Record entries at 2012 Australian Junior Champioships

The 2012 Australian Junior Championships run under the auspices of the Australian Junior Chess League (AusJCL) by the Melbourne Chess Club (MCC) has had the biggest number of entries in the history of the event. The tournament is being held at Spensley Street Primary School in Melbourne's Clifton Hill suburb, a short trip from Melbourne's CBD. The chief architect of the project has been Simon Dale, a 2011 committee member of both the MCC and the AusJCL which made him an excellent liaison. Simon has worked tirelessly throughout the year to make this event happen and I don't think it is unfair to say that the 2012 Australian Junior Championship and therefore the whole Australian chess community owes Simon Dale a big thankyou.

With 277 entries, the 2012 Australian Junior championship far outstrips previous events, and this may be attributed to the change of format that happened in 2011. The Hobart event of 2012 was a landmark event because it was decided to change the format from 11 rounds to 9 rounds, and the younger age groups changed to less days with multiple games on those days. The net effect is that families don't have to take a 2week break to play in the tournament, and even the older age groups (under 18 and 16) only have a week of play with the weekend before and after tagged on. Last year's event saw a huge increase in numbers compared to the Hobart 2010 Championship and this year, the numbers have far exceeded the previous biggest entry of 210 in Canberra 2007.

Chales Zworestine

David Cordover

The main arbiter's for the tournament are Charles Zworestine and David Cordover. Charles is generally happy with the event except for perhaps the under 16 event which could see extra numbers, and the girls tournaments which have seen perhaps a decrease in numbers. The under 18 event has lost some stronger players to the Queenstown Classic in New Zealand, but still has 21 players which is only 7 less than last year.

We already have some age group winners:

Under 8 - Bobby Yu (Vic)
Under 10 - Kevin Willathgamuwa (NSW)
Under 8 Girls - Emily Lin (Vic)
Under 10 Girls - Jody Middleton (Vic)



There are many adults around coaching, arbitering, and generally helping. The parents of the school have been great in running a canteen, while there has been a barbecue going each day run also by volunteers, sometimes from the school and sometimes from the MCC. Chesskids have been helping out with bulletin writing, game analysis and generally controlling the events. Chesskids have also pioneered the Tornelo system which is being used to manage the tournament. The game input feature has been a great success and already 640 games have been uploaded with some being loaded live by volunteers. And there have been some of the strongest players and coaches from around the country helping their protege's to score the best results. One game that came to the attention of IM Robert Jamieson was from yesterday's under 14 tournament.

I'm back...

I have been in New Zealand for the past week and missed some action.

The Australian Championship was won by GM Darryl Johansen for a record 6th time! He took the lead before I left and never relinquished it winning the event by a full point from an elite group of players consisting of  GM Zhao, IM's Xie, Solomon and Smirnov. The contingent of younger players failed to breach this experienced group, and FM Junta Ikeda and IM Moulton Ly led the younger challenge a further point behind, and alongside IM Wohl.

The Reserves tournament was won by MCC member Justin Penrose. I have never played Justin but my impression is a tough fighter who is happy to play difficult positions with a dogged determination. He will cause problems for his opponents at any turn and does not give up on positions which others might think too troublesome to continue the effort. Another MCC member came second, and pleasingly a junior. Like most juniors, Ari Dale has good days and bad days, but he is generally moving forward at an alarming rate. This result confirms that the MCC has another young player of 2000+ strength. Joint third were Omar Bashar, David Spuler, and another MCC member, Frank Lekkas.

All the games from the Championship are available in pgn format and the latter rounds of the Reserves have been made available as well. This is a pretty good effort seeing there was such a small staff on duty. I haven't been able to go through these games yet, but I will see if any interesting things show up over the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, the Hastings Congress reverted back to the days when the foreign visitors dominated. The event was won by top seed GM Wang Yue of China half a point clear of GM Istracescu of France and IM's Lalith and Shyam from India. The top English players were a further point behind in joint 8th, the GM group of Howell, Hebden, Flear, Williams and Nick Pert. This group on 6 points also included Icelandic IM G Kjartansson who seems to have had a very good tournament, scoring 2/3 in the final rounds against GM's Howell, Hebden and Istratescu!

So I have got back just in time for the start of 3 tournaments of interest to me. There is the SuperGM event in Holland, the Tatasteel Wijk aan Zee starring World number 1 Magnus Carlsen. The Australian Junior Championship started yesterday as well and runs until next weekend. And the Queenstown Classic started today and runs until next weekend. This last tournament is especially interesting to me as I've just been on holiday in Queenstown. This beautiful new Zealand town is a perfect holiday destination and I hope that the players will get some chance to experience some of the beauty of their surroundings!

