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.

Group pictures of FILJAM and FIZJAM

Here are two pictures we took after the Doeberl Cup closing ceremony on April 1st.

 

FIGJAM members Fedja Zulfic, Junta Ikeda, Jonas Muller, Andrew Brown and Moulthun Ly were present, though Sam Grigg was not. We found some GM replacements for him in the group photos of 6 (in which we are standing in FIGJAM order):

 

 

1. With Dutch Super GM Loek van Wely.

 

2. With Australian #1, GM Zong-Yuan Zhao.

 



World Cup 2011 tipping!

 by Junta

The biennial, epic knockout event in the world of chess - the time for the World Cup has arrived. Just like in 2009, when 2012 World Championship challenger Boris Gelfand won through the 7 rounds as top seed, the drama will unfold in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The pairings tree (PDF) can be downloaded from here.

Moulthun's predictions

Top 8: Karjakin, Kamsky, Le Quang Liem, Andreikin,

            Vachier-Lagrave, Wojtaszek, Malakhov, Wang Yue

Top 4: Kamsky, Le Quang Liem, Vachier-Lagrave, Wang Yue

Final: Vachier-Lagrave beats Kamsky

Junta's predictions

Top 8: Karjakin, Kamsky, Ponomariov, Adams,

            Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Navara, Morozevich

Top 4: Kamsky, Adams, Radjabov, Morozevich

Final: Morozevich beats Adams

Fedja's predictions

Top 8: Polgar, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Svidler,

            Navara, Radjabov, Grischuk, Gashimov

Top 4: Svidler, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov

Final: Svidler beats Grischuk

Andrew's predictions

Top 8: Karjakin, Kamsky, Le Quang Liem, Adams,

            Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedyarov, Navara, Morozevich

Top 4: Kamsky, Adams, Vachier-Lagrave, Morozevich

Final: Kamsky beats Morozevich

The Oceania region is represented by our very own GM Zong-Yuan Zhao [seeded 101 out of 128], who is up against Russian Super-GM Evgeny Tomashevsky [28] in Round 1.

from Wikipedia:

"Partly for being a mostly positional player, partly for wearing glasses and being well-educated, Tomashevsky, in spite of his young age, earned himself the nickname "Professor" among the chessplayers."

To try and prepare against such a strong opponent, we can only wonder how difficult it must be to think about anything else in the 2 months between when the pairings are released, and actually sitting opposite the player in a distant venue.

The official tournament website is at http://chess.ugrasport.com/ .

Games are at 7pm AEST.

The whole event (August 28-September 21) should be full of exciting chess!

Round 1 Game 1 results are here. Games can be replayed on the official website, or for those games involving players rated over 2700, here (on a game viewer).

Checkmate Open 2011

"Hungarians are strange creatures"
Zong-Yuan Zhao

Case in point: Andras Toth

The Checkmate Open was held over the last weekend on the 9-10th of July. The arbiter for the tournament was not Charles Zworestine, who was going to play his first weekender in over 10 years!

The first round was played on Friday night ... at a bowling alley and not over the chess board. Charles kept going on about him bowling a turkey, but we can find no evidence to back up his claim. The score sheet may or may not have been lost at some point over the weekend. The disappointment seemed to take its toll on Charles as he was so "sick" the following morning that he had to pull a Novak Djokovic and withdraw from the tournament.

Now for the real first round which commenced only 20 minutes late, which has to be some kind of Australian record. The top seeds had a generally easy round except for James Morris who had a tough endgame against Frank Lekkas which dwindled down to a draw and Andrew Brown who played a nice game but then blundered in time trouble against Edgar Mdinaradze and he had to settle for half a point.

In round 2, Sam Grigg notched up an upset over Andrew, after Perpie again blundered in time trouble, this time in a drawn minor piece endgame. Edgar Mdinaradze continued his good form, drawing with Mark Chapman who had already taken a half point bye in the first round. Most of the other top seeds reached 2/2. 

