For those juniors and chess parents going to the World Youth (or intending to in the future), I thought the World School Chess Championship 2010 (under 7, under 9, under 11, under 13, under 15 and under 17 years old - open and girls) which is ongoing in Kayseri, Turkey (20th July-31st July 2010) might give you an idea.
There are photos galore here, here, here and report and photos here, taken from the website here.
Also, US chess organiser and founder of NACA, Sevan Muradian, has been filing his impressions of the tournament with, not surprisingly, some very technical observations. I thought chess parents might be interested in these observations and comments which can be found here and here and future reports here.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Politiken Cup 2010
I thought blog readers might like to know of former Sydney junior, 2003 Australian Junior Chess Champion, 3 times NSW Junior Chess Champion (2000, 2001, 2003) FM Tomek Rej's ongoing chess adventures in Europe. Tomek achieved his 3rd IM norm at this year's Doeberl Cup but is presently only rated Elo 2334. He needs to get that up beyond Elo 2400 and pay the fee to Fide to get his IM title. Tomek recently turned up at the IXth Najdorf Chess Festival in Warsaw, Poland where he did quite well in the first few rounds. He ended up with a respectable 5/9 (see here).
It looks like Tomek's chess adventures will continue with the 2010 Politiken Cup in Denmark. It is usually held in Copenhagen and it is one of the premier chess tournament in the Scandinavian chess calendar. However, it looks like this year the Politiken Cup will be held in Helsingor or Elsinore, some readers might be more familiar with the latter spelling variant. Helsingor , of course, is the site of the famous castle in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Last year, I visited Sweden and stayed in Helsingborg, which is just across the straits from Helsingor. The kids and I took the ferry across (lots of duty free tourists) and visited the famous castle. The small aquarium is worth a visit as well. But the kids enjoyed most the ice-cream made according to an hundred year old recipe. Perhaps Tomek might be tempted to try ......
Politiken Cup Round 1 begins on 31st July (1st August morning for us). Here is the list of participants, quite famous GMS and IMs.
It looks like Tomek's chess adventures will continue with the 2010 Politiken Cup in Denmark. It is usually held in Copenhagen and it is one of the premier chess tournament in the Scandinavian chess calendar. However, it looks like this year the Politiken Cup will be held in Helsingor or Elsinore, some readers might be more familiar with the latter spelling variant. Helsingor , of course, is the site of the famous castle in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Last year, I visited Sweden and stayed in Helsingborg, which is just across the straits from Helsingor. The kids and I took the ferry across (lots of duty free tourists) and visited the famous castle. The small aquarium is worth a visit as well. But the kids enjoyed most the ice-cream made according to an hundred year old recipe. Perhaps Tomek might be tempted to try ......
Politiken Cup Round 1 begins on 31st July (1st August morning for us). Here is the list of participants, quite famous GMS and IMs.
Biel 43rd International Chess Festival_Final
To round up the exciting finish to the 43rd Biel Chess Festival and the premier event, the Young GMs tournament. As I predicted for Rd 9 (last round), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs Anmisg Giri would turn out to be pivotal. Both the leaders, Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, took easy draws to set up a playoff. But that allowed Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son to catch them by defeating Anish Giri. And that he did.
(show chess board)
(hide chess board)
This means and by virtue of a better Sonneborn-Berger points on tiebreak, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son went straight into the final playoff whilst Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had to face each other first in semi-finals play-off. Both won their rapid games with the white pieces setting up an Armageddon-type final where White (Maxime) has to win and Black (Fabiano) only has to draw to proceed to the final play-off. The Goddess smiled her favours on Fabiano as Maxime blundered away a promising position.
So it was a Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs Fabiano Caruana in the final playoff and again, the Goddess smiled a second time. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son with the Black pieces gave away a possibly winning endgame two pawns up. Black just played 60...b4-b3. Can you win this as Black?
Now replay the game and spot where Black gave away the win.
(show chess board)(hide chess board)
Fabiano did not make any mistake in his game with the Black pieces and managed to convert a Knight endgame with an extra pawn into a win. In the following position, what would you play? What was White's mistake? Can you see how Black might be able to win a pawn? As Black, can you convert the winning Knight endgame with the extra pawn? (Replay the game below to find out how.)
(show chess board)(hide chess board)
So we have it, the 43rd Biel International Chess Festival Young GM Tournament Champion is GM Fabiano Caruana. Here is a photograph of the group. See if you can identify who is who.
Dare I predict that this group of young GMs will continue their rivalry for many years to come? However, note that a number of other very promising young GMs are missing from the tournament, mainly from Russia and the Ukraine.
On a down note, the high number of draws have drawn very adverse comments from chess players/fans worldwide. I think that was a disappointment. My explanation is chess burnout. These young GMs are just playing way too much chess, they have not accumulated enough experience to play diverse openings and middlegames thereby allowing their opponents to "prepare" for them. Remembering Botvinnik's comments in his book, he strongly suggest taking rest time of up to 3 months or more (?) in between tournaments.
You can replay games and read the report by Chessvibes here; report by Chessbase here and here.
BTW, in the Main Tournament, South Australian Andrew Saint is still on equal first going into last round with 7/8, see here.
From a quiet King’s Indian Attack, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son slowly outplayed Anish Giri, who might regret his 17th move (e.g. 17…Rfe8 looks close to equal). After a forced sequence of moves an ending was reached where White had more than enough compensation for the pawn. (Chessvibes)Position reached after 28 Rxb7. Can you as White win this? (Replay the game below to find out how.)
(show chess board)(hide chess board)This means and by virtue of a better Sonneborn-Berger points on tiebreak, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son went straight into the final playoff whilst Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had to face each other first in semi-finals play-off. Both won their rapid games with the white pieces setting up an Armageddon-type final where White (Maxime) has to win and Black (Fabiano) only has to draw to proceed to the final play-off. The Goddess smiled her favours on Fabiano as Maxime blundered away a promising position.
