My Chess in 2018

A move anywhere usually means some changes to a person's lifestyle. I have moved to Drouin which is about an hour from my work in eastern Melbourne, and another 20-30 minutes from the centre of Melbourne. Chess is a big part of my life and I still want to play my one game a week schedule that I've been doing.

The club which I have been a part of for a long time is the Melbourne Chess Club. However, MCC meet on a Monday night for long play games with a finish time sometimes in excess of 11:00, it means I won't be getting home until the early hours of the morning. Not good if I want to work on Tuesday! The alternative I am considering is Box Hill Chess Club which meets on a Friday night. This is better for work as Saturday is generally a day off, but usually worse for chess as Friday night most workers are exhausted. There are weekend chess clubs, but I'm not prepared to give up that valuable time which I spend with Caroline and relax.

So I have some time to think about it and decide as both clubs are on shutdown until the end of summer with both clubs starting their first 2018 long play events just after Australia Day on 26th January. In the meantime there is the Australian Championship to look forward to, running from 2-12 January. Unfortunately I'll be away on holiday in New Zealand then, but I'll follow the results and catch up on some games after. The Championship is followed by the Junior Championship which is being held in Melbourne. I'll be dropping into this so I'll see some live action.

And I always follow the games of Hastings which is in its 93rd edition and Wijk (80th edition) which is running at the same time as our Junior Champs. So it looks to be a good summer of chess for me as a follower of events which will hopefully give me the inspiration to take my chess back to the 2200 level and beyond next year, whichever club I choose to play at.

In the meantime, have a look at this amazing game from London 2017 where Ian Nepomniachtchi plays the amazing novelty 7.g4 against ex-World Champion Anand. The game erupts into a crazy unbalanced affair with White's king stuck in the centre but feeling safer than Black's castled king. I know there were some great games played in 2018, but this was one of my favourites.

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Bobby Cheng Australian Champion

It was an exciting finish to the 2016 Australian Championship at Fitzroy Town Hall. Going into the last round Bobby Cheng held a half point lead from Kanan Izzat and Karl Zelesco. Kanan was ineligible for the title, but both Bobby and Karl were fighting for Australian Champion. Obviously all the rest of us were still playing for places, but the title and tournament were between these 3 players.

The fun and games started when Bobby Cheng blundered against Junta Ikeda losing his last round game, leaving the way open for the others to overtake him. The net game at the top to finish was Kanan Izzat's win over Max Illingworth guaranteeing at least a share of first in the tournament depending on the final game between Justin Tan and Karl Zelesco. The tension mounted as games started finishing and the crowd around the top game increased. By the time I was finished, there were hardly any games left in either tournament, but the Tan-Zelesco game was still in full battle. In fact, the main game proved the last to finish. In the end, Justin Tan completed his comeback from a bad start to spoil Karl Zelesco's championship dream, and hand it to Bobby Cheng!

Full results of the Championship can be seen on the chess results server. Some notable points. Kanan Izzat was the tournament winner, while Bobby Cheng added the title of Australian Champion to the blitz title he won a few days earlier. Two games were forfeited. Sadly, Luke Li turned up late for the last round due to a mechanical car issue, but at least he had already gained an IM norm. More bizarrely was Mirko Rujevic not turning up to play his 10th round game on Monday. Mirko, who is turning 70, this year had a senior moment when he thought the tournament had finished on Sunday, and hadn't realised that the event continued.

The Reserves tournament saw 3 players who were near the top for the whole event take out the top 3 places. First was Patrick Gong with an amazing 9.5/11. This was half a point clear of Michael Kethro on 9 while Kris Chan was third a further half point back on 8.5. The Reserves was hard fought, and this is shown by the fact that another 27 players finished within 1.5 of third place. Of all these, perhaps special mention should go to James Watson who scored 7 points with an ACF rating of only 1633, whereas most of the players in the top 30 were over 1800.

Here's the final win of Kanan Izzat, who was definitely worse against Max Illingworth, beofre Max blundered with 35.Qc5.

Australian Championship - 2 Rounds Left

With only 2 rounds to go, things are finally beginning to take shape in the Championship and Reserves tournaments. At this point, if you're at the top, then a loss will put you out of contention, and even a draw will make your life harder. The pressure is on!