In the third round, Ron Scott had an upset draw against second seed GM Darryl Johansen, although neither player was happy with the game which was extremely boring while Trevor Tao managed to win a drawn rook and pawn ending against Sam Grigg, setting up a clash with Zong-Yuan Zhao in round 4. Perpie chalked up his first win of the tournament ... down on board 11 ... while Fedja, white, somehow swindled the full point from the following position against Mdinaradze playing the last 20 minutes of the game on only the 10 second increment.

Kevin Sheldrick had the whole tournament hall in laughter as he turned up to his board a few minutes before the forfeit time dressed up as a pirate.

Kevin the Pirate

Kevin won his round 3 game against Anthony Milton, but went down to Alistair Cameron in round 4 in an extremely tricky endgame which was probably drawn until Kevin moved his king outside the square of the passed h-pawn. 

1. Kc5?? (1.Ke5 keeping the opposition and diagonal opposition holds, for example 1... Kc6 2.Ke4 ) h4 0-1

 

On board 1, Trevor Tao blew the tournament wide open by beating top seed Zong-Yuan Zhao. Sam owned the second member of the Zulfic house by hacking Fedja after a dynamic position arose from a Grunfeld and Fedja failed to find the best defence in time pressure.

Grigg,Sam - Zulfic,Fedja [D85]

Checkmate Open (4.6), 09.07.2011

[Mainly Rybka 4]

1.c4? Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.cxd5 Nxd5 4.d4 g6 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Be3 0–0 9.Be2 Nc6 10.0–0 cxd4 11.cxd4 Bg4 12.d5 Bxf3 13.gxf3?! Na5 14.Bd4  (D)

b6?! [14...Qd6 A more natural move preventing the immediate advance of the f-pawn. 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.Qd4+ Kg8 17.e5 Nc6 18.exd6 Nxd4 19.dxe7 Nxe2+ 20.Kg2 Rfe8 21.d6 Nf4+ 22.Kg3 Nd5 23.Rfe1=] 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.Qd4+ Kg8 17.f4 Rc8 18.Rac1 Qd6 19.e5 Qa3 20.Rxc8 Rxc8 21.f5 Sam is a hacker 21...Qxa2 22.Bd3 Qd2 23.fxg6 hxg6 24.e6 (D)

24...f5? [24...Qg5+ 25.Kh1 Nb3! 26.exf7+ Kxf7 27.Qe4 Qf6µ] 25.d6 Qg5+ [25...exd6 26.Qf6 Qxd3 27.Qxg6+ Kh8 28.Qf6+ Kg8 29.Qf7+ Kh8 30.e7+-] 26.Kh1 exd6 27.Rg1 Rc1 28.Bf1 Qh5 29.e7 Qf3+ 30.Bg2 Rxg1+ 31.Kxg1 Qe2 32.Bd5+ Kh7 33.Qe3 Qd1+ 34.Kg2 Qxd5+ 35.f3 f4 36.Qe2 Qg5+ 37.Kh1 1-0

Trevor maintained his lead in round 5 with a draw with Darryl, while the house struck back with Zong-Yuan beating Sam in a game of missed chances. Alistair Cameron had a good upset draw on board 3 against Bobby Cheng.

Zhao,Zong-Yuan - Grigg,Sam [A90]

Checkmate Open (5.2), 10.07.2011

[Zong-Yuan Zhao]

1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 c6 a subtle move order designed to fight against the Nh3 plans since black can still arrange to play d6 and e5 5.Nf3 [5.Nh3 d6 6.0–0 Be7 7.Nf4 e5] 5...d5 6.0–0 Bd6 7.b3 Qe7 preventing an immediate Ba3 8.Bb2 0–0 9.Nbd2 b6 [9...Bd7 10.Ne5 Be8 11.Ndf3 Bh5 12.Nd3 is maybe a bit better for white] 10.Ne5 Bb7 11.Rc1 c5! (D) [11...Nbd7 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Ndc4! now that b7 is unprotected white has this neat little trick (13.Nc6 Qf7 14.Nf3 Rfc8 15.Nfe5 Qe8=) 13...Rfc8 14.Nxd6 Qxd6 15.Qd3²]  

