Catching up with Time

By Moulthun Ly

"If you really want to know something, then only time will tell... it always does" (unknown)

It’s been such a long time since any of us did a post, so before “the year ends” I thought I should probably get on to it. I only just found out that for the first time I will make the Australian team for the Olympiad this year! So I’m quite stoked to get a chance to play Board 4 in August, when it is held in Istanbul.

But before I go too far ahead, let's take a super quick look at how I even got here.  The start of the year was quite solid to say the least with the 20 games from Australian Champs and Queenstown; I only lost 2 of these. But this has always been my problem of late, simply falling a half point short. Drawing has never really been an issue for me. Yet converting even trivially won positions has become an arduous task. 

Fast forward a few weeks and Junta and myself decided to go play in the HD Bank International tournament in Vietnam for the first time. Although I live right next door, I’d never been to Ho Chi Minh before and it proved to be a very pleasant experience. The chess we played was quite average for me, and for Junta… hmm well not his best performance we can say. That aside it was an excellent experience and was fantastic to meet such wonderful people there. We both had a great time there, looking forward to coming to play in this event again next year.

A few more weeks later and we were back playing in the annual Doeberl and SIO chess opens. Ohh, how time goes by all too quickly. In the past these have always been my worst performing tournaments. Mainly due to the tight schedule and late night rounds which become all too draining.  After a very slow start in Doeberl I managed to pull myself together and finish on a respectable 6/9. While at SIO I once again performed on par finishing on another 6/9.  All in all it hasn’t been such a bad start to the year, just very average. I would have liked to have done a little better. However, all I really need is one good tournament and it will happen in time. Will keep posting if I find out anything interesting or of value.

So that’s really about all that has happened this year for me. No plans yet to really play anything else, anytime soon. Well this was quite a boring post, there won’t be too many more though I promise.