Chess Near and Far, quick and slow.

Having not played chess for a bit, I've sort of dropped off following the chess scene. However, it is a huge week for chess internationally, and it's time to catch up a bit on what has been happening at the MCC, my local club.

Monday night is FIDE rated chess night at the MCC. The last tournament was the City of Melbourne open which finished with a dramatic last round. FM Domagoj Dragicevic had been leading the tournament by half a point going into the last round, but was held to a draw by junior Ray Yang. This allowed FM and top rated player Greg Canfell to catch Domagoj with a last round win over another junior talent, Tristan Krstevski. With his final round draw, Ray Yang was able to remain in third place equal with Vishal Bhat and Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. Tristan Krstevski's loss still left him in a strong equal 6th with David Cannon. These junior performances are a great boost for the future of chess at the MCC, and hopefully these players can make the transition to the wider Victorian and Australian top level, that previous MCC juniors like Ari Dale and Jack Puccini have done.

With one big tournament gone, another soon takes it place, and this Monday the MCC starts the 7 round Malitis Memorial. I was thinking about playing, but I will give it a miss and observe the happenings. The tournament is following the format of last year. The top 8 players will be arranged into a round robin, and everyone else plays a 7 round swiss system.Current entries confirm that the top section will include IM Mirko Rujevic, and FM Greg Canfell, but the final make up of the event will probably not be known until the actual start night. That can be a tough thing in a round robin, basically turning up without any preparation and then finding our you're playing a very strong opponent. It is the same for everyone, so that even things out, but elite round robins are about putting in top performances which involves preparation, so it feels as if this tournament in a 6 round RR with a single round of random chess.

You can sign up for the Malitis Memorial on the MCC website, or by visiting the club.

The MCC also runs faster time control events, with Allegro (what most people would call Rapid) and Blitz tournaments integrated into the weekly schedule. The Allegro events are run as 7 round 15-0 swiss tournaments and the turn out for these events has consistently been reaching around 40 players recently. There are players of all levels, from newcomers to chess tournaments to Masters, and in fact the last tournament had 2 IM's in the field of 39 players. Allegro tournaments run on Saturday afternoons at 2 pm (best to get there early, or the event starts later) and are a great introduction to chess, and can become addictive.

Personally, I'm more like ex World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik when it comes to fast chess. When interviewed in 1989 he said:

"Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929"

However, I am aware of the vast amount of players who enjoy fast time controls, and the MCC provides for them too! Tuesday night is blitz night, and this is still trying to establish itself like the Allegro. At the moment there are less than 10 players regularly showing up, which is a shame as blitz is a way of sharpening our game, especially when there are some strong players to contend with. The blitz tournaments start around 7 pm on Tuesday nights, and it would be really good if this event could build to about 12-16 regularly playing.

While there is no shortage of chess locally for those willing to make a little effort and get to the club, there is also a mass of chess about to be happening in the international sphere. My favourite place to watch games is the chess24 website, who not only show live games, but have excellent reports about tournaments and chess news. And good news for Australia is that there is a super GM elite event being played in China at a time zone to suit us. The Danzhou event features current world number 9 Diren Ling (and number 1 blitz rated in the world!) along with 8 other players over 2700, and Women's World Champ Yifan Hou. The tournament starts about the same time I will post this blog, at 4.30 pm AEST.

Then we get the following events following in short order:

Dortmund (Kramnik, Caruana, Vachier-Legrave) Saturday 9th
US Junior Ch (Jeffrey Xiong heads an impressive field) Saturday 9th
Benasque Op (8 2600+ players) starts today
Warsaw Op (25 2600+ players) starts tomorrow

And....

Bilboa Masters:

Carlsen, Giri, Nakamura, Karjakin, So and Wei Yi - what a field, what a tournament! Starts next Wednesday, 13th July.

(the busy European summer chess schedule makes things hectic for chess at this time of year. Already in progress are the Women's GP event in Chengdu and the Polugaevsky memorial)

So I guess what I'm saying is that it's a great time to watch, learn and practice your chess! Enjoy

The Week Korchnoi Died

It must be a sign that I'm getting old, but I seem to be noticing the deaths of a number of my childhood heroes recently. David Bowie's death earlier this year was terrible. And from a chess perspective, I was hit with almost the same gut wrenching feeling when I heard Viktor Korchnoi had died earlier this week.

I started playing chess in the post Fischer time when it was all about the golden boy of Russian chess, Karpov, versus the rebellious Korchnoi. I have to say that I was enthralled by the play of both players. Karpov's handling of simple positions, and endgames, is still a mystery to me, while Korchnoi's willingness to defend ugly positions was amazing. I was just beginning to get interested in the world of chess, and chess theory and ideas, between their first and second matches. And while I've read about how close the 1974 ans 1978 matches were, unfortunately it was the 1981 match, convincingly won by Karpov which first really attracted my attention. Still, it didn't stop me following the play of both players, and looking at many of their games since then.

Korchnoi was truly an inspiration, his career spanning over 50 years, of which 30 were with him near the top of the game. And he just didn't stop playing! I can kind of understand that a player doesn't want to linger after his best, and might move on to other things. I understand it, but I don't personally subscribe to that sort of way of thinking. Like Korchnoi, I'll be playing chess as long as I'm healthy to do so, and if I can't play, then I'll read about, or study, the game.

There have been loads of tributes to Viktor Korchnoi this written this week, and I'm sure there'll be many more. My personal favourite of those I've read was the very personal tribute by Frederic Friedel on Chessbase.

