Qatar Masters Open

By Moulthun Ly

Right now there is a super strong open taking place in Qatar. It has a 2200+ rating cutoff and features an abundance of top GM's over 2600. Often, while watching elite events, there may be long waiting periods while the players decide on a move, due to the small number of games. However, with so many interesting games going on that has not yet been an occurrence.

In fact, several months ago, I had the intention of playing this event but later decided not to for various reasons. This wasn't specific to this situation - it has applied on and off the board. I did feel a small sense of regret for not playing when it was possible, but this is nothing new and happens almost all the time during my games. I will choose a line only to have a change of heart shortly after.

Even at top level this can happen, for instance during the recent World Championship match when Anand missed his big winning opportunity in a crucial game. I wonder for how long that must have affected his state of mind. The best thing I have learnt to do, is take everything "move by move" and "game by game". This can happen to anyone so unless we are able to adjust, the rest of our games/tournament is pointless. So I suggest you do not overlook this, always keep looking forward.

You can catch all the live action at:
http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/live-games/

Politiken Cup: Most Distracting OTB Scenery

by Junta

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.

The Most Beautiful Game I've Ever... Failed to Win

by Andrew

"Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance." - Jon Franklin

"You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try." - Homer Simpson

This game comes from the recent Commonwealth Chess Championship and was the anticlimax of my tournament, and possibly my chess career. I don't remember ever feeling so devastated after a game before, and not because I'd missed an opportunity for a good result, or a norm, or some kind of recognition (though Kasparov had actually looked at my game at the start of the round).

It was because I had destroyed something I considered to be really beautiful, but more than that it felt like I had missed the opportunity I'd been waiting for for many years. By this I mean to say, one cannot create a masterpiece if one's opponent allows the 4-move checkmate; your opponent's decisions of course play a vital role in the process, and hence, games like the following are quite rare. 

I see the first part of this game as a kind of humorous testament to the advice every beginner is given when they first learn to play. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

1.e4 e5 (D)

"Move a central pawn forward two spaces."

2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf6 c3 (D)  

"Develop knights before bishops."

4.Qe2?! Bc5 5.f4 0-0 (D) 

"Castle early."

6.Nf3 d5! -+ (D)

"Push your other central pawn so you can
develop your last minor piece."

7.exd5 Bg4! (D)

"Now it is time to develop your last minor piece.
(Never mind the knight for now.)"

8.dxc6 (8.fxe5 Nxe5) e4 (D)

"Advance your central pawns to open lines for your pieces."

9.d4 (9.cxb7 exf3 10.gxf3 (10.bxa8 Qxa8 -+) Re8 -+) exf3 10.gxf3 Re8 (D) 

"Last but not least, bring your rook to the open file."

Perhaps chess is simpler than I thought? 11.Be3 Bxf3! (D) 

"...now that development is complete
it is time to sacrifice a bishop..."

12.Qxf3 Bxd4 (D)

"...and another one..."

So, now things aren't quite so 'simple', but it turns out that these sacrifices are completely sound, as 13.cxd4 is losing after ...Qxd4. E.g. 14.Kf2 Rxe3 15.Qxe3 Ng4+; 14.0-0 Rxe3 15.Qf2 Ng4; 14.cxb7 Rxe3+ 15.Be2 Rae8 16.Qf2 (Qg2 Qxb2) Ng4 17.Qg2 Rxe2+ 18.Qxe2 Qf2+ (D)

My opponent saw these lines and decided instead to opt for 13.Be2 (D)

The game continued 13...Rxe3 14.Qg2 Nh5 15.cxb7 Qh4+?! (D) my first real error of the game. Black is significantly better after the safe 15...Rb8 as Nxf4 cannot be stopped (e.g. 16.Rf1 Qh4+), but naively I decided against it for fear of compromising the game's beauty. Following this the game went rapidly downhill.

Here was the high-point in the game, at least in terms of beauty, where White could have played the remarkable 16.Qf2!! whereupon ...Rxe2 does not win the house as it appears but in fact after the calmest of moves, 17.Kd1!... (D)

...even being a piece up, even with all of White's major pieces on the edge of the board, and even with 3 pieces attacking the White queen, Black is hopelessly lost. Like Frodo at the Fires of Mount Doom, the b7-pawn will ultimately win the day for the White army.  

Instead the game continued 16.Kd2 (D)

After which I played Rd8 (Rae8 -+) 17.Bxh5 Qxf4 (Bb6 is still winning) 18.Kc2 Qf5+ 19.Kc1 Rxc3? (D) (Still aiming for the beauty prize, of which there was not. Qxh5 was fine.)

