Malaysian Chess Festival supporting events.

35th ASTRO MERDEKA RAPID OPEN TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2015 (OPEN) 12th Malaysia Chess Festival 2015

Chess in Malaysia reached a new level this year with 104 teams competing in the open event and 47 in the under 12 section. That makes 604 competitors and at least the same number of parents, coaches, organisers,  officials, volunteers and spectators. We took up the entire fifth floor of the Cititel Hotel in the Midvalley shopping centre.

It was a miracle that the event ran relatively smoothly despite several challenges. One (continuing) challenge was that the lifts are being upgraded so a crowd was always gathered in the lobby and the stairwell got a considerable workout. The air conditioning was not quite up to the job but the staff heroically managed to keep the water dispensers filled and clean glasses supplied. Children of all ages littered the floor in chaotic fashion and getting to ones board was always tricky. Here a snapshot during a quiet time. It got a lot worse than this!   

The Doubleroo Chess Academy fielded a team with a ring in, Polgar Chess Asia trainer, Carlo Lorenzo. The concept of the tournament was that the average rating of the team had to be under 2250 so there was quite a bit of juggling going on. Also one could place players in any order.Since we had David Liu (1461) on our team we could have fielded Magnus Carlsen and still come in under the limit. But he could have hardly started better than Carlo who won his first 7 games. 

Brodie McClymont  scored 6/9 on board 1 against the strongest field including a crushing win against GM Oliver Dimakiling 2526.

David Liu played bravely against a 1922 average field scoring a win and three draws. He was also handicapped by some instructions from his coach, which I will not share with you, sorry.

David Liu

As for yours truly, I got a bit lucky in a few games and contributed 8.5/9.

Together we won five matches, drew two and lost two by the slimmest of margins (2.5/1.5). With just a little more undeserved luck we could have easily finished on the podium. Still 15th out of 104 teams (we were seeded 24th) was a very satisfactory result.

Meanwhile Jacob Chan from Kings Christian College GC , the fourth member of our "delegation", joined the INDUS International School team and scored 5/9 against a 1522 average field.

I have to say it again, I love the concept of having a maximum average rating.

For full results click here

Jacob Chan

Chess is a family affair in the Chan household. Jordan played in the U10 today while Mum Audrey kept the lads fed and hydrated.

Audrey and Jordan Chan.

Today the boys played in the 6th SWENSEN’S AGE-GROUP CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2015 but since the results have not been posted yet and I went shopping after the 5th round I can't bring you the results yet.

Stay tuned for reports and games from the 12th IGB DATO’ ARTHUR TAN MALAYSIAN OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP which starts tomorrow morning at the unnatural time of 9 am. It is now 11.59 pm.

                                                     Groan.....

Churchie wins 2015 GPS competition.

GPS Chess

Chess does not get much more exciting than this. Grammer and Churchie playing for the title is a fixture of Queensland GPS chess(Click on the link for complete results). I have seen several of these contests and they all see-saw until the time control. Then a single weak move made in haste can decide the fate of the whole season. It seems random from a distance but team spirit and nerves play a crucial role in pressure situations.

The first game that was decided (long before it was finished) was the board three clash between WeiWei Tsai  and Harry Hughes. An opposite colour bishops endgame was reached out of the opening and many moves later black won a pawn....and immediately agreed to a draw.

The board 1 clash between Charles Tsai and Tom Slater-Jones was gearing up to be the contest I expected until Tom blundered an exchange to a knight fork. I had blinked and missed it. 

Now we were one up with two games to go. Ivan Zelich, as black, had a dominating knight on d4 but had used a lot of time and Alex Au, also black, was attacking Jared Louie. Alex broke through with a controlled display (game below) while Ivan took a poisoned pawn and was soon in a bad ending. This one goes to Churchie. As soon as the match was over the lads were already talking about "States" :-)

Sunday Rapid

Charles doubled up on Sunday by picket-fencing the Doubleroo-Churchie Rapid. Andrew Fitzpatrick got conscripted to hand out the prizes. Alex Au led the pack (Alexander Desses, Armaan Kundal) 2 points behind with 5/7. 

