Here - Noble Park Chess Club

Noble Park Chess Club
2013 Committee
December 2012
Issue 9
Paddy O'Donoghue Centre, 18-32 Buckley Street, Noble Park, Victoria 3174
President: FM Dusan Stojic Treasurer FM Domagoj Dragicevic Secretary: Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian Publicity/Newsletter Svetozar Stojic Junior Coaching Coordinator: Greg Dingfelder Tournament Director: John Nemeth Equipment/Webmaster: Phillip Drew Website: http://www.nobleparkchess. org.au/ Inside: President's message 1 Noble Park Classic 2 Masters & Challengers 3 Reserves Winter Swiss 4 Victorian Women's Champs 5 World Youth Olympiad 6 CV Interclub 10 World Youth Champs 11 N Y Arbitering 12 Proudly supported by
President's message
What an exciting year it has been for the club! We have for the first time in our young history hosted a weekend tournament, the Northern Star Noble Park Classic. The event was a resounding success. Fifty‐nine players from all over Melbourne, some of whom hadn’t visited the club before, came to play. We are committed to hosting the event again next year, and we look forward to it becoming a permanent fixture on our yearly calendar. The first real fruits of our Junior Coaching Program have started to show. This year we’ve implemented the Reserves membership program, which has enabled the juniors to be exposed to a real tournament atmosphere, before graduating to our senior tournaments. We have had several juniors make the full journey already, and some had even taken scalps from our seasoned veterans. Throughout these changes, we have preserved the foundations that have worked well in the past. With more members, our weekly FIDE rated tournaments have been as competitive as ever. The newsletters have been instrumental in providing a nice narrative of our own tournaments as well as reporting on the success of our members outside the club. It’s been a real pleasure to see the club grow from humble beginnings six years ago. I am confident that as our family continues to grow, the club will become even more enjoyable and competitive to play in. I look forward to next year and many years ahead! Dusan Stojic NPCC President Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
Noble Park Chess Club
Northern Star Noble Park Chess Club
Classic
The club's first ever weekender took place on 22nd‐23rd September in its venue and the club was delighted with the turnout with the event. 59 players in total came to play in the event. Here's the report from arbiter Kerry Stead. 59 players made the trek to Noble Park for the inaugural Noble Park Classic. Noble Park Chess Club has only started in the last few years & in this time it’s gone a long way to establishing itself as one of the top chess clubs in Melbourne (and arguably in the top 3 in Melbourne!), and a weekender seemed like the next logical step for the club. The tournament itself is very strong, with 2 IMs, 3 FMs & 11 players rated above 2000ACF! The early rounds also saw a few upsets, with Vishal Bhat beating Marcus Raine in round 1, while Carl Dingfelder held Sylvester Urban to a draw. Round 2 saw more upsets, with Jason Chew beating Miodrag Milosevic, Khadem Jahid beating Thai Ly, Haran Salasan beating Jaime Yung & Lachlan Martin beating Denise Lim. Round 3 saw some normality return, with the only upset being a draw between Rad Chmiel & Milic Sucevic.Round 4 saw two leaders emerge from the pack, with Mirko Rujevic beating Dusan Stojic, while Justin Tan beat Chris Wallis. The upsets returned though, with Anurag Sannidhanam beating Marcus Raine, John Ni beating Rad Chmiel, Cameron Yung beating Bosko Mijatovic, Vishal Bhat beating Jamie Yung & Ryan Kam beating Jamie Kenmure. Tomorrow's first round sees Justin Tan & Mirko Rujevic battle it out for the lead, with plenty of chasers hot on their heels! The second day of the Noble Park Classic was full of exciting chess, with a number of games going right down to the wire! Ultimately it was local favourite, Domagoj Dragicevic, who is the club treasurer, who was triumphant, scoring an undefeated 6.5/7 to win the tournament! As had become usual in this event, round 5 saw a number of upsets, with Svetosar Stojic beating John Nemeth, John Ni beating Kyle Gibson, Carl Loucas beating Tanya Kolak, Rebecca Strickland beating Jamie Yung, as well as a large number of draws. At the top of the tournament, Justin Tan took the outright lead after beating Mirko Rujevic, while both James Morris & Domagoj Dragicevic were half a point behind after wins over Christopher Wallis & Dusan Stojic respectively. Round 6 also saw some upsets, with Page 2 of 14
Marko Grabovac beating Ethan Lim, Vishal Bhat beating Jason Chew, Milan Stojic beating Tanya Krstevska, Rebecca Strickland beating Carl Dingfelder, as well as another quota of draws. The top of the tournament saw another change, with Domagoj Dragicevic assuming the lead after beating Justin Tan. The chasing pack grew larger after Mirko Rujevic beat James Morris and Miodrag Milojevic beat John Ni to join Justin on 5/6. The final round saw Domagoj Dragicevic playing Mirko Rujevic for first place, while Justin Tan & Miodrag Milojevic fought it out for second (and a possible share of first). The top board clash went the distance, with Mirko seeming to have the better of a double rook endgame, until Domagoj managed to turn the tables in mutual time trouble. Mirko's once‐active king went passive, while Domagoj's king came to life & within an instant Mirko found himself faced with the prospect