20.bxc3 Be3+ 21.Nd2 Qd3?? (D) (The end is nigh. Rxd2 would have still given me chances)

Then came 22.Bxf7, and to give you an idea of how rapidly things went downhill, on Move 29 the position looked like this:

Final Position

Consequently I had to resign to avoid further embarrassment.

Getting over this game was pretty hard, but it's something that needed to happen for me to be able to start playing well again. Kind of like one of those movies where the main character dies but saves the world at the same time. I found I was doing things like this nearly every game, going for beauty or misguided creativity over objectivity. 

The rest of the CCC was nothing special - in fact I dropped 35 rating points. But the whole experience was very important for me in a variety of ways. Since this experience I have found that the more objective I've been, both with chess and other parts of life, the more enjoyment I have got out of it. 

And of course my chess has started to improve, but that is a story for later.

I will leave you with some photos from my trip. Enjoy!

  

Commonwealth Championships 2013 Part 1 (OC + Rounds 1-4)

by Andrew

Sorry for keeping you waiting, Figjam Readers - a mixture of having a rather temperamental internet provider, my computer frequently crashing, jet-lag and the flu has made blogging not quite as easy.

When I decided to play in the Commonwealth Championships a couple of months ago, I had no idea that the tournament would be this prestigious...



Light show during the opening ceremony. I was upstairs in the VIP area (who'd have thought?), eating fancy canapes and drinking whatever I could get my hands on.*  

*Non-alcoholic beverages, of course...

...well-organised...




Upon arriving at the airport we approached this sign and were greeted by two girls wearing chess shirts and soon a man (in a tailor-made suit with the Commonwealth Chess Championship logo embroidered into it) who kindly offered to take our bags. Then we were shown into a Commonwealth Chess van, with the full paint job, and taken to the 5-star venue that would be our hotel.   

...and, well, big! With 862 participants playing in the two sections (Championship section and B-section), this tournament has by far the most players of any tournament I have played in. In fact I'm pretty sure it has more than my last 15 tournaments combined.

So, thankfully I did manage to survive the flight over, long though it was, but it seems for the last few days jet lag has got the better of me. Even though I have been playing much lower-rated opponents, my games have been long and not as easy as they should have been: I have had trouble focussing and have missed a lot of simple things. On Day 3 this became quite serious when, having played for 3.5 hours to get into this unclear position against my South African opponent (1907), I managed to leave my rook en prix.

After 28.Nc3. Here I played ...Nb5?? and after 29.Nxa2 I was lost - Bxa2 30.Rd1 and staying in the game is all but impossible.

Losing in this way was quite painful, especially considering it would almost certainly ruin all my chances for a GM norm due to average opponent rating issues if nothing else. Battling the early onset of the flu, I was not in the best of moods for the rest of the day. The blitz was on the following day, and it was very tempting to play, but I decided it was best for me to take a break and do what I could to recover mentally - after all, this was only 3 rounds in to an 11 round tournament, and I was still keen to make the most of it.

I have had a few too many tournaments where a loss in an early round has inhibited me psychologically for the remainder of the tournament, and so I decided I had to work on what it was that was preventing me from bouncing back properly. I decided that I had to first of all not dwell on the loss, but fully accept that it had happened. Then I had to remember why I play chess - not just to win, gain rating points, get title norms etc., but because I love the game. I love the mental exercise that each game offers, the struggle to bring about harmony between the pieces, the opportunity to be creative, and the chance to produce something really special.

Keeping these thoughts in mind the next day, I was more focussed, more relaxed, and much more eager to be in that hall, at 3:00pm, doing it all again. Suddenly my flu seemed a whole lot better (in part due to the medication), jet-lag no longer seemed a problem, and my loss yesterday barely bothered me.

The game that followed was the most enjoyable game I have played in a long time.




And after this it got better and better.

I am hoping to have Part 2 (Rounds 5-8) up in the next couple of days.

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!

Japanese Championships 2013 Round 8: Black to play and win

"Would you like some water?" I asked, to which he gave a four-millimetre nod.

From the novel Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

by Junta

In Round 8 I was up against Naohiro Nakamura, who has been improving steadily over the last few years. He finished the tournament in 3rd place with 7.5/11, only losing to the 1st and 2nd place-getters.