Standings

Place Name                Feder Rtg Loc  Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   Tsai, Charles       B         1876 7        23.0  31.0   28.0
 2-4  Au, Alex            B         1417 5        20.0  28.5   19.0
      Desses, Alexander   B         1225 5        19.5  28.5   21.0
      Kundal, Armaan      B         921  5        17.5  27.5   17.0
 5-6  Slater-Jones, Henry B         1584 4.5      22.5  32.5   22.0
      Wang, Jason         B         1489 4.5      22.5  31.5   23.0
7-12  deGit, Cole         B         881  4        19.0  24.5   16.0
      Waddell, Craig      B         892  4        18.5  24.0   18.0
      Young, Dashiell     B         1224 4        18.0  25.5   18.0
      Morris, Byron       GC        950  4        15.0  23.5   17.0
      Ng, Sze-Yong        B         659  4        15.0  21.0   10.0
      Tseng, Daniel       B         608  4        13.5  19.0   12.0
 13   Su, Lucas           B         877  3.5      12.0  18.5   12.0
14-19 Yuan, Dylan         B         783  3        20.5  30.0   15.0
      Huang, Aaron        B         588  3        18.5  25.5   14.0
      O'Donnell, Aidan                   3        18.5  25.5   13.0
      Lee, Chun           B         753  3        18.0  24.5   13.0
      Young, Arden        B         682  3        16.5  22.0   11.0
      Houghton, Sam       B         604  3        16.0  21.5    9.0
 20   Miller, Jack        B         671  2.5      15.5  21.0    7.0
21-22 Lang, Eric          B         625  2        17.0  24.5    9.0
      Su, Marcus          B         712  2        15.5  20.5    6.0
 23   Khagram, Aaryan     B         561  1        16.5  22.5    6.0

Novices

The novices section was also dominated by one player, Dillon Fang, with 7/7. Just as in the Open section, three players followed with 5/7. Will Bode took second and third was Ayesha Khagram. Its good to see more girls participating and taking their places on the podium.

Standings

Place Name                Feder Rtg Loc Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   Fang, Dillon        B         511 7        21.0  29.0   28.0
 2-4  Bode, William       B         581 5        21.0  28.5   19.0
      Khagram, Ayesha     B         532 5        19.0  28.5   20.0
      Tang, Jayden        B         500 5        18.0  26.0   21.0
 5-9  Congreve, Lachlan   B         624 4        23.0  34.0   20.0
      Huang, Adam                       4        21.0  30.0   17.0
      Lee, Adeline                      4        17.5  25.5   17.0
      Yu, Nathaniel                     4        17.5  25.5   16.0
      Hsu, Kelvin                       4        17.5  25.0   13.0
10-12 Brooks, Ardy                      3.5      17.0  23.0   12.0
      Mathew, Christopher               3.5      15.0  20.0   11.0
      Hsu, Perry                        3.5      11.5  15.5   11.0
13-16 Wang, Malcolm                     3        20.0  29.5   14.0
      Lin, Ian                          3        18.5  26.5   15.0
      Lin, Joe                          3        17.0  24.0    9.0
      Li, Josh                          3        14.0  19.0   13.0
 17   Conway, Charlie                   2.5      16.5  22.5   11.0
18-19 Verma, Akshin                     1.5      17.0  23.0    6.0
      Verma, Aarav                      1.5      15.0  20.0    7.0

Churchies master of Chess, Mr Max Condon has put a lot of effort into the chess program in general and the Premier team in particular. Not only are all details taken care of but players (and coaches) regularly get treated to Sushi :-)

Alex joined the school this year and has had an immediate impact. He look completely overwhelmed by the occasion in this photo. He was tongue-tied after his extremely tense game, a rare event :-)

A great game by Alex considering the context. Yes, white could have gotten a substantial advantage early, around move 11 by playing f4 and e4. Later black may have been able to win more quickly but don't forget, this was a 40 minute game. Enjoy

Brisbane Junior Girls

Just down the road from Churchie, at St Thomas's primary school there was another event. I know the winner was Nina Tchitaev with 7/7. The full results will be published on the Southside Junior Chess Club sometime.

