is the Malitis Memorial. Monday night events are longplay FIDE rated events, which is my preference. After an absence from the long game for a couple of years, my rating took a pounding on my return and dropped to a low of about 2080. I seem to have got it back together again, and my rating has jumped back up to 2161, and hopefully will jump more. Although saying that, my start in the Round Robin section of the Malitis Memorial, with 2 losses was not particularly inspiring.

The Malitis Memorial is split into 2 divisions, an 8 player Round Robin and a swiss for everyone else. This format seems to have drawn more players in (though that might just be a general upturn in chess club attendance) but I think I'd like to see a slightly different format, that I once played at the OHRA tournament in Amsterdam in the early 1990's. There they had small swiss events, 16 players, 24 players, or 32 players in rating groups. I think a 16 player, 7-round swiss would be an excellent format, and would basically split the top half and bottom half players. As I remember, the prize fund was also interesting. You earned prize money for every half point above half points. So instead of a set prize fund for the tournament, the prize fund depended on how many points you scored. This sort of system discourages players trying for draws, and rewards performance. It also spreads the prize fund out.

The Round Robin section is being dominated by IM Mirko Rujevic who has won all 3 of his games and sits a point clear already. David Cannon has 2/3, and the rest of us are floundering below. The swiss event also has a clear leader in Mehmedalija Dizdarevic who is the only player on 3/3. He is half a point ahead of Tristan Krstevski (who he plays) and Eamonn O'Molloy and then there is a big group of players on 2/3. The second tournament saw a number of late entries, and the number of players in the event has swelled to 35. Seeing the 7 round winter event has had considerably less players than that in the past, the MCC must be commended at attracting players through the door.

I was able to win my game against Simon Schmidt. Simon is a much improved player as is seen by his jump up the ratings. However, he misjudged an endgame against me and turned a draw into a loss.

Simon had offered a draw a long way back, but I soldiered on in essentially level positions up to this critical juncture. Although I had been pressing, there was never anything tangible, so I decided to go for it. 44..b4 45.cxb4 d4

So black has created a passed pawn that is a bit dangerous in the middle of the board. Still it should be no problem for white. 46.Rf3 Kd5 This was the last chance of winning.

Now, Simon correctly took my pawns on the king side, 47.fxg5 fxg5 48.Rf5+ Ke4 49.Rxg5 d3

To understand this position, you must know that neither side can win. The idea is that white will have to sacrifice their rook for black's d-pawn but will then use their king to help their g-pawn advance causing white to sacrifice their rook back again. The b-pawns are of consequence as they can be taken at will by black. Taking all this into account, white seems to left with 2 choices. 50.Rg8 and come behind the black d-pawn, or 50.Rh5 and drop the rook to the back rank.

a. 50.Rh5? d2 51.Rh1 Rc1 wins for black

b. 50. Rg8! 

50..d2! [50..Rd7 fails to 51.Re8+ Ke4 52.Re1 and white has control of the back rank]

Now there is only one move to draw 51.Re8! [51.Rd8? 52.Rc3+ Kh4 53.Rd3 builds a bridge for the pawn] 51..Kd3 52.Rd8+ Kc2

53.Kf4! White's king starts supporting his own pawn. The game would conclude with white having to sacrifice his rook when black's pawn promotes, but the g-pawn will coast white a rook back again. White has time to stop the g-pan and pick up both b-pawns.

c. 50.Kf2? This was the move that Simon played, and really my main hope of an endgame swindle.

50..Rc1! Guards the promotion square and prevents white's king from blocking the pawn. Meanwhile, black's king is in great position to worry about the g-pawn while white's king has moved to a considerably worse square. The game concluded. 51.Rg8 d2 52.Re8+ Kf4 [I think Simon had forgotten that my king could move this way after he had retreated his king. If the black king has to touch the d-file, then white would be fine as he could skewer the pawn] 53.Rf8+ Kxf4 54.Rd8 d1=Q 55.Rxd1 Rxd1 56.Ke3 Kf5 0-1

This is an important practical ending for club players to understand. This type of ending is quite frequent in games, and understanding the mechanics of it will maximise your results.

Malitis Memorial

The MCC is currently running a 7 round tournament commemorating the life of stalwart club member Edwin Malitis. The tournament is changing it's style this year from a straight 7-round swiss to an 8 player round robin for the top 8 rated players, and a 7 round swiss for all other players. This is an interesting format that is also being used at Noble Park Chess Club for their Masters and Challengers event, though they have a 10 player round robin backed by a 9 round swiss.