As Black, I've built up a solid advantage - the game continued 21...dxe4 22.Bxf6 Bxf6

23.Rad1 (23.Nd6 Qd7 23.Rad1 Nd3, for example 24.Nb5 Qc6 25.Rf1 Qc5 26.Qxc5 Nxc5 27.Nd6 Rcb8 28.Nxe4 Nxb3)

Here it took me 20 minutes to find the best continuation for Black - what was it?
(Game continuation below in white)

23…Be7 Switchbacks are often difficult to spot. 24.fxe4 Nxa4 Now Black is a healthy pawn up. 25. Nd6 (25.bxa4 Bc5 26.Nd4 [26.Rd8+ Kh7 27.Rd4 e5 28.Nd6 Qd7] e5) Bxd6 26.Rxd6 Rc3 27.Rd3 Rxd3 28.Qxd3 Nc3 29.Nf2 Qb6 30.Rc1 Rd8 31.Qf3 Qa6 32.Kg2 Qa3 33.Rxc3 bxc3 34.Qxc3 Rb8 35.Qc4 Qxb3 36.Qc5 Qb5 37.Qd4 Qe2 38.Qc3 Rb1 39.Qd3 Qxd3 0–1

Japanese Championships 2013: Miniature

"Get some rest Pam, you look tired."
Jason Bourne

by Junta

This was my quickest win from the Japanese Championships (19 moves). An attacking setup with an early h2-h4 against my opponent's kingside fianchetto worked very well, and most of White's army joined in the fun.

Japanese Championships 2013 - Results

"Poi-Poi is everything, but at the same time it is also nothing."
From an intense conversation about an abstract concept 'Poi-Poi' after one of the rounds

by Junta

From May 1-6 I played in the national championships finals in Tokyo - 43 players, all qualifying through regional championships, other major annual events, rating etc. I was given one of the three 'presidential nominee' spots as a player with a high rating (I was 2nd seed).

I'd finished the Doeberl Cup in Canberra, my last tournament in Australia before my 10 months' exchange in Japan, very badly losing nearly 30 Elo, so I wanted to relax, not think too much about results and enjoy playing in a new environment.

This worked very well, as I scored 8 wins and 3 draws, winning the title of Japanese Champion for 2013. I really enjoyed catching up with friends and meeting many new faces in the Japanese chess scene, and I look forward to playing in Tokyo again (maybe in August).

Chris Kevork, another Canberra player, also took part and performed well (he is currently working in Japan).

From the closing ceremony. Photo courtesy of Masako Uesugi

The final standings and crosstable (in starting rank order of Japanese Chess Association ratings) are below.

Standings 

Place Name            Rtg  Loc  Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   Junta Ikeda,       2367 2077 9.5      55.5  68.5   57.5
  2   Shinya Kojima,       2384 2408 8.5      60.0  74.5   57.5
  3   Naohiro Nakamura,  2058 2097 7.5      59.0  73.5   46.0
 4-6  Akira Watanabe,       2281 2334 7        56.0  69.5   37.5
      Gentaro Gonda,     2078 2058 7        54.5  67.0   39.5
      Naoto Mitsuya,          1894 7        52.0  63.0   38.0
7-13  Ryosuke Nanjo,       2327 2365 6.5      59.0  73.0   42.0
      Koji Noguchi,       2072 2129 6.5      57.0  71.0   44.5
      Atsuhiko Kobayashi,  2011 2059 6.5      57.0  71.0   42.0
      Ryo Shiomi,       2109 2210 6.5      55.0  69.5   42.0
      Masahiro Baba,       2235 2239 6.5      53.0  65.5   32.0
      Sho Inoue,       2038 1966 6.5      52.0  63.5   39.0
      Enju Sakai,       1978 1959 6.5      50.0  61.5   35.5
14-18 Yoto Usuba,            1883 6        56.5  68.0   40.0
      Tang Tang,       1927 1988 6        54.0  68.5   37.0
      Averbukh,Alex,  2214 2325 6        53.0  66.5   37.5
      Kazuhiro Sotoo,       1966 1769 6        51.5  61.5   35.0
      Teruomi Toshiba,       2001 6        49.5  60.0   35.0
19-23 Hideaki Ukai,       1810 2031 5.5      50.0  61.0   33.0
      Chris Kevork,   1892 1631 5.5      49.5  59.5   34.0
      Hiroto Taga,            1700 5.5      49.0  62.0   31.5
      Taro Shinoda,       1918 1901 5.5      48.0  60.5   30.0
      Satoshi Hirao,       1795 1835 5.5      41.0  51.5   29.0
24-31 Toshiki Tanaka,       1838 1886 5        53.0  65.5   38.0
      So Sakai,       1831 1789 5        52.5  63.0   41.0
      Go Umayabara,            2045 5        51.0  63.0   32.5
      Toyoaki Fukuda,       1934 1797 5        48.0  58.0   30.5
      Mikio Takahashi,       1894 5        44.5  54.5   27.0
      Koichi Sugimoto,   1989 2027 5        44.0  53.5   29.0
      Kenji Hiebert,        1371 5        44.0  53.5   27.0
      Akira Kinoshita,  1804 1751 5        38.0  46.5   25.5
32-34 Kenichi Hamane,       1884 1775 4.5      44.5  57.0   29.5
      Yuichiro Takada,          1818 4.5      44.5  54.0   28.5
      Daigo Kanda,       1906 1793 4.5      44.0  53.5   24.5
35-37 Ryo Kitano,            1661 4        45.5  55.5   24.5
      Kohei Takatsuki,       1636 4        43.0  53.5   25.0
      Soichi Wakahara,       1461 4        38.0  47.5   21.5
38-39 Kenshin Matsumoto,  1562 1541 3.5      44.5  53.5   21.5
      Hiroaki Manabe,            1628 3.5      41.5  51.5   25.0
40-42 Eiji Hakamada,       1743 1475 3        41.0  50.0   17.5
      Megumi Hasegawa,     1752 1623 3        39.0  47.5   14.5
      Yosuke Kawanaka,       1604 3        38.0  46.0   11.0