of losing a rook, or seeing Domagoj have an extra queen, and resigned shortly afterwards, to make Domagoj Dragicevic the winner of the inaugural Noble Park Classic. Justin Tan won his game to take second place, while Carl Gorka beat Jack Puccini to secure third place. On the other boards there were the usual share of upsets, with Tom Lea beating John Nemeth, Kris Chan beating Joseph Wong, Regan Crowley beating Gary Lin, Ryan Kam beating Milic Sucevic, Alanna Chew Lee beating Tanya Kolak, Haran Salasan beating Tristan Krstevski, as well as a few draws. Prize‐winners are as follows: 1st Domagoj Dragicevic 2nd Justin Tan 3rd Carl Gorka Rating group Under‐1800 1st Tom Lea =2nd Kyle Gibson, Shane Lawson Rating group Under‐1300 =1st Vishal Bhat, Alana Chew Lee, Ryan Kam, Denise Lim, Regan Crowley Best junior Under‐1000 =1st Rebecca Strickland, Lachlan Martin, Haran Salasan Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
Noble Park Chess Club
Noble Park Masters and Challengers
This was club's third tournament of the year and once again it attracted a great turnout with total of 34 players across two divisions. The Masters tournament was a round‐robin tournament which consisted of 10 players whilst the Challengers tournament was a swiss tournament which consisted of 24 players. We also welcomed club’s newest members Anurag Sannidhanam, Bill Yuan, Cassandra Lim and Christopher Lim. Round 1 In the five matches from the Masters tournament, three of the matches were wins to white pieces with Laurence Matheson defeating Domagoj Dragicevic, Karl Zelesco beating Jimmy Ying, Justin Tan beating John Nemeth. Chris Wallis defeated David Hacche with black pieces whilst Dusan Stojic and Svetozar Stojic played a draw. The big story of round 1 in Challengers was the fact that all the top three seeds lost. I don't recall seeing a tournament where the top three seeds lost in the first round. The upsets included on board 1 Carl Dingfelder defeating Anurag Sannidhanam, on board 2 Rebecca Strickland defeating Franz Oswald, and on board 3 Hamish Jones defeating Kevin Cron. Round 2 In the Masters section, three players moved to 2/2 with Chris Wallis defeating Svetozar Stojic, Justin Tan defeating Jimmy Ying and Karl Zelesco defeating David Hacche. In Challengers tournament, the round 2 continued with upsets. On board 1, Carl Dingfelder had a win over higher rated Phong Huynh, Hamish Jones defeated Milan Stojic. Kris Chan and Luis Chan also recorded wins to go to 2/2. Round 3 In the Masters section, after round 3, a sole leader emerged after Chris Wallis defeated Karl Zelesco. There were upsets in this round 3 with John Nemeth defeating Dusan Stojic, whilst David Hacche held Justin Tan to a draw and Svetozar Stojic holding Domagoj Dragicevic to a draw. In the other game, Laurence Matheson defeated Jimmy Ying. In the Challengers, after round 3 there were two leaders after Kris Chan defeated Carl Dingfelder, and Luis Chan defeated Hamish Jones to move to 4/4. The only upset of this round was Baris Girgin holding Kevin Cron to a draw. Round 4 Who said that it is an advantage in chess to have white pieces? This Masters round belonged to players with black Page 3 of 14
pieces with all 5 games ending with victories to players with black pieces. In the Challengers, after round 4 we had sole leader after Kris Chan defeated Luis Chan to move to 4/4. He was followed by three players on 3/4 with Anurag Sannidhanam, Franz Oswald and Ege Girgin in the chasing pack. We also had upsets in this round with Regan Crowley defeating Milan Stojic, Rebecca Strickland defeating Phong Huynh, and Baris Girgin holding Joseph Sy to a draw. Round 5 Christopher Wallis became a leader with 4/5 after defeating Justin Tan. Three players only half a point behind were Justin Tan, Dusan Stojic and Laurence Matheson. After round 5 in Challengers, Kris Chan maintained his lead after drawing with Anurag Sannidhanam. Only half a point behind was Ege Girgin after recording a win over Kevin Cron. Probably the big story of the round was Jack Cron, who finally recorded his first ever win at the club. Jack has been playing at the club for over a year now, and he has won his first game defeating Christopher Lim. Round 6 Quite an eventful round in the Masters with the leader Christopher Wallis losing against John Nemeth. Dusan Stojic and Justin Tan took full advantage to move to 4.5/6 with share of the lead by defeating Karl Zelesco and Laurence Matheson respectively. A major upset also occured in the round with Jimmy Ying defeating Domagoj Dragicevic, with rating difference of 569 points. In the Challengers, after round 6 we had a new leader with Ege Girgin moving to 5/6 after defeating Kris Chan. Top seed Anurag Sannidhanam kept up the pressure on the leader moving to 4.5/6 after defeating Franz Oswald. The only upset of the round was Baris Girgin defeating Elliott Renzies. Round 7 The match between the leaders Dusan Stojic and Justin Tan resulted in a win for Dusan moving him to the lead with 5.5/7. Laurence Matheson defeated Christopher Wallis to move to equal second with 4.5/7 with other results going to rating. In the Challengers, we had another twist with new leader emerging with Anurag Sannidhanam defeating Ege Girgin on board 1 to move into the lead with 5.5/7. Kris Chan failed to join Anurag as a leader after losing to Cameron Yung. Jack Cron continued his runs of wins by defeating Sarkis Malkon whilst Christopher Lim scored his first point for the tournament by defeating Cassandra Lim. Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