Meanwhile, the MCC Monday night tournament, the City of Melbourne Open, continues without me, and it looks as if I won't be playing any more games in this tournament. The tournament is currently headed by FM Domagoj Dragicevic who beat Vishal Bhat in round 7. Dragicevic is now on 6.5/8, a point clear of the field. FM Greg Canfell, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, Ray Yang and Tristan Krstevski are all on 5.5, with Vishal the only player on 5. There is then a big group on 4.5 but with only 2 rounds to go, it's really looking like Domagoj will be tough to stop.

And finally, I saw a post on Chesschat, the chess bulletin board, by Brian Jones asking for players to join the Correspondence Chess League of Australia (CCLA). So I decide to give it it a go, and will report on how things are going here. It's been about 30 years since I last tried to play correspondence chess but I didn't have the patience, and gave it up after not much time. Now I feel better prepared for it, and I also get the chance to represent Australia rather than England, where my FIDE rating is set.

Korchnoi-Larsen 1968 (from chess network company)

Finally, as a tribute to Viktor Korchnoi, I've been showing kids one of his games this week, a quick win against Larsen from Brussels 1987. Enjoy!

City of Melbourne Open

The City of Melbourne Open at the Melbourne Chess Club is now reaching the climax of the event. There have been 6 of the 9 rounds played and the clear leader on 5.5 is FM Domagoj Dragicevic. Domagoj had won the battle of the titled players when he beat FM Greg Canfell in round 5. I'd like to see the end of this game which was an opposite side castling Sicilian from what I remember. By the end of the round, there were 3 players sharing first place, Domagoj and juniors Vishal Bhat and Ray Yang. It has been really good to see the growth of junior chess at the MCC over the past 5 years. Junior successes such as IM Ari Dale and FM Jack Puccini are now being followed by the likes of Vishal and Ray, as well as Bobby Yu, David Cannon and Tristan Krstevski. With these strong young players around, the MCC appears to have a bright future!

Domagoj took clear first in round 6 when Vishal and Ray drew. Domagoj won against Tom Kalish to take a half point lead with 3 rounds to go. Greg Canfell bounced back to win in round to become the third player half a point behind the leader. A further half a point back are Malcolm Pyke, Tritan Krstevski and Mehmedlija Dizdarevic. Mehmedalija is at the other end of the age spectrum in retirement age. In round 6 he smashed me in the biggest upset of the round and followed that up with another good win against Justin Penrose. It's hard to see the winner of the tournament coming from below this group, though with 3 rounds to go, anyone who scores well can finish in a high position.

Some other results that are worth mentioning over the past couple of rounds. Juniors beating adults: Ray Yang beat Malcolm Pyke, Tristan Krstevski beat Thai Ly, and Christopher Lim scored an excellent win against Tony Davis in round 5, while Jody Middleton held Kanishka Premathilaka to a draw also in round 5. In round 6, MCC Vice President, Simon Dale scored a good win against Roger Beattie.

The sad news from my point of view is that my last game caused me to have a splitting headache, so I took a bye in round 6, but still don't feel fully recovered, so I might not be playing any more games in this event. I'm taking things week by week to see if I'm improving, and then I'll start playing again. I'll keep blogging about it, and wish every one in the tournament good games, and hope that you all get full enjoyment from the competition.

City of Melbourne Open - No Draws

I always thought as a swiss system event moved through the rounds, so the games become more even. But there wasn't one draw in the fifth round last night. The tournament started with an announcement for the winner of the Brilliancy Prize for the last event, the ANZAC Day Weekend tournament. This was won by Justin Penrose who had already won a Brilliant Game Prize earlier this year, for the best game played in 2015 at an MCC event.

The tournament then got underway and to my mind, it looked competitive on nearly every board, so I was most surprised to see no draws. Hobson's Bay players Tony Davis and Dean Hogg suffered losses to slightly lower rated opposition in the shape of Ray Yang and Peter Fry respectively, but these were really minor upsets. Richard Voon and Simon Dale also won against the rating, with Simon's result probably being the best of the night, Bryan Shanks being quite strong although a bit unpredictable.

Again, I didn't see much of the action as I found keeping focus on my own game was hard enough. I did notice one thing around me though. Lower rated players were succumbing to playing bad moves without seeming to put in an effort to find a challenging alternative. This is something that I've noticed in many of my students. They seem to believe that they have no chance against some players, so they turn up, but don't really make an effort and lose almost without putting up a fight. In my opinion, players are only going to progress if they ignore the opponent and their rating and put 100% into every move of every game. Be hurt by losses, even to much higher rated players, and drive yourself to come back next time and play better. Work hard at all the games you play, but especially your losses. It's a basic discipline, but one that will pay dividends over time. Don't let your higher rated opponents push you around on the board.

And talking of high rated players, the City of Melbourne Open now has a single leader. FM Greg Canfell, newly arrived from NSW, is the only player on 4/4 after a win against David Cannon. It is great news for strong juniors like David that the MCC has another strong titled player regularly participating, as that will give them the chance to practice and improve their skills at club level against quality opposition. It may also encourage other strong players to join events. The other FM in the tournament, Domagoj Dragicevic, also won and is on 3.5. The clash of the tournament is therefore set up for the next round as these two strong players will meet. The other players with Domagoj on 3.5 are juniors Vishal Bhat and Ray Yang and ex club champion, Malcolm Pyke. The field is definitely thinning out with only 6 players on 3/4 headed by David Cannon. There are 2 new players to the club on 3/4, Francesco Facchin and Nethaji Rathalinganham both of whom are fairly unknown quantities to us at the MCC, but obviously talented individuals. Earlier in the tournament I noticed Nethaji playing a very nice game against Tom Kalisch, while this round I saw Francesco play an equally nice game against the fast improving Anthony Harris.