That's all folks, I am flying to KL tomorrow to play some chess again myself. Stay tuned.

Hughston Parle wins Doubleroo rapid with picket fence. Marcus Su does the same in Grades 1-5 event.

Open Tournament

Hughston Parle has been playing exceptional chess lately drawing with Queenslands newest International master Brodie McClymont a few weeks ago not to mention drawing with Grammars board 1 Tom Slater-Jones and beating TSS board 1 David Liu in the GPS inter-school competition. 

Michael D'Arcy handed out prizes on behalf of the Queensland chess federation.

Jason Wang made the winners circle once more losing only to the winner and drawing with Henry Slater-Jones. He was second on countback with 5.5/7. Picktured to the right is Churchie's favourite D.O.P Tyson Walker

Henry Slater-Jones is another outstanding Queensland junior with a FIDE (world chess federation) rating of 1920, only 2 points below his older brother Tom. He played a bit too solidly (dare I say professionally?), not losing any games but drawing three and didn't get to play the winner.

Third on countback with 5.5/7 is not bad though

Three players tied for the U800 rating prize, Keanu Matsuura won

Chun Lee came second

and Evan Fraser third. All three made 4/7

Isaac Lupari also finished on 4/7 but lost the tiebreak lottery.

Sophie Watkins was the best girl also scoring 4/7 and played the whole tournament on the top tables. She beat everyone under 1492, losing only to the professionals. 

Standings

Place Name                Feder Rtg Loc  Club      Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   Parle, Hughston     B         1482 800+      7        20.5  29.0   28.0
 2-3  Wang, Jason         B         1543 800+      5.5      22.5  33.0   22.5
      Slater-Jones, Henry B         1512 800+      5.5      22.5  31.5   24.0
 4-6  Kundal, Armaan      B         904  800+      5        21.0  30.5   22.0
      Su, Lucas           B         874  800+      5        20.5  28.5   19.0
      deGit, Cole         B         840  800+      5        18.0  25.0   20.0
 7-8  Liu, David (GC)     GC        1492 800+      4.5      22.0  31.5   20.5
      Waddell, Craig      B         898  800+      4.5      17.5  25.0   17.0
9-14  Watkins, Sophie     B         876  800+      4        21.5  30.0   18.0
      Fraser, Daniel      B         1090 800+      4        20.5  28.5   18.0
      Matsuura, Keanu     GC        790  Under 800 4        18.0  25.0   15.0
      Lee, Chun           B         744  Under 800 4        17.5  23.0   14.0
      Fraser, Evan        B         773  Under 800 4        16.5  23.5   14.0
      Lupari, Isaac       B         743  Under 800 4        15.0  22.5   12.0
15-17 Chan, Jacob         GC        988  800+      3.5      21.5  30.0   20.0
      Yuan, Dylan         B         722  Under 800 3.5      19.0  25.5   16.0
      Huang, Aaron        B         588  Under 800 3.5      14.0  19.5   11.0
18-24 Cox, Joshua                        Under 800 3        18.0  25.0   12.0
      Milbourne, Noah                    Under 800 3        16.5  24.0   12.0
      Zhuang, Raymond     B         832  800+      3        16.0  24.5   12.0
      Eager, Blake        B         638  Under 800 3        16.0  22.5   12.0
      Congreve, Sophie    B         872  800+      3        15.0  20.5   12.0
      Houghton, Sam       B         602  Under 800 3        15.0  20.0    9.0
      Kane, Euan          B         518  Under 800 3        13.5  19.0    6.0
 25   Shresth, Aryan      B         825  800+      2.5      17.5  23.5   13.0
26-30 Williams, Joshua                   Under 800 2        16.5  22.0   11.0
      Evans, Angus                       Under 800 2        15.5  23.0    6.0
      Wood, Joshua        B         652  Under 800 2        14.5  21.0    8.0
      Pollack, Oscar                     Under 800 2        14.0  18.5    5.0
      Millar, Jack                       Under 800 2        13.5  20.0    8.0
 31   Heaven, Max    