The Round Robin section of the Malitis Memorial was organised a little haphazardly with some doubt who the players were going to be, even as the first round was being played! I think that in the future it would be good to finalise a field for the top tournament prior to the starting date, and limit the second tournament to players rated below the lowest rated player in the top section. I think this was the method used by Noble Park, and they have used this format before. Anyway, the 8 players for the round robin are:

1. Tom Narenthran (2002)
2. Omar Bashar (1972)
3. Malcolm Pyke (2088)
4. David Cannon (1989)
5. Carl Gorka (2116)
6. IM Mirko Rujevic (2179)
7. Thai Ly (1974)
8. Simon Schmidt (2039)

The early leaders of this event are Mirko Rujevic and David Cannon who are both on 2/2 while Simon Schmidt sits on 1.5. The first round game between Malcolm Pyke and Tom Narenthran has been postponed.

The Swiss section has about 30 players registered which is a good sized field for the Malitis Memorial. In years gone by this tournament has struggled to get numbers playing and so having close to 40 players in 2 sections must be considered a good achievement by the MCC. The tournament is very competitive and I wouldn't like to pick a winner. Eamonn O'Molloy is the top seed at 1946 but 18 players are rated over 1700 and I guess they must all feel they have a chance, as will some lower rated players. In fact, after 2 rounds only 3 players have scored a maximum 2/2, David Lacey, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic and Tristan Krstevski. As a 7 round swiss, although the tournament is only just started, it is almost half way over, so there isn't time for anyone to have an off day, or they could find themselves dropping down the field.

My tournament has started abysmally with 2 losses. In the first round I lost to top seed, IM Mirko Rujevic from what I believe was a good position. Then in the second round I lost to young David Cannon after once again, getting a pretty good position with the black pieces.

Here is my first round tragedy against Mirko:

This endgame is absolutely level. Black is pressing cut can make no headway so long as white does nothing. However, like many amateur chess players (and with little time on the clock) I couldn't manage to sit tight and do nothing feeling the pressure rise. Moves like Bd2, or Bh4 and shuffling around would probably have lead to a draw. But as white I played 1.h4?. Mirko took no time to play 1..Ra1 2.Bd2 [A rook check on e1 must be prevented] 2..Rg1. It was about here that I started regretting pushing my h-pawn.

I defended my g-pawn by 3.Kf3 but Mirko deflected me with 3..e4+! after which there is no defence. 4.Kxe4 Rxg4+ 5.Kf3 Rxh4 and Mirko's passed g-pawn was decisive.

Chess, World and Local

The Chess World Cup is coming to a conclusion with 2 play off matches to decide the semi finals, and I must admit that my 0% prediction success rate may be continuing. I'm not sure I like the omens of Kramnik missing a win against Vachier Legrave in the last game, but I'm still quietly confident that Kramnik can win the match. The other one could go either way, and I think it's safe to say that neither player really thought they would even have got this far and their 2 fairly quick draws in the normal games may reflect these feelings. In fact, Tomashevsky was so convinced he wasn't going to get this far in the tournament that he had agreed to play in the Poikovsky tournament which starts today! (Live games being played as I write) One player who was in Norway will be playing in Melbourne this weekend. GM Hrant Melkumyan is appearing in a very strong weekender in the west of Melbourne. This year's Best in the West weekender, organised by the Hobson's Bay Chess Club will be one of the strongest weekenders of the year in Australia, and almost definitely the strongest event not to be FIDE rated. A big field is assembling and I will be one of I presume many players who won't be able to play, but who will travel over to spectate and support the event.

The Melbourne Chess Club's 7 round swiss event on Monday nights finished this week with an emphatic win for IM Mirko Rujevic. Mirko dropped just half a point to second seed Malcolm Pyke and won the tournament by 1.5 points. Second place was shared by Jack Puccini and Richard Voon. Jack beat Malcolm in the last round to jump above him, and leave the second seed in the group a further half a point behind. Actually, it looked like quite a nice tournament with a few new faces, and some old faces who don't appear so regularly. Junior Ray Yang put in a good performance to finish in the group on 4 points. Scoring over half points from near the bottom of the seeding order is no mean feat. The next event is the MCC Open which is a 9 round swiss starting on Monday September 9th and running through to early November. Hopefully this tournament will see a good turn out. The tournament will miss one week due to the Melbourne Cup Weekender being held in the first week of November, but more on that event nearer the time.

