Saturday 18 January 2014

Australian Juniors 2014/Puzzle 11

The Australian Juniors for this year is about to wrap up at Knox Grammar in Sydney. The Junior title has already been wrapped up with a round to spare by Anton Smirnov, who has so far produced a very dominant 7.5/8 to lead by a a full 1.5 points. The critical game against second seed Zelesco came as early as round 3 and went in favour of Smirnov, while Zelesco never really recovered and sits in third place with 5.5/8, having conceded 3 draws. Third seed Pengyu Chen also suffered a loss at the hands of Smirnov after losing a piece and a couple of draws sees him on 6/8 and in second place.

The U8s and U10s had already taken place and were fairly Victorian-dominated, with Jay Landau taking out the U8s (8/9 and 3-1 in the playoff), while there was a Victorian 1-2-3 in the U10s; Bobby Yu took it out with a perfect 9/9, while Cassandra Lim came second with 8 and brother Christopher 3rd with 7. The U12 is the closest contest, with 2 players on 6.5/8 and another 3 on 6, while in the U14s Rishi Dutta is a point clear with 7.5/8 and two chasers on 6.5. Finally, the U16 division has also been closely faught, with George Carolin-Unkovich on 7.5/8, Charles Tsai at 7 and Rowan Willathgamuwa on 6.5.

We'll take a look at Anton's title-winning tactic from round 8 against Victorian Max Chew Lee;

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Wednesday 15 January 2014

Australian Championships 2014 Part 2/Puzzles 08-10

After the draw with Anton, there was some relief from the double round days in the form of a rest day. I took the opportunity to play more chess, participating in the lightning tournament. After losses to Papin and Cheng and a draw with Partsi I wasn't really paying too much attention to the top of the field but was told after my last game (against Anton's dad Vlad, a game where there were serious chances for both sides but ending in a draw) that a win would have actually had either myself or Vlad in a 4-way playoff for the title. In any case, it was a lot of fun and I saw a few faces that I hadn't for a while.

Back to the main tournament, to start the home straight, I next faced Queenslander Brodie McClymont, a win giving me good chances (probably 1/2 after the win) for an IM norm. Unfortunately for me, the game was a bit of a flop as I needlessly gave the two Bishops and a Pawn and never recovered. Next I faced FM Dragicevic and we had our 4th draw in a row, though not without its fair share of drama!

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With 3 rounds to go I played FM Wallis, another familiar face. For once I played a convincing game in an offbeat Caro Kann.

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A slightly unfortunate pairing took me out of IM norm contention, hitting FM Luke Li who was just too low rated to keep me in the hunt. The game itself looked set to be a repeat of the Wallis game, as some accurate play gave me a serious positional edge with the 2 Bishops and a great position and Luke sacrificed the exchange for some counterplay and a pawn. This time, however, the conversion went awry, as I allowed a simple tactic to win back the exchange and only managed a draw.

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The final round was a rather tame affair against IM Wohl, as I swapped into an Old Indian ending that never really swung in either players' favour and we agreed a draw in a double-edge but probably equal ending. In all, a very enjoyable event. Congratulations to the new Australian Champion Max Illingworth, and the Reserve Champion Doug Hamilton, a very worthy winner!

Monday 13 January 2014

Australian Championships 2014 Part 1/Puzzles 04-07

After an underwhelming Canterbury Summer Swiss where I was failing to put away and even losing to 1600s, I didn't like my chances of doing well in the closed Australian Championships, which began just 2 days later, run by Noble Park Chess Club at the Springvale Town Hall. The playing conditions were excellent and the event ran smoothly, while the difficult task of keeping a reasonable temperature during the hot days was well-managed; well done to Dusan and the guys at NPCC. The first round had me paired against GM Johansen, just like the same tournament 2 years ago. It was the same result too, as a KIA ended in a tame draw. Next up was the ultra solid FM Canfell who had beaten me last year.

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There was still more chess to play that day, as I faced visiting WGM Sukandar in a complicated closed Sicilian. See if you can do better than me in the critical position.

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Despite missing the win, I was still so far very well placed and once again faced some serious opposition in the form of Vietnamese GM Tu Hoang Thong, who demonstrated his strength by swapping into a favourable ending and then finding a nice combination in the following position.

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Now it was time for the second double round day and people were getting tired, IM Brown making an unfortunate blunder in the first game of the day to give me an easier run in an unclear position.

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Once again I had a disappointing end to the double round day, as I agreed a draw in a much better position against young gun FM Smirnov, completely missing the winning move.