Noble Park Chess Club
Round 8 This round saw a historic moment for the club as it was the first time the club broadcasted a game live on its website. Big thanks to Phillip Drew who provided the DGT board. The game broadcasted was between David Hacche and John Nemeth which David won. Dusan Stojic maintaned his one point lead by defeating Laurence Matheson whilst Justin Tan maintained the pressure by defeating Svetozar Stojic. In the Challengers, we had the battle between top two seeds Anurag Sannidham defeated Cameron Yung to move within touching distance of the tournament win. Ege Girgin maintained the pressure by defeating Luis Chan whilst Kris Chan and Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian were further half a point behind. In upset wins Paul Kelsen defeated Josephy Sy whilst Carl Dingfelder defeated Kevin Cron. Cassandra Lim scored her first win of the tournament by defeating Sarkis Malkon. Round 9 An exciting last round in Masters with leader Dusan Stojic losing his last round match against Christopher Wallis, and in the process giving Chris third place with 6/9.Justin Tan took full advantage of Dusan's loss by defeating Domagoj Dragicevic to finish equal first with Dusan on 6.5/9. The Challengers tournament also went down to the last round where Anurag Sannidhanam wrapped up the tournament win by defeating Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian finishing on 7.5/9 and in the process qualifying to play in 2013 Masters tournament. Ege Girgin also had a good tournament and won in the last round to finish on 7/9. Noble Park Reserves Winter Swiss
The Reserves Winter Swiss ran alongside the Noble Park Open, and featured 9 players. The players participating in this event were juniors who were reasonably new to chess, and are part of our junior coaching program. The top 3 prize winners were awarded medals for their efforts. After 7 rounds, first place went to Matthew Hau with an impressive score of 7/7. Second place went to Patrick Hau with 6/7 whilst third place went to Megan Hau with 4/7. Page 4 of 14
Kris Chan finished third with 6.5/9 after defeating Phong Huynh. The final results are as follows: Masters =1st FM Dusan Stojic =1st Justin Tan 3rd FM Christopher Walis Challengers 1st Anurag Sanidhanam 2nd Ege Girgin 3rd Kris Chan Rating group 1st Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian 2nd Paul Kelsen Best Junior 1st Kris Chan 2nd Luis Chan Best junior Under‐1000 1st Bill Yuan =2nd Hamish Jones =2nd Regan Crowley Best junior Under‐2000 1st Jimmy Ying Here are the final standings: 1 Hau, Matthew 2 Hau, Patrick 3 Hau, Megan 4‐5 Ea, Ethan Gao, Daniel 6‐7 Christabel, Andrew Almeida, Ushan 8‐9 Mudannayake, Seniru Shipley, Peverel 7 6 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
Noble Park Chess Club
Victorian Women's Championships 2012
Three of Noble Park members; Rebecca Strickland, Pearl Yung and Cassandra Lim participated in Victorian Women's Championships, a tournament which is back after long absence. The tournament was won by Savithri Narenthran with an impressive score of 6.5/7. Noble Park member Rebecca Strickland finished on 3.5/7 whilst Cassandra Lim and Pearl Yung finished on 3/7. Here are articles from Rebecca Strickland and Cassandra Lim describing their thoughts on the event. The first article is by Rebecca. Over two weekends during October, I and a couple of other Noble Park members played in the 2012 Victorian Woman's Chess Championship at the Box Hill Chess Club. This event was re‐introduced this year and hopefully will become a regular competition for many years. The tournament was professionally run by the arbiters with no problems being experienced throughout all 4 days. The tournament had a different feel to it as during every game it was very quiet, probably because the numbers were not as high as most tournaments (or was it because there were no boys..lol). A total of 23 girls/women entered the tournament, with ratings ranging from 1698 to 321, although this was a small number the standard was very good. There were a number of exciting games that went over 4 hours; many games went past the three hour mark. I really enjoyed every game I played and I had many long games where the result was up in the air until very late in the game. I was pleased with my result of 3.5 wins out of 7, with a couple of better decisions against higher‐ranked opponents, I could of snuck a extra point or 2. Pearl and I had a good battle where I was on top early, with Pearl fighting back but in the end, I managed to hang on for the win, this was one of my favourite games of the tournament. I hope that Chess Victoria continue to run this event for years to come as it is always good to see girls/women playing chess. I hope to improve over the next 12 months and maybe achieve few more wins than I did this year. Page 5 of 14