Bob's Peak from Queenstown beach

OK, I suppose I better put my head on the block and throw out some tips for these tournaments:

Wijk A: Aronian
Wijk B: Potkin
Wijk C: Sadler
Aus Junior: Justin Tan
Queenstown: Jones


But good luck to all, and great to have so much interesting chess around!

Last post before holiday

This time tomorrow I will be in New Zealand and within 48 hours I'll be on a trek around Milford Sound out of phone range, or internet accessibility. So I'll miss out on the end of the Australian Championships and other assorted events that I've been following at the start of this year. I will be back in time for the Australian Junior Championships, Wijk aan Zee, and ironically I will be able to follow the Queenstown Classic online as I will be leaving Queenstown just as it is about to start. In a way I do envy those guys who will be playing Queenstown, but given the choice of a holiday abroad or a chess tournament abroad, at the moment a holiday is more important to me. Unfortunately, playing chess would be too much like a busman's holiday for my liking!

On Tuesday I travelled down to the Australian Championship in Geelong. I must admit that while the tournament is strong, as a spectator I didn't get the 'Wow Factor' that I would expect from the National Championship, which was a bit of a shame. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but perhaps the playing room is a bit small and dark round the sides, there is hardly any space between the Championship and the Reserves so it looks like one big open. There is a stage area, but it isn't being used which is a shame, and there is no commentary of the games, or even displays of the games by monitor or the old fashioned demo boards. I would expect a bookstall, but there isn't one, and there isn't even a table with info and flyers about other events.

Ok, so I've had a whinge, now on to all that is good. That is the tournaments themselves and the organisation which is smooth.

IA Charles Zworestine (left) and FA Peter Tsai running the Champs smoothly

The Championship has kept taking twists. Darryl Johansen and Vlad Smirnov drew their game to stay half a point clear of the George Xie who was the only player on the day to capitalise on their draw by winning his game against Bobby Cheng.

George Xie with arms folded, facing the camera. The main winner of the day.

The tournament clarified a little the day after I left. Johansen had to play Xie, and the Grandmaster gave a display of his true ability grinding his opponent down relentlessly. This victory leaves Johansen a point clear, and in the drivers seat as he has played most of his main rivals. Darryl has a wealth of experience, and I wouldn't imagine him losing his grip on this tournament now. His nearest rivals, a point behind, are Zhao, Smirnov and Solomon. The last of these, Stephen Solomon had a slow start to the tournament, but is now in top gear after a victory in the last round against second seed George Xie in a long game with a difficult queen ending to finish off. Stephen's renowned tenacity saw him through in a game that many would have been happy to draw.

Back to back Champions, Solomon to the left, Johansen to the right.

The draw for the next round sees:
Ly-Johansen
Solomon-Zhao
Smirnov-Ikeda
Xie-Steadman

The Reserves tournament is also interesting, and that was an enjoyable part of my visit, seeing players I know who are playing in the events. From my club, the Melbourne Chess Club (MCC), it was good to wish Happy New Year to players like Domagoi Dragicevic, James Morris, Frank Lekkas, Michael Addamo (interesting fact of the tournament was seeing Michael sat cross legged on his chair while deep in thought), Elliott Renzies, John Beckman and many more! The reserves is currently being led by a player who we in Victoria know little about. David Spuler from Queensland is a mystery man, but there is no mystery to how well his chess is going. He is currently half a point clear of ex-Australian Champion (3 times!) Doug Hamilton, and the 2 will play in the next round. 4 players are a further half a point behind, Savige, Lekkas, Penrose and Omar Khaled who like Solomon in the Championship has started to come good at the right time. Omar had a tough event just before Christmas when he played the round robin Australasian Masters, and that experience will no doubt leave him a stronger player. Also picking up steam but a further half point back are Dowling, Kordahi and Dale who join Kinto Wan and Wenlin Yin. I would say with 3 rounds to go, the tournament winner has to come from the one of the players I've named. The minor places are still up for grabs, and anyone who puts in a good finish is in with a chance.

Some great coverage of this particular event can be found on Kerry Stead's blog. Getting the view of one of the competitors is always a unique view of the tournament.