Cross Table

No  Name            Rtg  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10   11  

1.  Shinya Kojima,       2384 8.5   11:W  6:W 22:W  8:W  7:W 10:W  9:D  2:D  5:L  3:D  4:W
2.  Ryosuke Nanjo,       2327 6.5   12:W  7:L 25:W 17:W  9:L  3:D 16:W  1:D 22:W  8:D  5:L
3.  Akira Watanabe,       2281 7       :D  8:L   :D 21:W 19:W  2:D 11:D 10:D 15:W  1:D 23:W
4.  Averbukh,Alex,  2214 6       :W  9:D 16:D  7:L 25:D 26:W 12:D 23:L 34:W 18:W  1:L
5.  Masahiro Baba,       2235 6.5     :D   :D   :L   :L 34:W 12:D 23:D 20:W  1:W 10:D  2:W
6.  Ryo Shiomi,       2109 6.5   14:W  1:L 26:D 42:W 23:D 13:W 17:W  7:L 28:W  9:D  8:L
7.  Koji Noguchi,       2072 6.5     :W  2:W 29:D  4:W  1:L 28:L 30:W  6:W  9:L 17:W 20:L
8.  Naohiro Nakamura,       2058 7.5   16:D  3:W 20:W  1:L 22:W 23:W 28:W  9:L 17:D  2:D  6:W
9.  Junta Ikeda,       2367 9.5   19:W  4:D 32:W 29:W  2:W 16:W  1:D  8:W  7:W  6:D 10:W
10. Atsuhiko Kobayashi,       2011 6.5   21:W 16:L 27:W 22:D 30:W  1:L 15:W  3:D 23:W  5:D  9:L
11. Gentaro Gonda,     2078 7      1:L 23:W 34:W 30:D 20:W 17:L  3:D 12:W 18:L 28:W 35:W
12. Go Umayabara,            5      2:L 24:W 30:L 27:W 29:W  5:D  4:D 11:L 35:D 19:L 42:D
13. Hideaki Ukai,       1810 5.5     :D   :D   :D   :D 32:D  6:L 27:W 26:D 16:D 21:W 18:L
14. Koichi Sugimoto,       1989 5      6:L 28:L 38:W 33:L 39:W 42:W 22:L 25:W 26:W 23:L 30:L
15. Teruomi Toshiba,            6       :D   :D 36:W 23:L 26:D 29:W 10:L 19:W  3:L 16:D 28:W
16. Tang Tang,       1927 6      8:D 10:W  4:D 35:W 28:D  9:L  2:L 30:D 13:D 15:D 22:W
17. Sho Inoue,       2038 6.5     :D   :D 41:W  2:L 33:W 11:W  6:L 35:W  8:D  7:L 19:W
18. Enju Sakai,       1978 6.5     :D   :D   :D   :D 35:D 30:L 29:W 32:W 11:W  4:L 13:W
19. Taro Shinoda,       1918 5.5    9:L 29:L 40:W 34:W  3:L 27:D 31:W 15:L 32:W 12:W 17:L
20. Naoto Mitsuya,          7     33:W 32:D  8:L 24:W 11:L 35:D 36:W  5:L 30:W 22:W  7:W
21. Mikio Takahashi,            5     10:L 30:W 24:D  3:L 36:L 39:L 38:W 33:W 42:W 13:L 31:D
22. Toshiki Tanaka,       1838 5     34:W 41:W  1:L 10:D  8:L 32:W 14:W 28:D  2:L 20:L 16:L
23. Yoto Usuba,            6     35:W 11:L 33:W 15:W  6:D  8:L  5:D  4:W 10:L 14:W  3:L
24. Satoshi Hirao,       1795 5.5   36:W 12:L 21:D 20:L 42:D 33:D 32:L 41:D 39:W 31:D 34:W
25. Yuichiro Takada,          4.5   37:D 31:D  2:L 41:W  4:D 36:D 35:L 14:L 29:W 30:L   :D
26. Toyoaki Fukuda,       1934 5       :D   :D  6:D 32:D 15:D  4:L 33:W 13:D 14:L 35:L 36:W
27. Daigo Kanda,       1906 4.5     :D   :D 10:L 12:L 41:W 19:D 13:L 40:D 31:L 29:D 39:W
28. So Sakai,       1831 5     38:W 14:W   :D   :D 16:D  7:W  8:L 22:D  6:L 11:L 15:L
29. Kenichi Hamane,       1884 4.5   39:W 19:W  7:D  9:L 12:L 15:L 18:L 37:D 25:L 27:D 38:W
30. Kazuhiro Sotoo,       1966 6     40:W 21:L 12:W 11:D 10:L 18:W  7:L 16:D 20:L 25:W 14:W
31. Akira Kinoshita,       1804 5     41:L 25:D 42:L 36:D 37:W 40:D 19:L 38:D 27:W 24:D 21:D
32. Hiroto Taga,            5.5   42:W 20:D  9:L 26:D 13:D 22:L 24:W 18:L 19:L 39:W 33:W
33. Ryo Kitano,            4     20:L 38:W 23:L 14:W 17:L 24:D 26:L 21:L 41:D 40:W 32:L
34. Kohei Takatsuki,            4     22:L 37:W 11:L 19:L  5:L 38:W 40:W 36:W  4:L 42:L 24:L
35. Chris Kevork,   1892 5.5   23:L 40:W 37:W 16:L 18:D 20:D 25:W 17:L 12:D 26:W 11:L
36. Hiroaki Manabe,            3.5   24:L 39:W 15:L 31:D 21:W 25:D 20:L 34:L 38:L 37:D 26:L
37. Megumi Hasegawa,     1752 3     25:D 34:L 35:L 38:D 31:L 41:L 42:L 29:D 40:D 36:D   :D
38. Yosuke Kawanaka,            3     28:L 33:L 14:L 37:D 40:L 34:L 21:L 31:D 36:W 41:W 29:L
39. Kenshin Matsumoto,       1562 3.5   29:L 36:L   :D   :D 14:L 21:W 41:W 42:D 24:L 32:L 27:L
40. Eiji Hakamada,       1743 3     30:L 35:L 19:L   :D 38:W 31:D 34:L 27:D 37:D 33:L 41:L
41. Soichi Wakahara,            4     31:W 22:L 17:L 25:L 27:L 37:W 39:L 24:D 33:D 38:L 40:W
42. Kenji Hiebert,        5     32:L   :D 31:W  6:L 24:D 14:L 37:W 39:D 21:L 34:W 12:D