I also need to mention another tournament coming up, and that is Noble Park's weekender in September. To be honest, I just can't believe how far this club has come in such a short time. It only seems like a little while ago, that I was spending  a lot of time with Domagoj Dragicevic and Memedalija Dizdarevic creating the new Noble Park Chess Club and hosting the Australian Masters tournament simultaneously. In hindsight, it seems like madness to take on 2 major projects without any guarantee of either succeeding, but both came about in the end. In fact, that all happened back in 2006, which really surprised me. The tournament was a pretty strong one, won by FM George Xie who became an IM at the event. He finished above GM Johansen with FM Sales in third. Behind them was GM Antic, IM Goldenberg and FM V. Smirnov (now an IM). Noble Park Chss Club was not a flash in the pan, and the club has grown its membership and is now hosting the country's most prestigious event, The 2014 Australian Championship next January. This is absolutely fantastic progress for such a young club. Noble Park's Classic Weekender will be held over the weekend of September 21st/22nd. It is to be a 7 round swiss played at a time control of 60 minutes + 10 second increment, which makes it an ACF rated time control. It is a pity I won't be in Australia to play it. I played last year and had a great time, and I urge anyone and everyone to play it this year, as I know it will be even better than last year's. (Hiding in one of my old computers should be some games from last year's event. I'll see if I can dig some out!)

Some Local Chess To Look Forward To

Melbourne has some great chess coming up over the next few weeks, and I'll be following the action on this blog! First, all the clubs around Melbourne are active during this (long, hard...brrrr) winter season. Mirko Rujevic is in complete control of the 7 round swiss Malitis Memorial at the Melbourne Chess Club. He has scored 5.5/6 and sits a point clear of the the rest of the field. David Lacey, Malcolm Pyke and Justin Penrose are on 4.5 with young Jack Puccini and not so young Richard Voon on 4. The final round for this event is next Monday and although the draw has not been published yet I'm guessing it will be up to Justin Penrose to stop Mirko as Lacey and Pyke have already played him.

Before that, on Sunday, MCC is holding the annual Fitzroy Skittles event. This is a losing points rapid tournament where you are given a number of points that you may lose on the day before you are eliminated from the tournament, The higher rated a player, the less points they will have to lose. It is something different, a bit of fun, but of course played in a tournament format to give it that little bit more energy. There are already about 25 players who have entered, including 2 IM's, and I guess quite a few will enter on the day. I'll be there to watch for a while, and I'll post some things about it on this blog!

Meanwhile, the weekend after Hobson's Bay Chess Club are hosting what looks like the Victorian tournament of the year. Their annual Best in the West event has always been an enjoyable event, but this year it looks like it will be an unbelievably strong event, and almost definitely the strongest event in Australia this year not to be FIDE rated. The inclusion of GM Melkumyan from Armenia has attracted a number of strong Aussies to participate including IM's Cheng, Illingworth, and Morris who are all above 2400. I'll be at this one as a blogger too!

All writing and no play makes me rather miss chess though, so I'm happy to be helping to organise the new local club near where I live in Glen Eira. Glen Eira Chess Club is beginning to build a nice vibe and I always look forward to playing there. It's particularly useful for young players who need a local place to play serious chess against adults who can pass on valuable experience. Last week there was an exciting game between 2 young local talents, Max Phillips (= first Victorian under 12 Championship 2013) and Gal Dekal (self taught 13 year old who I would estimate to be in the 1200-1500 strength category (he beat a 1900 rated player the week before!). Gal chose to play a Dragon against Max, probably knowing that Max likes the Dragon himself. Max played a similar structure to what I had played against him the week before. Gal gained a big queen side initiative when Max made some weak looking moves, but Gal pressed too far on the queen side, leaving his king side vulnerable, and Max finished him off nicely.

Who's The Leader?

Last night saw the latest round of the Malitis Memorial at the MCC. The top 2 seeds, IM Mirko Rujevic and Malcolm Pyke met, and their game ended in a draw which keeps them in joint first place. Surprisingly the only player half a point behind them before the round started was Ray Yang, but Ray couldn't keep up his great start and lost to David Lacey. David finds himself in the chasing group, a point behind the leaders, along with Justin Penrose, Tom Kalisch, Anthony Hain and Paul Kovacevic. With this being only a 7 round tournament, and there only being 3 rounds left, I think we can say that this group is where the main prizewinners will come from. Of course, with a run of 3/3 players from behind this could still challenge for minor places.

