Figjam Mid-Year Update

by Andrew

Greetings Readers, 

First of all, I'd like to say sorry about our general inactivity on here. I am going to try to post twice a week starting from next week (aiming for a Tuesday post and a Friday post).

Second of all, I would like to offer my congratulations to two of our contributors, Moulthun Ly and Junta Ikeda, who have been selected to represent Australia in the 2014 World Chess Olympiad in Norway starting the 1st of August! In the Sydney International Open (SIO) at the end of April, Moulthun and Junta both had fantastic performances, with Moulthun winning the tournament outright and registering his first Grand Master norm and Junta narrowly missing a GM norm but placing Equal 2nd and fulfilling the requirements for the International Master title. It will be great to watch how they go in Norway against many of the world's best. Before then however, they, along with two other members of the team, GM David Smerdon and 13-year-old FM Anton Smirnov, will be competing in the Politiken Cup - a strong open tournament in Denmark - as a warm up.

For more info on either of these tournaments, you can click on the links below:

https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014

http://www.ksu.dk/politiken_cup/default.aspx?la=en

Thirdly, the Gold Coast Open is on this weekend. Moulthun, Jonas and I are all participating, with Moulthun currently being the top seed. Last year Moulthun placed Equal First but was unlucky not to win outright, missing a last minute opportunity in his final round game with GM Lubomir Ftacnik:

Ly - Ftacnik GCO 2013

62.g4? (62.Kh7 +- - e.g., 62...Kf7 63.g4 Kf6 (...h5 64.g5) 64.h4 Kf7 65.g5 or 62...h5 63.Kg6 h4 64.g4) Kg8 63.h3 Kh8 64.h4 Kg8 Draw agreed.

Hopefully there will be better news to report this time around - Moulthun is certainly the favourite to win this year's event. Either way, the tournament should be hard fought and enjoyable to play in as it has been in previous years.

Fourthly, Magnus Carlsen just won both the World Rapid and the World Blitz Championships, meaning he is now World Champion in all three of the major time divisions of chess - a triple crown, if you will.

Lastly, White to play and win. Highlightable solution below. Enjoy!

White to play and win - A. Wotawa 1960

1.f8=Q Rxf8 2.gxh5+ Kf7 3.Rh8!! (3.Rxf8+ Kxf8 4. Rf1+ Kg8 5.h6 (5.Ke7 h6 =) gxh6 6.Ke7 h5 7.Rg1+ Kh8 8.Kf7 h6 =) Rxh8 4.Rf1+ Kg8 5.h6! gxh6 6.Ke7 with mate next move.

Doeberl Cup & Sydney International Open 2014

Australia's two biggest open tournaments of 2014 are now over, and it was a good fortnight for FIGJAM, with Moulthun winning the Sydney International Open and achieving his first GM norm, and Junta achieving his IM title by scoring his third (and fourth) IM norm and surpassing 2400. Andrew had a great Doeberl but couldn't maintain the same level of play for the SIO, while Fedja wasn't in his best form with fatigue being a major factor, going into these events right after the KL Open.

Doeberl Cup final crosstable
Sydney International Open final crosstable

Although we've been writing as rarely as ever this year, Andrew plans to write a couple of posts every week, starting June. See you again soon!

Doeberl Cup winner GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu with guest Garry Kasparov

Our own shot with the 13th World Champion

Sydney International Open, =2nd-6th place: from left, Mu Ke (CHN), GM van Wely (NED),
Junta, GM Vajda (ROU) and GM Nisipeanu (GER) with GM Rogers and IA Zworestine

Moulthun giving his winner's speech

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.

 



A Christmas Composition

Here is a study that was unintentionally composed by Charles Zworestine and Andrew Brown, based on our analysis of my (Andrew's) game with Jonas Muller in this year's Australian Young Masters.



Black to play and win

C. Zworestine, A. Brown, and H. 1.5a w32, 2012

 

 

The solution can be seen by highlighting the text below.

1...h5!

If 1...Kf6 2.a5 Ke7 4.a6 Kd6 5.a7 (5.Bf4+ Kc6 -+) Bd5 6.Bf4+! (6.Bh6 Ke6 -+) Ke6 7.Bh6! draw (If 7...Kd6 8.Bf4+ and repeat the position)

If 1...Be6 2.a5 Bc8 3.Kxc4 Ba6+ 4.Kd4 h5 5.Ke5 draw (the king will be cut off from helping the h-pawn advance.)

2.a5 h4 3.a6 h3! 4.a7 Bd5!! 5.Kxd5 h2 6.a8=Q h1=Q+ Black wins

Unfortunately, here it must be pointed out that the third contributor to this study, Mr or Ms H.1.5a w32 actually turns out to be the computer engine Houdini. Initially this was a "White to play and draw" study, with the second line beginning with 1...Kf6 having been found by Charles and myself. It was only when I had to check over it with the computer that it found the amazing line beginning with  1...h5!.

Nonetheless, I found it to be thoroughly delightful, and hope you enjoyed it too.

 

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.