So it was a Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs Fabiano Caruana in the final playoff and again, the Goddess smiled a second time. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son with the Black pieces gave away a possibly winning endgame two pawns up. Black just played 60...b4-b3. Can you win this as Black?
Now replay the game and spot where Black gave away the win.
(show chess board)(hide chess board)Fabiano did not make any mistake in his game with the Black pieces and managed to convert a Knight endgame with an extra pawn into a win. In the following position, what would you play? What was White's mistake? Can you see how Black might be able to win a pawn? As Black, can you convert the winning Knight endgame with the extra pawn? (Replay the game below to find out how.)
(show chess board)(hide chess board)So we have it, the 43rd Biel International Chess Festival Young GM Tournament Champion is GM Fabiano Caruana. Here is a photograph of the group. See if you can identify who is who.
Dare I predict that this group of young GMs will continue their rivalry for many years to come? However, note that a number of other very promising young GMs are missing from the tournament, mainly from Russia and the Ukraine.
On a down note, the high number of draws have drawn very adverse comments from chess players/fans worldwide. I think that was a disappointment. My explanation is chess burnout. These young GMs are just playing way too much chess, they have not accumulated enough experience to play diverse openings and middlegames thereby allowing their opponents to "prepare" for them. Remembering Botvinnik's comments in his book, he strongly suggest taking rest time of up to 3 months or more (?) in between tournaments.
You can replay games and read the report by Chessvibes here; report by Chessbase here and here.
BTW, in the Main Tournament, South Australian Andrew Saint is still on equal first going into last round with 7/8, see here.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Biel 43rd International Chess Festival
My apologies for not blogging as much. School started and University is about to begin, so lots of prep work to complete. I am teaching a "new subject": Australian Federal Constitutional Law. sigh! lots of long cases to get through. But very interesting!
I thought I would blog about the ongoing Biel 43rd International Chess Festival where for this year, the organisers decided to have a young GM-guns OK-corral style shootout. They have the following young GMs: Anish Giri, David Howell, Fabiano Caruana, Maxim Rodshtein, Parimarjan Negi, Dmitry Andreikin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. As I previously blogged, I was hoping for a true slugfest with wild attacking, exciting games. But it has turned out to be a bit of a fizzer! (see here and here and here.)
What's happening? They are young, aren't they? Is this premature ageing? Or is this early career burn-out? Or have they "bought" into the old men's stories of playing safe and don't take risks?
In any event, Round 8 was a surprise. Firstly there was a match-up between the tournament two dark-horses, Wesley So and Anish Giri. Well, Anish won!
(show chess board)(hide chess board)
[Annotations by Chessvibes].
(show chess board)(hide chess board)
[Annotations by Chessvibes]
So did my favourite, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, who defeated Evgeny Tomashevsky.
(show chess board)(hide chess board)
Standings after Round 8
1. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2723) 5.0
Fabiano Caruana (ITA, 2697) 5.0
3. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE, 2617) 4.5
Dmitry Andreikin (RUS, 2650) 4.5
5. Anish Giri (NED, 2672) 4.0
Wesley So (PHI, 2674) 4.0
Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS, 2708) 4.0
Maxim Rodshtein (ISR, 2609) 4.0
9. David Howell (ENG, 2616) 3.0
10. Parimarjan Negi (IND, 2615) 2.0
Last round (Rd 9) is tomorrow and here are the final pairings:
Maxim Rodshtein - Evgeny Tomashevsky
Parimarjan Negi - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Fabiano Caruana - David Howell
Wesley So - Dmitry Andreikin
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son - Anish Giri
For the two co-leaders, they will be expecting wins as they play the bottom two on current standings. If so, there will be a play-off "Thursday morning, from 11 am. Modus: two rapid games (10 minutes, with 10’’/move). If the result is 1-1, then two blitz will be organised." My tip for the Match of the day: Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs Anish Giri. Also, Wesley So vs Dmitry Andreikin will be insteresting as Dmitry has to win to have any chance of tying for first. It is the same for Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (I am really having trouble knowing what to call him as I am very unfamiliar with Vietnamese names).
You can play the games here or here (if you install Microsoft Silverlight). For commentary on Rd 6 and Wesley So's loss to Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri's loss to Maxim Rodshtein, head here. There is also David Howell's loss to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
On a side note, Australian player from South Australia, Andrew Saint, has been blazing through the field in the third Main tournament at Biel (after the Young GMs and the Master tournaments). He is now sitting on 6/6 for a player ranked 51st with Elo of 1841 (which someone on ChessChat has suggested is a bit underrated).
I thought I would blog about the ongoing Biel 43rd International Chess Festival where for this year, the organisers decided to have a young GM-guns OK-corral style shootout. They have the following young GMs: Anish Giri, David Howell, Fabiano Caruana, Maxim Rodshtein, Parimarjan Negi, Dmitry Andreikin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. As I previously blogged, I was hoping for a true slugfest with wild attacking, exciting games. But it has turned out to be a bit of a fizzer! (see here and here and here.)
Round 6, on Saturday, was another lame round. Even though all the players are quite young, they're going it round after round like they have no energy. Four of the five games were drawn, and in 20, 20, 24 and 31 moves. Geez. Only Howell - Vachier-Lagrave went the distance, and was won by Black. On Sunday they had an official day off (how could the spectators tell?), and hopefully on Monday they'll offer the fans something a bit more interesting. (Dennis Monokroussos)Up to and including Rd 7, there were 26 draws and only 9 wins!
What's happening? They are young, aren't they? Is this premature ageing? Or is this early career burn-out? Or have they "bought" into the old men's stories of playing safe and don't take risks?