The Championship sees 2 leaders, Kanan Izzat and Bobby Cheng. Kanan cannot claim the title of Australian Champion, so Bobby finds himself in the sole lead of that particular event. However, only half a point behind are James Morris and Karl Zelesco, while a further half a point back are Luke Li and Vasily Papin. Of these, Papin also cannot win the title, while Zelesco and Li have gained IM norms (I believe) and so can concentrate on the tournament, rather than achieving the norm they already have. Although players below this still have a mathematical chance, I think realistically, the Championship and title are now between these 6.

The Reserves now has a clear leader in Patrick Gong on 8/9, and a clear second in Donato Mallari on 7.5. These 2 meet at the top, while the 3 players on 7 points, Michael Kethro, Kris Chan and Clive Ng still have a chance. I don't think any of the players on 6.5 will now be winning the tournament, but a 2/2 finish will see them close to the top.

I want to repeat that fatigue is now an element in the tournament. Most of us are only used to 9 round events, and we don't play them that frequently. I can personally say that the last couple of rounds have felt tough maintaining concentration and putting in the effort, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. In the last round, there was a typical late in the tournament error in the Championship. Tom Maguire is a junior from Queensland who was accepted into the tournament based on his improving ability which probably casts doubt on his 2045 ACF rating. I think that his performance in this tournament has been fully justified and I expect him to jump to 2150+ soon and be a regular in the Championship in years to come. He had quite a tough choice in the last round at one point and unfortunately chose wrong.

Tom is black, and his opponent, Andrew Brown has just played 13.Qh5. The question is what to do about defending h7?

1. The retreat 13..Nf6 loses h7 after 14.Bxf6
2. 13..h6 loses to 14.Bxg7! when black will have to sacrifice material to avoid being mated
3. 13..g6 loses nothing immediately but horribly weakens the dark squares around black's king.

So which to choose? 13..Nf6 is certainly the safest, giving back the pawn and leaving white with some advantage. Tom chose 13..g6?!, a brave choice but probably a wrong one. 14.Qh6 f6 only move.

Andrew Brown is a very talented player but he isn't having a good event. Here he had the possibility of 15.Bxg6 which looks very strong, but he played 15.Bc4 which pins the knight and again looks good.

Andrew's threat is 0-0-0 after which he'll have the additional hit e4 which will win a piece. Tom decided to give up an exchange here with 15..Re6 16.0-0-0 Nc7, but he had an amazing defensive idea.

In the above position Tom could have distracted the white bishop with 15..b5!! giving back a pawn for some breathing space. If 16.Bxb5 then just 16..Nd7 completes development with an ok game for black. White in fact has to worry about Nxc3 and if he retreats 17.Bc4 black can advance his kinght, 17..Ne5 with about a level game.

After 15..b5 white does have the attacking option 16.Bxd5 Bxd5 17.h4 trying to exploit the weak dark squares in the position. I'm guessing this is what Andrew would have played as it is more or less what he did in the game anyway.

Black has chances to defend now with Re6 (overprotecting f6) and Qf8. It is probably still better for white, but not by much. Seeing defensive moves like 15..b5 are no easy thing, but I'm guessing that Tom would have seen this idea earlier in the tournament when he was fresher. He may also have chosen the more circumspect 13..Nf6 earlier in the event.

The Scene Is Set

With 3 rounds to go, the scene is set for amazing finishes in both the Australian Championship and Reserves tournaments. In neither tournament have we one player who is breaking away.

The Championship has a group of 8 players that are all within 1.5 of the lead. Bobby Cheng and Kanan Izzat sit on the top of the tree on 6.5/8 with Karl Zelesco and Vasily Papin half a point behind. Luke Li and James Morris are a further half point back, while Anton Smirnov and Justin Tan are on 5/8. With only 3 rounds to go you'd have to imagine the Australian Championship title will go to one of these players. This is a great sign for the future of Australian chess as the oldest Australian player out of this group is James Morris at 21 years of age.

The older generation are having a tough time of it in the Championship with Greg Canfell the best of the 30+ (lol) age group on 4.5. It will be interesting to see what effect this tournament has on selector's views when we come to Olympiad team selection!

