Draws and Tie-breaks

What a weekend for chess! I can remember back to my younger days in the UK and the choice for me was whether to play in the annual Easter congress in Southend, or the SCCU Championship, which for the life of me I can't remember where it was played...Croydon, Crawley? Anyway, I now look at the wide world of chess this weekend and see:

1. Candidates final 2 rounds

2. Doeberl Cup, Australia's premier weekend tournament

3. Norway Qualifier, looking for a player to join Carlsen et al later in the year

4. GRENKE Open, a huge open with over 600 players including a load of 2700+ players headed by Chinese star Li Chao who currently stands above Topalov on the live rating list.

This is just the tip of the iceberg from where I'm sitting. All these events can be seen on the premier news site, chess24, but TWIC shows about 30 major events happening around the world.

Of course, the major event is the Candidates tournament in Moscow which has had a number of twists and turns up to this point. Today is a rest day, and there are just 2 rounds left to sort things out. Currently, the tournament is being led by Karjakin and Caruana. I'm glad to say that when ACP President Emil Sutovsky asked on his facebook page the 2 questions, Who has the best chance of winning the Candidates, and Who do you want to in the Candidates, I answered Caruana has the best chance, while I want Karjakin. These 2 are now the favourites to take it. But ex World Champion is only half a point behind, while Svidler, Giri and Aronian are just a point behind the leaders.

The tournament has been criticised for the number of draws, and indeed there have only been 14 decisive results from the 48 games in 12 rounds of play. Anish Giri has come in for particular criticism, having drawn all his games. But in my opinion, there have been few quick draws, and some amazing defences, especially by my favourite, Karjakin. It is impossible for a player of my ability to judge how difficult it must be to beat a top 20 player. But I'm willing to accept if there are a lot of draws, it has a lot to do with the quality of defence of the players. I think we place too much emphasis on the result in chess nowadays and not the quality of the play.

And as such, I'm very disappointed with the tie break system, even if it does benefit Karjakin. The first tie-break is the results between the players who each have to play 2 games against the others. This makes some sense. But then, the next tie-break is number of wins. This is a tie-break criteria that has me baffled. One could argue that the player who scores the most wins has played the most aggressive chess. One could also argue that the player with the most wins on a given score also has the most losses, and so has mixed good with bad play. Caruana has so far won 2 games and lost none. He has had a number of promising positions which he hasn't managed to convert. Karjakin meanwhile has won 3 games but lost 1, and has had a number of lucky escapes. Who deserves to go through the most? In my opinion a play off is the only way to decide the outcome of a tie at this level, even if it means speed chess leading to the dreaded Armageddon game!

Devaluing the draw is hurtful to classical chess, as draws are a part of the game. Funnily enough, if Karjakin dos win, then it will be more thanks to his tenacity at drawing difficult positions rather than the games he won. I'm happy to see the rise of Rapid and Blitz events, and the high win quotas that come with this form of chess, but Classical chess should be respected too and the higher rate of draws with it. As long as we're talking fighting draws, of course. The short draw shouldn't have a place in modern chess, and it is good to see so many events banning draws before a certain number of moves.

But then again, there could be worse things in the chess world. Like a World Championship played in Trump Tower, New York with Donald Trump the honoured guest making the first move of the first game? That was a suggestion recently put forward by FIDE's leader in exile, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov which I saw on this page!

MCC Championship David and Goliath

The chess community in Victoria have been very fortunate to see some great events. There was the 50th edition of the Ballarat weekend tournament over the long March weekend. This great event had an extra special field headed by GM Nigel Short, and with most of the elite of Australian chess competing. Nigel gave lectures and simuls in both Ballarat and at the MCC

In the wake of these activities, and just prior to the Easter Doeberl Cup, we had a round of the Melbourne Chess Club Championship. The tournament had so far been dominated by the 2 IM's, James Morris and Guy West, with the unlikely performance of young Vishal Bhat. These 3 players stood on 5/6 and something had to give. In the David and Goliath clash, young Vishal produced another amazing giant killing feat by winning against Guy West. Vishal thus stays at the top of the table with James Morris, who also won against Eamonn O'Molloy. Both of them are on 6/7. I find myself in outright third after a win against FM Jack Puccini leaving me half a point back on 5.5/7. I think that Vishal will have to play against me in the next round, while James has played most of the players around him.

Guy remains on 5/6 and is joined by Tom Narenthran, but James has played both of these so he will have to drop to the next score group where a very select group are sitting. IM's Ari Dale and Mirko Rujevic, FM Jack Puccini, ex-Champion Malcolm Pyke, Thai Ly, Eamonn O'Molloy and James Watson, while we await the result of Hain-Dizdarevic to see if either of these players can join the group.

The upset of the round, was undoubtedly the win by Kevin Brown against another ex-Champion, Bob Krstic (taking aside Vishal's win over Guy). There are also to be 4 rating prize groups, but these rating groups have yet to be identified and this was to be based on 60 players playing. But with only 45 players, it may be there will only be 3 rating groups, I'm not sure what the MCC committee have decided about the prizes. I'd be guessing that some division of U-2000, U-1800 and U-1600 would be appropriate.