In any event, Round 8 was a surprise. Firstly there was a match-up between the tournament two dark-horses, Wesley So and Anish Giri. Well, Anish won!
(show chess board)(hide chess board)[Annotations by Chessvibes].
Giri - So was decided in a queen ending. So's clever 19...Bxh3!? led to that ending, where White was slightly better but a draw looked the likeliest result. The game was decided when So chose 34...f4?! 35.Qh4 Qxh4?, voluntarily transposing into a lost king and pawn ending. No doubt So missed White's triangulation maneuver on moves 42 and 43, but it was a bad risk to enter the pawn ending in the first place. Live and learn. (Dennis Monokroussos)Also, David Howell finally won against the tournament out of form junior, Parimarjan Negi (But according to Dennis Monokroussos:"Howell - Negi saw the "Botvinnik System" of the 2.c3 Sicilian. Black was doing fine, but his plan of doubling rooks on the d-file followed by 26...Rd3 ingeniously forced White to beat him. White had no choice but to sac the exchange, and the result was a position where Black had no meaningful active possibilities whatsoever while White could try this and that. Soon White's position was not only easier to play but simply winning, and Black forced him into it!" See if you agree.).
(show chess board)(hide chess board)[Annotations by Chessvibes]
So did my favourite, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, who defeated Evgeny Tomashevsky.
(show chess board)(hide chess board)Tomashevsky - Nguyen was bad for White almost from start to finish. The ending - from move 35 on, say - was quite interesting, in that White desperately wanted to eliminate Black's d4-pawn while Nguyen kept finding ways to keep the pawn alive and meaningful. Black succeeded, and in the end White's preoccupation with the pawn left him unable to cope with threats to his king. (Dennis Monokroussos)But the co-leaders are the French junior and current World Junior Champion, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Italian(USA) Fabiano Caruana, both of whom also happen to be the first and second seeds.
[......]Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son now did manage win, against Tomashevsky. And with creative play, we may add. Thanks to a strong pawn phalanx the exchange sac 27…Rxb6! was the obvious way to continue, and soon White had to give back the material, but more power moves (especially 36…d5!) decided the game. (Chessvibes)
Standings after Round 8
1. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2723) 5.0
Fabiano Caruana (ITA, 2697) 5.0
3. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE, 2617) 4.5
Dmitry Andreikin (RUS, 2650) 4.5
5. Anish Giri (NED, 2672) 4.0
Wesley So (PHI, 2674) 4.0
Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS, 2708) 4.0
Maxim Rodshtein (ISR, 2609) 4.0
9. David Howell (ENG, 2616) 3.0
10. Parimarjan Negi (IND, 2615) 2.0
Last round (Rd 9) is tomorrow and here are the final pairings:
Maxim Rodshtein - Evgeny Tomashevsky
Parimarjan Negi - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Fabiano Caruana - David Howell
Wesley So - Dmitry Andreikin
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son - Anish Giri
For the two co-leaders, they will be expecting wins as they play the bottom two on current standings. If so, there will be a play-off "Thursday morning, from 11 am. Modus: two rapid games (10 minutes, with 10’’/move). If the result is 1-1, then two blitz will be organised." My tip for the Match of the day: Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs Anish Giri. Also, Wesley So vs Dmitry Andreikin will be insteresting as Dmitry has to win to have any chance of tying for first. It is the same for Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (I am really having trouble knowing what to call him as I am very unfamiliar with Vietnamese names).
You can play the games here or here (if you install Microsoft Silverlight). For commentary on Rd 6 and Wesley So's loss to Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri's loss to Maxim Rodshtein, head here. There is also David Howell's loss to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
On a side note, Australian player from South Australia, Andrew Saint, has been blazing through the field in the third Main tournament at Biel (after the Young GMs and the Master tournaments). He is now sitting on 6/6 for a player ranked 51st with Elo of 1841 (which someone on ChessChat has suggested is a bit underrated).
Monday, July 19, 2010
Puzzles from 2010 4th Leiden Chess Tournament
1) White to play to win
2) White is already better. How does he
cement his advantage?
3) White to play and win
[Courtesy of Chessbase.]
2) White is already better. How does he
cement his advantage?
3) White to play and win
[Courtesy of Chessbase.]
Puzzle from Dortmund 2010
Here is a puzzle from the on-going Dortmund 2010 (clue: it is from the game of one of the world's best juniors):
Black has just played 1...h5. Can you spot the petite combination for White, winning a pawn and creating very good winning chances?
Black has just played 1...h5. Can you spot the petite combination for White, winning a pawn and creating very good winning chances?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
2010 NSW Junior Championships
Under-12 Round 8
Cedric Koh defeated Dylan Siow-Lee to go to 7.5/8, two points clear of everyone else and 99.9999999% certain of the U12 title. Well done. There is a huge bunch on 5.5/8: Dylan Siow-Lee, Joshua Behar, Edmund Yu, Kevin Willathgamuwa, Eric Pan, Noah Gong, and Jimmy Shie.
It looks like a fight for second placing in the U12.
Under-18
Important result: Andrew Pan lost to Bernard Chau who is now leading with 6.5/8.
Cedric Koh defeated Dylan Siow-Lee to go to 7.5/8, two points clear of everyone else and 99.9999999% certain of the U12 title. Well done. There is a huge bunch on 5.5/8: Dylan Siow-Lee, Joshua Behar, Edmund Yu, Kevin Willathgamuwa, Eric Pan, Noah Gong, and Jimmy Shie.
It looks like a fight for second placing in the U12.
Under-18
Important result: Andrew Pan lost to Bernard Chau who is now leading with 6.5/8.
2010 NSW Junior Championships
Under-12 Round 7
Cedric Koh is on the home run now to the U12 title defeating Kevin Willathgamuwa on Bd 1 and going a point clear at the top with 6.5/7. Dylan is staging belated comeback defeating Eric Pan on Bd 2. Edmund Yu is keeping pace defeating Kashish Christian. Dylan and Edmund are now on 5.5/7.