 IM James Morris planning strategy

 Frank Lekkas awaits mystery man David Spuler

Box Hill Chess Club VP Frank Cheng and Chess Victoria President Leonid Sandler

 Kerry Stead faces Vineetha Vijesuriya in the Reserves tournament

From left: Jason Tang (wearing red), Justin Tan, IM Stephen Solomon (drinking water), GM Darryl Johansen, IM James Morris, IM George Xie, Karl Zelesco

Great Tournaments Need A Few Twists

The Australian Championship heated up today, and not just because of the 40C heat in Victoria. The four leading players met and in both cases the underdog prevailed! Now it's a bit rich to be calling 5 times champion GM Johansen an underdog, but when put against the current champ, Zhao who is over 100 rating points higher than Johansen, the tag underdog sticks. Likewise, Smirnov isn't much of an underdog against George Xie, but still an underdog nevertheless. However, Johansen and Smirnov both won on a day that saw Zhao and Xie both well below their best. This takes nothing away from the winners, who both played well, especially Johansen.

So with 6 rounds gone that leaves Smirnov and Johansen leading the field by a point and as they haven't played, that will be the top pairing tomorrow. In joint third are 7 players. Zhao and Xie are joined by young guns Ly, Ikeda and Cheng, 2008 champ Solomon, and Dragicevic who is having a rather good tournament here.

Round 7 Top Pairings:

1. Johansen-Smirnov
2. Xie-Cheng
3. Ly-Solomon
4. Dragicevic-Ikeda
5.Wohl-Zhao

I expect some fierce battles tomorrow especially on boards 2-5, as to win the tournament these players are going to have to win games from now on.

In round 5, joint leader Vladimir Smirnov showed his class with an excellent finish against Bobby Cheng.

Smirnov as white has control of the position, but chooses a radical, but quite correct way to finish things off. 35.Rxc6! [An exchange sacrifice that wins 2 pawns for the exchange and brings white's bishops to life] 35..Bxc6 36.Rxc6 Qd7 37.Rc5 [Now d5 will also fall] 37..Rd8 38.e3 [It was possible to just take on d5, but e3 avoids any tactics on the d-file] 38..Rc8 39.Ra5 Qb7 40.Qa2 [Again, there was nothing wrong with taking on d5] 40..Rc1

And even here, Smirnov is not happy to play prosaically, but looks for the best continuation. 41.e6! [Of course 41.Bxd5 also wins, but this is a fantastic knock out blow clearing the dark squares which the bishop on d4 looks at] 41..Nd6 42.Bxd5 Qe7 [Not 42..Qb1 43.e7+ Nf7 44.Bxf7#]

43.Ra7! an excellent move clearing the path for the e-pawn. Bobby resigned here [43..Rc7 44.Rxc7 Qxc7 45.e7+ Nf7 46.Bxf7#]

Also in the fifth round was this position and one of the reasons that Dragicevic is having such a good tournament is that when he is given chances he is taking them. Here, black has taken a nasty initiative on the queen side but ignored the classic advice to be aware of all checks and captures. 16.Nxd5! [completely turning the game round, this doesn't win any material but will expose weaknesses in black's camp, especially the back rank] 16..exd5 17.e6 Bd6 18.Bxd6 Qxd6 19.exd7 Qxd7 20.axb4 Rxb4 21.Ne5 Nxe5 22.Qxe5 Bb7

Now black's queen side activity seems pointless whereas white has control of the e-file and black pawns as targets. He also spots the weakness of black's back rank. 23.Bh3! Qc6 24.Qe7 h6 [No time to grab the b-pawn. 24..Rxb2 25.Bd7 threatening the queen and back rank mate.] 25.Bd7 Qc7 26.Rxa4 Rbxa4 27.Bxa4 Qxe7 28.Rxe7 Rxa4 29.Rxb7

And after all the exchanges white is a solid pawn up which he went on to convert to a win.

Rest Day at the Australian Championships

Happy New Year! It is the 1st January 2012, and there is no play in the Australian Championship today. An interesting feature of tournaments that span the New Year is that players ratings change during the event. The top players haven't changed much:

Zhao 2568 (+4)
Xie 2459 (+19)
Khamparia 2414 (=)
Wohl 2412 (+8)
Johansen 2403 (=)
Illingworth 2388 (-13)
Solomon 2375 (-9)

So there has been a slight rise in the average of the top players in the championship.

Big jumps have been made by:

Bobby Cheng 2375 (+30) and moving into the top 10 Australian players
Domagoj Dragicevic 2277 (+30) close to the FM title, and I guess he's getting closer with his championship start.
Laurence Matheson 2167 (+41) the 2150 minimum rating limit for the Aus Champs would have had Laurence missing out if there wasn't a proviso for improving juniors.