From the closing ceremony. Photo courtesy of Masako Uesugi

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.

Candidates - at the halfway mark

"The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realisation of this goal, the less you think about it"

- Mikhail Tal 

 

by Junta

Standings after Round 7:
+3 Carlsen, Aronian 5/7
= Kramnik, Svidler 3.5/7
-1 Grischuk, Radjabov 3/7
-2 Ivanchuk, Gelfand 2.5/7

As we predicted prior to the tournament, the contest for the Challenger's seat seems to be between Carlsen and Aronian, but...outdistancing the other players like this?! Like the Tal Memorial in recent years, in a tournament like this where there are no 'bunnies', I expected Carlsen and Aronian to have a sure but slight edge over the others, but these two are simply playing at a higher level over the field, possessing the strength to produce multiple wins. It will be awesome to see one of these guys play for the title with Anand in November.

I'm very happy Aronian has been able to keep pace with Carlsen, but it will be tough to continue doing so for the second half - Carlsen's nerves and stamina are phenomenal, and he finishes events strongly - assuming Carlsen can keep playing at a level he is satisfied with until the end, a score of 9.5 or 10 points seems pretty plausible.

If there is a winner in tonight's Carlsen-Aronian game, obviously they will have a big edge to win the event, while Rounds 9, 11 and 13 where Carlsen and Aronian are both Black, appear to be the best chances for the others to beat the duo and shorten the gap.

Oh, Ivanchuk...

"Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention"

- Calvin Candie in the film Django Unchained

by Junta

We here at FIGJAM are quite fond of the Ukrainian star, but not making the time control in successive rounds (Rounds 2 and 3 of the Candidates) is extremely worrying. Although it's well known that nerves have tended to get the better of him in World Championship events, we can only hope he can pick himself up from here.