In Round 8, it is Cedric Koh vs Dylan Siow-Lee on Bd 1 and Edmund Yu vs Joshua Behar on Bd 2. Kevin Willathgamuwa just defeated Greg Pan to go to 5.5/8.
Cedric Koh is on the home run now to the U12 title defeating Kevin Willathgamuwa on Bd 1 and going a point clear at the top with 6.5/7. Dylan is staging belated comeback defeating Eric Pan on Bd 2. Edmund Yu is keeping pace defeating Kashish Christian. Dylan and Edmund are now on 5.5/7.
In Round 8, it is Cedric Koh vs Dylan Siow-Lee on Bd 1 and Edmund Yu vs Joshua Behar on Bd 2. Kevin Willathgamuwa just defeated Greg Pan to go to 5.5/8.
2010 NSW Junior Championships
It is the afternoon and the Under-18 have finished their morning games whilst the Under-12 have finished two rounds. Time for an update.
Under-18
Big result on Bd 1 where Andrew Pan defeated Ben Encel. However, on analysis, Ben had a draw for some time but overpressed for a win. Andrew kept his head and won. Not bad for a 12 year old. Another important result was Bernard Chau managing to come out a winner against Jack Ruan. According to GM Ian Rogers, very hard to see where Black (Jack) went wrong. Perhaps swapping Queens was wrong for Black which led, unpredictably, to a worse endgame for Black. On Board 3, Oscar Wang drew with John Papantoniou. With these results, this meant others caught up: Kevin Tan defeated Joshua Lau and Nicholas Deen-Cowell defeated Alex Papp.
Special mention goes to Clarise Koh for her bishop sacrifice on h2 in her game against Rupert Coy and winning. Well done.
So, Andrew and Bernard are on 5.5/7 followed by Ben, Jack, Oscar and John, all on 5/7. Close behind with theoretical chances are Nick, Kevin and Pasan, all on 4.5/7.
In Rd 8, we have Andrew Pan vs Bernard Chau, Jack Ruan vs John Papantoniou, Oscar Wang vs Ben Encel, Kevin Tan vs Pasan Perera and Nicholas Deen-Cowell vs Joshua Lau. On the three top boards, it is musical chairs witht he players just swapping pairings.
Under-12
In Round 6, Cedric cemented his chances of winning the U12 title by defeating another rival, Eric Pan. Edmund Yu bounced back by defeating Noah Gong and Dylan Siow-Lee was a bit lucky winning over relatively inexpereinced James Zaverdinos. According to GM Ian Rogers, James was winning at some points in the game. Jimmy Shie and Joshua Behar drew their game. In a sibling versus sibling game, younger Kevin Willathgamuwa defeated older brother, Rowan. Kashish Christian also won against Theresa Gu.
Going into Round 7, we have Cedric on outright first with 5.5/6. Eric, Dylan, Edmund, Kevin, and Kashish are all on 4.5/6. Noah, Joshua, Jimmy and Andrew Chan are on 4/6.
In Round 7 (and some results already in) , we have Cedric Koh vs Kevin Willathgamuwa, Dylan Siow-Lee vs Eric Pan, Edmund Yu vs Kashish Christian (1-0), Joshua Behar vs Andrew Chan (0.5-0.5), Jimmy Shie vs Noah Gong (0.5-0.5), Rowan Willathgamuwa vs Morgan Chang (1-0). Andrew Chan's was a good result being outrated at least 200 points.
Under-18
Big result on Bd 1 where Andrew Pan defeated Ben Encel. However, on analysis, Ben had a draw for some time but overpressed for a win. Andrew kept his head and won. Not bad for a 12 year old. Another important result was Bernard Chau managing to come out a winner against Jack Ruan. According to GM Ian Rogers, very hard to see where Black (Jack) went wrong. Perhaps swapping Queens was wrong for Black which led, unpredictably, to a worse endgame for Black. On Board 3, Oscar Wang drew with John Papantoniou. With these results, this meant others caught up: Kevin Tan defeated Joshua Lau and Nicholas Deen-Cowell defeated Alex Papp.
Special mention goes to Clarise Koh for her bishop sacrifice on h2 in her game against Rupert Coy and winning. Well done.
So, Andrew and Bernard are on 5.5/7 followed by Ben, Jack, Oscar and John, all on 5/7. Close behind with theoretical chances are Nick, Kevin and Pasan, all on 4.5/7.
In Rd 8, we have Andrew Pan vs Bernard Chau, Jack Ruan vs John Papantoniou, Oscar Wang vs Ben Encel, Kevin Tan vs Pasan Perera and Nicholas Deen-Cowell vs Joshua Lau. On the three top boards, it is musical chairs witht he players just swapping pairings.
Under-12
In Round 6, Cedric cemented his chances of winning the U12 title by defeating another rival, Eric Pan. Edmund Yu bounced back by defeating Noah Gong and Dylan Siow-Lee was a bit lucky winning over relatively inexpereinced James Zaverdinos. According to GM Ian Rogers, James was winning at some points in the game. Jimmy Shie and Joshua Behar drew their game. In a sibling versus sibling game, younger Kevin Willathgamuwa defeated older brother, Rowan. Kashish Christian also won against Theresa Gu.
Going into Round 7, we have Cedric on outright first with 5.5/6. Eric, Dylan, Edmund, Kevin, and Kashish are all on 4.5/6. Noah, Joshua, Jimmy and Andrew Chan are on 4/6.
In Round 7 (and some results already in) , we have Cedric Koh vs Kevin Willathgamuwa, Dylan Siow-Lee vs Eric Pan, Edmund Yu vs Kashish Christian (1-0), Joshua Behar vs Andrew Chan (0.5-0.5), Jimmy Shie vs Noah Gong (0.5-0.5), Rowan Willathgamuwa vs Morgan Chang (1-0). Andrew Chan's was a good result being outrated at least 200 points.