Grades 1-5 tournament

Marcus Su won this event with ease and should play in the open next time. Not only his score but his play was so impressive that even my "official photographer", Francoise Petitjean, noticed. Pictured to the left of Marcus is Mr Max Condon, master of Chess at Churchie and the driving force behind our whole chess program.

Lachlan Congreve cruised into second place on 6/7 with a broken arm.

Rei Sannomiya looks happy with his third place scoring 4.5/7

And so our third term rapid concluded with lots of happy faces on this glorious winters day. 55 participants is a new record I think and we also had many players come up from the Gold Coast. Thanks must go to their parents who drove such a long way to indulge their children's passion.

Let's see is we can break this record in term 4 :-)

Standings

Place Name                Feder Rtg Loc Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   Su, Marcus          B         626 7        21.5  31.5   28.0
  2   Congreve, Lachlan   B         598 6        19.5  28.5   24.0
 3-5  Sannomiya, Rei                    4.5      21.5  31.0   19.0
      Chan, Jordan        GC        544 4.5      21.0  30.0   20.0
      Khagram, Aaryan     B         563 4.5      19.0  28.0   18.0
 6-9  Williams, Matthew                 4        22.5  32.5   19.0
      Khagram, Ayesha                   4        20.5  30.0   17.0
      Huang, Adam                       4        18.0  26.0   17.0
      Hsu, Kelvin                       4        17.5  26.5   17.0
10-13 Bose, Ishan                       3.5      18.5  26.5   17.0
      Woodhouse, Roc                    3.5      17.5  24.0   14.0
      Lee, Adeline                      3.5      15.5  22.0   13.0
      Gregory, Jeremy                   3.5      13.0  18.5   12.0
 14   Evans, Bella                      3        15.5  21.5   12.0
15-16 Mathew, Christopher               2.5      15.5  22.0    7.5
      Latimer, William                  2.5      12.0  18.0    7.0
17-22 Brookes, Ardy                     2        16.0  22.5   10.5
      Hsu, Perry                        2        14.5  20.0    9.0
      Latimer, Isabella                 2        14.0  20.5    8.0
      Coxon, Nicholas                   2        13.5  21.5    4.5
      Sejourne, Pierre                  2         7.0  15.5    5.0
      Swindale, Lachlan                 2         6.0  12.0    5.0
 23   Sejourne, Maxime                  1         7.0  12.5    2.5

 24   Sanders, Aidan                    0.5       7.0  12.5    1.5        

Jojo the baby crab and his incredible adventure

Jojo's home was a nice beach we humans call Salt beach, just south of Kingscliff after crossing Cudgen Creek. 

Jojo had spent his whole short life living amongst the tidal rocks near the mouth of the creek. There was never a shortage of food as the area is teeming with little snails, sandworms, cockles and other little creatures. Jojo was also on the menu of many larger predators such as birds. Crabs always  keep an eye out for predators and as soon as they see one they skittle under a rock or piece of seaweed. Their camouflage is quite good and they usually get away.   

These tricks may fool birds but a sharp eyed human child is not so easy to hide from. Luckily for Jojo Nina was not interested in eating him. He tried to escape several times, jumping from her hands to the sands below which is a bit like skydiving without a parachute.

Nina was determined to keep her new friend though and Jojo finally settled down when he was given a seashell and a little water to settle down in. Imagine Jojo's surprise when he got to the car! As soon as we got in Jojo hopped out of the shell and scurried into the seat belt buckle. 