Although Ivanchuk has been one of the world's best players since the early 90's, I only began to appreciate how talented he is when I started following elite tournaments a few years ago. One of his games from the 2010 Olympiad made a big impression on me, and it's definitely one of my favourite games. On chessgames.com the game was later named 'Final Fantasy'.

Rounds 2-3 saw a high rate of decisive games (2/4 and 3/4, respectively), and the games in the first leg of the event have been very interesting. Things will get even more exciting from here.

Standings after Round 3:
+2 Aronian 2.5/3
+1 Svidler, Carlsen 2/3
= Kramnik, Grischuk, Radjabov 1.5/3
-2 Ivanchuk, Gelfand 0.5/3  

March 15th: Hello, Candidates tournament

by Junta

2013 sees the return of the double round robin format to the Candidates tournament, and I can't wait to see the eight elite players battle it out over 14 rounds.

From March 15th~April 1st, chess fans all over the world will be following this event in London which will decide the next Challenger to the current World Champion, Anand, in this world championship cycle.

Carlsen is the obvious favourite, while Aronian and Kramnik are, as usual, expected to do well - but it would be exciting if one or more of the other five players surprised everyone. I'm hoping to see some good games by Grischuk and Ivanchuk.

If you don't know much about the Candidates' characters and views, these extensive 'KC-Conference' interviews with some of them are well worth a read.
Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk
Peter Svidler

While here are some interesting interviews with the other five:
Magnus Carlsen on an online show, Metaphysical Milkshake
Vladimir Kramnik: "Art, Chess, Beauty and Depth"
Teimour Radjabov: "I simply fought the way I always do!"
Vassily Ivanchuk: "I can still become World Champion"
Boris Gelfand: highlights from interviews he gave after winning the Candidates last year

Not so FIGJAM

by Fedja 

In a classic interview after his game with Hikaru Nakamura at Wijk aan Zee, Ivan Sokolov succinctly describes my feelings after about 90% of my games (admittedly many don't have the 'completely winning' part he speaks of...)

Luckily he didn't and today he pulled himself together and drew today with Anish Giri. Maybe someone cheered him up with this video of Garry Kasparov which shows that blunders can really happen to all of us.

Rose Valley Open 2012 - Most entertaining game

by Junta

In a tournament where the majority of the players were titled, many of the games were high quality: subtle opening lines cooked up in depth at home, positional struggles across the whole board vying to exploit each others' weaknesses, energetic attacks meeting resilient defence, technique of the highest class in the endgame.

The game that caught my eye the most, however, was an entertaining piece of guerilla warfare in the penultimate, 10th round on Board 7, between the young Indian GM Adhiban and Filipino IM Dimakiling.

If a class positional struggle between two masters could be likened to two prominent mathematicians calmly but methodically competing to solve the same, difficult problem with pen on paper, this game could be something like two scientists eagerly mixing up some dangerous chemicals in test tubes and throwing them at each other from opposite ends of a lab, exploding on impact at times - yes, the ultimate aim in a game of chess is to checkmate the opponent's king.

The game leaves the realms of contemporary theory very early on - after Black's 3rd move, there have only been 31 other games in the database, and the only person who had faced the position after Black's 5th move was none other than Mikhail Tal in 1982!

I present you the game below - commentary would be superfluous for such a fun game.
Merry Christmas!

 

2 tournaments in India - summary

by Junta

I returned from India last week - I was satisfied with my performances there, and I'll start writing up some posts on some game themes and snippets.

The Commonwealth Championships was held in Chennai from November 22-December 1. The largest tournament I've played in by far, with 455 players (around 400 being Indian).

Rd.	Bo.	SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	Club/City	Pts.	Res.	K	rtg+/-
1	50	277		Sai Kiran Y	1654	IND	AP(ISOG)	5.0	w 1	15	1.20
2	46	165		Siva Mahadevan	1935	IND	TN	6.0	s 1	15	1.50
3	38	115		Raghunandan K S	2042	IND	KAR	4.5	w 1	15	2.70
4	7	11	GM	Arun Prasad S.	2513	IND	PSPB	8.0	s 0	15	-3.45
5	37	133	WFM	Srija Seshadri	1990	IND	TN	5.5	w ½	15	-5.40
6	40	113		Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad	2043	IND	AP	6.5	s 1	15	2.70
7	16	13	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2500	IND	TN	8.0	w 1	15	11.25
8	14	29	IM	Himanshu Sharma	2417	IND	RLYS	7.5	s ½	15	2.25
9	19	34	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2400	IND	AI	7.5	w ½	15	1.95
10	14	12	GM	Grover Sahaj	2509	IND	DEL	7.5	s ½	15	3.90
11	20	23	IM	Narayanan Srinath	2438	IND	TN	7.5	w ½	15	2.70

My most solid performance to date, with 5 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss and 7.5/11. My performance rating was 2441, just short of an IM norm performance, and I picked up 21 rating points. I was quite happy with my play overall, as I held my own against the genuinely strong GMs and IMs. Final standings are here - starting as 50th seed, I placed =28th-51st (41st on ties).