2010 NSW Junior Championships
Good Morning. Time for an update on the Under-18. Overnight, Ben Encel drew with John Papantoniou while Jack Ruan defeated Nicholas Deen-Cowell. Beranard Chau defeated Jonathan Ren and Andrew Pan defeated Pasan Perera. Oscar Wang defeated Alex Papp. So we have Ben and Jack on 5/6, John, Bernard, Andrew and Oscar on 4.5/6 going into Round 7.
In round 7, on Bd 1, Ben Encel faces off Andrew Pan, Bd 2 is Bernard Chau against Jack Ruan and on Bd 3, Oscar Wang plays John Papantoniou. Things are hotting up now in the race for the 2010 Junior Championship. Rumours are that Ben Encel has prepared for the tournament as this is his last major junior tournament. He is turning 18 very soon.
Under-12
Overnight we have Edmund Yu, Cedric Koh, Joshua Behar and Eric Pan equal on 3.5/4. Then there are Noah Gong, Jimmy Shie, Kevin Willathgamuwa, Venkata Bommireddipalli and Theresa Gu on 3/4 with a further bunch of 7 juniors on 2.5/4.
This morning in Rd 5, Cedric Koh played Joshua Behar and won. Similarly Eric Pan played Edmund Yu and won while Jimmy drew with Kevin. Noah is still playing Theresa Gu but Venkata lost to Dylan Siow-Lee. The word is that Noah is going to win.
Going into Rd 6, we have a Cedric and Eric equal on 4.5/5. If Noah wins, he is on 4/5. others are on 3.5/5 and less.
In round 7, on Bd 1, Ben Encel faces off Andrew Pan, Bd 2 is Bernard Chau against Jack Ruan and on Bd 3, Oscar Wang plays John Papantoniou. Things are hotting up now in the race for the 2010 Junior Championship. Rumours are that Ben Encel has prepared for the tournament as this is his last major junior tournament. He is turning 18 very soon.
Under-12
Overnight we have Edmund Yu, Cedric Koh, Joshua Behar and Eric Pan equal on 3.5/4. Then there are Noah Gong, Jimmy Shie, Kevin Willathgamuwa, Venkata Bommireddipalli and Theresa Gu on 3/4 with a further bunch of 7 juniors on 2.5/4.
This morning in Rd 5, Cedric Koh played Joshua Behar and won. Similarly Eric Pan played Edmund Yu and won while Jimmy drew with Kevin. Noah is still playing Theresa Gu but Venkata lost to Dylan Siow-Lee. The word is that Noah is going to win.
Going into Rd 6, we have a Cedric and Eric equal on 4.5/5. If Noah wins, he is on 4/5. others are on 3.5/5 and less.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Asian Youth Invitational Chess Championships 2010_Round 9
I have just received the latest news from Mirabelle Guo on the final Round today.
But still a good result for Chen Pengyu with 5/9. Caroline Shan is on 4/9. Jaime-Lee Guo is on 3.5/9 while Grace Shan is 1/9.
Unfortunately all Australians lost in last roundChess-Results is still to be updated. Yesterday, in Rd 8 Caroline Shan won her game in the Girls U14.
Mirabelle
But still a good result for Chen Pengyu with 5/9. Caroline Shan is on 4/9. Jaime-Lee Guo is on 3.5/9 while Grace Shan is 1/9.
2010 NSW Junior Championships
As reported in previous blog, there were a few upsets in the U12 NSW Junior Championships (well, based on ratings which probably does not mean much at this level of junior chess).
Kevin Willathgamuwa (683) lost to James Zaverdinos (463), Andrew Chan (456) defeated Aaron Lambert (567), Caitlin O'Rourke (524) lost to Stephen Chan (391), Kerry Lin (503) lost to Janelle Mallari (unr), and Jimmy Shie (641) conceded a draw against Joshua Mitchell (437).
In Rd 2, one of the possible contenders for the U12, Eric Pan conceded a draw to Morgan Chang, as a result of some silliness at the Board and the Arbiters have to step in and adjudicate a draw. Jimmy Shi again drew, this time against Seyoon Ragavan (503). But no further upsets.
Round 3 was more interesting with two of the favourites losing ground by conceding draws. Joshua Behar (697) drew against Kashish Christian and Dylan Siow-Lee against Rowan Willathgamuwa. Upsets were created by Calvin Fong (475) against Greg Pan (536) and Stephen Chan (391) against Raymond Tan (499).
In Round 4, Cedric Koh (877) and Edmund Yu (704) are leading with 3/3 and are playing each other on Bd 1. On Board 2, Dylan Siow-Lee lost further ground losing to Joshua Behar. Another important game is Noah Gong defeating Rowan Willathgamuwa. Upset: Venkata Bommireddipalli (497) defeating Aaron Lambert (567).
Under-18 Round 5
As reported Ben Encel defeated Bernard Chau to go to 4.5/5. John Papantoniou drew against Andrew Pan, with John now on 4/5 and Andrew on 3.5/5. Jack Ruan defeated Kinto Wan to go to 4/5 whilst Pasan Perera drew with Alex Papp, both now on 3.5/5.
Watching the analysis of the Perera-Papp game, GM Rogers was of the opinion that White should have won. Also, it looks like the World Championship games between GM Vishy Anand and GM Veselin Topalov have a "trickle-down" effect on junior games as Pasan did a Anand-style Queen exchange on a3.
Joshua Lau, Nicholas Deen-Cowell, Jonathan Ren and Oscar Wang won their games (defeating Rupert Coy, John McMahon, Sean Gu and Erik Ostman respectively) to also go to 3.5/5.