12.e3 [12.dxc5 Higher intervention from...Rybka4 12...bxc5 (12...Bxc5 13.cxd5 exd5 (13...Nxd5 14.e4 Nf6 15.Qe2) 14.Nd3) 13.cxd5 exd5 14.Ndc4! if 14...Bc7? (D) (14...dxc4 this is best 15.Bxb7 Bxe5 16.Bd5+ (16.Bxe5 Qxb7) 16...Nxd5 (16...Kh8 17.Bxe5 Nxd5 18.Qxd5 Nd7 19.Bd6 Qf7 20.Qxf7 Rxf7 21.Rxc4) 17.Qxd5+ Qf7 18.Qxf7+ (18.Qxe5 Nd7 19.Qd6) 18...Kxf7 19.Bxe5 Nd7 20.Bf4 cxb3 21.axb3 Rfc8²)

15.Ng6!! hxg6 16.Bxf6 Qe6 17.Be7!! Qxe7 18.Bxd5+ Bxd5 19.Qxd5+ Kh7 20.Qxa8] 12...Rd8 13.Qe2 Bxe5 14.dxe5 Ne4 15.Rfd1 Nc6 16.g4 Nxd2 17.Rxd2?! now black has the chance to seize the initiative [17.cxd5! Rxd5! (17...exd5 18.Rxd2 Nxe5 19.gxf5 Rd6 20.f4 Nf7 21.b4²) 18.Bxd5 exd5 19.Rxd2 Nxe5 20.Bxe5 Qxe5 21.b4 c4 (21...d4 22.bxc5) 22.Rd4 Re8÷] 17...dxc4! 18.Rxd8+ Rxd8 19.gxf5 (D)

c3? this was a Sam cheapo as now f6 is met by cxb2! hehe =) [19...Qg5 20.f4 Qxf5 21.bxc4 Na5 22.Bxb7 Nxb7 and this is better for black as the white king is unsafe and also he has many queenside weaknesses 23.Bc3 (23.Rd1 Rxd1+ 24.Qxd1 Na5 (24...h5) ) 23...Rd3 (23...Qe4 24.Kf2) 24.Kf2 Nd8 25.Rd1 Rxc3 26.Rxd8+ Kf7 27.Kg3 Ke7] 20.Bxc3 Qg5 21.f4 Qxf5 the difference is that now white is to move! 22.Rd1 Qf8 23.Kf2 Rxd1 24.Qxd1 Qd8?! [24...Qe7 25.Qd6 Kf7 26.Kg3²] 25.Qd6 Qh4+? [25...Kf7 26.Kg3²] 26.Kg1 Qg4 (D) played at top notch speed 

27.h3?? [27.Qd7 was white's intention but was then convinced he missed Qxg2+ 27...Qxg2+ 28.Kxg2 Nxe5+ and black wins...wait isn't b7 hanging duh  29.Qxb7+-] 27...Qg6? [27...Qg3! forces white to be extremely accurate 28.Bd2! (28.Qxe6+ this was white's intention 28...Kf8 29.Qf5+ Ke7 30.Qg5+ Qxg5 31.fxg5 Nd8 32.Bf1 Ne6 33.h4 Be4 and it looks like black can hold ) 28...Qg6 29.Kh2] 28.Kh2 Qe8 29.f5 Nd8 30.Bxb7 Nxb7 31.Qc7 Nd8 32.f6 Nf7 33.Qxa7 gxf6 [33...Qd8 34.Qe7] 34.exf6 Qd8 35.Qe7 Qxe7 36.fxe7 Nd6 37.Be5 Ne8 (D)