The Rose Valley Open was held in Calcutta from December 3-13. The strongest tournament I've played in by far, where there were 29 GMs and 34 IMs out of the 100 participants!

Rd.	Bo.	SNo		Name	RtgI	FED	Pts.	Res.	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	25	26	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2494	IND	6.0	w 0	0.25	-0.25	15	-3.75
2	50	99		Madhurima Shekhar	1955	IND	2.0	s 1	0.89	0.11	15	1.65
3	29	44	FM	Ghosh Diptayan	2425	IND	6.5	w 0	0.34	-0.34	15	-5.10
4	33	48	IM	Saravanan V.	2402	IND	6.0	s ½	0.37	0.13	15	1.95
5	33	51	IM	Karavade Eesha	2385	IND	5.5	s 0	0.39	-0.39	15	-5.85
6	44	96		Rishi Sardana	2173	IND	4.5	w 1	0.68	0.32	15	4.80
7	38	66	IM	Murali Krishnan B.T.	2345	IND	4.0	s 1	0.44	0.56	15	8.40
8	29	49		Sagar Shah	2393	IND	5.0	w 1	0.38	0.62	15	9.30
9	21	31	IM	Debashis Das	2464	IND	6.0	s 0	0.29	-0.29	15	-4.35
10	26	37	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2442	IND	5.0	w ½	0.31	0.19	15	2.85
11	25	42	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2435	IND	5.0	s 1	0.32	0.68	15	10.20

I had a shaky first half, playing poorly in Rounds 3 and 5, but was able to fight back in the second half, ending up with 5 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses and 6/11. My performance rating was 2404, and I picked up 20 rating points. Final standings are here - starting as 75th seed, I placed =27th-47th (45th on ties).

I'm very glad I went to play in these tournaments as I had the chance to play with strong players day in and day out, preparing hard for each game, and I've learnt a lot in the process. India is a true chess nation, and I was amazed at the depth and breadth of the talent there - young kids blitz into the middlegame (good knowledge of openings), have sharp tactical awareness and play 'correct' chess, having a feel for what are good and bad moves. 8 Indian players scored norms at the second event alone, with a junior player becoming India's 31st GM by picking up the points to get over 2500.

With strong government support all over the country (including chess schools, chess programs in the school curriculum, strong events throughout the year and support for professional players enabling young players to aspire to choosing it as their career path), I'm sure India will continue to flourish as one of the top chess nations. I look forward to playing there again in the future.

Commonwealth Championships 2012 - Second Half

By Moulthun Ly

Going into the 7th round, Junta was sitting on a solid 4.5/6. Up against GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. with the white pieces. I remember him well from when we played last year, as the win managed to knock me slightly over the rating barrier, earning me the IM title.

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. O-O d5 6. c4 c6 7. Qb3 Qb6 8. Qa3!?

I can't say I've ever seen this idea been played before. More typical is 8. c5 or nc3 but our player here is far from typical I suppose. Possibly Black has to go for some complications with ...dxc4! and Black should remain with a fine position. Although in the game Black gives white the bishop pair and solid advantage. Junta goes on to convert his advantage effectively, developing a swift king-side attack.

Bg4 9. e3 e6 10. Ne5 Nbd7 11. Nxg4 Nxg4 12. Nc3 a5 13. Qa4 Qb4 14. Qd1 Ngf6 15.
c5 a4 16. Bd2 Qc4 17. Re1 Qa6 18. Bf1 Qa7 19. b3 b6 20. b4 Rfc8 21. a3 h5 22.
Rc1 Nh7 23. h3 bxc5 24. bxc5 e5 25. Ne2 Ng5 26. Bg2 Ne6 27. Bb4 f5 28. g4 h4
29. gxf5 gxf5 30. dxe5 Nxe5 31. f4 Ng6 32. Bf3 Kh7 33. Kh1 Rg8 34. Rg1 Kh6 35.
Qd3 Qf7 36. Rg2 Ne7 37. Rcg1 Bh8 38. Qd1 Rxg2 39. Rxg2 Bf6 40. Qc2 Ng7 41. Bc3
Ne6 42. Qb2 Bxc3 43. Qxc3 Kh7 44. Qe5 Rg8 45. Rxg8 Nxg8 46. Nd4 Nxc5 47. Nxc6
Ne4 48. Bxe4 dxe4 49. Nd4 Nh6 50. Ne6 Qb7 51. Ng5+ Kg6 52. Qd6+ Kh5 53. Qd1+
Kg6


54. Qxa4 {Time} 1-0 

"very lucky, he was just checking the perpetual check (only move to start checking too) but thought for 1 second too long..."