Currently Australia is ranked 51st based on the top 10 rated players on the active list. The current crop of great juniors on show in this Championship may be able to help push this ranking up. If players such as Illingworth, Ly, Cheng, Morris, and Ikeda carry on as they are and get the opportunities to play in strong events (they are all prepared to travel overseas to broaden their horizons!) then the 2421 average for the top 10 players will surely rise.

In the 4th round, Bobby Cheng came up against Indian IM Akshat Khamparia who tried the unusual Snake Benoni. Unfortunately, either Bobby was prepared or he played natural moves which led to an advantage. Whichever, it was the Indian IM who blundered early.

Bobby played the natural 6.e4 (6.Nf3 is the mainline where 6,,Bc7 is one of 3 main moves, the others being 6..O-O, and 6..a6, though there are quite some transpositions) 6..Bc7? (While this is a move against 6.Nf3, it is a known blunder against 6.e4) 7.d6! Ba5 8.e5 (white is already winning!) 8..Ne4 (there is no good move) 9.Qg4

Black has a horrible choice of dropping a piece or allowing Qxg7. Black castled and Chen took the knight on e4.

So far, I haven't talked about the Australian Championship Reserves Tournament at all which is a shame as I know so many players involved. Tomorrow I hope to be in Geelong to spectate directly, and I'll try to bring some impressions of this event, which is just as competitive as the Championship if not more. I'll also try to find out who is in contention for norms at the Championship, though it might be a bit early to tell yet.

Last post of 2011

I hope 2011 has been a good year of chess for you. I'm sure Alexander Morozevich will be happy with his year. He reappeared earlier this year to win the Higher League of the Russian Champs, finished second in Biel just half a point behind Carlsen, came second in the Russian Championship just half a point behind Svidler, won the category 19 Governor's Cup in Russia and should reappear in the top 10 in the World in tomorrow's FIDE rating list. He is currently playing in Reggio Emilia where he won his first 2 games to take a lead in the tournament. Among these was a textbook attack against a king in the centre against Anish Giri

Morozevich as black senses an attack against a centralised king, but must open lines of attack. 22..e5! 23.fxe5 fxe5 24.Rg5 pinning the e-pawn

and after lines are open the attacker shouldn't be afraid to sacrifice. 24..exd4! 25.Rxa5 Rhe8 26.Bg2 dxe3

and the final picture is an exposed king with black's major pieces all aiming at it.

Since those first 2 wins, Morozevich has drawn with Nakamura and lost to Ivanchuk, this final game I've only briefly looked at but it appears to be a very complicated Spanish where Ivanchuk won 2 pieces for a rook and pawn and created dangerous threats around Morozevich's king. Morozevich was unable to defend, and Ivanchuk takes the lead in the tournament equally with Nakamura.

The San Sebastian Centenary tournament in Donostia has a great new format where players play 2 games against the same opponent with different colours simultaneously! The tournamnet is a knock out, where losing players can join a swiss tournament that is running alongside. Players joining the swiss are put on the same points as the leader in that tournament. All in all, it is a refreshing change from the usual events of swiss or round robin, and the games are not FIDE rated so no one is playing to defend or gain points. While there have been some upsets, I think it's a bit rich to claim a victory by a 2600+GM is much of an upset. The field is very strong with the top 5 players:

Gashimov 2757
Mamedyarov 2733
Ponomariov 2723
Moiseenko 2715
Bacrot 2714

All these players got through their first round simuls and we are now at the last 16 stage, so we're soon going to get some 2700-2700 clashes!

At Hastings the preliminaries are over and the tournament is settling into a rhythm. There are all GM clashes and each game is important in this 9-round swiss. Only 2 players are on a perfect 3/3. Istracescu of Romania and Howell of England will meet in round 4 at the top of the table. 2697 rated Wang Yue was held to a draw in the third round by Indian GM Sengupta Deep, but Wang heads a group of 8 players on 2.5 just half a point behind the 2 leaders. In this group are 2 interesting players. Sam Franklin is 17, close to 2200 and playing well above it here. He has just beaten one GM in Glenn Flear and has to face another now. That  GM is none other than the ginger Simon Williams, champion of the Dutch Defence and an all out aggressive styled player.