The Reserves is even tighter with 11 players within a point of the lead, and a further 12 at 1.5 behind. Kris Chan and Patrick Gong lead with 7/7 and will play tomorrow. This should be a great game as a draw won't help either of them. Vishal Bhat and Donato Mallari are half a point behind, and also face off. There will be a lot of pressure around the top boards of the Reserves, as a loss now will put anyone out of contention (maybe the leading pair will have one more chance should they lose). It i always good to see strong performances, and the 2 that currently stick out to me are both on 5.5: Hughston Parle rated 1640 ACF has only lost once to Tom Narenthran (1980) while has wins against 3 1800+ players; Rebecca Strickland rated 1522 also has only lost once to Axel Ahmer (1972) while has 3 wins against players rated 1775+. Rebecca's tie-break is very bad however, as 2 of her male, adult opponent's withdrew soon after they lost to her. I hope there isn't any long term effect to their male egos.

It is a pity that some Reserves games aren't published, or that the top board isn't broadcast live. So I'll just have to post one of the most entertaining games from the Championship. Here's a diagram of the final position of the game Choong-Schon, probably the most amazing draw of the tournament. The game ended with a perpetual in a position where white was 2 rooks down but threatens to win one back with his pawn on e7 while black's king has run into semi open space near the middle of the board..

The game had ended with the perpetual Kb6 Nc4+ Kb5 Nd6+ Kb5 Nc4+ etc. A fair result in such a biazrre position and after such an amazing game. I hope Yita reads this and can explain what he spent about an hour thinking over one move before taking the perpetual.

You Say Blitz Championship...

...and I say rest day!

After 7 rounds in 6 days there were a lot of players at the Australian Chess Championship who were looking pretty tired. There aren't many players, especially in the Reserves event where there are a lot of young juniors playing, who would have played this much intense chess before. Of course, we all love it and wouldn't have it any other way, but that doesn't mean that there were those in the playing hall yesterday who left with the sole intention of having a free day today.

The sensational results continued in the Championship with Karl Zelesco beating leader Kanan Izzat to draw level on 6/7. Half a point behind are Vasily Papin and Bobby Cheng, while a further half point back on 5/7 is Luke Li who beat Junta Ikeda. Besides fighting for the title of Australian Champion, Karl and Luke are looking for IM norms, and both must be close to getting them. Luke Li next faces another 2400+ player in Anton Smirnov who is a further half point back alongside James Morris. However, with 4 rounds left I still can imagine a lot of players crashing through the remaining games and taking the title. The disappointing pair of Tan and Illingworth both won for a second time bringing their score to within half a point of Smirnov and Morris, and only 2 behind the leaders.

I managed to get up to 3 points yesterday after drawing against Jack Puccini when I certainly didn't deserve to. Maybe I'll be able to claim a swindle of the Championship from this...

I'm black and 3 pawns down, and almost ready to resign. I saw one last chance, and because Jack was down to a minute plus the increment on his clock, I thought to give it a shot. Sensing no danger, Jack played 35.Rxc6 going 4 pawns up and attacking my bishop.

Chess is a cruel game as I played my one chance to save the game, 35..Rd2.

Now white cannot stop the Nh2-f3-h2 perpetual without sacrificing at least a piece, and with only the increment left on his clock, Jack wasn't prepared to go down that line. I don't feel good about this draw, I was completely outplayed and deserved to lose, and I even apologised to Jack after the game for swindling this draw. If you haven't seen this pattern before, then it is worth remembering, as it might help you to save a game too.

The Reserves has tightened up again as the top board was a draw. Kris Chan, Michael Kethro and Patrick Gong lead on 6/7, but 4 players sit half a point back, and a further 17 players are just a point behind the leaders on 5/7. Anyone with designs on winning the tournament will need to finish strong, and this includes players further down the field, who aren't out of the running yet, especially for the rating prizes. There is over $12000 in prize money for the 2 events, including rating prizes and slow starter prizes.

As for the blitz, I didn't play but took a rest. I believe it was won by Bobby Cheng, though the full results aren't on the site yet. They will eventually find their way to the results page.

Who Will Be Australian Champion?

Without wanting to tempt fate, Kanan Izzat is looking unstoppable in the Championship, as he moved to 6/6 with a win over Luke Li. He is a point clear, and the talk around the tournament hall is not so much about who will win the tournament as who is going to win the title of Australian Champion.

