IM Max Illingworth annotates

by Junta

Thanks Max for annotating some of my Doeberl Cup and Sydney International Open games on his blog! It's very nice to have strong players looking at your games, as you can observe a difference in style and learn from their thoughts and evaluations. Max is a very good annotator. You can also check out his posts from the previous two weeks where he annotated Moulthun's games from the SIO.

Max Illingworth's blog

Great things happening in Australian Chess - Part 2

by Andrew

Part 2 - February - June 2013

February:

On the 1st of February Bobby Cheng is listed in the top 100 juniors in the world with his new rating of 2425.

Anton Smirnov continues his good run, convincingly winning the Newcastle Open with 5.5/6.

Junta and I tie for first in the ACT Championships (for the 2nd year in a row). Remarkably, last year's tournament results for us were almost identical, with Junta beating me midway and then drawing two games towards the end so that we finished with 8/9 each. One of these draws was against junior Aelfric Gardiner-Garden rated in the 1300s, who played a super-solid game comfortably swapping off into an equal ending and holding. Aelfric also produced a number of other big upsets and this showed on the March rating list on which he made a 250 point jump.

 

March:

The Ballarat Begonia Open traditionally attracts a number of top Australian players each year from Victoria and interstate. In this year's edition, the top boards were occupied by young players round after round, and after 5 rounds first place was shared by 3 young Australian players, IM James Morris, FM Chris Wallis, and Brodie McClymont, all on 5/5. In Round 6 Chris beat Brodie, while James drew with New Zealander Luke Li. In the final round James managed to beat Chris and take the $1500 first prize with 6.5/7 while also taking his FIDE rating over 2400 for the first time and entering Australia's Top 10: a highly commendable achievement. A number of other juniors gave strong showings here, with the oldest player in the final top 6 being only 22.

At the end of the month, Australia's strongest weekender, the Doeberl Cup, took place at the Hellenic Club in Canberra. This was the strongest ever Doeberl, and possibly the strongest tournament ever in Australia, with 11 GMs (including one of China's best Li Chao and Dutch superstar Loek van Wely) and many other titled players. After 9 rounds GM Li Chao emerged as the victor with 7.5/9. IM Moulthun Ly scored best out of the Australian contingent with 6.5, however the tournament standout was once again young Anton Smirnov. Throughout the tournament Anton consistently held his own against Australia's best and by round 9 racked up a performance rating around 2500, only missing out on an IM norm due to a technicality - that there were 19 overseas players instead of the required 20 in the tournament. Here is a great attacking game Anton played in Round 3 against the young Chinese girl Tingjie Lie (2232).


Unfortunately for some of us this year's Doeberl was not our best ever. However Junta and I were happy to come away with having played GM Loek van Wely (2684) who was once ranked inside the world's Top 10.

April:

After the Doeberl came the 6th edition of the Sydney International Open, held in the Parramatta Town Hall. Though no members of Figjam participated in this one there were a total of 12 (!) GMs who played - all of the GMs who played in the Doeberl plus Polish GM Bartlomiej Heberla. In first place after 9 rounds was Loek van Wely on 7.5/9, edging out Li Chao who finished in outright second on 7/9, by winning their ninth round game. However the real star of this tournament was yet again young Anton Smirnov who got the equal best score by an Australian in the tournament with 6/9, scoring a well-deserved first IM norm! Anton was undeafeated throughout - an impressive feat considering his opponents included 5 GMs and 1 IM.

Bobby Cheng also did well, scoring 5.5/9 against a very tough field and getting his final norm and therefore (since he is well over 2400 now) the IM title. From what I can tell he is the youngest Australian ever to achieve the title by normal means. Congrats to Bobby!  

As it turns out, April truly was a great month for Australian chess, with Australian No.1 Zong-Yuan Zhao winning the super strong Bangkok Open. Yuan had a fantastic tournament the whole way through and remained undeafeated after 9 rounds (+ 6 = 3 - 0). His best game came in Round 8. Faced with the unenviable task of having to beat former World Title Challenger GM Nigel Short with Black, Yuan well and truly rose to the challenge, playing a brilliant double pawn sac for good control of the centre and well-placed pieces.