My game was somewhat of a revelation, a reminder that I used to be considered an attacking player. A lot of the games I show here in this blog involve endings, and these tend to be the positions that I enjoy the most. But against Jack Puccini, I was able to use some preparation that I'd done for the Australian Championship in January. I knew the positions out of the opening roughly, and to be honest, the game played itself, though it was quite a nice finish. I've submitted it for the brilliancy prize, which is a first for me!

This position came from a Sicilian Scheveningen, and I don't think I'd have hoped for a more promising position for white in an open Sicilian after 18 moves. White's bishops are dominant, the f-file is an active line of attack for white, while black's forces are split by the d-pawns. Black's king looks very shaky here. Jack played g6 to blunt my light squared bishop, but that allowed me to triple on the f-file without any resistance.

A fabulous white position with great piece coordination. It is difficult to believe that this position isn't good for white. The tripling on the f-file induced Jack to defend with 20..f6, but that created more weaknesses on e6 and g6, and I shifted my pieces around with 21.Qh3 Kg7 22.Rh4 [Doubling on the h-file] 22..Rh8 [Defending h8] 23.Qe3

White's last queen move attacks black's dark squared bishop, and the h6 square. There isn't a good defence, though perhaps 23..Ne5 might offer the most resistance. Jack chose the natural 23..Rae8 developing his rook while protecting his bishop.

After a bit of thought I was able to finish the game with a sacrifice. 24.Bxg6.

I guess there were different ways to win, but it is always nice to find a sacrificial attack. Here, black can take with pawn or king, but both lead to mate. Jack played 24..hxg6 where there followed 25.Rxh8 Kxh8 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27.Qxg6+ Kf8

After I played 28.Be3 Jack resigned as there is no defence to the threat of Bh6.

So this is the game I have submitted for the brilliancy prize of the MCC Championship 2016, and it sets me up with a top of the table clash in the next round. There is no play this week due to Easter, and I wish the very best to all MCC players at the Doeberl Cup in Canberra, including my opponent in this game, Jack Puccini.

Doeberl Cup 2014 - Kasparov is in Town

I had intended to write plenty about this tournament, but I had a cold that turned into a bronchial infection that has really knocked me out. To be honest I should have withdrawn after the second day, but I paid my money and wanted to play the games, even though I'm playing terribly. I've played well below my usual standard, and even the games I've won haven't been great. Anyway, rating points lost today are rating points that can be regained tomorrow.

Because of my illness I haven't seen too much of the action, and have barely had the energy to look at friends and students games. The results can be seen on the tournament website or on the chess results server. The tournament is being jointly led by international Grand Masters, Nisipeanu from Germany, and Vajda from Romania on 6.5/8. From an Australian perspective, perhaps the result of the tournament has been that of Junta Ikeda (FM 2338) who has performed at well over 2500 for the event so far, including a draw with Dutch GM Loek van Wely (GM 2658). Ikeda is on 6/8 along with GM's Zhao (Australia 2573), Melkumyan (Armenia 2633) IM's Morris (Australia 2377) and Cheng (Australia 2438) and Chinese untitled player Ke Mu (2325).

There are other events taking place in Canberra. There is a Major tournament (under 2000) and a Minor (under 1600) and an under 1200 tournament that has already finished. All the sections are very competitive, and the first winner was unrated Fraser Young in the under 1200. Mildura teenager Zoe Harrison is currently in the sole lead by half a point in the minor with one round to go, while Andrey Bliznyuk is half a point clear in the Major.

Today, the chess was somewhat overshadowed by the arrival of ex World Champion Garry Kasparov in Canberra. Kasparov is on the FIDE campaign trail, and made a lot of friends with a long book signing and photo shoot. Tomorrow he is apparently giving interviews to local and national media. In the venue there was an absolute buzz of excitement all day, with people on the look out for the great man.

Relaxed looking Kasparov at the book signing

Ignatious Leong was accompanying Kasparov

I also met the President of the Guam Chess Federation at the book signing

World Chess legend Kasparov, with Australian chess legend, Ian Rogers

Having fun, and with hundreds waiting for his autograph, signing quickly!

Preparing for the Doeberl Cup

My routine coming into a big tournament runs something like this. First, try to get a load of chess work done up to a week before the tournament is due to start. This includes preparing openings, tactical and calculation training, deep analysis etc. Then I cut the workload down for the last few days before the tournament begins. This gives my brain time to process the information and think about it and also means that I should be fresher when I get to the board. Of course, there is always a temptation to think about chess during this down time, and that is probably unavoidable, as long as the work isn't too deep. Once I'm at the tournament, it is usually full on combination of prepare, play, analyse, with some downtime to eat and relax.

The day before Canberra, relaxing at Black Rock

So while I'm not going to go into the chess preparation I went into before the tournament began, here's a couple of ideas from the first days play at the Doeberl Cup in Canberra.. In round 1, Svetozar Stojic continued his good form this year with a draw against Indian GM Roy Chowdhury. IM's Moulthun Ly and James Morris also had to give u half a point to Jonas Muller and WIM Emma Guo respectively. While there were some other surprises, probably the biggest upset was IM Andrew Brown losing to Wenlin Yin. Personally, I was quite close to the half way mark and was hoping for a few players to take byes in the first round so that I could play a Grand Master. Unfortunately, that was not to be and I ended up in the top half on one of the bottom boards. I struggled to get any advantage early on, but then managed to build up some space which squeezed my opponent, and I won the game.