Meanwhile at the British Championships David Howell maintained his half point lead with a draw against Mark Hebden. Hebden remains close behind in second along with Ameet Ghasi, Keith Arkell and Simon Williams. There is then a big chasing pack a further half point behind including top seed Gawain Jones who has started the tournament with a number of draws in the first week. I was able to catch the start of the games before going to bed last night (damn time zones!) and it was great to see Hebden playing the Hungarian Defence, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7. I know it has a reputation for leading to cramped positions for black, but it is solid enough, and a tough nut for white to crack. Certainly 2639 rated Howell could only draw and it was a fully fledged battle, though I don't think black came out the opening badly. Simon Williams continued in his cavalier (coffeehouse!) style to take out Stephen Gordon. Williams again ditched a pawn for activity and and all of a sudden Gordon's king was wide open and Williams pieces were penetrating. In the end, a rook sacrifice was enough to gain the time to deliver mate. From move 16 onwards, Williams is interested in one thing, developing an initiative to generate a direct attack against white's king activating his pieces.



A fascinating match up is the game Williams-Howell on top board of round 8 (of 11). Howell is an excellent player, but he can expect Williams to throw everything at him. Equally fascinating for me is the board 2 game Hebden-Arkell. Having played the weekend circuit in the UK for many years, I saw these 2 GM's regularly cleaning up these small swiss weekend events. I've played both Hebden and Arkell numerous times and never managed even a draw against either of them, and have witnessed them both playing at the same weekender lots of times. In fact, I would have no clue how many times these great battlers have actually played each other, but I'd guess it would be hundreds of games! On board 3 Ghasi-Zhou brings 2 young talents together. Well, I understand Ameet Ghasi is not exactly a junior but I always think of him as a youngster from my days in the Birmingham league. I guess it just shows that I'm getting old!

A couple of nights ago I was following Aussie GM David Smerdon's progress in Denmark. Well, unfortunately he lost that game and dropped down the standings to equal 14th, whereas a win would have taken him to equal second. It just shows how brutal these big swiss events can be. Still it was agreat effort by David, who played his typical combative style of chess. The winner was Indian GM Parimarjan Negi who won a quick game against joint leader Sabino Brunello of Italy in the last round. Both players were evidently unhappy with the draw that would have secured equal first, and it was Negi that took the victory in an exciting game. I found white's use of his doubled h-pawns really interesting in this game.
 

MCC Update

Since I moved to Australia about 8 and a half years ago, there have been 4 players who I've had a particularly bad record against. IM Guy West I have never managed to beat, I've scored a few draws, and lost quite a few. FM Dusan Stojic I have managed to win against, and have picked up the odd draw, but I must be at about -6 against him. My record against IM Mirko Rujevic perplexes me as I seem to get decent positions, but his sharp and imaginative sense at the chess board usually allows him to come out of things well. While I've beaten him, and drawn a few, I reckon I'm at -5 at least. And against Malcolm Pyke I have had a bad time. I don't remember the exact score, but he won a whole load back to back. I'm either up, level or no worse than -2 against everyone else I've played in Australia. (A bold announcement and if you are someone I've forgotten, then please don't hesitate to remind me)

Guy West and Dusan Stojic

What made me think about this was seeing the field for the Melbourne Chess Club's latest Monday night tournament, the Malitis Memorial. This mid year 7-round swiss has usually had small turn outs compared to other MCC events, but this year the tournament seems to holding it's own with the previous City of Melbourne Open and a field of 29 players are currently competing compared with 23 for the previous event. The top 2 seeds are from my nemesis group, Rujevic and Pyke and these 2 are currently on 2/2 and in the leading group of the event along with David Lacey, Tom Kalisch and Paul Kovacevic. It's still, of course, too early to tell what will happen but with only 7 rounds, the tournament will quickly sort itself out.

Malcolm Pyke

Mirko Rujevic

One player has asked for a bye for tomorrow's third round game in the Malitis Memorial. Jack Puccini is currently in China playing for Australia in the World Youth Olympiad, a team tournament for under 16's. Jack is currently playing board 3 for Australia 2 and has scored a magnificent 5/6, his only loss being to 2449 rated Russian FM Kiril Alekseenko. The MCC are also represented in the Australia 1 team with Ari Dale also having a stellar performance scoring 5.5/7 on board 4 although things were even better before the double round yesterday as it was the second game on the day he lost. All the young Australians are working hard to achieve the best results for their teams, and currently, the 1st team are 8th place (=7th) and the 2nd team are in 39th (=30th). There are still 2 rounds to go and both teams will be looking to improve upon their current standings.

In my last post, I complained about the lack of pgn games on the official website. Well, within about 1 hour of writing that post a pgn of rounds 1-6 was posted on the website. I was immediately ready to forgive the organisers, until I opened it and found it contained only the games from the live boards. To be honest, these games should have been posted to the site immediately, and it should have taken some time for other games to be manually loaded into a database. But I am now not going to hold my breath for the remaining games of the event to be published.