Short was unable to develop adequately and eventually had to give back material to break free. In the resulting endgame Yuan had a Q for B + N + P albeit with a king stuck in the corner. Apart from one small scare on move 39 when he allowed Short the opportunity to make use of his weak back rank (which Short luckily did not see) Yuan was able to convert quite comfortably and take the full point. (I might add, this truly was a great game to be able to watch live!)

 

In the last round Yuan took a short draw with his opponent who only needed a draw for a GM norm, and nobody else was able to catch him.

Full results here.

After that Yuan, having played three big 9-rounders in quick succession, decided to play a 7 round tournament in Melbourne, which he won smoothly with 7/7. From these last four tournaments Yuan gained nearly 30 points, significantly furthering his lead over the rest of us.

May:

Fellow Figjammer Junta Ikeda won the Japanese Championships (as you should already be aware).

You can read a few interesting posts about his tournament below. Well done, Junta!

The Oceania Zonal took place this year in Fiji. Anton Smirnov, Ari Dale, and Justin Tan all did well enough to earn a title, with Anton and Justin earning the FM title, and Ari earning the IM title. This will mean in the upcoming World Youth Under 16 Olympiad 4/5 of our top team will be titled. Justin reached a live rating of over 2300 in the tournament and therefore got the title by normal means.

Congratulations to FM Igor Bjelobrk who won the tournament with 7/9 (and picked up a well-deserved IM title) and will therefore be Australia's representative in the World Cup this year, to be held in Tromso, Norway.

June:

NSW Open

IM Max Illingworth led all the way (beating me in a nice sacrificial game in the process) till Round 7 when he lost a long hard fought game against GM Zong-Yuan Zhao, and had to settle with =1st.

Gold Coast Open

Visiting GM Lubomir Ftacnik won on tiebreak with 5/6 over IM Stephen Solomon and FM Chris Wallis. IM Moulthun Ly would have take Ftacnik's spot on the top of the table had he chosen the right move at one point in their K+2P each endgame. Moulthun said he saw the move but for some reason thought it was his turn rather than his opponent's when he calculated it, which would have made it losing. Bad luck, and well done to all the prize winners.

More on NSW Open and Gold Coast Open tomorrow.

Victorian Open

Ari Dale led the whole way (like Max) till Round 7 when he lost against young NZ FM Luke Li, resulting in a four-way tie for first.

Leading final scores:

=1st Dragicevic; Dale; Li; Matheson 6/7
=5th Stojic; Nemeth 5.5/7

Victorian Championships

A big congratulations is owed to IM Bobby Cheng who demolished the field here scoring 10/11 (with his only loss being to IM Ari Dale). Bobby played remarkably well throughout. From viewing his games it is easy to tell that he calculates well in attack and (especially) defense, and he is not afraid of going on the occasional king march...

Cheng - Hacche

The king has made it from e1 - h7 in World Record Time (29 moves).*

*OK, I'll admit I have not checked all 5 million games in my database just yet... but it's got to be close!

However, clearly by the end of the tournament Bobby's king was all tired out, as the following game shows.



Needless to say, king march or no king march, Bobby sure knows how to get the job done. Well done Bobby on becoming No.3 in Australia, now only behind GMs Zong-Yuan Zhao and David Smerdon!

Leading final scores:

1st: Bobby Cheng 10/11
2nd-3rd: Justin Tan; Ari Dale 7.5/11
4th: Dusan Stojic 7/11

Following on from that, Bobby will lead the Australian team at the World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad, to be held in Chongqing, China from the 21st-30th of this month. Our top team now looks like this:

Board 1: IM Bobby Cheng 2438
Board 2: FM Anton Smirnov 2289
Board 3: FM Justin Tan 2322
Board 4: IM Ari Dale 2310
Board 5: Yi Liu 2174

...and is seeded well up there in the tournament (3rd or 4th, I believe) alongside chess superpowers Russia, China, and India. Our coaches this year will be GMs Zong-Yuan Zhao and Ian Rogers. Australia is looking to get its first olympic medal/s in chess, and with that lineup, we will surely have a pretty good crack at it.