Meanwhile we had a conversation with Nina explaining to her that Jojo would not be happy or even survive in a garden or house. He needed the sea, the tide and the rocks, not to mention family and friends. It was all academic though as Jojo was now somewhere in the car. there were nooks and crannies everywhere, between the seats, under the clothes, towels, drink bottles etc. We had little expectation of finding Jojo again.

Suddenly he reappeared, crawling up Nina's arm. Had he lost his fear? Was she just the most familiar thing in the car? Next he explored her hair! When we arrived he was back in Nina's hand and seemed quite comfortable and Nina was reconciled to returning Jojo to his natural habitat albeit several kilometers from his home.

Cabarita beach?

Hastings point?

Nina decided on Cabarita beach, partly because it looked like a nice place to have a swim.

The water was warm and the waves were gentle and Jojo had a new home

Francoise found lots of subjects to photograph while Nina and I tried piggyback bodysurfing. 

Is this an invention?

Just another winters day in OZ :-)

Bowen and Home

Bowen 

Mangoes and Bowen are synonymous for Australians. What a pity it was to visit this mecca for all mango lovers out of season. Still, the town has its attractions. Horseshoe bay is one of the nicest beaches I have been to. There are corals growing on the rocks at the high water mark. I was amazed by how soft coral feels. There's also plenty of dead coral to collect on the beach.

Bowen is also one of the gateways to the Whitsunday Islands. One of them, King island I think, can be seen in the distance. Fishing tours are offered everywhere as are reef tours.

We met a lovely old couple who told us about the corals and had a spare set of goggles which they gave to Nina so she could see the corals. We spent way to long here swimming and sea shell collecting and had to hustle to make a few more kilometres before dark.  

We were hoping to make Rockhampton before nightfall but this was an illusion. There are not so many places to stay on this stretch of road. Marlborough has one Hotel and one Motel both of which were not too inviting. Also no shops so we pressed on to Rocky. 

We got there by about 8pm, settled into a Motel next to the Botanic gardens but did no sightseeing. We were all a bit tired of tourism and just wanted to get home by now. I checked Google maps and decided to take the inland route back to Brisbane since the time was supposed to be about the same and we figured the road would be less crowded. This was the case until Miles. 

One of the pubs on the road caught my eye. It seems the town consists of just this pub. 

Unfortunately our trip ended on a slightly sour note. Near the town of Dalby we were pulled over by a police car and fined for speeding. The road is great here, much better than most of the Bruce highway, and we were just following traffic, not passing anyone and not being passed. Why us? The criteria chosen is anybody's guess. Obvious tourists perhaps?

Anyway, chastened I now set the cruise control at exactly 100km and now became a real danger on the road. At every opportunity cars and trucks passed us. I had to apply the brakes several times as vehicles swerved back into the lane to avoid hitting oncoming vehicles. But its not about revenue raising, its all about road safety. 

Conclusion, take the Bruce highway and avoid the "Dalby Tax".

After Toowoomba the road turns into a highway and the driving got easier. By evening we had reached the Gold Coast. More than 7000km later our 3 week trip to the Cape is over. Now I have a clearer idea of just how huge Queensland is, especially considering that we saw very little of it actually. To think that my original idea was to return via Uluru and the Simpson Desert. Seems quite funny now.

This is a picture from Burleigh heads, Gold Coast. We went for a walk on the headland and saw Whales in the distance. The Sun was shining, surfers were enjoying the small but clean waves and despite it being a Tuesday there were people everywhere enjoying a glorious winters day.

When one lives on the Gold Coast is it really necessary to go on holiday?  

Atherton to Ayr

Chief Blogging Bull?

Before I begin our latest travel report I feel obliged to share something with you my treasured readers. I have some Native American genes courtesy of my biological dad whom I did not have the good fortune to meet. Very few people know this, not because I am ashamed of it but because I do not want to brag! I don't feel that a few genes gives me the right to claim membership of such a glorious culture. I now know I am looking at this all wrong.