The players in the mix for the title are all young. Karl Zelesco is having a dream tournament sitting on an unbeaten 5/6, and in a strong position to gain an IM norm. Bobby Cheng is on 4.5 and has already played Izzat and Russian GM Papin who also sits on 4.5. Two years ago, Bobby was leading the tournament and looking good but then he faltered over the last few rounds eventually finishing 5th. Hopefully he will have learned from this experience and he'll finish the tournament strong. Half a point back on 4/6 are a group of strong young players: Ari Dale and Luke Li have been mentioned on this blog already, but flying under the radar a little are Junta Ikeda and Brodie MacClymont, both of whom now find thenselves in the leading pack. Junta is a known quality player, representing Australia at Olympiad level. Brodie also has a strong pedigree gaining his IM title when he came equal first at the Oceania Zonal in 2015. This sensational result very nearly saw Brodie representing Australia at the World Cup in 2015, but Max Illingworth beat him in a playoff.

Talking about Max, he has won a second game to jump back to half points, 3/6 along with Justin Tan. These 2 young stars are now just 2 points from Zelesco, although with a fair bit of traffic in the way. But with 5 rounds still to go, I would still not count Max or Justin out of the running yet.

At the lower end of the Championship the player who has been impressing most has been Jason Hu who found himself on board 3 today against another GM, Vasily Papin. Unfortunately for Jason this was one superstar too many and he lost, but his 3.5/6 including both GM's and Max Illingworth is an excellent first half of the tournament.

The Reserves field is finally beginning to stretch out, with 2 players on 5.5/6 (Michael Kethro and Patrick Gong who play tomorrow) and only 3 players on 5/6. Saying that, there are then 14 on 4.5 and 21 on 4. If any of these players can score 4 points from the final 5 rounds, they will have to be close to winning. It's a tall ask, but that's what it takes to win one of these events!

In the commentary room spectators are really getting their monies worth. Today IM Robert Jamieson was happily defending any hack attacks the crowd threw at him, yesterday IM Guy West was thinking quite schematically about positions, while the day before IM Leonid Sandler was enthusing about interesting ideas and possibilities hidden in positions. In the end, their judgements were what counted, as much as the analysis, and it has been good to see these different thinking styles.

My own personal favourite position was this one between James Morris and Luke Li.

Leonid Sandler was the commentator, but among the spectators was GM Papin. White's position is good with a space advantage and pressure on the d-file. Luke, as black, played 28..f6, a move which caused great excitement from Leonid sacrificing a pawn to blockade and give his king some space. 29.exf6 Kf7, when James grabbed more space by 30.b4 and Luke looked to regain his pawn, 30..Qd8

Leonid then erupted with "Wow, James sacrifices, bishop g6!" Then the room buzzes with why he did it and whether it is sound. After 31.Bxg6+ hxg6 James followed with 32.Rd4

The clash of personalities is never stronger than during analysis, and in the commentary room while Leonid was excited about the ideas, Vasily Papin was almost deadpan about the fact that white wants to promote a pawn. In the above position Luke brought his queen across to blockade the pawn from reaching h7, but blundered not long after. While most of us patzers in the room were trying to work out how James would take advantage of his past h-pawn, and whether he had compensation, Papin made a passing comment that perhaps white can just play a g4-g5 plan, tie down at least one of black's pieces, and then try to infiltrate. Funnily enough, when I asked James whether his sacrifice was sound after the game, he replied with almost the same plan adding "and if I get a pawn to g5, I can't be losing".

If you get the chance, then do yourself a favour and sit in on the commentary sessions. You will learn more in a couple of hours, than a month spent with a database and an engine, and you'll have fun doing it!

Australian Championship: Halfway Mark

The 11 round Australian Championship and Reserves tournament have now had 5 rounds, and will be entering the second half of the tournament tomorrow. Kanan Izzat continues to dominate the Championship field and is the only player on a maximum score in either tournament. Kanan holds a 1 point lead over a somewhat surprising duo of youngsters in second place. Sitting on 4/5 are Luke Li and Karl Zelesco, both still at school! A group of 5 players then sit on 3.5 including giant killer Jason Hu who has drawn with Max Illingworth earlier in the tournament, and today won against Darryl Johansen! Besides that the field is shaping up to about what was expected, with I guess the bad start of Max Illingworth, who regained his winning ways today. Funnily enough, if Max wins again tomorrow, he will probably jump back into the top half of the field.

The biggest disappointment today was probably that of Justin Tan, who apparently lost on time after not pressing his clock correctly. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing he tapped the clock lightly, and the lever didn't go down properly. Anyway, Justin didn't notice that he had mis-hit his clock, and ended up losing the game. Still Justin sits alongside Max and a good run could catapult them back up toward the top.