Best of luck to everybody, it will be very exciting to watch.

Before that however, I am off to Port Elizabeth, South Africa tomorrow morning for the Commonwealth Chess Championships (5th-14th). I am seeded around 20th for this 11-round tournament, in a field consisting of several strong grandmasters. I am hoping to blog regularly throughout the tournament (unlike in previous overseas tournaments...). I will be giving a bit more info about it all when I arrive - that is, if I survive the 5am bus trip and 14 hour flight. Stay tuned!

Great things happening in Australian Chess

by Andrew

Over the last 6 months or so, Australia has seen some great new developments in chess from some of our younger players. I have compiled an annotated list of some of these recent achievements. Though this list could really span the last few years it has been the last 6 months in particular in which young Australian players have demonstrated tremendous success nationally and internationally and, by some in particular, an unprecedented rise in chess ability.

Part 1 - November 2012 to January 2013

November

• 20-year old (19 at the start of the tournament) IM-elect Max Illingworth convincingly won the very strong MCC Cup Weekender with 8.5/9, ahead of IM Stephen Solomon on 7.5, myself on 7 and NZ's young star Luke Li on 6.5 (now living in Australia!).

• 20-year old QLD IM Moulthun Ly not long after his excellent olympic debut for Australia won the Tuggerarnong Vikings tournament in Canberra with 6.5/7, ahead of IMs George Xie and Vladimir Smirnov (and just in time for his 21st).

• 20-year old ACT FM Junta Ikeda (who you should know pretty well by now...) played in the Commonwealth Championships in Chennai, India and scored 7.5/11 with a 2400 performance, just missing an IM norm.

December:

• Junta then played in the super-strong Rose-Valley Open in Calcutta scoring 6/11 with another 2400 performance and narrow miss of a norm. In total Junta gained around 40 points which in India, where people are often substantially under-rated, is very impressive.

• Over in England a bunch of Australian players participated in the London Chess Classic FIDE Open. Ari Dale, Justin Tan, and Arianne Caoili all had suberb performances, though Arianne was very unlucky to miss out on a WGM norm playing and losing against Ari in the last round.

• The Australian Young Masters in Adelaide featured fantastic performances from local Alistair Cameron who scored 6/7 and Queensland's Brodie McClymont (a perfect 7/7!). (Unfortunately for me as top seed, I got rather 'beaten up' this tournament, scoring a dismal 3.5/7.) In the game between the two Brodie held a solid advantage for most of the game but missed a tricky tactic forcing the loss of a piece that could have eventuated in the game, later pointed out by GM Ian Rogers.
• Brodie's win was of course no small feat and to my knowledge was only the 2nd time in the tournament's history that the winner has got a perfect score. Though Brodie has gotten into the habit of doing this in recent times, with picket-fence victories in a series of strong weekenders in 2012. Brodie is 20 years old and has only been playing a short number of years. He does not often play FIDE tournaments which has held that rating back a bit but is on the verge of breaking 2400 ACF following his stellar performances in 2012. It is clear to me that he has immense talent and with some real dedication and study I am sure he could reach the grandmaster title and go well beyond.

• At the same time an I daresay even more impressive feat occurred in the Australasian Masters tournament in Melbourne. 11 year-old Anton Smirnov places =1st with 6/9  (yes, 11, you are reading correctly), and wins on tiebreak ahead of IM James Morris (18) and FM Bobby Cheng (15), narrowly missing out on an IM-norm in the process. This tournament signalled Anton's emergence into the top echelons of Australian competitive chess, and within the coming months he proved for certain that this victory was no fluke. On January 1 2013 Anton was listed as the number one player for his age in the world, a feat that to the best of my knowledge has never before been achieved by an Australian. 