It will be the 5th round next, so we will be over half way in the tournament, and anyone with hopes of a high finish who is not within a point of the lead will have to start winning games, myself included! And looking at the draw for the next round, there seem to be a number of closely matched contests across the boards. But if this round is anything to go by, that will be no guarantee of equal encounters leading to draws! The tournament has been unbelievably hard fought, with only 9 draws in the first 4 rounds.

City of Melbourne Open round 3

Another quick report today, as I'm still feeling under the weather. The City of Melbourne Open at the MCC saw the third round last night, and is beginning to set into a routine. It was generally a day that went with the ratings. Only 2 players remain on a perfect 3/3, top seed FM Greg Canfell and talented Victorian Junior, David Cannon. The other games on the top boards finished as draws, with the black players in both games being higher rated, but being held to half points. So Malcolm Pyke, Thai Ly, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic and Ray Yang all finish half a point off the lead, and are joined by the winners from the group below, FM Domagoj Dragicevic, Vishal Bhat and Justin Penrose on 2.5.

There is plenty of talent spread throughout the field, and anyone who makes a reasonable run of wins will find themselves near the top soon enough. For instance, on 2/3 are Hobson's Bay visitors Dean Hogg and Tony Davis, both capable of beating anyone on their day, while I am sitting on 1.5/3 after a not so convincing win last night.

There are a lot of new players to the club, and infrequent visitors who have shown up to play in the City of Melbourne Open. My opponent from last night, Shilong Wang, is a student in Melbourne from China. He was a nice kid with sharp tactical ability but not much practical over the board experience. There are 7 unrated players, and another 8 players below 1600, and then there are a growing number of under rated juniors who have sharp minds ready to pounce on any mistake that their elders might commit. There are close to 10 young players when about 5 years ago you'd have been lucky to see any juniors. While there are only 5 female players playing, that's still a big improvement on the days when there were none coming to the MCC, so as a representative tournament this has everything, old, young, strong, inexperienced, male, female etc.

Next week I'll try to get some interesting positions together. I'm hoping to be feeling better by then!

City of Melbourne Open 2016

I have really struggled with anything other than what I absolutely have to do this last month. I went to see a doctor about the start of April who told me I had a post viral infection which would knock me out for 4-6 weeks. Since then I have been incredibly tired by the most basic activities, had to have some time off work, and this blog, among other things, has had to be put aside. I'll try to catch up a bit as my energy returns (I thought I was on the road to recovery yesterday, but have been totally wiped out today) and in the meantime, I'll post what I can.

The second Monday night event of the year at the Melbourne Chess Club is the City of Melbourne Open, which I am the defending champion! The most amazing thing about this event is the huge field that has been attracted to the event. Usually, the City of Melbourne Open is a poor relative of the Club Championship, but the addition of FM's Greg Canfell (who has apparently moved to Melbourne and will be a regular feature of the club), and Domagoj Dragicevic has made the tournament strong at the top, while a big turnout of over 50 players, about 10 more than the Championship, was a bit of a surprise.

I had to miss the first round, taking a bye as I was still pretty ill and the upsets started straight away. Natalie Bartnik held David Lacey to a draw while the biggest upset of the day saw Adrian Cho beat veteran Richard Voon. The top seeds all came through unscathed. There are 6 players above 2000 rating, Canfell, Dragicevic, Gorka, Pyke, Cannon and Hogg and Dean Hogg and I were the only ones to drop a points to a bye.

Round 2 was even more dramatic. I was the biggest loser, as young Tristan Krstevski played an excellent game against me. I'm obviously not happy to lose games, but I am happy to see the young talent of the MCC climb the rungs of the ladder, even at my expense! Paul Kovacevic also scored against a 2000+ player, holding FM Domagoj Dragicevic to a draw. However, with Canfell, Pyke and Cannon all winning there is still plenty of talent at the top. Joining the 3 2000+ players are 5 others on a maximun 2/2: Thai Ly, Eamonn O'Molloy, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, Ray yang and Nethaji Rathinalingham. This last player is an unknown quantity, but I was sitting next to him play a very solid win against Tom Kalisch in round 2, so I think he might be a talented player. Domagoj heads the group of players on 1.5 which includes young guns Tristan Krstevski and Vishal Bhat. The second round saw few other upsets, although amusingly, the Shanks brothers, Bryan and Jack, drew with high rated opposition from Hobson's Bay Chess Club, Tony Davis and Dean Hogg. So Dean is the highest rated player on 1/2 while I lead the group at the rear on half a point.

Of course, there is a lot to play for and no one is out of it yet, but Greg Canfell will certainly be the man to beat!

City of Melbourne Open

With a quickish draw in the final round, I secured first place in the City of Melbourne Open at the Melbourne Chess Club. I have to admit that I'm pretty happy, as this is my first win in one of the Monday night events at MCC in my 10 years of playing there. In some respects I was lucky to be playing Malcolm Pyke in the last round, who has had an overkill of chess over the past couple of weeks due to his participation in the Victorian Championships. He was telling me that he's had a tough weekend personally as well, so a short game suited both players tonight. Malcolm is off to sunshine next week, where I hope he can get some much needed relaxation along with whatever sightseeing he finds to do.

The final round of the tournament was spoiled somewhat by the non participation of a number of players. There were 6 forfeits today which is completely ridiculous. If a player knows they can't play a round, they should tell the arbiter before the pairings are produced. If the reason for being unable to play occurs after the pairings have been published, then it would be decent to let the arbiter know so that they can inform your opponent.