The following article is from Cassandra Lim In October 2012, I had the opportunity to compete in the 2012 Victorian Women's Chess Championship. Seven games were held over two consecutive weekends. The competition was tough! I managed to win two of my games, scoring a total of three points (including a bye). Although I didn't win any prizes, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This was the first women's tournament I've ever joined and it was fun just playing amongst women! The following article is from Pearl The Victorian Women Championship made a comeback this year, revived by Chess Victoria and supported by a $1000 grant from the Victoria Government's office of Multi‐Cultural Affairs and Citizenship. 23 players registered for the event, of which only 6 were "women"! It is great to see the promising future of chess in the 17 junior female players putting their hats in the ring and performing so well. 2 players came from rural Victoria ‐ Zoe Harrison and Anna Yates. There were no easy games, all hard fought. Perhaps owing to the nature of participants, the event had a calm and quiet atmosphere and most games went on for a long time. The organisers, Box Hill Chess Club, offered yummy chocolate prizes for upset wins and it paid to be good friends with the Queen of Draws ‐ Alanna Chew Lee! Alanna, ranked 10th, managed impressive draws against the 3rd seed (Savithri Naranthran), 4th seed (Jean Watson) and 5th seed (Tanya Kolak). Zhi Lin Guo, ranked 8th, also had impressive results against the top 5 seeds, drawing with top seed (Vineetha Wijesuriya) and 2nd seed (Sarah Anton), winning against 4th seed (Jean) and 5th seed (Tanya) and losing only to 3rd seed (Savithri). The 2012 Victorian Women Champion went to Savithri Naranthan, finishing undefeated on 6.5/7; Sarah Anton, Zhi Lin Guo and Jean Watson tied on 5 points and came equal 2nd; Best Junior prizes went to May Yi Foo and Zoe Harrison on 4.5. As a personal experience, I enjoyed the tournament immensely even though my results were not that great. I had not played chess for most of the year, and some of these junior players, little girls with teddy bears and pet rocks, would play more chess in a week than I had played for the entire year! I had close games against some higher rated opponents and was happy with the way I played Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
Noble Park Chess Club
even despite a healthy dose of the proverbial chess rust. I also enjoyed watching all the games, since I know all the players from having been a chess tournament spectator for so long. Taking part in this tournament has inspired me to get back into playing chess, and I urge all the female players out there to do the same! I hope that following on from the successful come back the event will be staying put on the Victorian chess calendar, and wish the event continued success. A snippet of history on this tournament was unearthed, courtesy of ACF President Gary Wastell. According to Gary, the Victorian Women's championship used to be combined with the Victorian Seniors championship. The last Vic Women event took place in the mid 90's, and was won by Edytha Rozycki (Mrs. Swiss Perfect!). Final Standings: Place Name Loc Score 1 Narenthran, Savithri 1646 6.5 2‐4 Anton, Sarah 1692 5 Guo, Zhi Lin 1152 5 Watson, Jean 1426 5 5‐8 Wijesuriya, Vineetha 1698 4.5 Foo, May‐Yi 1166 4.5 Kolak, Tanya 1282 4.5 Harrison, Zoe 1274 4.5 9‐10 Chew Lee, Alanna 1056 4 Chin, Chloe 734 4 11‐14 Chin, Nicole 1088 3.5 Middleton, Jody 700 3.5 Mendes, Amelia 737 3.5 Strickland, Rebecca 838 3.5 15‐19 Sim, Yen De Yue 3 You, Jessica 651 3 Lim, Cassandra 546 3 Lu, Lillian 321 3 You, Jennifer 641 3 20 Yung, Pearl 908 2.5 21 Schapova, Natasha 2 22 Fan, Phoebe 616 1.5 23 Yates, Anna 461 1 Page 6 of 14
World Youth Olympiad 2012
This year in Turkey world youth under 16 Olympiad was held with 40 countries participating. Three Australian teams participated this year. What was so special about this year that we had 3 of the club members were representing Australia in the event. Justin Tan and Laurence Matheson played for the first team alongside Bobby Cheng, Pengyu Chen and Liu Yi whilst Ari Dale played board 1 on second team alongside Savithri Narenthran, Leteisha Simmonds and Mirakla Mithran. After 10 rounds, Australia A finished 8th, Australia C finished in 25th place and Australia B finished in 30th place. The event was won by Russia, Iran finished second whilst India finished third. Here is a report from the event from Laurence Matheson, member of Australia A team on the event. Round 0 We’ve been training with Darryl (plus a few guest coaches) for the last year on Sunday afternoons for the U16 Olympiad (this year held in Turkey from 29th August to September 6th). So that’s why we found ourselves at Melbourne Airport playing blitz at 2am on a Monday night while talking about how bad the music was and throwing pawns at Bobby. None of us slept particularly well on the flights and we almost lost Bobby at Dubai airport, only to find him sitting on a chair about 15 metres from the gate. We eventually arrived extremely tired at the accommodation at dinner time to find it most appropriately styled in pink (especially considering the 80% of the field that were male!?). Round 1 We expected to play Malaysia here, but when we arrived at the venue (after passing through the usual thorough but inadequate security checkpoint at the entry to the building), Ian told us we were now most likely to play Australia B; what a dream start that would have been… Thankfully one of Armenia’s players had to drop out, so we moved ahead of them in the rankings and played Singapore. Bobby’s opponent went for the king‐side hack in a Stonewall but it didn’t make much progress as Bobby Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