January:

• The 2013 Australian Open Chess Championships at Norths Chess Club in Sydney was one of the strongest Championships to date, featuring at the top of the list GM Igor Khenkin of Germany, at the time ranked in the top 100 in the world, and nearly all of Australia's best active players. However it was 15-year-old (former World U/12 Champion) FM Bobby Cheng from Melbourne who took the $4500 top prize with one of the most impressive performances by an Australian in an open tournament to date. Having taken a bye in the first round, Bobby mowed down his opposition (Khenkin included), to win 9/10 (+ 8 = 2 - 0) and take the Championship by a full point. At the same time, he also scored his second IM norm (exceeding the required score by 2 points) and with a performance rating well into the 2700s missed out on a GM norm only for the fact that he didn't get the opportunity to play GM Darryl Johansen for his required third GM.
• Other notable performances by young Australians were =2nd to Figjammer IM Moulthun Ly, Australian No.1 GM Zong-Yuan Zhao, and IM Max Illingworth all with 8.5/11. Junta and I scored 7/11 - with Junta picking up his second IM norm and both of us performing in the 2400s for the tournament. Western Australian 20-year-old Yita Choong also performed very well, just missing an IM norm, but still picking up a bucketload of rating points.

• In the Lightning, which was the strongest for many years, yet again it was Australia's young players who shone, with FM Bobby Cheng and IM James Morris tying for 1st with a huge score of 9.5/11 (and both beating GM Khenkin in the process).

• In the presentation, IM Max Illingworth was awarded Australian Player of the Year for the second time running, in recognition of his excellent performances in such tournaments as the NSW Championships (8.5/9), the Ryde-Eastwood Open (6.5/7), the aformentioned MCC Cup Weekender (8.5/9), and the World Chess Olympiad where he scored his final norm and thus fulfilled the requirements for the International Master title.

• In late December and early January ACT's WIM Emma Guo (17) played in several strong European tournaments and performed extremely well, gaining over 85 points over the period. Unfortunately the tournaments were only 7 rounds so she was not able to get any higher title norms.

• And last but not least Victorian Ari Dale (14) and Figjam member Fedja Zulfic (20) played in separate challengers tournaments associated with the famous Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee) festival in The Netherlands. Fedja played well in his tournament making solid rating gains, and Ari played magnificently, winning his event with 8/9 and skyrocketing his rating well into the 2200s - overall a very successful Europe trip for Ari.

Congratulations to everybody on these recent successes!


Part 2 - February to May, will follow next week.

2011 Gold Coast Open

By FM Max Illingworth

This year’s Gold Coast Open was held at the Gardiner Chess Centre from the 25^th to the 26^th of June, with IA Charles Zworestine as the Director of Play. The tournament was divided into three divisions: Open, Under 1600 and Under 1000, which gave players of all strengths a shot at some prize money. This tournament (a Class 5 in the Yulgilbar-Think Big Australian Chess Grand Prix) attracted a record entry of 124 players, which included a number of interstate players. 

Charles hard at work. He looks as shocked as we are.

The top seeds in the Open division were (in ACF rating order): Local IM Stephen Solomon, GM Darryl Johansen of Victoria, yours truly, IM Andrew Brown from the ACT, Victorian IM James Morris, and FM Gene Nakauchi, all of whom were rated over 2100. With a large number of titled players spearheading the field, the tournament was guaranteed to be hard-fought. 

This was the first serious tournament that I have travelled to on my own, which proved to be quite an experience for me. I flew in to the Gold Coast on the Friday morning, and spent most of the remainder of the day at the Gardiner Chess Centre, studying some of Graeme’s books (thanks Graeme!) and talking to some of my friends who were also at the centre. I was dropped off at the Wallaby Hotel, but I couldn’t get too comfortable there – I had to check out the next morning! 

As I am a night owl, I found it difficult to wake up at 6.30am on Saturday morning, but i somehow found time to eat breakfast the next morning at Cafe Cino before being picked up by Graeme from my hotel. I am very grateful to Graeme who picked me up and dropped me off during the event, and to Fiona who made sandwiches for me so that I didn’t have to worry about food between rounds. 

After three rounds, there were four players on 3/3: Stephen Solomon, myself, Andrew Brown and Queensland junior Yi Liu. Not far behind them on 2.5/3 were Darryl Johansen and James Morris, who had just drawn an interesting contest.