Like Morozevich, David Howell also knows how to attack a king in the centre. Here is his first round game against FM Ryan Griffiths from Ireland. Howell as white makes it as difficult as possible for black's king to find safety. When he eventually castles, he castles into an attack. 16. g4 Nfd4 17. Qe4+ Be6 18. Be3 f5 [18..O-O loses material to 19.Bxd4 Nxd4 20.Rxd4 Bxd4 21.Qxd4] 19. gxf5 gxf5 20. Qg2 Qd7 [20..O-O defends the Bg7, but also pins it, so it isn't defending d4] 21. Nf4

O-O-O [Finally black feels he can hide his king away, but..] 22. Bxd4! [Wins material] Nxd4 [22..Bxd4 23.Nxe6 Qxe6 24.Qxc6+] 23. Qa8+ Kc7 24. Qxa7+ Kc8 25. Qxb6 1-0

Australian Championship reaches halfway point

The organisers of the Australian Championship have generously designated January 1st a rest day in the tournament, which will allow the players to celebrate the new year without the nagging worry of a game looming the next day. If I was being very cruel, I would be disappointed that we spectators are going to miss out on what could have been a day full of booze addled blunders. But then again, a New Year's Day round would certainly have increased the chances of the junior's and teetotaller's in the tournaments.

I personally had a rest day yesterday, but I'm back to blogging again. My New Year's resolutions are to write more, and play more, and hopefully these 2 will coincide as well! As for the Championship, the 2 top seeds were able to break the deadlock and pull away slightly from the field. Top seed Zhao defeated Ly while second seed Xie defeated Wohl to put them both half a point clear of the field. Victorian GM Darryl Johansen won again, to keep himself in the hunt, while Smirnov stayed in contention with a draw against Morris.

Then came the pairing we had all been waiting for with the top board for round 5 featuring:

Xie-Zhao

These 2 had a head to head in the last Championship in 2010 where they finished way clear of the rest of the field. In that Championship Zhao proved the stronger scoring a magnificent 10/11 including a win over Xie. George Xie also scored a great score of 9/11, a score that could have won him the Championships some years and left him 1.5 clear of 3rd place. This year, their meeting just before the halfway mark ended in a draw and helps build the tension of the championship with both players sitting on 4/5.

Here they are joined by Johansen who scores his third win in a row, and Smirnov. Johansen has won the Australian Championship a record 5 times and stayed in the hunt for his 6th victory by beating young FM Ikeda clinically. Smirnov also had a young challenger in FM Cheng, but the experienced IM who still represents his native Russia was too good on the day and took advantage of Cheng's adventurous play. These 4 share the lead going into the rest day, and will have to play each other in the next round.

Round 6:
Zhao-Johansen
Smirnov-Xie

Only half a point behind is Wohl and there is then a big pack a further half a point behind, featuring almost all the young hopefuls in this years Championship: Illingworth, Morris, Ly, Solomon, Ikeda, Cheng (spot the odd man out!). Also on 3/5 are 2 local favourites, Dragicevic, and Stojic who are both keeping up with the pace. Although there are still some strong players behind these, I don't think the winners and place getters are going to come from outside this group. Not unless someone starts to really up their game in the second week. However, almost anyone in the 3/5 group and above have a chance. Zhao is obviously still the man to beat being highest rated and defending champion, but there's a lot of talent at the top of the championship!

And at the other end, I'm glad to say that everyone has at least one point. This might sound patronising, but it really isn't. I have been in the situation where I'm not playing well and every game is a tough one and I know well the feeling of relief when you finally get off the mark. Even when you are scoring, if it's not at the rate you expect, it can make you put yourself under extra pressure to win at all costs. I wonder if this was what happened to Max Illingworth in this Championship? Max is undoubtedly one of Australia's stars of the future. He has had a terrific 2011 scoring a GM norm in Budapest and working his rating to over 2400. But the start of the Championship was mediocre by his standards. in round 1 he drew with Ferozkohi, in round 2 he scored another draw with Pengyu Chen, and then in round 3 he lost to Dragicevic. I'm taking nothing away from those 3 guys, who must have been doing something right, but Max would have expected more than 1/3 against those players. In his game against Dragicevic, he built an imposing position with the black pieces, but then made an inexplicable blunder.

Max as black has a powerful, mobile, advanced centre while Dragicevic as white is waiting for black to finally make his move. Black needed a preparatory move such as 27..Rce8 and then the pawns can be pushed. However, Max played 27..Qe5? which loses a pawn to the shot 28.Nxf4! where the knight is protected by the fact that the other knight can hop to e6 with check.

Happily, Max is back on track with 2 wins pulling him up to 3/5  and poised just behind the leaders. But I wonder if he was trying too hard to win his first few games, and not just let his immense natural playing ability  just do the talking. If that is the case, he certainly wouldn't be the first player to have heaped too much pressure on his own shoulders. As a comparison, look at the most experienced player in the field, Johansen. He started with an unpretentious 14 move draw with local junior Laurence Matheson and followed that up with another draw against 2008 Champion Solomon. But since then he has gone about winning his games in whatever manner it took, and pulling himself into joint first.