On the drive to Canberra, a stop at Holbrook to see a submarine 500 km's from the sea!

The second round saw no big upsets and 19 players remain on 2/2. I found the going quite hard toward the end of my game, and I think I wasn't the only one. It is quite tiring playing 2 games in a day with a finish close to 11 pm. So with that in mind, it was probably unwise for me to allow my game to blow up into a wild and complicated mess which my opponent, FM Tristan Boyd managed far better than I did. A crucial moment in the game was this.

I was playing black in a what started as a Nimzo Indian and was now preparing c5, when Tristan threw a spanner in the works. 15.f4!? To be honest, I was expecting something on that side of the board, but underestimated my opponent's chances. I should have carried on with the plan of  15..c5 with a tense game, but instead chose to add flames to the fire with 15..Ng4

I was expecting 16.Rf3 when I was planning 16..f5, though white might just be able to sacrifice a piece on f5 for a pretty vicious attack. However, I hadn't really considered the move that was actually played which shows a weakness in my thinking. 16.e4!? This completely threw me and I didn't find the best continuation, and went on to lose to an excellent attack that Tristan created. Funnily enough I talked about this subject of changing the pace of the game to IM James Morris recently who considers it a crucial skill for a chess player to have. It is certainly important to be ready for your opponent's tactical chances, and for when they might just roll the dice and go for it. 

Birthday Greetings Garry Kasparov

There was quite some excitement in Australian chess circles earlier this year, when it was announced that the 13th World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, would be coming to Australia around Easter time, and would look in at Doeberl, probably to hand out prizes on the last day. For many of my generation, Kasparov is an absolute idol, taking dynamic chess to new limits while also possessing masterful technique, and the ability to play all types of position equally well. While Spassky and Fischer brought the idea of 'total chess' to the table, Karpov and Kasparov raised the limits of possibilities, and especially Kasparov was at the forefront of deeper than ever opening preparation that most of us amateurs dread.

It is, of course, a great pity that such an amazing talent as Kasparov should have retired from competitive chess and that he won't be playing in Canberra, but his mere presence will be inspiration enough for many. The only time I've previously seen Kasparov was at the 1986 London World Championship match which I visited. The aura in the playing hall was amazing. Grandmasters were in the audience along with patzers like myself, watching the two great players battle it out. I left the playing hall desperate to work at the game, and get to the highest level I could manage.

Well, a week before his trip to Canberra, it is Kasparov's 51st birthday today. Kasparov has played many memorable games, and produced many great contributions to chess opening and endgame theory as well as his magnificent attacks and combinations. The game that I vividly remember seeing and thinking, "my God, how good was that!" was his win in 1982 at the Olympiad against the USA team. He was playing on board 1 against Soviet emigre, Lev Alburt, when the following position occurred:

Kasparov, as black has played a Benko type game, and now comes up with a raidcal way of changing the nature of the game. 14..Bxb5 15.Bxb5 Qxb5!? A fantastic positional queen sacrifice which will gain a rook and minor piece for the queen, but will leave black's pieces very active, while white has both weak pawns and uncoordinated pieces to worry about. 16.axb5 Rxa1+ 17.Bc1 Nxe4:

Kasparov's queen sacrifice has brought his pieces to life, and left white with weak b and d-pawns. Black may not be theoretically better here, but just imagine the psychological blow on an opponent that such a change of game would bring. I'm going to fast forward now to the conclusion of the game. It was hard fought for the next 30 or so moves, until this position was reached.

Unfortunately, Alburt blundered here, but he had been under relentless pressure from his 19 year old opponent. The game went 50.Qc6? Rd2! [Threatening a knight fork on d4] 51.Ke3:

51..Re2! [Again with a knight fork on d4 in mind] 52.Kd3 e4+! [forcing the king to a bad square] 53.Kc4 Rc2+ 54.Nc3 Bf6 [There goes the knight] 55.Qxe4 [Actually, Alburt could have probably resigned here] 55..Rxc3+ 56.Kd5 Rc5+ 57.Kxd6 Be5+ and white did resign.

White's choices are to give up his queen for rook and bishop and being a knight down in the ending, or moving the king up the board into a mating net. 58.Ke7 Rc7+ 59.Ke8 Bf6 [threatening 60.Re7#]

I was only about 16 when I first saw this game, and things like positional queen sacrifices were mysteries that only the greatest of players could hope to achieve. I was aware of Kasparov's tactical flare, but this game seemed to be something bigger, grander and more than just a display of tactical fireworks. Perhaps it isn't Kasparov's most perfect game, but it shows his ability to change a game situation, his tenacity, and both his positional and tactical awareness, albeit at prototype level!

Happy Birthday, Garry Kasparov.

A Week Till Doeberl So...

So I'd better get cracking with some work. It's terrible weather in Melbourne anyway, so I can actually probably get some analysis and preparation together before I play next week. I finished the Melbourne Chess Club Championship with a draw against IM Ari Dale which is a good result for me even if the game wasn't brilliant. Both of us made errors of judgement in the game which need to be worked on.