[Round "3.4"]
[White "McClymont, Brodie"]
[Black "Brown, Andrew"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2083"]
[BlackElo "2292"]
[Annotator "Andrew Brown"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8.
Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 Ne7 12. Nxf6+ gxf6 13. Bd3 Bb7 14. Qe2
d5 15. Nc2 Qb6 16. O-O-O Rd8 17. Rhe1 Rd7 18. f4 ?! (D) {Falling right for Black's trap. 18.exd5 would have been fine here.}

18...f5! {Black should be better after this, but it is not yet easy to secure a comfortable advantage as White has much more active pieces and a lot of pressure down the e-file.} 19. exf5 e4 20. Nd4 exd3 21. Rxd3 Qd6 22. Qf2 Kd8 23. g4 Kc7 24.Rh3 Kb8 25. g5 (D) 

25...h5 ?! {Saving the pawn, but making White's job of pushing his pawns through easier.}26. f6 {I had found this move an intended to play 26...Ng6, thinking that after 27.f5 Qf4+ 28.Qxf4 Nxf4 I should be fine... What I didn't realise initially is that after this White can play 29.Rf3 Ng2 and 30.Re2 trapping my knight.} Nc6 27. Nxc6+ Qxc6 28. Qd4 (D)

28...Rdd8? {Wasting at least one, probably two tempi, as the rook stands better on d7 where it protects the f-pawn and keeps the e1 rook from infiltrating immediately.} 29. Re7 Rhf8 30. Rhe3 b4!? {Creating some counterplay.} 31. Kd2 Rc8 32. f5 Qb5 33. Qf4+ Ka8 34. Qxb4 d4! 35. Rd3 dxc3+ 36. bxc3 Qc6 (D)

 37. Qd6? {White blunders in time pressure, allowing Black to infiltrate and take back the initiative.} Qg2+ 38. Ke1 Qxg5 39. Qb6 {Black has to play precisely from here because of all the mate threats arising around the Black king.} Qc1+ 40. Ke2 Qh1! 41. Rdd7 Qxh2+ 42. Ke1 Qh1+ 43. Kd2 Qg2+ 44. Ke1 Qg3+ 45. Kd1 Qf3+ 46. Ke1 {And the rest is easy.} Qxc3+ 47. Kf2 Qc2+ 48. Re2 Qxf5+ 49. Kg3 Rg8+ 50. Kh2 Qf4+ 51. Kh3 Qg3# 0-1

In the last round on the Saturday I was able to take advantage of Yi Liu’s time pressure to convert a marginally better position into victory. On the other hand, the game between Andrew and Stephen could have gone either way, but it was eventually Stephen who prevailed in the time scramble. This left myself and Stephen in the lead on 4/4, and Darryl and James, who beat Brodie McClymont and Gene Nakauchi respectively, on 3.5/4. 

[Round "4.1"]
[White "Brown, Andrew"]
[Black "Solomon, Stephen"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D31"]
[WhiteElo "2292"]
[BlackElo "2413"]
[Annotator "Andrew Brown; Fedja Zulfic"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bb4 6. g3 $6 c5 7. e3 Nc6 8. Bxc4
Nf6 9. O-O cxd4 10. exd4 O-O 11. Be3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 b6 13. Ne5 Bb7 14. Nxc6 Bxc6 15. f3 Qd7 16. Bd3 Rac8 17. c4 Rfd8 (D)

18. Ra3! {Supporting the bishop and making room for the queen on a1, where it will back up the a-pawn and the d-pawn simultaneously.} Bb7 19. a5 b5!? {I didn't expect this move to be very good, but it turns out to be quite tough to deal with.} 20. cxb5 Nd5 21. Bf2 Nb4 (D)

22. Qb1 (22. Bxh7+ Kxh7 23. Qb1+ Nc2 24. Rc1 (24. Ra2 Bxf3 25. Rxc2 Be4 26.
Rxc8 Bxb1 27. Rxd8 Qxd8 28. Rxb1 Qxa5-+) 24... Be4!! {F. Zulfic}) 22... Nxd3
23. Qxd3 (D)