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won on the Queenside, while Justin was a pawn up in a fairly boring position until his opponent decided there was mate in 3 to be had by sacrificing a rook. Needless to say there wasn’t and his opponent resigned on the spot. I won a pawn and the two bishops in the opening, but had a tough time converting after he found some tricky counterplay. Eventually I managed to grind him down in an opposite coloured bishop ending with rooks a pawn up that was always going to be tough to hold. The result on Pengyu’s board was never in doubt although he gave us a few nervous moments with the clock… Round 2 I sat out for this round where we faced Greece. This was never going to be an easy one, Greece being seeded not far below us. Bobby made his opponent think for himself early on, but couldn’t find any advantage and wound up having to draw a Bishop vs Knight ending a pawn down. Justin had an early positional advantage in a French and after winning a couple of pawns found a nice 2 Rooks for Queen sac that chased his opponent’s king from b8 to h4 with just a Knight and Queen. Yi didn’t get much play on the Black side of an exchange QGD and then made a tactical error in the endgame which sealed the game. Pengyu also found himself in a QGD, this time on the White side, waiting for a long time to play an e4 advance which virtually decided the game, as Black quickly lost pawns and his King couldn’t find shelter. We also had our first encounter with “Mr ONE”; the guy who said “ONE” every time you tried to pick up two of anything from the canteen. Round 3 This time we faced our first higher‐rated opposition in the form of second seed Iran. Bobby went down quickly after falling into an opening trap, while on board 2 Justin played well and won quickly after picking up a pawn. Yi went for an ambitious exchange sacrifice for some menacing centre pawns, but couldn’t get them to roll and they were eventually picked up. I played a Benoni line I had prepared a couple of years ago that won a pawn with a seemingly won position, only to my horror to have it refuted over the board. Today Justin also learnt the important life skill of balancing 2 water bottles on his head at 1am. Nice one Justin. Round 4 Now it was time to face Kazakhstan, a team we out‐rated on every board (except 2, which had the same rating). Bobby was doing well and had what was probably a winning attack, but a few miscalculations saw him in Page 7 of 14
trouble. Yi (playing on board 2 as Justin had a rest) blundered a pawn from a tactical error, and his position quickly deteriorated. My opponent seemed to think that an attack would be very effective with Knights on h4 and h5 and a Queen on g5. After I spotted the threat of mate on g2 his Knight on h5 was in trouble due to an e4‐e5 advance and he quickly lost. Pengyu played as Black in an Italian which transposed to a Ruy Lopez and won on the Kingside while his opponent did almost nothing. By this time we had discovered a much better use for the slightly stale packaged bread rolls that appeared every meal at the canteen; after a frustrating game it became commonplace to have a bread roll fight which usually ended only when one of the packages burst, showering the person it was aimed at with bits of bread roll. We would usually have these at least once daily. Round 5 Round 5 was the low‐point of the tournament, as we faced lowly ranked Turkey‐Turkuaz (with an average rating of just 1756). Pengyu won a pawn and then a piece and wound up winning in less than an hour and a half. I gradually outplayed my opponent, before eventually breaking through on the Kingside and choosing to win 2 pawns instead of trying to play with a much better position. It turned out a bad decision as I couldn’t hang on to either of them and ended up in a draw rook ending. Yi found himself in a troublesome ending early on and offered a draw, which was rejected by their coach. He finally got (mostly) back into the game before blundering again then somehow drawing a completely lost ending. Things went from bad to worse when Justin dropped a piece and lost a few moves after his opponent got cautioned for distracting. Round 6 We had to pick ourselves up quickly for round 6 as this was a double round day, and faced Turkmenistan, not a team to be underestimated. Justin’s opponent obviously decided not to play and bashed out a theoretical draw line to finish in less than 20 minutes. Bobby had no hiccups and won solidly, while I won a pawn from an opening cheapo and the ensuing ending didn’t offer too many reasons for my opponent to play on. Pengyu also won Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
Noble Park Chess Club
smoothly after winning a pawn and then the ending. This was a perfect note to enter the rest day on. The rest day was fairly uneventful as we got taken on a tour of famous places in Istanbul, including the Hagia Sophia (insert expression of awe or amazement here). The whole time we were there, the weather didn’t seem to dip below about 25 and during the day would have been up around the mid‐30s, creating another job for the now infamous packaged bread rolls; to jam the window open at night (and during the day). These were later replaced by the sheets we realised we didn’t need. Round 7 The day after the rest day we had Peru. Justin got off to a great start, mainly thanks to playing the line the night before against me in 1+1 (jk), but Yi was struggling to reorient himself in a French that didn’t go to plan, while Pengyu was in trouble early after allowing a dangerous exchange sac. Bobby appeared to take a dangerous pawn but when the tactics cleared up he was much better and soon won more material. Justin also won to finish with a 2‐2 scoreline. Round 8 The second