Ari had sort of misplayed the middle game up to this point and I felt that I had equal chances with black especially as white's b-pawn is weak. My next move was not good, though, and worse than the move was a thinking process error that I've noticed in my games. I have been seeing some threats for my opponent, and then taking the same threat for granted in future moves. This happened to me earlier in the tournament against Svetozar Stojic, where I blundered a pawn to a move I'd considered earlier in the game. Here, I had been vigilant of my opponent's check on h7 until this move, when I played 24..Ne6? Ari gave me some respect by taking a couple of minutes to take on h7, where I can't capture the bishop as it leave my d5 pawn unguarded, so I had to play 25.Bxh7+ Kh8 when I thought I am just a pawn down.

Funnily enough, this materialistic view of the resulting position is incorrect, and black is not that much worse because of the weakness of white's queen side, and black's excellent protected passed c-pawn. The game became a bit affected by time considerations until Ari did me a favour back again. Ari had made good on his extra pawn building his king side majority and gaining a sizeable advantage until we reached this position.

I had just played ..Qa2 and Ari whipped out the tempting 40.Qg6 [probably 40.Qxa2 followed by Kf4 was white's best, and good enough to win] and I found an equalising check blocking the queen's defence of the b1 rook. 40..Ne4+. I thought it prudent to offer a draw in that position as after taking the knight white can force it anyway with Qe8-h5-e8 and, of course, Ari accepted. Ari Dale was already the MCC Champion before this round, so a big congratulations to him. I'm sure he has many Championship wins ahead of him.

It means I go to Doeberl next week with a good result under my belt, even if the play and thinking was not convincing. At least that means I won't be overconfident before my first game. And who I will play is a complete mystery. I am currently sat in the top half of the event, but I would expect there to be a number of players taking byes in the first round. If this is the case, then I may get the chance to play a strong Grand Master. Last time I played, my first round opponent was Romanian GM Gergely Szabo (2553 at the time) so hopefully I'll get another crack at a GM this time round.

Doeberl 2013: An MCC Perpsective

The 51st annual Easter long weekend tournament in Canberra, the Doeberl Cup, will be long remembered by members of Victorian club, the Melbourne Chess Club. A large group of players traveled north to compete in the country's premier event, some hoping for norms, some for victory, and some just for the experience. Those of us that didn't go followed the fortunes of our friends as well as the action on the top boards which were broadcast live. The tournament was split into 4 sections, a Premier (9 round swiss with norm possibilities), a Major (under 2000 ratings), a Minor (under 1600 ratings) and an under 1200 event. There was some MCC interest in all these sections, but that is not what will be remembered most by the MCC membership about this year's tournament.

The Premier was probably the strongest event in Doeberl history. Pre tournament favourites were GM Li Chao (2686) and GM van Wely (2684). These 2 satisfied their high seeding by finishing first (Li Chao 7.5/9) and equal second (van Wely 7/9 tied with GM Stocek). The top Aussie was Queensland IM Moulthun Ly 6.5 while the top Victorian's were GM Daryl Johansen, FM Bobby Cheng, FM Chris Wallis, FM Dusan Stojic, and David Garner all on 5.5. These are all members of the MCC showing just how strong the club is. Luckily for Victorian chess, these players don't limit themselves to just one club and are also members of other Melbourne based clubs such as Box Hill and Noble Park. Other members of the MCC represented us in the Premier event: FM Domagoj Dragicevic (was going very well early with a win against GM Varga followed by a draw with GM Laxman), Ari Dale, IM James Morris, Karl Zelesco all scoring 5, Justin Tan, David Beaumont 4.5, Laurent Michaille 4, Svetozar Stojic (ex member), Jack Puccini 3.5, Tony Davis (non member, but regular at the club) 3, Felix Wyss 1.5. All in all it was a great turnout for the MCC and some highlights for me were Domagoj's win against GM Varga, Bobby Cheng's excellent effort against top seed Li Chao ending in a draw, Justin Tan's brilliant victory against GM Czebe and watching the game between Li Chao and James Morris live while messaging to James Mum who was desperately willing her son to hold on to the draw against the super GM.



The limited rated tournaments also saw MCC interest. The under 1200 saw Sophie Davis, Tony's daughter playing. While she is not an MCC member, Tony is often seen in the club. Young Sophie scored 2/7. The Minor was a toughly competitive event, which saw Victorian Junior David Cannon take first alongside talented NSW junior Kashish Christian. MCC's Daniel Dobos scored 4.5, Hannibal Swartz 3, and Paul Cavezza 2 (though he withdrew before the last day so it was from just 5 games). But the main triumph for the MCC was the Major under 2000 section. The tournament was won by MCC Treasurer Andrew Saint on 6.5/7. In the last round he had to play another MCC member, Dmitry Partsi with the winner of that game being the tournament winner. Andrew won the game, and took out the tournament. Other MCC participants were Gary Bekker 4.5, Richard Voon, Jason Chew, Anthny Hain, Sarah Anton 4, Finley Dale 3.5, Rad Chmiel 3, Angelo Tsagarakis 2.5 and Ray Yang 2.

Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends. Driving back from  Canberra to Melbourne, a group of MCC members were involved in a car crash which claimed the life of Andrew Saint so soon after his joy of winning the prestigious Doeberl Major. Stunned members of the Australian chess community have reflected on how great a guy Andrew was, and I can confirm from my own brief time of knowing him, that Andrew always had a smile on his face, a positive outlook, and a will and energy to make things happen. The car crash cruelly also saw another fatality. Hannibal Swartz is a relatively new member to the MCC, and I hadn't met him before, but again by all accounts he was a positive, and genial member of the club. Both these young men will be sorely missed, and their fate will be long remembered by those of us who knew them.

The car was travelling on the Hume Highway, the main freeway between Melbourne and Sydney with 110 KPH speed limits. A tyre blew out and at those sort of speeds it would have been difficult to maintain control of the vehicle. Apparently the car turned over and no one in the car avoided injuries. The least injured were MCC committee members, Paul Cavezza and Anthony Hain though how minor their injuries are remains to be seen. Two others were in the car, and both were in critical condition and had to be taken by helicopter to major Melbourne hospitals. Dimitry Partsi, who had played the final game against Andrew Saint, is apparently conscious but sore, and awaiting surgery at the Royal Melbourne hospital. The biggest worry was 18 year old IM James Morris who was flown to the Albert with head and body injuries and was induced into a coma. Apparently, James has recently woken according to IA Gary Bekker, who reports that he has multiple bodily injuries, but has escaped without any serious head injuries. James is still in a critical condition according to his mother, and the next 48 hours will be crucial.

I am sure I speak for the whole of the MCC, and the Australian (and international) chess community when I pass on my condolences to the families of Andrew and Hannibal and wish those injured in the accident a fast and full recovery.

The accident made both local and national news.

Here is that final round game from board 1 of the Doeberl Cup. Both players were seeking glory, while  soon after they would both be sharing a part in a terrible tragedy.



edit: as I was writing this post, the MCC President Grant Szuveges was writing his own piece on the facebook page of the Melbourne Chess Club. I asked him if I could post it here, and he agreed.

RIP ANDREW SAINT

I first met Andrew when he moved to Melbourne for work. He came along to the MCC and after a short time we found out that he had been involved in chess administration in South Australia. He quickly accepted an offer to join the MCC committee and put in some great service to our club.

He was a very generous person and would always offer others a coffee when he went to buy one - even if he didnt know them that well. He was also generous with his time, putting a huge amount of effort into the very difficult job of being the Melbourne Chess Club treasurer, despite working long hours in his day job. Andrew was a shining light as a very generous and giving person amongst a chess scene of "individuals". He gave more to chess than he took out of it - both at MCC and back in Adelaide.

Andrew was also a wonderful person away from chess. He liked fine food and dining out. At a Bunnings sausage sizzle to raise funds for MCC, he bought all of us some Wagu beef steaks just to share the gourmet experience with all of us. After the sizzle he showed myself, Pano Skiotis and Paul Cavezza one of his favourite restaurants "Laksa King", a Malaysian restaurant in Flemington. It was so good that I went back there the next night too! Andrew was also the brains behind the free lunch at Cup Weekender and wouldve enjoyed cooking good food for all of the players in the event. As well as food and cooking, I also enjoyed talking to Andrew about travelling, football and his other interests - in fact we really didnt talk very much about chess!

When someone passes away, it is customary to talk about the persons attributes and generosity, however with Andrew its simply so easy to remember countless examples of these things - they are not hard to find with him and even after we all discuss the great things he did, there will still have been another 1000 generous things he has done that have simply gone unnoticed - that was just the sort of person he was.

After hearing that Andrew had won the major at Doeberl, I immediately sent him a rather cheeky email suggesting that he should use his prize money to buy an MCC life membership. Had he read it, Im sure that he wouldve known that I wasnt completely serious, yet it wouldnt have surprised me either if he had actually said "yes ok"! Unfortunately the next thing I heard was that he was gone. He will be looking down now and giggling about that email I think...

In losing Andrew, Australian chess has lost a great great person who did so much for other people and so much for chess itself. Andrew thankyou for the work you have done at MCC and for the friendship, happieness, coffees and restaurant tips you have given all of us - you are already deeply missed! Well done on a magnificent performance in your final tournament - not many people get to go out on top, but you certainly have - in both chess and in life in general!

Rest in peace my friend.

I'm Stunned...

I wake up this morning to the most stunning news in the chess World:

- Magnus Carlsen has lost with white against struggling Ivanchuk

- Kramnik beats Aronian with black pieces to take the outright lead

- MCC's Richard Voon is on a display board at Doeberl Cup!!!