23...Bd5! {Now White can no longer hold onto the extra pawn...} 24. Ra4? a6 25. Rb4 axb5 26. Ra1 Rc4 27. Rxc4 bxc4 (D) {Now Black is already slightly better, with a strong bishop and a a rook to become more active shortly.} 

28.Qe3 Rb8 29. a6 Qa7 30. Qa3 h5 31. g4 $5 Rb3 32. Qd6 Qa8 33. a7 Bxf3 34. Bg3 hxg4 35. Ra5 (D)

35...Bd5?! (35... Rb1+ 36. Kf2 Rb2+ 37. Kg1 Rg2+ 38. Kf1 Be2+ 39. Ke1
Rg1+ 40. Kd2 c3+ $1 (40... Rd1+ 41. Kc3 Qf3+ 42. Kb4 Rb1+ 43. Kc5) 41. Kxc3
Qf3+ 42. Kb2 Qb7+ 43. Kc3 Rc1+ 44. Kd2 Rd1+ {with mate to follow. F.Zulfic; A.Brown}) 36. Rxd5! exd5 37. Qb8+ Rxb8 38.axb8=Q+ Qxb8 39. Bxb8 (D) {Even after this, Black is still winning: the pawns will always overpower the bishop in this ending.} 

39...g5 40. Kf2 Kh7 41. Ke3 Kg6 {I stopped writing at this point as I was too short of time, but there isnothing to stop the king infiltrating, whereupon White will have to sacrifice his bishop in order to stop the g-pawn or the c-pawn from promoting.} 0-1

Once Round 4 had finished, Graeme dropped me off at my next hotel, the Outrigger Resort at Burleigh Heads. Unfortunately my mobile phone battery died while making a call, but my mum was able to make a wake-up call to my room to make sure I wasn’t late for my big game against Stephen Solomon. After waking up at 6.30am again, eating a paltry breakfast of six eggs (there wasn’t much else), playing through games on TWIC for 20 minutes and checking out, I was driven to the venue by Graeme. 

Paltry or Poultry?

Unfortunately for me, in my game against Solomon, after uncorking an opening idea I had prepared, I managed to blow a fine position very quickly with some stupid moves. My exchange sacrifice turned out to be a good idea, but I didn’t follow it up well and soon found myself facing a decisive attack on the kingside. Solomon was now in the clear lead on a perfect 5/5, but only a half-point back were Darryl Johansen, who defeated Andrew Brown after the latter’s pawn sacrifice didn’t go according to plan, and James Morris, who won swiftly against surprise packet Michael McGee. 

In Round 6, Darryl Johansen and Stephen Solomon agreed an early draw, where Darryl and Stephen both thought their positions were inferior! Stephen was still leading on 5.5/6, but this result gave me the chance to catch Darryl on 5/6 with a win over James Morris, where I botched my theory but still won convincingly after his strategic blunder. Joining Darryl and I on 5/6 was Yi Liu, who had just won against WIM Alexandra Jule in a complicated game. 

So at the end of the day, the final round pairings saw Stephen Solomon being paired against his student Yi Liu, Darryl having the white pieces against me, and James facing Alex Stahnke, who had just scored an upset win over Jonas Muller. My game against Darryl was a short draw where neither of us were better at any stage, and James won clinically against Alex, but the Solomon-Liu game was a very exciting game.

Yi seemed to be better in the early middlegame, and showed great fighting spirit in knocking back a draw offer from Stephen, but eventually Stephen was able to activate his pieces and start a mating attack in the endgame to win the game, and with it the tournament with an impressive 6.5/7. Sharing second place were myself, Darryl Johansen and James Morris.  

Although I didn’t play as well as maybe I would have liked, that didn’t spoil my experience by any means. I made several new friends, won some money, enjoyed playing and really appreciated the hospitality of the Gardiners! After the event I had dinner out at a nice Indian restaurant with a group of people, stayed at the Gardiners house on the Sunday night and was able to discuss chess with Darryl for a few hours. 

I am definitely going to play this event again next year, provided university commitments don’t get in the way!