Round 8 was against an Indian IM whereby he played the french for the first time. Sharma chose a lesser known sideline, which I have currently also been playing with a mixed success rate. The play became quite sharp and both players missed some chances to gain an advantage. "missing easy and not-so-easy wins" (Junta)

Round 9 had him paired against IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman. When I first saw this pairing, I was immediately reminded of our previous and only encounter. Almost 5 or so years ago when I played her. The game was in the last round of a big open tournament for my final norm. I played a very effective King's Gambit but failed at the very last hurdle, gifting away free point. After that game, I took a break from chess for a couple of years, before returning. But it still serves as a reminder for me, that the final move is always the one that counts.

The games starts as a typical Spanish, which is good to see from white.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 d6 7. c3 O-O 8. Re1
b5 9. Bc2 Re8 10. a4 Rb8 11. Nbd2 Bf8 12. d4?! [ A little too early to open the position, leaves the white pieces a bit uncoordinated ] Preferable was a simple h3 or Nf1

 ...exd4 13. Nxd4 Bb7 14. axb5 Nxd4

15. cxd4 axb5 16. f3 c5 17. dxc5 dxc5 18. Nf1 c4 19. Be3 Bb4 20. Qxd8 Rexd8 21.

Red1 Kf8 22. Kf2 Rxd1 23. Bxd1 Nd7 24. Bc2 Ne5 25. Ke2 Nc6 26. Rd1 Be7 27. f4

Ke8 28. Ng3 g6 29. e5 Ra8 30. Bb1 Nb4 31. Ne4 Nd5 32. g3 Nxe3 33. Kxe3 Bc8 34.

Nd6+ Bxd6 35. Rxd6 Ra1 36. Be4 Re1+
 

A critical endgame position is reached, as we know piece activity is important. Therfor 37. Kd4! makes perfect sense. After 37. Kd4 Re2 38. Bc6+ Ke7 39. Bxb5 Rxb2 40. Bc4 Rh2 41. Rc6! with a very small advantage to white due to his activity.

37. Kf3 Bd7 38. Rd2 h5 39. Bd5 Ke7 40. Kf2 Rc1 41. Bxf7 Bf5 42. Bd5 b4 43. Re2 Bg4 44. Bf3 Bf5 45. Bd5 c3 46. bxc3 bxc3 47. Ke3 Bg4 48. Bf3 Bd7 49. Be4 Ba4 50. Kd4 Kf7 51. Kc4 Kg7 52. Kb4 Bd1 53. Ra2 h4 54. gxh4 Bg4 55. Rc2 Rf1 56. Rxc3 Rxf4 57. Rc4 Bf5 58. Bd5 Rf2 59. Kc5 Rxh2

60. Kd6 Rd2 61. e6 Bxe6 62. Kxe6 Re2+ 63. Kd6 Kh6 64. Be6 g5 65. hxg5+ Kxg5 66. Rg4+ Kf6 67. Rf4+ Kg5 68. Rf5+ Kh4 69. Bd5 Re3 70. Kc5 Kg4 71. Rf1 Kg5 72. Rf2 Re1 73. Kd4 Re7 74. Be4 Re8 75. Rf5+ Kh6 76. Ke3 Kg7 77. Rb5 Kf6 78. Kf4 Re6 79. Rb7 Rd6 80. Rc7 Rb6 81. Rh7 Rd6 82. Rh1 Ke7 83. Bf5 Kf6 84. Rg1 Rd4+ 85. Be4 Rd6 86. Rg5 Ke7 87. Bd5 Kf6 88. Rf5+ Kg6 89. Bf7+ Kg7 90. Kg5 Rb6 91. Bd5 Rg6+ 92. Kh4 1/2-1/2

The following round Junta drew with GM Grover, Sahaj as the black pieces. Playing a very interesting sideline with an early ...b6 and ...Bb7 in the Queen's Indian kind of position. He equalized quite comfortably before the game drifted towards a draw.

In the last round, played another IM from India, Narayanan Srinath. Once again managing to draw with his opponent to finish on a respectable 7.5/11. Overall it was a very solid performance, losing only 1 game in the 11 rounds! Looking from the cross table is looks like the tournament results I usually have, with the numerous half points. He will now continue his momentum into the next tournament which is the Kolkata Open, which i believe starts on the 3rd of December. Best of Luck!