Australian Junior Chess Championships 2013

Today the 2013 Australian Junior Chess Championship started on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The tournament is a 9 day festival of Junior Chess in Australia broken into age group divisions. The under 18's and under 16's play one game per day for 9 days (they actually play 2 games tomorrow), while the younger age groups play for less days. Currently, the under 10's and under 8's are in progress, their's being 9 round tournaments over 3 days with 3 games per day.

The tournament started with an opening ceremony with speeches and instructions for the players.

In control, Andrew FitzPatrick

Words of wisdom from Chief Arbiter and AJCL President, Charles Zworestine

A word from our generous sponsors...

President of Queensland Chess Association, Mark Stokes

After the speeches, the tournament commenced pretty much on time in the sports centre of Bond University. While the older kids started their week long event the main focus for the first couple of days is the very youngest competitors who are sometimes quite high maintenance. The results and games are being recorded on the Tornelo management system so there is already plenty to see (91 games, though I haven't looked through that many yet!). Starting with the very youngest, the Under 8's are playing 3 games a day, and it really will be a test of stamina for these young kids. There is no outstanding favourite for this event, and my belief is that the winner will be the player who can still focus adequately towards the end of day 3. In the field of 17 players there are only 2 on 3/3 and they'll meet tomorrow, so good luck to Christopher Lim from Victoria, and Dashiell Young from Queensland. The under 10's sees an outright favourite in Kevin Willathgamuwa who is some 400 rating points higher than his nearest challenger, Luis Chan. The field is made up of 41 players and there are still 4 players on a perfect 3/3.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have some positions and stories from the event, but for now, some of the really little players...

The playing hall filling up

Oliver from Tasmania trying to remember his game plan

Jay from Victoria checking his carbon copy