38.a4?! [38.Bb8! Kf7 (38...b5 39.a4 c4 40.Be5 bxa4 41.bxa4 c3 42.Bxc3) 39.Ba7 Kxe7 40.Bxb6 Kd6 41.Kg3 Nf6 42.Kf3 Nd5 43.Ba5] 38...Kf7 39.Bb8 Nf6 [39...Kxe7 is better 40.Ba7 Kd6 41.Bxb6 Kc6 42.Ba5 Nd6 43.Bc3±] 40.Bc7 Nd5 41.Bd8 c4 42.bxc4 Nxe3 43.Bxb6 [43.c5 bxc5 44.a5 c4 45.a6 c3 46.a7 c2 47.a8Q c1Q 48.e8Q+! (48.Qf3+ Nf5 49.Qh5+ Kg7 50.e8N+ Kf8) 48...Kxe8 49.Bg5+ Kf7 50.Qf3+] 43...Nxc4 44.Bc5 Na5 45.Kg3 Nc6 46.Kf4 h6 47.h4 Ke8 48.Ke4 Kd7 49.h5 Ke8 50.Kd3 Na5 51.Kc3 Kd7 52.Kb4 Nc6+ 53.Kb5 e5 54.e8B+ 1–0

Round 6 saw Trevor seal at least equal first by crushing James Morris in 45 minutes as his nearest competitors Yuan and Darryl drew on board 2. Lower down in the field, Sam confirmed his reputation as the world's biggest hacker against Mdinaradze.

Grigg,Sam - Mdinaradze,Edgar [A22]

Checkmate Open (6.6), 10.07.2011

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.g3 c6 4.Nf3 d6 Better is [4...e4 5.Nd4 d5 6.cxd5 cxd5] 5.d3 Be7 6.Bg2 Na6 7.0–0 0–0 8.Rb1 Nc7 9.b4 Ne6 10.a4 Nd7 11.e4 Re8 12.Be3 Bf6 13.Qd2 Nc7 14.Ne1 Nf8 15.f4 exf4 16.gxf4 Bg4 Blacks play has been extremely passive and thus allows white a perfect wall of pawns with 17.d4 (D)

Qd7 18.e5 Bh4? was a waste of a tempo, best was [18...Be7 immediately 19.exd6 Bxd6 20.c5 Be7] 19.Nf3 Be7 20.b5 dxe5?? is simply losing 21.bxc6! bxc6 22.Nxe5 Qf5 23.Bxc6 Bh3 24.Bxa8 Nxa8 25.Rf3 Nb6 26.Rb5 Qh5 27.Rg3 white has consolidated his position and now...to have some fun 27...Bf5 28.c5 Nc8 29.d5 Bh4 30.d6 Bxg3 31.hxg3 a6 32.Rb7 Qh3 33.Bf2 Rd8 34.Rxf7 Ng6 35.Rc7 Nxe5 36.Qd5+ Be6 37.Qxe5 Bc4 38.Qxg7# 1–0

Round 7 saw Trevor and Bobby agree a draw in a complex position giving Trevor outright tournament victory. Ronald Scott joined Bobby in equal third place by beating Zong-Yuan in a Bf4 Grunfeld which allowed Darryl to take second place with an amusing win over Sam Grigg. Alistair Cameron finished a good tournament with a final round win over Frank Lekkas giving him a share of third as well.

Johansen,Darryl - Grigg,Sam [A22]

Checkmate Open (7.3), 10.07.2011

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Here Sam had a mental blank and played... 3...e4? 4.Ng5 Bb4 To pin the d2 pawn [4...b5 is actually playable although white is probably better after  5.d3 bxc4 6.dxe4] 5.Ncxe4 Nxe4 6.Nxe4 Now 6...Qh4 Sam's opening was so random that Darryl thought he had 'prepped this from Secrets of Openings Surprises'. However, Sam didn't even realise that such a book existed! 7.Qb3 Better was [7.Qc2 0–0 White has consolidated his position and is easily much better] 7...Nc6 8.Nc3 0–0 9.e3 Re8 10.Be2 d6 11.Nd5 Bg4 12.Bxg4 Qxg4 13.0–0 Ba5 And white went on to win. 1–0

Mark Chapman's last round game against James Morris had a cute finish. Black had just played Qa5-e5.

1. Rxh7!! BAM

And black resigned due to 1...Qxf4 2. Bxf7 Kf8 3.Ne6#


Over the course of the weekend, one arbiter-cum-chessgroupie accidentally implied he was a turkey, a geek, a noob and a camel. Below is an artist's depiction of this mythical creature.

The Zworebeast: Any resemblance to a certain IA is purely coincidental and totally denied by the relevant party.