Melbourne Clubs Round Up

As this blog is essentially a personal thing, I tend to focus mainly on local chess which I am familiar with and which means much to me. So here's a brief round up of what's happening around Melbourne at the moment.

Frankston Allegro on July 20th

Sorry to plug my own club first, but hey that's life! Melbourne's newest chess club, Glen Eira Chess Club has been closed for a couple of weeks but will reopen on this Friday, 19th July with a social night and some blitz. Soon after that we want to start with some long play round robin events and our aim is to build our membership. To help with this we have a brand new venue, the excellent Carnegie Library. Like before, we will run a junior club from 6 pm - 7 pm and then an adult club after that. We welcome all comers to our friendly little club! (Coffee rating of the neighbourhood is 4/5 with some really good cafes in Koornang Road)

The club that has been my home for the past 5 or so years, the Melbourne Chess Club, has started a new Monday night FIDE rated tournament, the 7-round Malitis Memorial. Congratulations go out to IM Mirko Rujevic for dominating the last event, the City of Melbourne Open, and he is playing in this event as well. The MCC is the only club open 7 days a week in Melbourne, so there is plenty for everyone whether you are a Grand Master or a beginner. The allegro tournaments on Saturday afternoons maintain their popularity. Going back to the Malitis Memorial, the first round happened last night and the top 2 seeds, Rujevic, and Malcolm Pyke overcame tricky juniors (Finley Dale and Jason Chew) to start their tournaments off with wins. However, there were plenty of upsets on the night, though as players improve rapidly it is almost harsh to call their victories upsets when their rating may be well below their actual playing strength. I don't really want to get too much into the first round, but I would like to wish Tom Kalisch a good tournament return to the MCC :) (Coffee rating of the neighbourhood 5/5 with some of the best cafes around Melbourne)

Downies Auctions recently sold these for $75. Was it an MCC member who bought them?

Box Hill Chess Club have their Tuesday night tournament starting tonight. In fact it should be underway as I write this. The Winter Cup is a 7-round swiss and is supposed to be run at the same time as the Box Hill Masters which is a usually a 10 player round robin event. However, I haven't seem anything about this which is a shame as I have fond memories playing in it, and I truly believe that there aren't enough round robin events at the moment. Box hill Chess Club do have 'Grades' tournaments starting this Friday, and possibly this is taking over from their Masters event, though I don't know. (Coffee rating of 4.5/5 though Maling Road's Post Office Cafe is a 10/10 by itself)

Noble Park Chess Club is gradually taking centre stage in Victorian Chess as their tournaments keep attracting large and strong fields. Noble Park are currently running their Masters event which is a 10 player round robin which is pretty strong. Top seeds are FM Chris Wallis and FM Dusan Stojic but these guys will have their work cut out to win this very tough event. Alongside this a challengers event is being run, with the winner guaranteed a spot in the following year's Masters. This promotion based system is really good for chess development, and Noble Park should be applauded for using it. (Coffee rating hmmm...no comment :D)

Further from the centre of Melbourne, this Saturday sees an impressive looking allegro being held at Frankston Chess Club. Like other suburban clubs such as Croydon and Hobson's Bay, Frankston is quietly doing the right things by their members, which is basically listening to what the people want and growing in stature because of it. All these clubs have a friendly atmosphere, and while all the players are fiercely competitive during the games, the clubs definitely cater more for people who prefer a social atmosphere. Although I won't be able to go to the allegro this Saturday, it already looks to be shaping up to be an excellent event. Meanwhile Croydon Chess Club have just run their annual weekender and what an amazing success it was! Croydon Chess Club have decided to run 1 weekender a year and run it well. The tournament had a capacity of about 50 players and the number was reached with an IM and 4 FMs in the field. In the end, John Nemeth and FM Dusan Stojic, both of Noble Park CC, shared first placed on 4.5/5. On the other side of town, Hobson's Bay Chess Club have now announced their annual weekender, the Best in the West tournament. This has always been a popular event, and it is good to see it happening again this year. Hobson's Bay CC have had to deal with the recent death of their influential member and organiser, Peter Caissa who will be sadly missed by the whole Victorian chess community. I'm sure that this year's Best in the West will be a fitting tribute to Peter.
(Coffee ratings: Frankston/Croydon no data available; Hobson's Bay 3/5 Altona has some ok coffee, though when the tournament was in Yarraville I'd have pushed things up to 4/5)