round of the day had us paired against top seeds and hot favourites Russia. They chose to play their top team against us, and their class showed on the White boards, where Justin and Pengyu had a hard time of it. Bobby seemed to get a dead equal ending but played well and was very unlucky not to win it, just missing a fairly straightforward win towards the end. My opponent fell for an opening trap and was in trouble from early on; I missed a few fairly simple wins and wound up in a rook ending a pawn ahead which I didn’t manage to win. Despite the non‐success over the board, the “kitchem” staff were becoming friendlier (except Mr ONE), deciding to put up signs for the English speaking players telling them to “HAVE A NICE LAUNCH”. We certainly did. Round 9 The penultimate round saw us playing the top Turkish side in the competition, Turkey Red. Yi was still asleep when we got up and we had plenty of spare water bottles so we put two and two together and Yi was woken in grand Page 8 of 14
style. It must’ve helped, as Yi ended his bad streak, winning quickly. Bobby also outplayed his opponent and though the game was long, the result was never really in doubt. My opponent played the same line for a while as the Kazakhstan had played, but I differed earlier based on my analysis of that game. I got a good Knight vs bad Bishop scenario but failed to put the ball into the net with rooks on and off, eventually ceding the draw. Justin’s game was a real rollercoaster; he seemed to be on top at the start, until he forgot that O‐O was both a legal and good move after which he found himself in deep trouble, but in time trouble his opponent couldn’t find the knockout blow. In mutual time trouble they found themselves in a 2P+B+R ending with white pawns on a‐ and b‐files and black pawns on g‐ and h‐files where I thought if anything Justin would be slower. He proved me wrong with a surprising tactic and won the game. Round 10 We found out at 12am that night that the 3.5‐.5 of the previous day had been especially important, as we now had a serious chance at 3rd place. We would probably need a 3‐1 victory against 3rd seeds India, but it wasn’t out of the question. Things seemed rosy when Pengyu and Justin equalised early, and Pengyu even looked like he had a slight advantage, while I, despite forgetting my preparation, had my opponent firmly on the back foot. Bobby was having trouble finding play early on and eventually settled for a perpetual check combination. Justin didn’t get further than equal and his highly rated opponent was happy with the draw. I built up a good position and had a chance to put the ball in the net, but instead thought I could insert a zwischenzug before winning the pawn, completely forgetting that the combination now lost the exchange. I quickly lost and soon after Pengyu agreed a draw to leave us with a rather inadequate 1.5‐2.5 scoreline and =7th place. We got over the loss the only way we knew how; by chucking packaged bread rolls at each other and “cleaned up” by trying to throw the unused ammo at a bin located outside our window but 3 floors down… For the record I think we made 2/8 attempts. Many thanks have to go to the people who helped us in every way, from the coaches to the parents and all the supporters back home in Australia. Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
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CV Interclub Championships
Here’s a run‐down of the CV Interclub competition since the last newsletter, which concluded on 18th November. In the end, Noble Park 1 finished second whilst Noble Park 2 finished fourth in A grade, whilst Noble Park 3 finished eighth in B grade. Round 5 ‐ September In A grade, Noble Park 2 did not have a good day losing 4‐0 to MCC. Here are the individual results. B1: Miodrag Milojevic (NP) ‐ Jesse Jager (MCC) B2: Thai Ly (NP) ‐ Pano Skiotis (MCC) B3: Marcus Raine (NP) ‐ Sylvester Urban (MCC) B4: Bosko Mijatovic (NP) ‐ Phillip Drew (MCC) 0‐1 0‐1 0‐1 0‐1 In B grade, Noble Park 3 lost 2.5‐1.5 to Ballarat B1: Serif Tuglaci (NP) ‐ Rob Loveband (Ballarat) B2: Franz Oswald (NP) ‐ Patrick Cook (Ballarat) B3: Paul Kelsen (NP) ‐ Kevin Perrin (Ballarat) B4: Milan Stojic (NP) ‐ Rob Bailey (Ballarat) 0‐1 1‐0 0.5‐0.5 0‐1 Round 6 ‐ October In A grade, Noble Park 1 played two matches, one of which was a catch‐up match. In the first match, the team defeated MCC 2.5‐1.5. B1: Domagoj Dragicevic (NP) ‐ Jesse Jager (MCC) B2: Dusan Stojic (NP) ‐ Laurent Michaille (MCC) B3: Justin Tan (NP) ‐ Pano Skiotis (MCC) B4: Svetozar Stojic (NP) ‐ Sylvester Urban (MCC) 1‐0 1‐0 0.5‐0.5 0‐1 In B grade, Noble Park 3 drew their match against MCC 2‐2. Here are the individual results. B1: Anurag Sannidhanam (NP) ‐ Ian Stone (MCC) B2: Serif Tuglaci (NP) ‐ Richard Voon (MCC) B3: Milic Sucevic (NP) ‐ Tony Tosevski (MCC) B4: Paul Kelsen (NP) ‐ Elizabeth Warren (MCC) 0‐1 0‐1 1‐0 1‐0 Round 7/Finals ‐ November This was it. The last round of the interclub, or in other words finals where first was playing second, third playing fourth etc. Noble Park 1 was playing for first place against MCC, Noble Park 2 was playing for third place against Canterbury Juniors whilst in B grade Noble Park 3 was playing against Geelong for 7th place. Noble Park 1 lost its match against MCC 2.5‐1.5 B1: Domagoj Dragicevic (NP) ‐ Jesse Jager (MCC) B2: Dusan Stojic (NP) ‐ Pano Skotis (MCC) B3: Justin Tan (NP) ‐ Sylvester Urban (MCC) B4: John Nemeth (NP) ‐ Frank Lekkas (MCC) 0‐1 0‐1 0.5‐0.5 1‐0 Noble Park 2 drew its