The Candidates has gone completely nuts with a big change at the top. Vladimir Kramnik takes outright lead for the first time in the tournament after Levon Aronian failed to hold on in what apparently was an even endgame (I'll have a look at some of these even endgames later). Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen loses his first game since the Grand Prix Final in Sao Paulo last October (against Caruana) and finally cracks under what must surely be the most amazing pressure. So with 2 rounds to go, there are really now only 2 possible winners of the event, Kramnik and Carlsen. Aronian is now 1.5 behind Kramnik so while he has a mathematical chance, I think we can count him out and call it a 2 horse race. So it remains to be seen whether Carlsen can bounce back after a loss, or indeed whether Kramnik can maintain his amazing form in this second half of the tournament where he has scored 4.5/5. Personally, I would like to see Carlsen take the event if only so that we get a new challenger for the World Title. However, as I said right at the start at the event, whoever wins will no doubt deserve it, and if that is Kramnik, then good on him.

In Canberra, the Premier tournament continues to see upsets with lots of draws holding players up somewhat. One player who isn't being held up is Levante Vajda. Last year he came equal first after starting with a strong 4.5/5. This year he has started just as strong with 4/4 and is currently involved in a stodgy battle with Indian GM Sethuraman, the sort of game that has brought him success this year. Sethuraman is also on 4/4, and they are half ahead of top seed GM Li Chao of China who dropped half a point to Australian prodigy FM Bobby Cheng. Cheng won the Australian Open in January and has continued in fine form at the start of Doeberl, sitting on 3/4 in a big group of players just behind the leaders.

My club, the Melbourne Chess Club (MCC), is well represented in Canberra. In the Premier we can claim Cheng who is a life member of the club, FM Dragicevic who is also on 3/4 after starting the tournament in excellent form beating IM Ly and GM Varga already, GM Johansen (another life member) and FM Stojic both on 3/4. IM James Morris sits on 2.5, (as does Justin Tan who I'm not sure has joined the club this year, but has been an active member in the past...we at MCC wish Justin well whether he is a member or not!), David Garner and Ari Dale on 2, David Beaumont and Jack Puccini are on 1 point, while Felix Wyss is yet to get off the mark.

In the Major (U-2000), MCC have a player on top board, none other than veteran Richard Voon. Richard is one of 11 players on 2/2 in the 7-round swiss which basically is a lose a game and your out type of event! Half a point behind the leaders are a large group including MCC regulars Dimitry Partsi, Jason Chew and Andrew Saint, while Gary Bekker, Rad Chmiel, Anthony Hain, Finley Dale and Sarah Anton all sit on 1/2. Also playing from the MCC are Ray Yang (.5) and Angelo Tsagarakis (.5, unable to recreate Ballarat form).

The Minor (U-1600) is another 7 round swiss with an MCC presence. Daniel Dobos is one of 11 players on a perfect 2/2, while Gerard Barta who I haven't seen for a long time is on 1.5. Hannibal Swartz is on 1/2 while Paul Cavezza is on .5/2.

Again, I wish everyone good luck in their games and especially MCC players. By the way, my apologies if I left anyone out from the MCC, just let me know and I'll add you in. :)

It's a Good Friday for Chess

Well, it all happened yesterday and no mistake. The London Candidates which has already surpassed my expectations for excitement brought up some new drama. Having gone to bed before the action started, I awoke this morning to a draw for Carlsen, a loss for Aronian and a win for Kramnik. These 3 players are really bringing this event alive and one of them must surely be the winner. Carlsen retains his half point lead, but now it is ex-World Champion Kramnik in second. He has leapfrogged over Aronian who is a further half point back with just 3 rounds to go. As I said in the last post, Carlsen holds his destiny in his own hands, especially as he has white in 2 of his 3 remaining games. If Carlsen can avoid losing, then it is hard to see anyone overtaking him. And a lot will depend on the momentous clash between Aronian and Kramnik later today. It will definitely be a battle of nerves in the final 3 rounds, and alas for my tipping, it looks as if Aronian's nervous energy is shot away. After over pressing against Boris Gelfand a couple of days ago, he self destructed against Peter Svidler by throwing his g and b-pawn's 2 squares down the board on consecutive moves creating serious weaknesses which were easily exploited by Svidler.

But the game that interested me most was the Grischuk-Carlsen clash. This is mainly because Grischuk chose a line of the Grunfeld that I had a look at a while back, the Zaitsev variation. It's a funny system that gets right into black's face, which, to be honest, is what black attempts to do to white when playing the Grunfeld.

The move 5.h4 (or 4.h4 without the moves 4.Nf3 Bg7) is the very aggressive idea of Alexander Zaitsev, and it appeals to the likes of me (coffeehouse hacker) because of the simplistic concept behind the move. Essentially, white is getting ready to directly attack black's king side. Typical themes involve sacrificing the c-pawn, shuffling the king to f1 or g1 for safety, trying to dominate the dark squares on the king side but playing across the entire board. It is a nightmarishly difficult system to play, but fun nevertheless. To add to the appeal, the present favourite of top GM's amongst coffeehouse hackers such as myself, Alexander Morozevich, played this system twice in Beijing towards the end of last year against Anish Giri (the blitz game is especially fun!).




On the domestic front, Doeberl started with a bang. Yesterday, the first round went pretty much according to plan, but the second round was a carnage as the seeds fell one after another: 2680ish Loek van Wely came a cropper to 2400ish Stephen Solomon; Luke Li Zuhao defeated GM Adam Horvath, Justin Tan defeated GM Attila Czebe, and IM Moulton Ly was beaten by FM Domagoj Dragicevic. Not only that, but GM Varga, GM Laxman, IM Palit Somak and IM Brown were held to draws by Tingtie Lei, FM Dusan Stojic, Anton Smirnov and John Nemeth respectively.

