Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open 2015 Round 3

No excuses today, just a fight with many mistakes by both sides. My opponent went wrong first by capturing on d2 with the Queen. If instead 10.Nd2 I cannot move my e pawn (it loses a pawn) so white would have time to play e4,f4 Nf3 and rooks behind. I am not sure where black can find counterplay.

Black was better and I was carrying out my plan unhindered when I suddenly had a brain meltdown with 23...b5 forgetting that the d3 knight defended the rook on f2. Luckily I spotted my mistake immediately and continued as if nothing had happened.

We then got into a messy tactical melee with a swinging evaluation until I played the final blunder 44....Qa3. Instead I should play Qd4 and the position is about equal. This would have given me the opportunity to blunder later. Or maybe..... Spilt milk.

I was feeling a bit annoyed about my play after the game but that soon evaporated when we went to the best Chinese dumpling restaurant ever. Good food, good company, all good.

Now to try and survive another double round day starting at 9am. 

Dato ArthurTan Malaysian Open 2015 round 2.

I feel like having a bit of a whinge today. There are many rules in Chess, some make sense, others don't always and still others change over time. Disturbing your opponent is not allowed but the specifics are not comprehensive. Talking is forbidden as is kicking under the table but more subtle forms of gamesmanship are often overlooked.

One such method is overpowering body odor. There is one Russian Grandmaster, who according to a colleague has no sense of smell, who deliberately cultivates his skunk like odor by not showering for the duration of a tournament (at least). I have played him before and had to stand a long way from the board to be able to breathe and had to hold my breath when approaching the board to play my moves.

Another method is constantly clearing your throat. It may be argued that in some cases it is an involuntary tick but that is a bit like being shot accidentally. Not much consolation. Rocking the table by shaking your leg is also in the top ten.

The type of behaviour I find particularly annoying is constantly snorting your own snot. Everybody gets sniffles occasionally but that's why tissues were invented. The 1994 Candidates match between Gata Kamsky and Nigel Short is remembered for a particularly unpleasant incident. Gata had caught a cold and was sniffling, spluttering and hacking at the board. Nigel suggested that he might like to drink some water. Interestingly THIS is illegal (speaking to your opponent) whereas Gata's behaviour is not. Later Rustam Kamsky, Gata's father, apparently verbally assaulted Nigel including threatening to kill him.

My opponent today was a constant snorter and while I don't think it was deliberate it was definitely very annoying. The arbiter was unable to help as snorting is not included as disturbing behaviour. As you can see white got a considerable advantage in the opening but the worse my opponents position got the more he snorted. I did play some incredibly weak moves and was even worse at one stage and had to scramble a draw with very little time left. An unpleasant day at the office

On the bright side, he was unrated to I don't lose any rating points. Yay :-)

Without further ado, here is the game. My last idiotic mistake was the greedy 48.Rg6 instead of the intended 48.Ra6 first.

At least tomorrows game starts at 3pm.
Pairings and full results will appear here
Toodles :-) 

Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open round 1.

Dato Arthur Tan Chin Nam

My first trip to play chess in Malaysia was in 1983 (I think) and that was the first time I met Dato Tan, who was already the main sponsor of Malaysian chess and quite a strong player. He took us out for dinner many times at one of his shopping malls and played blitz regularly with anyone who cared to play. He was also not the youngest man even back then. We Australians just knew him as "the Datuk".

Now he is in his 90's and in a wheelchair but still sharp, playing the occasional game and remembering all the players from the past. A few years ago I remember seeing him arrive at the Cititel hotel and since I had not seen him for decades I did not impose myself and walked past until I heard a loud "Wohl" from behind. He remembered me from all those years ago and we had a nice chat.

He still drops in to watch the games and to plan future tournaments.

So the tournament started this morning with a bit of excitement. The chief organiser, Mr Hamid, had decided not to be too authoritarian and therefore there was no "zero forfeit" rule applied, meaning if you are not at the board when the round starts you lose. Many players took advantage of this and meandered in late. A forfeit in the first round is a disaster for the player receiving the gift because then there is no norm possibility anymore.

He regretted his leniency and berated the assembled audience after some time had gone by and even the players on board 1 were missing. I suspect he will apply "Zero tolerance" next time.

Round 1

My game was quite easy as my young opponent didn't know my obscure opening choice. This variation is best played when the draw is not made the night before and the opponent cannot prepare. Otherwise it is quite dangerous. Quiet positional play does not work.

Anyway folks, hope you enjoyed that, now its time for the second round.
                                         Wish me luck :-)

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 :-)