Kevin Willathgamuwa (683) lost to James Zaverdinos (463), Andrew Chan (456) defeated Aaron Lambert (567), Caitlin O'Rourke (524) lost to Stephen Chan (391), Kerry Lin (503) lost to Janelle Mallari (unr), and Jimmy Shie (641) conceded a draw against Joshua Mitchell (437).
In Rd 2, one of the possible contenders for the U12, Eric Pan conceded a draw to Morgan Chang, as a result of some silliness at the Board and the Arbiters have to step in and adjudicate a draw. Jimmy Shi again drew, this time against Seyoon Ragavan (503). But no further upsets.
Round 3 was more interesting with two of the favourites losing ground by conceding draws. Joshua Behar (697) drew against Kashish Christian and Dylan Siow-Lee against Rowan Willathgamuwa. Upsets were created by Calvin Fong (475) against Greg Pan (536) and Stephen Chan (391) against Raymond Tan (499).
In Round 4, Cedric Koh (877) and Edmund Yu (704) are leading with 3/3 and are playing each other on Bd 1. On Board 2, Dylan Siow-Lee lost further ground losing to Joshua Behar. Another important game is Noah Gong defeating Rowan Willathgamuwa. Upset: Venkata Bommireddipalli (497) defeating Aaron Lambert (567).
Under-18 Round 5
As reported Ben Encel defeated Bernard Chau to go to 4.5/5. John Papantoniou drew against Andrew Pan, with John now on 4/5 and Andrew on 3.5/5. Jack Ruan defeated Kinto Wan to go to 4/5 whilst Pasan Perera drew with Alex Papp, both now on 3.5/5.
Watching the analysis of the Perera-Papp game, GM Rogers was of the opinion that White should have won. Also, it looks like the World Championship games between GM Vishy Anand and GM Veselin Topalov have a "trickle-down" effect on junior games as Pasan did a Anand-style Queen exchange on a3.
Joshua Lau, Nicholas Deen-Cowell, Jonathan Ren and Oscar Wang won their games (defeating Rupert Coy, John McMahon, Sean Gu and Erik Ostman respectively) to also go to 3.5/5.
2010 NSW Junior Championships
I am in Lidcombe at the venue of the 2010 NSW Junior Championships. The Championships is divided into two Swisses, Under-18 and Under-12. There are 42 players in the U18 and 39 in the U12.
The Under-18 started on Sunday and 4 rounds have been played. There are a number of juniors one the verge of their 18th birthday and hence this is their last NSW Juniors (Benjamin Encel, Alexander Papp, Kevin Tan and Dover Dubosarky). There are also two surprise entries, the young Willathgamuwa brothers, Rowan and Kevin. Kevin is one junior we will be gearing more of in the years to come. But perhaps U18 this year is not their playing field as yet even though Kevin did win two games!
Round 5 started this morning. At the start, we have 3 players on 3.5/4: Benjamin Encel, John Papantoniou and Bernard Chau. And a further 5 players sitting on 3/4: Jack Ruan, Pasan Perera, Kinto Wan, Alex Papp and Andrew Pan. We have a further 4 other players (Nicholas Deen-Cowell, Oscar Wang, Joshua Lau and Sean Gu) rated over 1000 (NSWJCL rating) on 2.5/4 amongst 10 players in total.
In Rd 5, Ben Encel is playing Bernard Chau on Bd 1. Ben has already defeated Kinto Wan (Rd 2), Alex Papp (Rd 3) and drew with Jack Ruan (Rd 4). Bernard defeated Oscar (Rd 4) and drew with John Papantoniou (Rd 3). On Bd 2, John is playing Andrew Pan. John has already defeated Harry Ruan (Rd 2) and Nicholas Deen-Cowell (Rd 4). Andrew Pan drew twice (against Vincent Chen in Rd 1 and Raymond Han in Rd 3), games which perhaps he should have won. Kinto Wan is playing Jack Ruan on Bd 3. Kinto had three relatively easier games and won. Jack also had two relatively easier games in Rds 1 and 2 and drew with Oscar in Rd 3.
I should also mention the girls playing in the U18 and they are Penelope Drastik, Shirley Gu, Clarise Koh and Shobana Bommireddipalli, all on 1.5/4.
PS. Ben Encel defeated Bernard Chau and according to Nick Chernih, Ben used his secret line (Bd2) in the French!
In the U12, we just had Round 1 and there is one last game to finish before Rd begins. I will blog later when there are more results. Already in Round 1, there have been a few upsets! Junior chess ...... very unpredictable!
The Under-18 started on Sunday and 4 rounds have been played. There are a number of juniors one the verge of their 18th birthday and hence this is their last NSW Juniors (Benjamin Encel, Alexander Papp, Kevin Tan and Dover Dubosarky). There are also two surprise entries, the young Willathgamuwa brothers, Rowan and Kevin. Kevin is one junior we will be gearing more of in the years to come. But perhaps U18 this year is not their playing field as yet even though Kevin did win two games!
Round 5 started this morning. At the start, we have 3 players on 3.5/4: Benjamin Encel, John Papantoniou and Bernard Chau. And a further 5 players sitting on 3/4: Jack Ruan, Pasan Perera, Kinto Wan, Alex Papp and Andrew Pan. We have a further 4 other players (Nicholas Deen-Cowell, Oscar Wang, Joshua Lau and Sean Gu) rated over 1000 (NSWJCL rating) on 2.5/4 amongst 10 players in total.