match with Canterbury Juniors 2‐2. B1: Miodrag Milojevic (NP) ‐ Bobby Cheng (CJ) B2: Thai Ly (NP) ‐ Jason Tang (CJ) B3: Marcus Raine (NP) ‐ MIchael Chan (CJ) B4: Omar Khaled (NP) ‐ Allen Yu (CJ) 0‐1 1‐0 0‐1 1‐0 Noble Park 3 lost its match against Geelong 2.5‐1.5. B1: Milic Sucevic (NP) ‐ Alistair Anderson (Geelong) 0‐1 B2: Carl Dingfelder (NP) ‐ Michael Sugrue (Geelong) 0.5‐0.5 B3: Milan Stojic (NP) ‐Chris Schulz (Geelong) 0‐1 B4: Paul Kelsen (NP) ‐ Nicholas McClaren (Geelong) 1‐0 So in the end, Noble Park 1 finished second and Noble Park 2 finished fourth in A grade whilst in B grade Noble Park 3 finished eighth. Congratulations to MCC for winning the A grade tournament and Canterbury Juniors 2 for winning the B grade tournament. In the last match of the preliminary round, Noble Park 1 suffered first loss of the event losing 2.5‐1.5 to Canterbury Juniors. B1: Domagoj Dragicevic (NP) ‐ Bobby Cheng (CJ) B2: Dusan Stojic (NP) ‐ Jason Tang (CJ) B3: Justin Tan (NP) ‐ Michael Chan (CJ) B4: John Nemeth (NP) ‐ Allen Yu (CJ) 0‐1 0‐1 1‐0 0.5‐0.5 Noble Park Chess Club
2012 World Youth Chess Championships
By Zachary Loh (edited by Michael Loh) The 2012 World Youth Chess Championships was hosted in the small ski town of Maribor, Slovenia from 8th November to 18th November, 2012. There were 1584 players from 92 different countries in this competition, including 242 titled players ‐ 5 Grandmasters amongst them. The tournament had two separate playing venues, the main venue at Hotel Draš and another at Hotel Habakuk for the Under‐8’s and Under‐10 girls. The main playing venue was a converted gymnasium, which accommodated over 1200 players. Even though it was a large gymnasium, there wasn’t enough room to allow spectators, so parents, coaches and team officials were not allowed to enter the playing hall during play. Most of the Australian team stayed at ‘Hotel Merano’, a short five‐minute walk to the venue. There were also some Canadian players staying at this hotel. The rooms were small but comfortable. The food buffet was delicious. They had a wide variety of food from vegetarian soups to fried chicken. My favourite dish was the french fries that they made every night. The staff at the hotel was very pleasant. They would always greet us and made sure that our stay was pleasant. The tournament itself was very tough and mentally exhausting. It consisted of eleven rounds, played at a rate of one round per day except for a single double‐
round day. Australia was represented by Yi Liu (Under‐
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16 Open), Ari Dale and Zachary Loh (Under‐14 Open), Rowan and Kevin Willathgamuwa (Under‐10 Open) and Sophie Davis (Under‐8 Girls). GM Ian Rogers was the Australian coach. He helped some of our players prepare for each game in the morning and analysis after the game. Play for each round started at 3pm except for a double‐
round day on Monday, 12th November. The first match was at 10 am followed by another match at 3 pm. This was a tough and tiring day! Fortunately, this was followed by a rest day on Tuesday. After each round, the organisers of the tournament provided bulletins for that round with the top 10 games for each age group. They also provided a live broadcast of the playing venues. This was great because the parents could sometimes see their children play. During the tournament, the Australian team had some great days as well as some bad days. Whatever the result, the team tried to have their meals together to share in the joys of victory and to help each other when the result was less than expected. It was a very long and tiring tournament but we all enjoyed each other’s company. A very special person helped us celebrate the closing of the tournament. He was none other than Garry Kasparov, one of the best chess players of all time! He presented the awards to the top 3 winners in each division. There were lots of photos of him, which can be downloaded from the WYCC website http://www.wycc2012.com At the end of the tournament, Ari, Yi and I had a blitz night with the Canadians, one of whom was Richard Wang, placed third in the Under‐14 Open. It was a fantastic night of relaxation ‐ we Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
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played from 3pm to almost 11pm! It was lots of fun and we made some new friends. We played different variations of chess including Bughouse (Transfer) and Crazyhouse (One Person Transfer). Final results for World Youth Chess Championships 2012: Page 12 of 14
Overall, this tournament was a great experience and we all enjoyed it very much. Next year’s tournament will be at Al‐Ain in the United Arab Emirates.
Tournament Winner Country Points Australian player Under‐18 Open GM Dariusz Swiercz Poland 9 Under‐18 Girls WGM Aleksandra Russia 9.5 Goryachkina Under‐16 Open IM Urii Eliseev Russia 9 Yi Liu Under‐16 Girls WFM Anna Styazhkina Russia 9 Under‐14 Open FM Kayden W Troff USA 9 Zachary Loh Ari Dale Under‐14 Girls WFM M Mahalakshmi India 9 Under‐12 Open Samuel Sevian USA 9 Under‐12 Girls R Vaishali India 9 Under‐10 Open FM Anh Khoi Nguyen Vietnam 11 (!) Kevin Willathgamuwa Rowan Willathgamuwa Under‐10 Girls N Priyanka India 9.5 Under‐8 Open Nodirbek Uzbekistan 10 Abdusattorov Under‐8 Girls Motahare Asadi Iran 10 Sophie Davis Points Rank 6.5 5.5 5 6 5 4 =26th/123 =76th/168 99th/168 =61st/192 =111st /192 =68th/90 My time as an arbiter in the 2012 Chess
Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.