So I finished first with 7.5/9 only half a point clear of IM Mirko Rujevic who won his last round game to finish on 7/9. FM Jack Puccini finished third on 6.5 despite being held to a draw by Simon Schmidt, who has been playing excellent chess recently as can be seen by his strong placing in the Victorian Championship. Sharing 4th place on 6/9 were Richard Voon, Simon Schmidt, Tristan Krstevski and David Lacey.

There weren't really any upsets tonight, except for the lack of players, but the rating prizes would have been decided.

U-1900 leaders were Richard Voon and Tristan Krstevski 6/9
U-1750 leader was Roger Beattie 5.5/9
U-1600 leaders Natlie Bartnik 5/9

Those were all excellent performances. The tournament was played in excellent spirits, and was run well by IA Kerry Stead.

City of Melbourne Open: Penultimate Round

Going into the penultimate round of the City of Melbourne Open at the MCC I was leading the tournament by half a point from Hoai Nam Nguyen and we paired to play. We had previously met in the final round of the club championship when I'd been half a point ahead of Nam. In that game, Nam won, and jumped ahead of me in the championship finishing =2nd to my 4th. As for the current event, the player in the lead of the event has succumbed to the pressure and been beaten continually since round 4. So I was very happy to break this run, and win my game against Nam to take a one point lead into the final round.

The top 2 seeds of the event, FM Jack Puccini, and IM Mirko Rujevic both won to stay within a point of me. I was sitting next to Jack who played the Najdorf against Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. Dizdarevic chose 6.Bg5 and Jack sacrificed a pawn to completely unbalance the position. The game was sharp, with play on both sides of the board, and somehow Dizdarevic found himself with an advanced passed h-pawn, much like in the Poisoned Pawn variation of the French Winawer. A blunder cost him that pawn, and then the game. Meanwhile the veteran IM Rujevic, was playing another veteran in Richard Voon who had been having an excellent tournament. Mirko won, but was "lucky" according to Richard. I can't say I saw much of the game, just a mess of a middlegame at some point. Whether Mirko was lucky or not in the game, he won which he does more often than not.

Standings:

7/8 Gorka
6/8 FM Puccini, IM Rujevic
5.5/8 Schmidt, Cannon, Nguyen
5/8 Dizdarevic, Pyke, Voon, Lacey, Krstevski, Yu

It has been a good tournament for juniors David Cannon and Tristan Krstevski and Bobby Yu who find themselves among the leading places. David is the highest placed player below 2000, while Tristan is leading the under 1900 category with Richard Voon. Bobby is the current leader in the under 1750 category.

The rating prizes are all based on FIDE ratings which means in the under 1600 category the leading score is 3/8 with 7 players sharing that score. Simon Dale, Tanya Kolak, Zhi Xin Guo, Natalie Bartnik, Tanya Krstevska, Edwin Zou and John Beckman. It makes for an interesting final round!

I was very happy with my endgame.

39.Be4! Forcing an exchange of queens which will stop any counterplay black has. White's 2 bishops will dominate this endgame with pawns on both sides of the board. 39..Qxd2 40.Bxd2 Nc5 41.Bd5

Not only do white's bishops dominate, but black's king will not be taking part in this game. 41..b6 42.Be3 Nd7 43.Bc4 h6

As in all endgames, both sides seek a way to bring their king into the action. 44.Kf2 Kh7

My next move was my favourite move that I've played in the tournament so far. 45.Bf7. This effectively stops black's king from entering the game while white's king is ready to move to the queenside to help the bishops attack black's pawns. After this, as we were both playing on the increment, Nam couldn't find a way back into the game, even if there is one, and about 10 moves later, he resigned.

Here's the game, which might give some players inspiration for a crazy line to play against the Sicilian Sveshnikov. Enjoy!

City of Melbourne Open: Back In Front

It's been a real struggle for anyone to hold on to the lead in the City of Melbourne Open at the MCC. First I led after 4 rounds and was beaten by Mirko Rujevic. Mirko then took the lead and was beaten and leapfrogged by Jack Puccini. Then Jack sat on board 1 but was beaten by Nam. It seems that leading players on board 1 are having a hard time of it this year.

The seventh round of the City of Melbourne saw few upsets, a few draws against the ratings and Roger Beattie's excellent result against Efrain Tionko. I managed to win a game that I was fairly happy with against David Cannon. David played well and could have gone into a very level endgame, but decided to complicate the game instead, unfortunately to his own disadvantage. My win takes me back to the sole lead in the tournament with 2 rounds to go, and I have to say I'm very happy with my play. If I carry on at this rate, I could even see myself back at 2200!

Before the round started I was in the joint lead with Jack Puccini, but Jack was beaten by Hoai Nam Nguyen who jumps above him into second place. Jack drops to equal third with a group of players: Mirko Rujevic, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic (a good win against 2200 rated Neidmovic), and Richard Voon. A further half point back are David Cannon, Simon Schmidt, Justin Penrose and Shanon Vuglar. With only 2 rounds to go, I'd say the top places are being fought over by this group of players, though those behind could jump many places with 2 final wins.

In my game against David Cannon, I think this was a key moment. David, as white, had a chance to play for an equal endgame by 29.Rxd4 Rxd4 30.Qxd4 Qxc5 31.Rd1 g6 (I'm not saying these moves are forced, but I remember thinking about this line over the board and wondering whether I'd have any winning chances, but probably not)

I'd be fairly happy with this position as white against a stronger player. It is easier for the white king to enter the game, and white's pawn chain on the king side sits on dark squares, opposite to black's bishop. Black does have a majority on the queen side, though I'm not sure how useful that will prove for quite some time.