In Rd 5, Ben Encel is playing Bernard Chau on Bd 1. Ben has already defeated Kinto Wan (Rd 2), Alex Papp (Rd 3) and drew with Jack Ruan (Rd 4). Bernard defeated Oscar (Rd 4) and drew with John Papantoniou (Rd 3). On Bd 2, John is playing Andrew Pan. John has already defeated Harry Ruan (Rd 2) and Nicholas Deen-Cowell (Rd 4). Andrew Pan drew twice (against Vincent Chen in Rd 1 and Raymond Han in Rd 3), games which perhaps he should have won. Kinto Wan is playing Jack Ruan on Bd 3. Kinto had three relatively easier games and won. Jack also had two relatively easier games in Rds 1 and 2 and drew with Oscar in Rd 3.
I should also mention the girls playing in the U18 and they are Penelope Drastik, Shirley Gu, Clarise Koh and Shobana Bommireddipalli, all on 1.5/4.
PS. Ben Encel defeated Bernard Chau and according to Nick Chernih, Ben used his secret line (Bd2) in the French!
In the U12, we just had Round 1 and there is one last game to finish before Rd begins. I will blog later when there are more results. Already in Round 1, there have been a few upsets! Junior chess ...... very unpredictable!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Asian Youth Invitational Chess Championships 2010_Rounds 7 and 8
I assume everyone has been checking the results and if you have you would have noticed that 2009 NSW Junior Champion, [U]Chen[/U] Pengyu, has been doing quite well in the U14 Open division. Up to Rd 6, he had 3.5/6. However, Chess-Results has not been updating and Mirabell Guo sent me this update:
PS. In the Trans-Tasman war, the honours is 1:1 as Pengyu lost to Luke Li while Jamie_Lee equalised the score by defeating Johnson Chen. :) :) :)
Rd 7So, Pengyu is now 5/8 going into the last round. Great effort. And Jaime-Lee Guo is doing fine with 3.5/8. Caroline is 3/7 into Rd 8.
Peng Yu drew against Chu Wei Chao UR China Total 4points
Caroline lost against Koggala W.S.T.D SRI Total 3 pts
Grace lost Ragchaabazar Khaliun-Erdene Mongolia Total 1 pt
Jamie-Lee won against Johnson Chen New Zealand Total 2.5pts
Rd 8
Peng Yu doing very well, won again- this time against Tan Jun Feng 1886 Total 5points out of 8
Caroline against Moradi Kimia IRI still playing
Grace against Phan Nguyen Ha Nhu Vietnam still playing
Jamie-Lee won against Malaysian Teh De Juan = total 3.5pts
Tomorrow morning 9am last round
Regards
Mirabelle
PS. In the Trans-Tasman war, the honours is 1:1 as Pengyu lost to Luke Li while Jamie_Lee equalised the score by defeating Johnson Chen. :) :) :)
2010 US Junior Closed Championship
Here is a game fragment from the US Closed Junior Championship. Before revealing the answer, try solving the problem: Can you win as White? Black just moved 1...Kh7??
[Diagram courtesy of Chessbase]
BTW, the biggest news to break in US junior circles is the announcement on his own blog by IM Sam Shankland (Elo 2513) that he is quitting chess. See here for an earlier video interview where San intimated he is contemplating quitting. See also here for a respected chess player/journalist/writer/teacher, Dana Mackenzie, and his views on Sam and his decision as well as additional information on the video interview. See also the comments posted on both Sam's blog as well as Dana's blog.
The story is that Sam is part of a group of talented US juniors seeking the GM title. This group includes GM Ray Robson, GM Alex Lenderman, and GM Robert Hess. Sam took a gap year before starting college to get the GM title. To see his peers achieve the result while he keep falling at the last hurdle (3rd GM norm) must be quite galling and dispiriting. The recent tournaments at the Philadelphia International and the World Open were the last straw (read Sam's blog). Hence the anger and the video interview and the meltdown. In the US Closed Junior Championship, Sam has started with two losses(!) but has just won his 3rd game.
Reading the story makes me quite sad for Sam. I can feel his frustration and anger. However, (and I am trying not to preach here), life is full of hard knocks which provides opportunities for "growing" as a person. I agree with one commentator that perhaps Sam needs an older person, possibly a chess player, as a mentor.
Read and learn/reflect, if you are a chess parent or chess junior. I think we need to also think of the psychological aspects of competing and provide such psychological support to our top junior players. They need to be mentored and guided through the maze of competitive behaviour and competition compounded by teenage hormonal changes.
(However, and here I am preaching(!), juniors, please note Dana's point about foul language at the age of 14 years old and how unattractive it is!).
[Diagram courtesy of Chessbase]
BTW, the biggest news to break in US junior circles is the announcement on his own blog by IM Sam Shankland (Elo 2513) that he is quitting chess. See here for an earlier video interview where San intimated he is contemplating quitting. See also here for a respected chess player/journalist/writer/teacher, Dana Mackenzie, and his views on Sam and his decision as well as additional information on the video interview. See also the comments posted on both Sam's blog as well as Dana's blog.
The story is that Sam is part of a group of talented US juniors seeking the GM title. This group includes GM Ray Robson, GM Alex Lenderman, and GM Robert Hess. Sam took a gap year before starting college to get the GM title. To see his peers achieve the result while he keep falling at the last hurdle (3rd GM norm) must be quite galling and dispiriting. The recent tournaments at the Philadelphia International and the World Open were the last straw (read Sam's blog). Hence the anger and the video interview and the meltdown. In the US Closed Junior Championship, Sam has started with two losses(!) but has just won his 3rd game.
Reading the story makes me quite sad for Sam. I can feel his frustration and anger. However, (and I am trying not to preach here), life is full of hard knocks which provides opportunities for "growing" as a person. I agree with one commentator that perhaps Sam needs an older person, possibly a chess player, as a mentor.
Read and learn/reflect, if you are a chess parent or chess junior. I think we need to also think of the psychological aspects of competing and provide such psychological support to our top junior players. They need to be mentored and guided through the maze of competitive behaviour and competition compounded by teenage hormonal changes.
(However, and here I am preaching(!), juniors, please note Dana's point about foul language at the age of 14 years old and how unattractive it is!).