The Reserves remain tight at the top with no one reaching the maximum 5/5. There are currently 5 leaders on 4.5: Clive Ng, Kris Chan, Alex Jule, Patrick Gong and Michael Kethro. There are then another 32 players within a point of these 5, so it is way too early to tell what is happening here. In the last Reserves tournament in 2014, there were also no players on 5/5, but Doug Hamilton then went on to win his next 5 games and wrap up the tournament with a round to spare. I wonder if we'll see another performance of that type?

There have been a fair few visitors to the venue, and today GM David Smerdon, among others, popped in. There are commentaries happening live while the games are being played. These are being run by a group of strong IM's, Robert Jamieson, Guy West and Leonid Sandler, but as the players finish their games, they will also hang around to watch some commentary, with GM Papin seeming to spend quite a bit of time in the commentary room after his games have finished.

The top games are being broadcast live, and the Championship games can be found at the chess results server not long after they have finished. Arbiter Kerry stead is doubling as data input specialist, as he also did at the Australasian Masters. Along with Peter Tsai and NY Wong, the arbitration team have run things very smoothly, and I don't know of any issues that have arisen during the event. The rules have been explained very clearly, so I guess that helps.

I will be looking at my own blunders later on, but for now, here was the shortest win of the first 4 rounds, and it highlights the issues that plagued defending champion Max Illingworth for the first
part of this event. Even Max himself will probably admit to this game being one of his worst losses for quite some time. But maybe it was the kick he needed as he bounced back to win today! The winner of the game, FM Dusan Stojic is also apparently bouncing back to form I'm happy to say. A few years ago, Dusan was Victorian Champion, 2300+ and seemingly heading towards the IM level. Then he worked his guts out at the 2014 Australian Championship as an organiser, and played at the same time. He had a terrible tournament from a playing perspective, which is no big surprise when taking into account how much work he was doing before and during the event. His poor result seemed to shake his faith a bit, and he was a bit slow to recover his momentum, but results have started to pick up for Dusan again, and hopefully we'll see him jumping back to where his strength really belongs. This is how you beat a 2500+ player who plays a dubious opening system.

Australian Championship: A Clear Leader

I wonder if there is a condition regarding new Grand Masters playing badly after just getting the title. FM Bill Jordan mentioned that Darryl Johansen played a shocker of a game at Doeberl just after gaining his GM title, and currently Max Illingworth is having a tournament to forget. In fact, after gaining his final GM norm in the 7th round of the Australasian Masters, he drew quickly with Vasily Papin, and then lost to GM Neiksans, and hasn't added a win in this tournament either. I'm not sure what the issue is, but hopefully Max can bounce back to his best soon.

The Championship now has a clear leader, with IM Kanan Izzat from Azerbaijan moving to 4/4 with a win against IM James Morris. After winning the Australasian Masters and getting a GM norm, Kanan is following up in impressive style. While Kanan can win the tournament he is ineligible to win the title of Australian Champion, so James finds himself in the leading bunch of players, a point back from Kanan and half a point behind IM Bobby Cheng and FM Karl Zelesco. Bobby hasn't played too much chess in the past couple of years and was a bit rusty at the Australasian Masters, but he seems to be in pretty good form now. Karl has had a great start to the tournament, drawing with Max and now beating GM Papin today. Joining James on 3/4 are Melbourne High School duo, IM Ari Dale and FM Luke Li, and these 2 will play tomorrow.

The field stretches out after that, but as I've said before, with 7 rounds still to go, anybody who has a great second half of the tournament is going to finish highly. To put it in perspective, at the last Championship in 2014, Max won with 8/11, and he can still achieve this if he picket fences from here on in.

In the Reserves, only 2 players remain on a perfect 4/4. The top round pairing tomorrow in round 5 will be Clive Ng - Kris Chan. However, as we get towards the half way mark, there are still 8 players just half a point back, and a further 21 on 3/4. Like in the Championship, those who finish strongly will be in contention at the end, and it is possible to climb through the order with a good second half.

There has been some entertaining chess, but the game that I've liked so far in the event, or at least the endgame I liked best, was played by IM Stephen Solomon. Stephen is notorious for testing his opponent's endgame skill and playing positions out to the bitter end. In the first round, he was playing FM Bill Jordan when the following position arose.