David, however, didn't enter the above endgame, refusing to take on d4 and trying to build complications.

Going back to the first position, he played 29.Rc1? Qe4 30.Qa5, but had probably missed that his c-pawn is pinned, and black can play 30..b6.

This completely throws back white's pieces and black's d-pawn now becomes a major passed pawn. The game continued 31.Qb4 bxc5 32.Qa5 Rcc8 33.Ba6 Rb8 34.Rxc5 regaining the pawn, but leaving the back rank that bit weaker.

 White's pieces are all stuck on the far queen side of the board, while black's passed d-pawn has little to stop its march forward. 34..Qe3 35.Kh1 d3 (passed pawns must be pushed, even in middlegames)

Now David played 36.Bb7 A move which stopped me in my tracks! Of course, the bishop can't be taken because of Qxd8#, but I found a plan to defend d8, and thus win the bishop. 36..Qe2 37.Re1

37..d2 (Giving up a queen but getting one back straight away, an done that will be defending d8!) 38.Rxe2 d1=Q+ 39.Re1 Rxb7

A nice picture to end the game with, black is threatened on d1 and d8 but neither can be taken and black is simply a piece up!

Next week will be the penultimate week, and I'm guessing I'll be white against Nam on board 1. Can I break the sequence of results seeing the leading player on the top board lose?

City of Melbourne Open Round 6

It has certainly been an up and down tournament at the MCC. Round 6 saw another change in the lead of the City of Melbourne Open as the leader IM Mirko Rujevic was defeated by top seed, FM Jack Puccini. I was busy struggling on board 2, but was aware of the tension on top board, and as soon as the game is published it will be a great one to look at. The game opened as a Scotch which Jack most definitely knew better than Mirko. Mirko used a mass of time to try to stay in the game and was on the defensive for essentially the whole game. The game drew a big crowd of players as everyone felt the tension, especially as Mirko was playing with very little time at the critical stage of the game. At one point, I heard an almighty crash of the clock, turned to see Mirko returning his arm from hitting the clock and the clock showing 35 seconds, after his 30 second increment was added. Once Mirko started playing quickly, Jack's time started to reduce and both players found themselves below 5 minutes. In the end, Mirko succumbed to the pressure and blundered to allow Jack to win and leapfrog him in the tournament standings.

Jack is on 5/6 and is joined by me, Carl. I beat Simon Schmidt in a fairly unconvincing manner. I have played Simon 3 times, to my memory. Once we drew, when either of us could have won, another time he beat me when I blundered in time trouble in a game either of us could have won, and this time I won after he blundered in time trouble in a game either of us could have won. Sounds like a fair spread! Mirko drops to third place on 4.5 and is joined by Hoai Nam Nguyen who beat Eamonn O' Molloy, and David Cannon who beat Justin Penrose. I have no idea about the pairings on the top boards for the next round, as Jack, Mirko and I have all played each other.

Leading Standings:

5/6 Puccini, Gorka
4.5 Rujevic, Nguyen, Cannon
4   Nedimovic, Schmidt, Dizdarevic, Lacey, Voon

A large group of players sit on 3.5 led in rating by Malcolm Pyke. I think with 3 rounds to go, anyone below 3.5 will be struggling to reach a top finish, but of course there is plenty of time for a strong finish for all players.

Again, there were some upsets this round with Tanya Kolak's victory over Tom Kalisch, and Natalie Bartnik's victory over Alex Kaplan being the pick of them. There will be three rating group sections. There are 13 players above 1900, so perhaps under 1900 will be the first section. Then there are 10 players unrated or below 1600. and I'd guess somewhere in between like an under 1750. Richard Voon is currently the best of the under 1900 players while Bobby Yu's 3.5 with a rating of 1695 is excellent. I'm sure the MCC will note the rating groups soon, and the final 3 rounds will be crucial in determining these prizes.

Next week there is no game as the club is hosting the Victorian Open. The tournament is limited to 92 places, and thre were already over 80 before the round of sixth round of the City of Melbourne Open last night. So if you are interested in playing, I'd enter quickly.

My own game against Simon Schmidt started fairly uneventfully as a Classical Scheveningen. The game carried on with not a lot to tell between the sides, until I gained a little niggling initiative. I thought I was doing ok until I misplayed things letting Simon get some pressure and the freeing break, f5.

I think both of us had missed tactics based on back rank mates during the game which is fairly disappointing. Simon now played 32..fxe4 to which I replied 33.Bxe4.

I was fully expecting Qxc4 when I was resigned to defending an endgame a pawn down. I felt I would be able to hold it, but it wasn't a pleasant prospect. But here Simon played 33..Nxe4? taking the 2 bishops, but leaving white with a huge knight on d5. This was really the turning point of the game, and I think it dawned on Simon relatively soon that his position was uncomfortable. With both of us playing on the increment it proved a case that the easier position to play (mine) prevailed
A few moves later I was able to win a pawn because of back rank threats:

40.Bxe5! wins a crucial pawn, and as white already has a pleasant position, I guess it could be counted as a winning advantage. I was able to convert and find myself back at the top of the standings. It should be noted that Simon came into this game off the back of a draw with GM Darryl Johansen in the Victorian Championship. I wish Simon all the best in the rest of his games.