There were further upsets on the lower boards as well. Today the Premier sees another 2 rounds after which we should have some idea of the lie of the land. And also the 'Major' (under 2000) and 'Minor" (under 1600) tournaments start giving an even more local flavour to the Easter chess festival.

Australia's Premier Event

Annually, the top event in Australia is the Easter long weekend Doeberl Cup in Canberra. This year, the organisers have assembled perhaps the strongest field to date for their premier tournament with 75 players listed of which 11 are Grand Masters, 10 are International Masters, 3 are above 2600 and 18 are over 2400. Besides the Premier there are 3 other sections, for players rated below 2000 ACF, below 1600 ACF, and below 1200 ACF. The numbers of participants in each of the fields is good, with 72 in the U-2000, 50 in the U-1600, and 43 for the U-1200.

I really like tournaments with rated sections, rather than one big open tournament. I feel they are more inclusive, and allow players to step up into a harder section, or to try to win a prize within their rating group. As a promising player in the UK a long, long time ago, I spent a year playing in weekend tournaments sometimes playing in open's for the experience and sometimes trying to win limited rated sections. Eventually I had to play only in open sections, but the value of working my way through 'novice', then 'minor', then 'major' sections built my strength gradually and assuredly. My improvement was constantly being challenged by others rated above me, and by those who were improving with me as we tried to progress faster than one another.

Unfortunately, there are few tournaments in Australia that offer ratings limited sections, especially in Victoria and I wonder if this is a deterrent to some players. As a 1400 strength player I'm not sure I would be happy about continually being pushed into events where I was a bottom seed by a long margin. I would be happy to step up once in a while, but I would also like to try to win a section designed for players around my ability, say for instance, an under 1600 tournament.

I have fond recollection of playing as a junior and a lower rated player in tournaments where Grand Masters also competed, but in different sections, the annual Hastings Congress being a prime example. My first Hastings saw me playing in a minor, but I eventually progressed to the top amateur section. Meanwhile, next to me Masters and Grandmasters competed in the "Challengers" and "Premier" sections. This meant that I was able to compete at a comfortable level, while also rubbing shoulders with some of my heroes, and learning about other players who would become players I would be continually trying to match myself against.

I will be keenly following the events in Canberra, and not just the strong Premier event. I have friends and students playing throughout the sections so each tournament holds a special interest for me. There are live games which actually start about now. There will be the top 4 boards of the Premier which starts today, and from tomorrow there will also be the top board from the U-2000 and U-1600 sections.

Good luck to all the competitors. I will be following this closely as I'm sure many other Australians will be, and I will be especially cheering along my fellow Victorians and MCC players who have made the trip to Canberra.

Chess on my mind

Today it was a privilege to be at an informal training session for some Victorian kids alongside IM Robert Jamieson. Robert is a demanding coach who gets the kids to think outside the box, stretching their imagination and vision on the chessboard. The material he uses is always excellent, and the questions he poses push the kids to the limit of their ability. Today we were looking at some games from the current tournament, the Australian Open Championship. Here's a couple of positions he tortured the kids with today:

What would you play as black here? Most of the kids opted for castles, as did IM Ly in the game. Unfortunately, a quick check for all checks and captures reveals that after 10..0-0 11.Nxd5! wins at least a pawn

Fast forward to this position. The question the kids had to answer was how did IM Andrew Brown cause black to resign in 2 moves? Getting kids to visualise is important, especially seeing more than one possibility in a variation. 18.Rc1 seems the obvious try but how will the bishop be trapped after 18..Bb2? So other tries were given, such as 18.Rb1 and 18.Ra2. But it came down to the mainline, so what can white do after 18..Bb2? The first thought was 19.Rc8, though this doesn't achieve anything. Finally someone saw 19.Rc6 which wins time by attacking the queen. Black resigned rather than move his queen and lose his bishop after 20.Qb3.

Robert also talked about the game Li-Zhao which he told the kids was one of his favourite games in the event so far. This was an unbelievably tough game in the Noteboom opening where white tried every trick in the book to unseat his GM opponent. In the end black came through but Zhao must have been pretty happy to win this game in the end.

We then started watching the live games introducing the kids to kibitzing techniques. Though we didn't have time to see the conclusion of the games, the result of the day was certainly 15 year old FM Bobby Cheng's victory over GM Igor Khenkin. This leaves Bobby in clear first which hopefully he can maintain till the end of the tournament.

Of course, running workshops with great players can only fuel ones own interest in the game. So I would like to give a big thanks to the inspirational Robert Jamieson. I came home today, picked up a chess book and drove to the bay! I'm eagerly looking forward to Wijk aan Zee starting at the weekend, where 3 World class round robins are taking place, all with interesting fields. For Australian fans, Ari and Finlay Dale are competing at Wijk in lower sections and will no doubt have some great stories to bring back to Australia. Then next week I'll be flying to the Gold Coast to coach at the Australian Junior Championships.