Bill as black decided to trade into the pawn endgame, and seeing his knight is so poor, who can blame him? 43..Nxe5 44.fxe5 g5 [blocking the king side, so although white has a space advantage, he has only one way through, on the queen side] 45.g4 hxg4 46.hxg4

White's only chance here is to break through on the queen side, as black's d5 and g5 pawns effectively block the king side. 46..Ke7 [Bill heads his king to the queen side where it will have to stop white's king from getting through] 47.Kd3 Kd7 48.Kc3 Kc7 49.b4

Breaking through looks an almost impossible task. However, thinking about this, if white's king can now get to a5, then he will have a reserve tempo with his a-pawn to force himself into b6. Then the advance of his a and b-pawns will win him the game. So this means black must prevent this happening, and the only way to do this, is to push his own b-pawn. This would have drawn for black. Unfortunately, Bill missed this line, allowing another Solomon endgame grind. 49..Kb8? 50.Kb3 Ka7 51.Ka3! [Fantastic play by Solomon, as 51.Ka4 only draws] 51..Kb8 52.Ka4 Kc7 53.Ka5 Kc8 54.Kb6 Kb8

This position makes me think of the famous Cohn-Rubinstein endgame Rubinstein's king pushed up the board and then he advanced his pawns so that after exchanges his king was in position to take his opponent's pawns. This is basically what happens at the end of this game! Studying this endgame in detail will help anyone's endgame play!

You can see the Rubinstein endgame in this excellent article by GM Beccara on chess.com.

Australian Championship: A Tough Start

Fitzroy Town Hall, the impressive venue

The schedule for the 2016 Australian Chess Championship has been pretty tough, with 3 games in the first 2 days. Today was the dreaded double round, with the possibility of 10 hours of play. The FIDE time control of 90 minutes for 30 moves, and then 30 minutes for the remainder of the game plus 30 second increment for the whole game can lead to some long ones like the 5 hour marathon between Junta Ikeda and Ari Dale in round 2.

In round 1, there were no upset wins in the Championship, though there were 3 quite surprising draws. Defending champion Max Illingworth was held by Karl Zelesco, Zachary Loh held Justin Tan, while veteran Mirko Rujevic drew with the youngest player in the event, Anton Smirnov. Mirko was in a good mood before the round. He told me of the time he played the Australian Championship in Melbourne after a 25 year break from chess. His first round opponent was GM Ian Rogers who he beat! Not a bad start to a tournament, and he obviously felt good again to draw with Anton.

Round 2 saw the sensational result of Zach Loh beating Max Illingworth with the black pieces. This left Max on a very disappointing half point from his first 2 games and facing an uphill battle if he wants to successfully defend his title. However, there is a long way to go, and it would be foolish to rule anyone out of the running yet. The draws from the first round brought about the brutal second round pairing of Tan (2446) - Smirnov (2465). Black won, leaving Justin Tan also on just half a point. There were good wins for Luke Li against GM Darryl Johansen, and Ari Dale winning the marathon against Junta Ikeda. The other player to win against the rating was Dusan Stojic. It is good to see him playing well after the last Australian Championship where his play suffered because of the herculean organising job he did.

Top seed in reserves, Frank Lekkas vs Championship leader after 3 rounds, James Morris (instead of paying attention at the opening ceremony!)

The third round has just finished, after 9 pm. The day started at 10 am and this last round started at 4 pm, so it has been very tiring. The sensible thing was to have a quick draw, like GM Papin did IM Cheng on the top board. But 2 players moved to 3/3, IM's Kanan Izzat and James Morris, and these 2 will contest board 1 tomorrow. Joining Papin and Cheng on 2.5 are Anton Smirnov and Karl Zelesco, the 2 teenagers both showing some good form at the start of this tournament.  More disappointment came to fancied starts Justin Tan and Max Illingworth who could only draw with much lower rated opposition, leaving both of them on 1/3 and facing a big ask to catch the leaders.

The results of the Championship can be seen on the chess results server.

The Reserves tournament is huge with over 150 players. It has also been highly competitive, and only 7 players have made it to 3/3, Tom Narenthran, Kris Chan, Justin Penrose, Adam Kelly, Clive Ng, Charles Tsai and Paul Broekhuyse. But there are then a further 17 players just half a point down, while at this early stage, like in the Championship, it would be crazy to rule out players further down the field. With another 8 rounds to go, it is difficult to predict much about this tournament, except the winner will have to play to a high standard. The reserves results can be found on the tournament website.

The tournament made news headlines in the Age newspaper, which is good promotion work from the committee of the MCC. The top 8 games from the Championship can be followed live via the ACF website or with engine analysis at Chessdom.