By NY Wong There were 157 teams in the Open Olympiad and 127 teams in the Women Olympiad. The Chief Arbiter was IA Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). Reporting to him were two Deputy Chief Arbiters:  IA Güran Ünal (TUR) who was in charge of the Open Olympiad and  IA Carol Jarecki (IVB) who was in charge of the Women Olympiad. The three sector arbiters reporting to IA Güran Ünal were:  IA Evgeny Eletsky (RUS) ‐ sector 1,  IA Karl‐Johan Rist (NOR) ‐ sector 2, and  IA Mahdi Abdulrahim (UAE) ‐ sector 3. The three sector arbiters reporting to IA Carol Jarecki were:  IA Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh (IRI) ‐ sector 1,  IA Selçuk Büyükvural (TUR) ‐ sector 2, and  IA Agnieszka Brustman (POL) ‐ sector 3. The host country (in this case, Turkey) provided half the required number of arbiters. The rest of the arbiters came from the rest of the chess world. This was mainly due to financial constraint. Typically, these arbiters should be International Arbiters (IA). However, no one expect the host country to have some many IAs. Hence, in this Olympiad, there were 70 IAs, 23 FAs (FIDE Arbiters) and 59 NAs (National Arbiters). They were then spread proportionally across the 6 sectors so that there were sufficient IAs to help out the FAs and NAs. According to the Chief Arbiter, the sector 3s were the most difficult because some players from some developing nations might not know the rules very well and he was spot on. I was assigned to help IA Agnieszka Brustman in sector 3 (matches 45‐63) of the Women Olympiad. Even though there were more incidents in this sector (as expected by the Chief Arbiter), I was really glad because of four reasons: 1. This sector was way out of the limelight. 2. The arbiters in this sector were friendlier. 3. The players were also friendlier and more relax. Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
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4. The matches tended to finish earlier than the rest; hence I get to have dinner at a more reasonable time. All my matches finished around 6:30pm (starting at 3pm), except for one which lasted till 8:30pm. In contrast, the last game of each round for the whole Chess Olympiad normally finished around 9pm with one finishing at 10:30pm. The matches that I was involved in were: Rd 1: Pakistan (0 ‐ 4) Philippines Rd 2: New Zealand (3.5 ‐ 0.5) Netherlands Antilles Rd 3: Fiji (0 ‐ 4) Uganda Rd 4: Thailand (1.5 ‐ 2.5) Zimbabwe Rd 5: Suriname (0.5 ‐ 3.5) Botswana Rd 6: Palestine (3 ‐ 1) Aruba Rd 7: Thailand (2.5 ‐ 1.5) Malta Rd 8: Suriname (3.5 ‐ 0.5) Uganda Rd 9: Yemen (1.5 ‐ 2.5) Qatar Rd 10: Japan (0 ‐ 4) FYROM Rd 11: Lebanon (1 ‐ 3) Uruguay In contrast, the shortest game of the whole Chess Olympiad was 6 moves. The shortest checkmate of the whole Chess Olympiad was 9 moves. The longest game of the whole Chess Olympiad was 204 moves. Almost all the arbiters stayed in the Titanic Hotel (4‐
stars) which was a very good hotel. We were provided with free accommodation with 3 meals a day, free internet connection and free access to the gym and indoor swimming pool. The buses brought us to/from the hotel to the playing venue (Convention Centre) about 10‐15 minutes drive every playing day. Each arbiter was given the following items from the Chess Olympiad organiser: 1. One messenger bag with the Chess Olympiad Logo. The bag can be sling across the body. 2. Two T‐shirts with the Chess Olympiad Logo. We were supposed to wear them during the tournament. 3. Two ball‐point pens with the Chess Olympiad Logo. Some of the duties the arbiters have to perform include the following: Page 13 of 14
 Before the games: Arrive at tournament hall 1.5 hours before the start of game.  Report to Sector Arbiter.  Sector Arbiter will assign matches to arbiters.  Collect scoreboard, Match Protocol, 8 scoresheets (pre‐printed with players name, country, and colour they are playing) from Sector Arbiter for the match you are assigned.  Make sure countries and players written on scoreboard are the same as those written on Match Protocol.  Attach each of the 8 scoresheets to clipboard and place them in their correct table.  Check to make sure chess clocks are set correctly.  Check to make sure chess clocks have sufficient battery power.  Check to make sure the pieces are set up correctly.  If other arbiters are late, help to set up their match for them.  When the players arrives:  Check that they wear a security badge with their name and photo of their face on them.  Check to make sure the photo matches the person.  Check to make sure the name on their security badge matches the name on the scoresheet.  Check to make sure they have a green card (only players playing on the day will be given a green card; hence reserves are not allowed into the playing hall).  Remind captain/players to stand behind their own players, not in front, if they want to watch their games.  When the Chief Arbiter announces the start of the game:  If any player is not seated, the player loses the game.  Make sure the chess clocks are working properly.  Make sure the 30‐seconds increment is working properly. (This is easily achieved because after 2‐3 moves, the time should increase by a Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.
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minute due to the 30‐seconds increment per move)  For the first 10 minutes, taking photos are allowed by captains/players/officials. During games:  Make sure players follow the rules of chess (like touch/move).  Make sure players record move by move.  Record the number of moves and the times taken by players every half hour (in case of clock failure).  Make sure captain/players stand behind their own players, not in front.  Look out for time trouble situations.  If you need a short toilet break or tea‐break, make sure you ask the arbiter next to you to look after your match while you are away. Draw Offer:  Make sure at least 30 moves were played.  Unless it was due to 3‐times repetition or stalemate. At the end of game, check both scoresheets for:  Results.  Signatures of both players.  Sign the scoresheets yourself.  Keep the top 2 copies of scoresheets.  Give 3rd scoresheet to player.  Record score on the match protocol.  Record score on the scoreboard.  Collect Green Card from both players. (Once the players finish their game, they become spectators and are not allowed in the tournament hall any longer). At the end of the match:  Make sure you have all the scoresheets.  Record the team score on the match protocol.  Get both captains to sign the match protocol.  Sign the match protocol yourself.  Return all Green Cards to both captains (4 each for the next round).  Record the team score on the scoreboard.  Give completed scoresheets and match protocol to Sector Arbiter.  Clean up the match area ready for the next match. Page 14 of 14
 Report to Sector Arbiter for next assignment, maybe to help other arbiters. Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc.