Queensland Junior Championship

Emmanuel College hosted the Queensland junior championships this week. Tuesday the under eight's fought it out. All the results with excellent reports from the Arbiter, Charles Zworestine, are on the Gardiner Chess website 

The medalwinners were..

U8

     1  Chan, Jason      11/11 

        2   Durden, Sam         9/11    

        3   Brutnell, Jett        8/11

U10

This event took place on Wednesday and several of my students were playing so I took the afternoon off work to see how they were doing. Not too shabby! Kevin conceded only one draw, winning his third U10 title and David shared 2-3.

        1    Song, Kevin       7.5      

     2-3  Tran, Philip       6        

               Liu, David       6       

(photo Charles Zworestine)

U12

The Song remains the same (sorry Kevin, couldn't resist :-) as Kevin picked up the under twelves as well. It was a little more hard-fought than the under ten's and Kevin did lose one game to Leon Lee but in the end made history by winning both the U10 and U12, a feat never before accomplished according to the organisers...I think. Corrections welcome. The PGN of Kevin's game from round 7 is available on the report.


  1   Song, Kevin            6
 2-3  Lee, Leon               5.5
      McNamara, Elijah    5.5

(photo Flora Song)

U18, 16, 14

At the time of writing no report is available, just the results. I and everybody else expected this tournament to be a race between Gene and Yi. Both players compete successfully at senior level and are amongst Australia's top players. Alex Stahnke raised some eyebrows with his victory against IM Steven Solomon the week before and was seen as a dark horse. Martin Jack's win against Gene was not predicted by anyone! Gene came back into contention by beating Yi who now had to beat Natasha Bortsova to win gold. Watch out for this young lady. If you are on the Women's Olympiad team, look behind you.

(photo Charles Zworestine)

       1   Liu, Yi                    B            2265 2266      7/8        

       2   Nakauchi, Gene (FM)  GC 2294 2287      6.5/8

        3   Jack, Martin                 GC    1649 1675      6/8      

4-7Bortsova, Natasha    T  1589 1511      5/8        

      Stahnke, Alexander   GC 1781 1873      5/8        

      Slater-Jones, Tom    B   1485 1522       5/8       

      Hughes, Harry        B     1408 1405       5/8  

Tom Slater-Jones and Harry Hughes joined Alex and Natasha on 5 points. They all played very maturely concentrating on their games and you might notice that they are all well under 18. The official site has not posted the medals yet (or PGN's) so I can't give any more details. Another name to watch is  Tony Zhong who finished on 4/8 and is only 11 years old. 

Academy News

Many Elite Squad students are going to Melbourne for a week of training so this Sunday we will have an informal training session, combining advanced and elite.

Our Wesite, doubleroo.com.au is ready to launch and will go live tonight. Stand by!

Doubleroo Chess Academy Holiday Programme

Apology

First to all the people who have come to this website via www.doubleroo.com.au or have tried to call our number 1300797675. The main reasons are my own technical incompetence and tardiness. Also, this weekend I have been playing in the Gold Coast Open. We will be open tomorrow, as advertised, by 10am. In case you missed it..  

School Holiday Programme

10am-4pm Monday to Friday
June 25-29 + July 2-6
cost $45 per day / weekly $150

Winter is the best time to play Chess. Serious lessons with International Chess Masters will be mixed with practise games, blitz tournaments, chess variants (IM Peter Froelich's speciality) and other chess related activities.

Gold Coast Open 2012

I was very happy with my morning game until I ran it through "fire xtreme", my preferred chess engine, and got told that I missed a very easy win. 27. Ne4 would have saved a lot of ink. Unfortunately www.chessvideos.tv , the site I generate my game viewer in, is down. For the die-hard chess addict I present you with the PGN and will replace it when the site is back up. Now updated.


[Event "Gold Coast Open "]
[Site "Emmanuel College"]
[Date "2012.06.24"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Black "Wallis, Christopher"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2412"]
[BlackElo "2264"]
[ECO "B10n"]
[EventDate "2012.06.22"]

1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.exd5 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nxd5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bb5 e6
8.O-O Be7 9.d4 O-O 10.Re1 Bd7 11.Bd3 Rc8 12.Bb1 Nf6 13.a3 Qb6 14.Qd3
g6 15.Ba2 Rfd8 16.b4 Be8 17.Be3 Qc7 18.Rac1 a6 19.h3 Qb8 20.Bg5 Nh5
21.d5 Bxg5 22.Nxg5 Nf4 23.Qe4 exd5 24.Nxd5 Nxd5 25.Bxd5 Qd6 26.Qh4 h5
27.Rxe8+ Rxe8 28.Bxf7+ Kg7 29.Bxe8 Rxe8 30.Qc4 Re7 31.Nf3 Qf6 32.Rd1
Qb2 33.Qd3 Qf6 34.h4 Ne5 35.Nxe5 Qxe5 36.g3 Rc7 37.Qd8 Rf7 38.Qd6 Qf5
39.Qd4+ Qf6 40.Qxf6+ Kxf6 41.Rd6+ Kf5 42.Kg2 Rc7 43.Rb6 Rd7 44.a4 Rc7
45.a5 Rd7 46.f3 Rg7 47.Kh3 Rf7 48.g4+ Ke5 49.Kg3 Rg7 50.f4+ Kd4 51.g5
Kc4 52.f5 gxf5 53.Kf4 Rf7 54.g6 Rf8 55.Rxb7 Kd5 56.g7 Rc8 57.Kxf5 Kd6
58.Kf6 1-0



So now I still had the undeserved chance to play for shared first place butt that would mean beating Australia's number one player with black. I had a chance but one inaccuracy was enough and it came on move 15. Instead of 15...a6 I need to play 15...Qb6 . Now checked with engine, other way round, we both had no idea of what was going on.

[Event "Gold Coast Open "]
[Site "Emmanuel College"]
[Date "2012.06.24"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Zhao, Zong-Yuan"]
[Black "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2542"]
[BlackElo "2412"]
[ECO "C10e"]
[EventDate "2012.06.22"]

1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.Nc3 Be7 4.e5 c5 5.Qg4 Bf8 6.dxc5 Nc6 7.Nf3 h5 8.Qg3
h4 9.Qg4 Nh6 10.Bxh6 Rxh6 11.Bd3 g6 12.Qf4 Rh5 13.Nb5 Bxc5 14.g4 hxg3
15.fxg3 a6 16.g4 Rh3 17.Nd6+ Bxd6 18.exd6 Qb6 19.O-O-O Bd7 20.Kb1
O-O-O 21.Qxf7 Qe3 22.Rhf1 g5 23.Rde1 Qc5 24.Nxg5 Re3 25.Nxe6 Rxe1+
26.Rxe1 Qa5 27.Rc1 Re8 28.Bf5 Ne5 29.Qg7 Nc4 30.Nc5 1-0



And so the winner receives his trophy and well deserved winners check.

Good night all, sweet dreams.

Triple Round Saturday

I forgot how much I hate weekend tournaments. One has to wake up at the crack of dawn, quickly shower, make coffee and already its time to get in  the car so as not to be too late. Pen? check. My first game was a slug-fest that could have gone either way. Laurence then put the rook on the wrong square.

                                                                                

After lunch I faced the Olympiad team's board 5, Max Illingworth. I have been looking at Kings Gambits with some of my students. It would be hypocritical if I didn't play it myself occasionally. I got a dream position out of the opening, following a plan of Hikaru Nakamura, and then chose not to play one of the winning moves but tried to lose instead. Max didn't let me and so we drew.

By evening we were no longer playing chess but trying not to blunder. Fat chance! Justin swapped all the wrong bits and ended up in a hopeless ending. My legendary technique sufficed for another draw.




And so it's 12.30am and my alarm will try to wake me at 7am. Groan.....

Gold Coast Open 2012

Round 1

If you don't look to closely this looks like a nice swashbuckling game with some sacrifices and a nice mate. Had my opponent played 10...Bb7 instead of greedily taking my pawn I would have been forced to show some imagination to justify my impending pawn deficit.

Also if his King moves to the g file after 25. Rf1 it is not mate and I am forced to play an ending. Better for white but not mate. If you don't look to closely you will enjoy this game.