Analysis and commentary rooms are active. IM Leonid Sandler posing in between commentary duty with youngster Alistair McCutcheon.

Australian Chess Championship 2016

At the tender age of 49 I'm finally playing in my first national chess championship. When I was younger, the thought of qualifying to play in the British Championship was an inspiration to me to try to improve. There is nothing better than testing yourself against the best players in your country! (Perhaps the chance to test yourself against the best in the world?)

The qualification criteria for the British Championship in the 1980's and early 1990's was tough. Anyone below a rating of 2320 needed to win a qualifying tournament on the weekend Grand Prix circuit, but often these tournaments were the strongest weekenders so anyone qualifying would have to put in an excellent performance. (I've heard the entry criteria has dropped somewhat, and if this is the case it is a great shame). I have never been 2320 rating, and the only time I won through a weekend qualifying tournament was in 2005 when I emigrated to Australia and geography prevented me from playing.

The qualification criteria for the Australian Championship is also quite tough, though the bar is set lower to reflect the strength of Australian chess. Players with an ACF rating above 2150 qualify, and others below can apply and will be considered with acceptance to the championship based on criteria of their playing strength. So, for example, improving juniors, or players who have regularly been above 2150, but have dropped below might be allowed to play. There is also a restriction on foreign players in the tournament, so the fields for the bi-annual Championships are usually small and fairly select. This year, there are 34 players in the Championship with the top half of 17 players all above 2300. Max Illingworth, the defending champion, is the only player rated above 2500, so at the top it is a tightly packed field. In the 11 round event, playing strength won't be the only factor needed to win. With so little between the top group, physical endurance will be a big element in the winner's success.

My rating sees me near the bottom of the field and this blog will give a unique view of the tournament from that perspective. I have no pretensions of winning, or scoring well. For me, the experience of playing in the championship is enough in itself. I'll be taking each game as it comes, and doing my best to perform as well as I can. I also want to soak up the atmosphere of the event and come away from it a better player. Improvement at age 49? We all have our dreams!

Besides the Championship, there is a Reserves tournament, open to those not qualified for the Championship. This promises to be a big tournament with over 150 players, a lot of those at the top of the field would fancy their chances in individual games against players in the Championship so it will also prove a tough one to win. As I have a lot of friends and some students playing in the Reserves, I'll be focussing some attention to that as well.

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 :)

Back to Chess

My plan was very simple. I took a break from playing, studying and writing about chess and intended to enter the 2016 Australian Chess Championship and start to work towards that. In reality, the break lingered for a couple of weeks more than I'd intended and I've found myself struggling to get back to work again.

Today that changes! Yesterday (a few days ago now, as Google created a protocol which prevented me editing and posting this blog last week) I paid up and entered the 2016 Australian Championship and currently the field is strong. My FIDE rating of 2166 is a long way behind the next lowest rating of FM Gene Nakauchi at 2244. I understand that many more players will probably enter, but I'll still see myself in the bottom half (probably the bottom quarter) of the field. So unless humiliation is my one goal in playing this tournament, I'd better get down to some training.

Training vs Coaching

As a chess coach a subject that has always interested me has been the compatibility between coaching others and self improvement. I recently got a copy of Alexander Panchenko's excellent new book Mastering Chess Middlegames. Panchenko was offered a position as a chess coach in the early 1980's not long after becoming a Grand Master, and he set aside playing goals to achieve coaching goals. This suggests that the 2 are not compatible. If one is always looking at the needs of others, preparing training materials for players often at a lower level than the actual coach, and devoting analysis time to improving weaknesses in other players games, then there is little time or energy left to work on your own game.

This is what I found when I started working for Chess Kids as a coach 10 years ago. Working on teaching methods, learning philosophies, presentation skills has enabled me to be a respected school coach, and junior coach, but it initially affected my own game detrimentally and I'm not sure my game fully recovered. I have managed to differentiate between coaching and playing. They are now 2 different activities. Coaching is work, playing is fun, coaching is a job, playing is my hobby, etc. But, of course, as an amateur player, how far can I expect to improve, especially at the age of 49? In fact, should I even be thinking in terms of improvement, or just looking to enjoy the playing side of things?

While I do enjoy the playing side of things, I am still motivated to strive as much as possible to achieve the best results I can, so I'll be putting in as much work as I can spare to my own game, and maybe my students might be rewarded with some new materials that I find! Can I improve? Well, I guess that it is possible, but it gets increasingly harder as the years go by. By assessing my weaknesses I suppose I can strengthen my game, much like the way I try to get my students to improve. However, I am critical of my play in all areas of the game. If I really narrowed things down a bit, I suppose at the level I'm at, I have a weak knowledge of openings, and my calculation is sometimes blurred by assumptions about positions. I'm overly fond of space as a concept (and subsequently a poor defender), and struggle to find reasonable plans in messy positions.

I'm sure other players might have different ideas about my weaknesses, and I know there are many other weaknesses in my game, but these are some big ones to be getting on with.

Here's an example of Panchenko's training technique. In the chapter on 'Defence' he says "one should never forget about the possibility of sacrificing material to create a fortress", and then shows the following classic example:

 White to play can draw by sacrificing the bishop and then covering all entry squares.

1.Kd1 Rh2 2.Ke1! Rxg2 3.Kf1 Rh2 4.Kg1 Rh8 5.f3 leaving the following position where neither black's king, nor rook will be able to penetrate.

Panchenko says in the introduction to the chapter on defence:

The defender should strive for a type of position where the drawing chances are greater(opposite coloured bishops, rook endgames, fortress set-ups, etc).

Of course, it takes study and experience to know which sort of positions are more drawish than others. Here's the first exercise from Panchenko's chapter on defence, which I'll give the answer to tomorrow (assuming Google doesn't decide to create protocols which prevent me posting - apologies to you all for taking so long to work out how to overcome said protocols)

Black to play and draw

Australian Championship 2016 Quality Assurance

It is still early days in the build up to the 2016 Australian Chess Championship, organised by the Melbourne Chess Club from 2nd January to 12th January.

Early entries include the exciting young players IM Ari Dale, and FM's Jack Puccini and Gene Nakauchi, all of whom have proved capable of competing against GM opposition. 

Chess Victoria President Leonid Sandler announced this week that Latvian GM Arturs Neiksans (2596) will be playing in the Blitz Championship. It will be interesting to see if the 2016 Australian Championships gains other players who are coming to Australia for either the 2015 Australasian Masters or the 2016 Australian Women's Masters tournaments.

If these factors aren't enough to persuade you of the quality of the event, take a look at this beautifully crafted promo video. A lot of time and effort is being devoted to this event by a talented organising team, and that will ensure the quality.

Australian Chess Championships 2016

There are only 145 days remaining until the 2016 Australian Chess Championships. The event is being held in Melbourne's suburb of Fitzroy which is a short hop from Melbourne's CBD. The tournament is being held from January 2nd through to January 12th with a rest day on the 8th January when the blitz championship is being held.. While the tournament is the property of the ACF, it is being run by my chess club, the Melbourne Chess Club.

The Australian Championship is held every 2 years with an Open Championship happening in the years between. Last year's open in Sydney saw Chinese GM Ni Hua come over and take the title by 2.5 points. The top Australian was IM Max Illingworth. The last Championship was in 2014 and was held in the south east Melbourne suburb of Noble Park. The champion was Sydney based IM Max Illingworth who will hopefully be defending his title in January. There is already one IM entered in the field, Ari Dale, and when I spoke to James Morris on Friday he seemed genuinely excited by the upcoming event. I think that will be the case for lots of local players, and I'd be guessing that a lot of travellers from interstate will come down too. The Championship in 2014 had a field of 42 players. The tournament has an eligibility criteria that basically means that you can't play unless you have an Australian Chess Federation rating of 2150 or higher, or are exempted under one of the other selection criteria. This ensures that the tournament has a decent quality field.

There is a reserves tournament for those players who don't meet the championship entry criteria. This will run alongside the championship and will also be a great event. Over 90 players entered the 2014 Reserves which was won resoundingly by ex Australian Champion, FM Doug Hamilton. In a very competitive field Doug ended up a point clear. Like Max Illingworth, I hope to see Doug at the tournament in January.

And I hope to play myself. My rating has made it 2151 and hopefully it will rise again. As an Australian citizen, I am hoping that my FIDE designation as English will not count against me. I'll put my name in the list and see what happens. It would be a funny twist if I did play. When I lived in England I tried to qualify for the British Championship and only managed it the year I emigrated and so missed playing in the Championship. Now after 10 years in Australia I could play in my first national championship, but not in the country of my birth.

Here is the final round game from the 2014 Australian Championship. It was dramatic with Max Illingworth playing Anton Smirnov, the winner taking the Championship.

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.