City of Melbourne Open Round 5

We have a new leader in the City of Melbourne Open. My brief spell at the top ended at the hands of IM Mirko Rujevic. Mirko is playing in the Victorian Championship at the moment, but it doesn't dampen his fighting spirit, and it took just a moment of hesitation on my part to allow him to take the initiative which he didn't relinquish until I resigned in a hopeless position. It was a powerful display by Mirko and he leapfrogs over me into a half point lead on 4.5.

I'm joined on 4/5 by FM Jack Puccini and Simon Schmidt, who is also playing in the Victorian Championship, while among those half a point back is Malcolm Pyke, another Victorian Championship competitor. This all goes to show that the City of Melbourne Open is a pretty good field, and that lots of hard competition is good for your chess. Simon Schmidt is playing more than anyone, as he's also competing in the Box Hill Club Championship!

With 4 rounds still to play, there are still a lot of ways the tournament could go, but the per tournament favourites are beginning to rise to the top. Nguyen bounced back with a win to join Malcolm and another 5 players on 3.5. The group on 3/5 is led by 2200+ rated Nedimovic. There were a couple of upsets on the lower boards with Tanya Krstevska, Simon Dale and John Beckman overcoming players rated 200 points higher.

The pairings are usually up on Thursday and once again, I will not be making any predictions about who will be playing who. To my simple mind, Jack Puccin and Mirko Rujevic should be playing, which would be a great board 1 fight. But I'll make no predictions on the pairings as I'm more often wrong than right.

If it's black's move in the above position, then c4 closing out the light squared bishop, followed by a queen side expansion gives black level chances. Unfortunately for me, it was white's turn, and Mirko took the initiative with a typical central thrust 13.e5! After 13..dxe5 14.Nxe5 Be6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 white has a better position, but more importantly has an initiative which is one of Mirko's strengths.

Defending difficult positions, and trying to negate an opponent's initiative is one of my own weaknesses, and from the above position I succumbed rather too easily to Mirko's powerful play.

City of Melbourne Open round 5

Due to some work changes I found myself at the MCC early. I walked into the main tournament hall, and placed my stuff by my board and looked up to see the official banner of the 2016 Australian Championship.

I usually arrive with moments to spare, or with time already on the clock, so I felt fairly relaxed, and had time to chat a bit and look around. I even had time to head to Brunswick Street for a coffee before the game.

Richard Voon is always ready for a chat

Round 4 of the City of Melbourne Open saw little in the way of upsets. Only one game in the top 10 boards went againt the rating, and that was Justin Penrose's victory against Hoai Nam Nguyen, but Penrose is an accomplished player so I take it as only a small upset. The field is beginning to spread out with myself, Carl Gorka, leading on 4/4 followed by IM Mirko Rujevic and Justin Penrose on 3.5. While last week I couldn't begin to guess who I might play, I can quite confidently say that the top board game next week will be Rujevic-Gorka.

IM Mirko Rujevic just half a point from the lead

I feel as if I'm in pretty good form, but Mirko is absolutely fearless. Playing against talented youngster David Cannon, Mirko didn't hesitate to play the Two Knights opening. I sat eagerly watching to see whether David would throw his knight to g5, but he opted for the safer 4.d3 instead of testing Mirko's calculation in a critical opening.

FM Jack Puccini heads the group of players on 3/4. He is joined by Malcolm Pyke and Simon Schmidt, who are both doubling up in the Victorian Championships, Richard Voon, Zhi Lin Guo and the brilliancy prize winner from the Club Championship, David Lacey.

Brilliancy Prize winner, David Lacey

Further down the field, the Zou brothers both scored good draws, Edwin against Tanya Krstevska, and Brendan against Gary Bekker, while Tanya Kolak had a good win against Stephen Jago.

My game finished abruptly when my opponent misjudged a position in a Hedgehog type Sicilian. I'm no great expert, but black has a very tough job of sitting and waiting for white's advances and being ready to strike at the right moment.

Black has just thrown his knight into e5 feeling that white would have to protect the pawn with b3. I managed to punish this aggression by playing 15.g5 Nfd7 16.f4!

My opponent, Efrain Tionko, couldn't find a good continuation, so he went with 16..Nxc4? Unfortunately, after the forcing sequence 17.Bxc4 Qxc4 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.Rxc4 Bxc4 black has a rook, bishop and pawn for the queen.

Now after 20.Rc1 black's bishop is short of squares, while his other pieces display no activity. It didn't take too much to convert this to a sizeable material advantage.

City of Melbourne Open Round 3

The 2015 City of Melbourne Open at the MCC has started in a strange way. After the first 3 rounds only one player has moved to a perfect score. This shows just how competitive the field is, and how open the tournament really is. The favourites for the tournament were IM Rujevic, and FM Puccini, but Mirko was held to a draw in the first round by Rad Chmiel, while I beat Jack last night. Third seed, Nedimovic, has disappointed and lost his last 2 games to sit on just half a point, courtesy of David Cannon and Damien van den Hoff. However, I'd be guessing that no one feels out of the running yet, especially with only one player on 3/3.

And that player is me. I ran my luck a little in the first 2 rounds, but played pretty well last night. There were only 3 of us sitting on 2/2. Besides Jack and myself, Malcolm Pyke had won his first 2 games, but lost last night to Hoai Nam Nguyen. I'm no expert, but it looked as if Malcolm had a difficult position out of the opening. Malcolm is spreading himself a bit by competing in the Victorian Championship as well as the City of Melbourne Open and I wish him well in that. Nguyen is joined on 2.5 by Rujevic, Simon Schmidt, Efrain Tionko, Justin Penrose and David Cannon. I'm struggling to anticipate my next opponent as there are players who have already floated, and there are colour preferences to consider. I'll just accept that I'll be playing one of these players, and I'll probably be white.

