Smirnov vs. Zworestine

 "15 241 383 936" - Anton Smirnov calculates the answer to 123456^² in his head (I had to use a calculator).

This year's Christmas present to our readers from Figjam is the 2010 Sydney Interclub game between then 9-year-old Anton Smirnov and our former hero Charlsen. Despite making a good start with his first move, it seems the Zworebeast has forgotten his preparation by move 3. Five questionable moves in a row change the position from (-0.11) to (13.77), and mate will follow on just move 23.

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters - Muller v Zulfic

" I've been a good boy for the rest of my life" - IM George Xie on why he isn't the mafia


The following is my game against Jonas 'Bronas' Muller in round 3 of the Lidums AYM, judged the best game of the tournament by sponsor Robert Hoile.

Jonas played some great practical defensive moves, particularly 25.Qc3 and 26.Bxf6. Still, the position appears to be winning for black after 30...Qa4 threatening b4, but I missed the idea in time trouble.

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 9

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 8

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 7

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 6

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 5

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 4

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 3

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 2

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters Round 1

2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters

Junta: "Alright, just do one post this month (November) yeah?"
Fedja: "Yeah I'll do that."

With the generous sponsorship of Aivars Lidums, the 2011 Lidums Australian Young Masters tournaments will be held at the South Australian Chess Centre in Adelaide from the 7-11th of December this year. The fields for the Young, Junior and Girls Masters are below. The Lidums South Australian Junior Masters will run alongside these events, although the field is still to be confirmed.

IM George Xie and WGM Daniela Nutu-Gajic will be doing post-game analysis with the players.

Prizes: 1st $300, 2nd $200, 3rd $100 + trophies in each event. The Robert Hoile Brilliancy Prize $100

Schedule: Games to start at 9.30 am and 2.30 pm daily, one game at 9.30 am on the 11th

Time Control: 90 minutes + 30 second increment from move 1

Arbiters: IA Charles Zworestine and IA Roland Eime.

The tournament couldn't go ahead without the generous support of the following sponsors:

Aivars Lidums (naming rights sponsor)
Robert Hoile
George Howard
David Hudson
Ian Rogers
AusJCL
SAJCL
SACA
ACF

Technology permitting, we'll be running a live blog for each round on this site so tune in on Wednesday!

London Classic 2011 tipping!

"Sam is one of the Gold Coast's young talents and has been introducing many kids to chess with the Gardiner Chess Academy. Today it was Sam who learned a lesson." - IM Aleks Wohl

from the official website, http://www.londonchessclassic.com/

Just a week after the Tal Memorial concluded in Moscow, the 2800 club + Nakamura head west to play in the 3rd London Classic, joined by four of the best English players for a 9-player round robin. The pairings are here.

The football scoring system of 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw is being used.

Andrew's predictions:
1st: Carlsen - 16, 2nd: Aronian - 15, 3rd-4th: Kramnik, Adams - 12,
5th: Anand - 11

  

Fedja's predictions:
1st: Charlsen - 16, 2nd: Aronian, 3rd-4th Anand, Kramnik, 5th: McShane

Junta's predictions:
1st: Aronian - 16, 2nd: Carlsen -15, 3rd: Anand - 12,
4th-5th: Nakamura, Adams - 11

Moulthun's predictions:
1st: McShane        2nd: Hikaru        Equal 3rd: Aronian, Short, Carlsen

The games will be at 1am AEST, except for Round 4 at 3am and the final, Round 8 at 11pm. The rest day is at the halfway mark on the 7th, but with nine players, one gets a rest from playing each round - they will be providing commentary on the games, a brilliant idea which has received widespread praise.

Information for the numerous side events, exhibitions and innovations are all on the official website - it sure sounds like one professionally organised, fun chess event to be a part of. On Friday afternoon, the 9 participants took part in a game vs. the world on Twitter, which, amusingly, the super GMs won with the North Sea Defence (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.e5 Nh5) as Black in 23 moves!

Some (especially) interesting games to watch will be:
Round 1: Kramnik-Nakamura, a re-match from last year where Kramnik made a surprising knight sacrifice right out of the opening but Nakamura won.
Round 2: McShane-Carlsen, another grudge match from last year where McShane surprised observers by conducting a smooth positional victory in R1.
Round 3: Carlsen-Nakamura, with Kramnik commentating. Key word: Kasparov.
Round 5: Aronian-Carlsen - Let's hope we'll witness another fascinating game between the two highest rated players in the world (2829 and 2815 on the live list).
Round 7: Aronian-Anand - the decisive game count is 5-0 in favour of Aronian since Anand became WC in 2007 (four of them with Black)!
Round 9: Short-Carlsen - will we see another of his vital last round wins?

In any case, it's hard to see there not being more decisive games than in Moscow (just 10/45), although the chess played there was very entertaining and of admirably high quality.