There were several upsets, the biggest being Alex Stahnke's win against Steven Solomon. The results have been posted on chesschat. Time to sleep. Round 2 is at the inhuman time of 9am. 

Celebrate the Solstice!

Winter Solstice

It was a bright, sunny day on Thursday the 21 of June, otherwise known as "Midsommardagen" in Swedish or the Solstice in English. Here down under it is the Winter Solstice. Many ancient structures were aligned with the Solstice, like Stonehenge and ancient societies all over the planet marked this day as the changing of the seasons. 

I was very disappointed that there were no parties to mark this event in the very "new age' area of Byron Shire. What's up hippies? How come this esoteric day is not marked by wild celebration? Anyway, I celebrated with a swim at Watego's beach followed by a Salad Nicoise  at the rails. 

The beach was not too crowded. 

Last reminder for the Gold Coast Open

The first round starts at 18.30 tonight if you are playing in the open and tomorrow morning for the U1600 + U1000.

I like to take a few days off before a tournament to unwind, focus and prepare for the event. Unwinding is swimming, and preparation means looking at some recent games of the other competitors. Accidentally I came across a game played by one of the fiercest competitors, Australian number 1 female, Arianne Caoili. She has improved since.

Academy

Since everybody including yours truly is going to be at the Gold coast open, the Academy is going to be closed this weekend. Toodles :-)

Academy news + random thought and info.

Sunday training games

We had a small group this Sunday but a dedicated one. The topic was how to use a database, enter, analyse and annotate your games. The first one to finish was between  top Gold Coast junior, Martin Jack and a talented new arrival from New Zealand, Derek Zhong.


[Event "Elite squad training game"]
[Site "DCA"]
[Date "2012.06.17"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Jack, Martin"]
[Black "Zhong, Derek"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1643"]
[BlackElo "928"]
[ECO "B08g"]
[EventDate "2012.06.17"]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 O-O 6.h3 {a serious error
allowing black to gain the advantage immediately with 6...Ne4} 6...b6
$2 {missing the obvious} 7.O-O Ba6 $2 {7...Bb7 needed to be played,
Black needs his white squared bishop to defend his white squares.} 8.
Bxa6 Nxa6 9.Qe2 Nb8 10.Be3 {maybe Bg5(engine) would have been more
incisive} 10...Nbd7 $2 {10...e6 is much better to avoid what follows}
11.Rfd1 $2 {11.e5 immediately is better. Now black can play 11...e6}
11...Qc8 12.e5 $6 dxe5 $6 {better is 12...Ne8 without opening the d
file } 13.dxe5 Nh5 $4 {Losing a whole piece. After 13...Ne8 white is
better but nothing tragic has happened yet. Black sacrificed
deliberately hoping to weaken the white King's position.} 14.g4 Nxe5
15.Nxe5 Bxe5 $1 16.Nd5 $1 {a nice "zwischenzug" , meaning in-between
move. Activating another piece with a threat that must be met} 16...
Re8 $1 17.gxh5 Qxh3 18.Bf4 e6 $6 {Better was 18...Bf4 when black has
some compensation} 19.Ne7+ Rxe7 20.Bxe5 gxh5 $4 {20...Qf5 intending
f6 and e5 allows black to remain in the game.} 21.Qe4 $4 {21.Rd3
mates or wins the Queen} 21...Qg4+ 22.Qxg4+ hxg4 23.Bf6 Ree8 24.Kg2
$2 {allowing 24...e5} 24...h5 25.Rd7 {The rest should be technique}
25...c5 26.Rh1 Kh7 27.Bc3 Kg6 28.Rhd1 a5 29.a4 Rab8 30.Be5 Rbc8 31.
Bc7 Kf6 32.Bxb6 Re7 1-0


The game replayer didn't handle the annotated pgn and it looks like the Blog is not handling it either. Oh well, I'll edit it later.

The second game was between regulars Tony Zhong (no relation) and Tom Slater-Jones. These two have built up quite a rivalry and have played each other often recently. Tom won this see-sawing game in the ending. As usual it went down to the wire so we did not have the time to annotate it.

Alexander Zhong?

Someone pointed out to me that a lot of good Chessplayers are called Alexander. A few examples would be Alekhine, Morozevitch, Grishchuk Shirov etc. I have noticed that a lot of strong juniors are named Zhong. So I just checked if FIDE had an Alexander Zhong. Not yet. The combination should yield a super-strong Chess player :-)

Academy news

We are still experiencing some technical difficulties with the website and telephone system, meanwhile brochures with both advertised have gone out. Ooops, slightly embarrassing. If you are here via www.doubleroo.com.au , I profusely apologise for the delay and wish to assure you that our knowledge of Chess exceeds our technical abilities. If you wish to make an enquiry or a booking please send me a text on my mobile ( 0415 679290 ) or send an email to alexwohl@gmail.com.

Gold Coast Open 

Starts this Friday (or Saturday U1600+U1000). Info here. I will play my first tournament for many months so we will see how rusty I am. I have been to the venue (Emmanuel College) a few times and can reassure you that it is excellent. The tournament itself will be very strong and well organised. If you are a Chess player this event is not to be missed.

Have a nice day :-)

Queensland Rules!

Olympiad Team

I recently noticed that the entire Australian Olympiad team is made up of Queenslanders, only our reserve, Max Illingworth, hails from New South Wales. I take a small liberty here as GM David Smerdon is registered as ACT but was raised in Brisbane. The Olympiad appeal is going quite well but the target has still not been reached. Another $5000 and we are there. Queenslanders! It is your team!

On the donations page you can browse photo's of past Olympiads and check out our previous performances.

Ian Rogers

GM Ian Rogers has been nominated Women's Captain! The Girls must be thrilled. As was pointed out by a reader who preferred to stay anonymous, Ian is commentating on the Tal Memorial.  His excellent blow by blow account of the games can be seen on Chesstv.com.
 Ian played the following game at my first Olympiad, Manila 1992. This masterpiece won the second brilliancy prize. Many people thought it should have been first. Enjoy.

Queensland Minor Championship

More locally, last weekend the Queensland minor was held at the Sherwood community centre in southern Brisbane. I dropped in to see how my  students were doing and was very impressed. Martin Jack, who joined the Elite Squad the week before won the event, (=1st 5/6)

Tom Slater Jones was close behind in third place with 4.5/6 

while Tony Zhong, pictured above playing Tom (draw) finished in 10th on 3.5/6 after losing a tough battle in the last round. 

David Liu who's rating has recently jumped 300 points to 662, beat two 1200's on the first day

despite suffering from a cold. This caught up with him on day two.  

If these young players maintain their interest in chess then I suspect Queensland will dominate the Olympiad team for decades to come :-)

Academy News

Well yours truly has been a little slack lately so between giving lessons, watching my students play and following the Tal memorial, not all that much has happened. Sunday the Elite Squad will meet again and finally the website www.doubleroo.com.au  should disengage itself from this blog.....barring technical issues. Stay tuned Amigo's.

Tal Memorial

Tal Memorial

I am watching the first round live on the official site. I don't really understand Russian although its a Slavic language like my native tongue Serbo-Croatian. The main reason I am listening is because Chess sounds good in Russian. Similarly I like my food in French and my technical manuals in German.

So now I don't understand the game I'm watching, have no idea what I'm eating and can't figure out how to use my German mobile. As compensation I feel very multicultural.

If you are a member of the Internet Chess Club, ICC, you can listen to GM Larry Christiansen and friends explain the games in English. A lot of Larry's friends, Like Yermo' have Russian accents so you get the best of both worlds.

Darryl Johansen withdraws 

We already suffered the loss of our board 1 Zong-Yuan Zhao and now we have lost another of our three Grandmasters, Darryl Johansen. We have depth though and first IM Steven Solomon and now by one of the next generation, Max Illingworth . 

DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah International Open 2012

Next a plug for my good friend Peter Long, who has been organising the KL open for several years and is always good for a surprise. Regular readers will surely remember photo's of sumptuous dishes and good company

 from this city which to me is the World Food capital. Peter's surprise this year is the participation of Sergei Tiviakov! Book now to secure accommodation at the Venue. This year the dates are, 17-23 September. Anyway folks, getting back to the games. Sweet dreams