There were more upsets in this round with wins for Natalie Bartnik against Tom Kalisch and Bobby Yu against Gary Bekker, though Damien van den Hoff's victory was probably the upset of the round. There will now be no more late entries and the field is set at 45, a very reasonable number for this traditional second tournament of the year. Let's just hope the tournament stays as competitive as it has started, and that upsets continue to happen!

My game saw FM Jack Puccini follow a method of development considered good for white against the Antoshin variation of the Philidor. Yes, I know that I said I was going to stop playing the Philidor for a bit, but a combination of a busy lifestyle and laziness have meant that I had nothing else to play. Saying that, I have put some work into the Philidor, and wasn't surprised by Jack's choice.

I don't consider myself an opening's expert, but I'd been looking at exactly this position a few before the game. When Jack played 12.b3 here, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I knew it to be a novelty in the position. However, novelties only apply to databases, and I'd seen this position before. In fact the position only became new to me after a few more moves:

I'm not sure I'd have played 15..Nc6!? if I hadn't analysed the move before. It looks as if white can take on d6, but black gets good play and full compenstion starting with 16.Bxd6 Rad8. Jack plunged into a 34 minute think leaving me ahead on the clock for the first time in the tournament! The position remained tense until the following position.

The position is in the balance with both sides looking to gain a winning initiative in their respective attacks on opposite sides of the board. Moves for white worth considering might be 20.g5, or 20.Rhe1. However, Jack retreated with 20.Bc1? handing me the initiative, which I didn't relinquish. 20..Nb5 21.g5 but this is too slow.

21..c4! This counterattack was probably my best move in the tournament so far. Jack dropped his bishop back to f1, as taking on f6 is hopeless as black just recaptures on f6 with a winning position. The remainder of the game just saw my black pieces moving towards white's king until Jack resigned with mate imminent.

It was a well played game, but still not one for the brilliancy prize. At least I don't think so!

City of Melbourne Open Round 2

Yesterday was the second round of the City of Melbourne Open at the Melbourne Chess Club. The tournament grew to 44 players, there being only 40 players in the first round. All these late entries were given half point byes for the first round, which was a bit generous, but a sensible policy encouraging more participation. There is still time to join this tournament up to round 3 which is next Monday, though whether entries will be accepted after the draw is published on Thursday, I'm not sure. Also, I don't know whether these new entries will receive half points for the rounds they missed.

Round 2 produced more upset results, the most notable being on board 2 where David Cannon beat number 2 seed Ljubisa Nedimovic. To be honest, David is pretty strong and like most juniors can play well above his rating, but also sometimes, can play a bit weaker. David is joined on 2/2 by top seed Jack Puccini, Carl Gorka (me!) and Malcolm Pyke. So the tournament is already spreading thin at the top end. There is a large group of players half a point back, including Jack Shanks who upset Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. Jack joins his brother Bryan, and 9 other players on 1.5.

Sarah Anton was one of those players on 1.5 and she benefited from her opponent's mobile phone ringing. This was ridiculous, as it happened after only about 5 minutes of the game and arbiter Kerry Stead's warning to switch off mobile phones was still running round my head. I am now so concerned about phone forfeits that I don't even bring my phone into the venue, or if I have to from now, I will leave it with the arbiter.

The other upset winner was Natalie Bartnik who overcame a 500 point rating difference to beat Gary Bekker. Gary has been somewhat of an upset causer himself, so he will now know things from the other side.

My experience from round 2 was one of endurance. My game was the longest of the night, and the longest I remember playing at 114 moves. The big problem was my time management. I spent quite a time over some fairly standard moves. This meant that I was left with very little time from about move 35 when the game started getting interesting. I played some fast, and not particularly critical moves until my 46th move when I dropped to 1 minute on the clock. I stayed at under 2 minutes for the next 50 moves, and it is not an experience I'd really like to repeat. Playing on the increment is stressful, and there is no time to stretch, get a drink, go to the toilet, etc.

I managed to win the game, though there were a few hairy moments.Here's how you turn a winning advantage into an even position!

As white I instantly played 51.Qa3, the second best move according to Stockfish which gives white a +3 advantage. Richard played 51..Qxb5 when I was able to bash out the moves 52.c6+ Kg8 53.c7 Re8.

Now, white has a number of winning moves. I chose a move that isn't best, but still wins, 54.c8=Q [54.Ra8 and 54.Nd6 are much better] 54..Rxc8 55.Ne7+ Kg7 56.Nxc8.

So here Richard played 56..Qc4 forking my bishop and knight, and to my embarrassment in the 40 seconds left to me I had a complete brain fade. It was as if I'd succeeded in combinational terms, and it was time to relax, regroup and go about winning. But with only 40 seconds left, I didn't have time to relax.

In this position the obvious move is 57.Bf5 moving one attacked piece to protect the other. The less obvious, but stronger move is 57.Qc5! defending everything. With seconds left on my clock and brain death still an affliction, I gave up my knight by 57.Qb2?? going from +5 to = in one fell swoop.

The moral of the story has to be to mind one's time, and to play with a purpose from the start, and for every move. There is no time for relaxation, and every move is important. I doubt I'll be finishing near the top of this event if my time management remains so poor.

City of Melbourne Open

The traditional Monday night calendar at the Melbourne Chess Club starts the year with Club Championship and is then followed by the City of Melbourne Open. This tournament has been somewhat of a poor relation to the club championship which remains the MCC's flagship event. While this trend has continued this year, it perhaps isn't quite so noticeable. The City of Melbourne Open has a field of 40 players with an IM and an FM and a strong upper field for a club event. 31 players competed in the first round, with another 9 taking a bye  and I would guess some more might join the event.

While the City of Melbourne Open is not as prestigious as the Club Championship, it is open to all whereas the Championship is closed to club members only. So I am a little surprised that more non members don't play and also that members don't double up to play the City of Melbourne after the Championship. However, 40 was the target number of players that the committee of the MCC hoped for, so the tournament must already be seen as starting well.

And the first round didn't disappoint. Young FM Jack Puccini finds himself as top seed, which might be his first time as top seed in a Monday night event? Not sure, have to hope someone can confirm or refute this statement! Jack came through unscathed as did second seed, Ljubisa Nedimovic who I know nothing about other than he is from Slovenia and is rated about 2200. Third seed is veteran IM Mirko Rujevic, who was held to a draw by Rad Chmiel in an Open Sicilian which I'd have thought would have suited Mirko's style very well. But Rad is a dangerous player and though it looked to me as if Mirko was pressing, he couldn't break through. There were also upset draws for John Beckman, Tanya Kolak and Edwin Zou but apart from that everything went to plan. One result to notice is that Tom Kalisch was beaten by unrated Luka Papac, though I have no idea just what unrated means in Mr Papac's case.

I'm the fourth seed in this tournament and won, but not without some trouble. My opponent, Damien van den Hoff played unbelievably quickly through the game while I had taken probably longer than needed. In the following position I had 8 minutes on the clock before my move, compared to my opponent's 72 minutes!

I was black, and an exchange to the good, but I was a little concerned about the dark squares around my king. Defence isn't my strong point, and they do say attack is the best form of defence. 35..Re1! 36.Bh6 Qg1+ 37.Kg3

So what to do now? Putting a piece on e3 seems good, but I came up with a spectacular move that looks good but has a simple response that I saw about 3 seconds after playing the move. 37..R1e6?

My move vacates the e1 square for a queen check which will net a queen after some checks to remove white's king as a defender. It also prevents white from invading with Qf6 when mate is threatened and difficult to defend, especially with just a couple of minutes on the clock. Besides which it is a spectacular move! However, that doesn't make it right, and if white would have found 38.Rxc4, I would have needed to play a long game with little time on my clock. However, white spent the most time over any move he played in this game, 12 minutes, to find 38.Qg4? which let me finish off with 38..Re5 39.Rxc4 bxc4 40.Qxc4 Rxf5

Here white allowed a mating finish, taking a pawn with 41.Qxa6 when I played 41..Qe1+ 42.Kg4 [42.Kh2 Rxf3] 42..Rh5! with forced mate so my opponent resigned.

Pawn Grabbing

It's the week before a public holiday here in Australia and I'm looking forward to a weekend in Tasmania playing chess. I'm spending the Queen's Birthday weekend at the Tasmanian Open in Hobart which should be good fun. I'll write reports from Hobart at the weekend on the event. It's a big week in Australian chess as a whole set of tournaments take place this weekend, with massive open's in Sydney and Melbourne. Leader Jack Puccini as well as a long weekender in Queensland. Although I've been to Hobart a number of times, I've never played a tournament there, so I'm looking forward to meeting up with some new players.

The tournaments I'm currently playing in are heading towards the pointy end. At the MCC, the City of Melbourne open had the 6th of it's nine rounds on Monday. Leader Jack Puccini took a half point bye but retains the lead. The gap has narrowed and he is now only half a point ahead of Malcolm Pyke. There is then a further half point to Simon Schmidt and Roger McCart who is having an amazing tournament so far. I find myself in a big group of players a further half point down (so 1.5 behind Puccini) and with 3 rounds to go, I guess a lot could still happen, and there are still chances even for those below me. As I like to mention upset results, I'll just note that both Tanya's in the event played above their rating. Tanya Krstevska drew with Peter Fry, while Tanya Kolak beat Alex Kaplan. Also Ben Frayle and Roger McCart won against players rated 200 points above them.

At Glen Eira Chess Club I'm currently leading the tournament after beating a student of mine, Max Phillips, in the fourth round of 7. I'm a point ahead of Jerzy Krysiak and David Cordover, but the tournament is being lit up by 8 year old Mahalakshme Thiagarajan who is on 2.5/4 and seems to be playing better every week. This young girl is very serious about her chess. She played in the under 1200 tournament in Canberra earlier this year, and is eager to play more events and it wouldn't surprise me to see her turn up at the Victorian Open. Both Glen Eira and the MCC have no tournament games in the upcoming week due to the long weekend schedule. This means that my next regular tournament game will be at Glen Eira on Friday 13th June, which sounds a bit ominous.

From a coaching perspective, I revisited one of the first ever games I showed to students in Australia. It is a game which demonstrates the dangers of pawn grabbing in the opening, and was played by one of the strongest ever Australian born players.

In the final position there is a great checkmate pattern:

18..Kf6 [18..Kf8 19.Qd6+ Ne7 20.Qxe7+ Kg8 21.Qe8+ Qxe8 22.Rxe8#] 19.Qf3! Kxe5 [19.Kg6 Qh5+ 20.Kf6 Qg5#] 20.Re1#

And if that isn't warning enough, there was the 11th game of the Spassky-Fischer 1972 World Championship where Fischer played the poisoned pawn variation of the Najdorf, and sadly saw his queen trapped.

Need I say more? At least I think I've terrorised kids into developing minor pieces and castling more often than not, and being incredibly careful with their queen.