Last night I wandered over to a group of young travelers hoping to get some help connecting to the wi-fi. I swear it was not to bum a smoke or try to chat up the the pretty German girls. Really truly.

They turned out to be very friendly, got me connected, offered me a rollie and asked about our trip. One young man of a slightly darker complexion felt obliged to "admit" that he was part Aboriginal but not like "the rest of them". He had gotten good grades in school, had an apprenticeship and had never been on welfare. I showed him our pictures on the iPad and told him how people from all around the world came just to see his ancestors art and culture. He seemed to feel better and I hope it lasts. So sad that young people in an attempt to fit in would distance themselves from their heritage.

I take this opportunity to once again plug " First Footprints ". 

Ok, back to the trip. I was nervous yesterday morning. Our Car was leaning a bit to one side and several people I had asked had told me it was a big job, probably expensive, the new part had to be shipped from Melbourne etc, etc. The parts fellow at Mitsubishi Mareeba sent me to see Wilkinson engineering so first thing I went in to see what they could do. Curly, the Boss, and one of his lads got a jack and a crowbar and in a few deft movements, Voila! Have a safe trip, no charge!!

I collected Francoise and Nina from the Motel, dropped a Carton at the Garage and continued to Innisfail with a broad grin on my face. 

If you ever take this road make sure you stop at the Mungalli creek dairy. After a few weeks in Far north Queensland, truly a culinary desert, we were so happy to have a real coffee, real milk, real cheese, etc.

Innisfail

I remember being overwhelmed by the beauty of this town 30 years ago. I thought of moving here then but on my way back to Sydney I had a little mishap and haven't made it back until now. This is Flying fish Point. The Cafe serves great seafood at a very reasonable price. Doubleroo rating 5*

Little Wallabies graze peacefully on the front lawns. Can you spot the Joey?

This is the Cassowary coast so be wary :-)

Water trees! Wow!

Further on down the road we stopped for a break at Cardwell. With more time we might have stayed here but with Brisbane still a long way and School starting next week we pressed on.

One last picture for you from some lookout between Cardwell and Townsville. After this it was too dark and not much to see.

Townsville was too popular ( expensive ) so I pulled up in the Centre of the city and searched booking.com for something a bit more reasonable. That's how we ended up in Ayr. 

Time to explore our destination :D

Split Rock Gallery

Just 15 km south of Laura you will find Split Rock but only if you keep your eyes peeled, know it's there and can read a small sign hanging off one rivet. There is an unattended office with an honesty box where tourists are supposed to put $5. After our walk we had lunch in the shade and out of curiosity I watched the people go past and only saw one person put $5 on behalf of his large family. 

The art starts after quite a grueling 15- 20 minute hike but the reward is worth it. It starts under this rock. 

This is one of the "tall spirits" in the highest gallery. These are different not only from the other characters but also unlike the figures we saw on the guided tour.

I'm sure this signifies.....the Sun?

One of the busier scenes.

Quite a few of the characters at Split rock were painted upside down. I didn't notice any at the other Gallery.

The area is littered with suitable surfaced but only a few were used. I wonder how they were chosen. This particular overhang looks like it's bleeding. Did that influence the ancient artists? (completely uninformed speculation)

We took many photo's but again I'll just give you a taste to encourage you to come and see them for yourself. 

These treasures are our Lascaux or Altamira. Civilized nations treasure their history and do their best to preserve it for future generations. If that is not enough incentive then consider how much revenue the Pyramids, Stonehenge and the aforementioned Caves bring their respective countries. If respected and managed properly Aboriginal culture could become a source of income not only for the local communities but for all Australia virtually forever.

On a technological note, the pictures I took on the way up were with my Samsung Galaxy5 and on the way down I used my 4 year old iPad. The iPad ones turned out better. Not conclusive so I'll have to do more tests but it is the opposite of what I expected.