Looking into the future a little, I have to decide whether to play in the Melbourne Chess Club Championship. It is always one of my favourite events of the year, but it is very tiring for me, finishing late on Monday nights when I have an early start on Tuesday. I'll probably leave the decision until I'm in the Gold Coast! By the way, it is a pretty exciting time at the MCC. IA Gary Bekker has organised a Women's International that starts this weekend, the traditional Australia Day Weekender will take place over the last weekend in January, while GM Igor Khenkin is going to be at the club after the conclusion of the Australian Open!

Easter is fairly early this year, but that probably won't stop me from going to Canberra to play in Doeberl. This tournament should start just before the finish of the Candidates tournament in London in March. This will give us a challenger to Anand for a World Championship match in November! What an exciting year for chess, my head is absolutely spinning! And I won't even get started on the amount of tweets I'm picking up about cheating in chess, though I will say that Mig Greengard's opinion that cheating in chess is a small problem while promotion of the game in its educational and sporting forms is a bigger problem that needs tackling is one I subscribe to.

Blunders at Doeberl

Easter in Australia is the time for the traditional Doeberl Cup tournament held in Canberra. I say traditional because this tournament has now reached its fiftieth edition and there was also a book released over the weekend chronicling the history of the tournament. Doeberl started as a long weekend tournament and in fact the one time I had played it, it was a 7 round tournament over 4 days. Now, under the direction of Charles Bishop and his O2C company, the tournament is a 9 round norm achieving monster. This year the field for the Premier included 8 Grandmasters and 13 International Masters, and you had to have a minimum 1900 FIDE rating to enter. There were 3 other events run alongside this over 4 days and 7 rounds. These were under 2000, under 1600 and under 1200 limited rating events, and all were well attended and hard fought.

I played in the Premier and was seeded 42/79. I had an ok tournament scoring my expected score, and winning against a strong player. However, I also lost to a lower rated player than me (although I doubt he's any weaker) and made a number of weak moves throughout my games. I think it is a pretty good therapy and learning experience to examine these howlers. It's important to admit your weaknesses in an attempt to eradicate them. So here was my tournament.

In the first round I was near the top of the second half of players and subsequently was paired with a huge rated opponent. Gergely Szabo was ranked fourth and finished equal first in the tournament. I was playing ok against him, probably a little worse, until I had a complete brain faze:

In this position as white I had to move my light squared bishop, but where? My first thought was back to e2, but then he has Rbc8 and his rooks are very threatening. So what about g4? Ok, that sounds good....but hold on, look at all checks and captures! What about Bxe4 and after he recaptures I have Rfe1 skewering both his bishops. Cool, I'll do that! 1.Bxe4?? Bxe4 2.Rfe1 f5 3.f3 Rbc8 and I can resign. The worse thing is that I'd looked at this and just thought I'll take his bishop, he takes my bishop and I take his other bishop. Oops!!

In the second round I played Ian Rout and won, though not convincingly and then I had my best game of the tournament against WGM Irine Sukandar. In the fourth round I played FM Chris Wallis who I'd recently lost to in Ballarat. I got another reasonable position until I decided on a bad plan.

This had been a fighting game up to this point. As black I'm worse, a pawn down, but by no means lost. However, I played the tempting 1..Bd4?? which loses to 2.Re8+ Kf7 3.Rf8+ Ke6 4.Re1+ (the move I hadn't counted on) 4..Kd6 5.Rd8+ resigns as I'm losing a piece.

In round 5 my opponent forfeited as he had to withdraw from the tournament due to illness, and in round 6 I scored a draw against IM Andrew Brown, though perhaps I threw away good winning chances. Then in rounds 7 and 8 I played horribly. This was the penultimate day and I lost both games. The first mistake I made was playing into variations that gave my opponent's an initiative. In round 7 I was facing FM Igor Bjelobrk who had sacrificed a pawn to reach the following position:

I am white and I have an extra pawn on d5. If this pawn goes, then I am clearly worse. A typical plan would be Nxf5 and then Rd1, or more subtle is just Rd1 straight away. Then I may be able to unwind with Ba2, b3/b4, Bb2 and Rac1. However, I chose 1.h3?? thinking that after 1..Nbxd5 I would have time for g4. At the last moment I saw that black can take on e3 and I'm completely busted. I carried on with 2.Nxd5 Nxd5 3.Bxd5 Qxd5 4.Nxf5 Qxf5 but didn't last much longer.

In the next round I faced the current Australian Junior Champion Alistair Cameron. I had a tough position before I just gave away a pawn for nothing.

This was a Noteboom gone wrong so I decided to try a tactical way of exchanging pawns. My thoughts were running something like this. If I can give up my a and b pawns for his c and d-pawns, the game must be level, or perhaps he will have a slight advantage. So how to do this? This implementation was where things went wrong! 1..b3?? 2.Nxb3 and it was here that I realised that my planned 2..Rb4 would fail to 3.Qxb4 axb4 4.Rxa8 with mate to follow.

I finished the tournament with a none too easy win against Ari Dale and ended on 4.5/9. This was ok for me, but nothing fantastic. However, it has inspired me and I will be playing more chess and working on my game. It was a great event to be a part of, and rubbing shoulders with such strong players is always an uplifting experience.