Monday, July 12, 2010
Vietnam_The next chess giant in Asia?
Courtesy of the The ClosetGM, I read the following article in the Christian Science Monitor on the chessic situation in Vietnam. The link is here.
Interesting excerpts:
BTW, Le Quang Liem will play on Dortmund (beginning 15th July) with the likes of GMs Vladimir Kramnik, Shakhriyar Mammdyarov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Leko and Arkadij Naiditsch. Here is an interview with GM Le Quang Liem after his win at Aeroflot earlier this year.
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son will play in the 43rd Biel Chess Festival beginning 19th July with its headline tournament billed as the "Young Grandmaster Tournament" (with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Dmitry Andreikin, David Howell, Parimarjan Negi, and Maxim Rodhstein). I will try to blog on this truly exciting event. [It will be interesting to see the match up between Anish Giri, currently the hottest junior GM and Wesley So, Asia's youngest junior GM.]
Interesting excerpts:
So what is Vietnam doing right when it comes to chess?So, only $3 million a year to produce world class chess players like Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, eh? Any philantrophist out there? We need your money!
As it turns out, the country's socialist government adopted the chess system of the former Soviet Union, which produced five undefeated world champions between 1948 and 1972.
The coach of Vietnam's national chess team, Mikhail Vasyliev, is originally from Odessa, Ukraine, which he describes as the "world capital of chess." The elderly Ukrainian, who does not speak Vietnamese, explained that the Vietnamese government's approach to chess works because efforts are directed at the most promising players from a young age, rather than at those children whose parents have the most money to pay for classes. Many of Vietnam's best players, such as Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, 20, who tied for third place in Moscow, are from poor families, Mr. Vasyliev says.
In Vietnam, children as young as 4 who do well in tournaments receive monthly salaries, free chess instruction, and monetary prizes for winning competitions. The Vietnamese government spends $3 million a year to promote the game, which includes covering players' travel expenses to domestic and international chess events.
"They get around $300 per month plus room and board and three or four times a year they can go abroad," Vasyliev says, "[and that's in a country where] $100 per month is considered a good salary."
Between 500 and 700 young players study chess around the country. The 10 to 12 players on the national team study the game for the whole year with only a two-week break. They live in the sports center and receive salaries and incentives of $11 per day for pocket money when they travel.
"Nowhere in the world are there children who get these stipends. In other countries, the parents must pay," Thang said in Russian. But in Vietnam, "if the child is talented, all the conditions [for his improvement] are created. That's how we make good players."
BTW, Le Quang Liem will play on Dortmund (beginning 15th July) with the likes of GMs Vladimir Kramnik, Shakhriyar Mammdyarov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Leko and Arkadij Naiditsch. Here is an interview with GM Le Quang Liem after his win at Aeroflot earlier this year.
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son will play in the 43rd Biel Chess Festival beginning 19th July with its headline tournament billed as the "Young Grandmaster Tournament" (with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Dmitry Andreikin, David Howell, Parimarjan Negi, and Maxim Rodhstein). I will try to blog on this truly exciting event. [It will be interesting to see the match up between Anish Giri, currently the hottest junior GM and Wesley So, Asia's youngest junior GM.]
Sunday, July 11, 2010
US Junior Closed Championship
Just a quick blog to inform that the US Junior Closed Championship has begun and already there are upsets in Rd 1. IM Sam Shankland who is looking for his 3rd and final GM norm for some time (but probably not in this tournament; not sure whether the event qualifies) has lost to Parker Zhao. GM Ray Robson was held to a draw.
The results can be followed here.
Live games and commentary (recommended if you have broadband as GM Maurice Ashley is highly entertaining) is here.
The results can be followed here.
Live games and commentary (recommended if you have broadband as GM Maurice Ashley is highly entertaining) is here.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS Tournament_Final Results
The Tournament has finally finished and we have joint winners, Emma Guo, Andrew Pan and Ari Dale, on 5.5/7. Well Done!!! They were followed closely by Jack Ruan and Pasan Perera on 5/7 and Zachary Loh and Vincent Chen on 4.5/7.
Prizes were also handed out to Best Girl, Savithri Narenthran, Most improved player, Matthew Pyper, and creator of biggest upset, Harry Hughes (defeating Vincent Chen in Rd 1).
Prizes were also given for best performers in each of the coaching group. Finally prizes were given to three top performers (Andrew Pan, Oscar Wang, and Punala Kiripitige (in order)) in the Homework handed out by GM Rogers. One junior, Oscar Wang, was especially commended for coming up with a refutation of one of the problems in the Homework and GM Rogers awarded him 12.5/10!
The last event is the traditional GM simul for which GM Zhao ZongYuan has kindly agreed.
Prizes were also handed out to Best Girl, Savithri Narenthran, Most improved player, Matthew Pyper, and creator of biggest upset, Harry Hughes (defeating Vincent Chen in Rd 1).
Prizes were also given for best performers in each of the coaching group. Finally prizes were given to three top performers (Andrew Pan, Oscar Wang, and Punala Kiripitige (in order)) in the Homework handed out by GM Rogers. One junior, Oscar Wang, was especially commended for coming up with a refutation of one of the problems in the Homework and GM Rogers awarded him 12.5/10!
The last event is the traditional GM simul for which GM Zhao ZongYuan has kindly agreed.
Code:
Standings
Place Name Feder Rtg Loc Score Buch. Progr. GP
1-3 Guo, Emma 1843 5.5 31.5 23.0 100.00
Pan, Andrew 1837 5.5 31.0 24.5 50.00
Dale, Ari 1499 5.5 26.0 21.5 40.00
4-5 Ruan, Jack 1806 5 31.5 23.0 38.57
Perera, Pasan 1636 5 26.5 19.5 37.14
6-7 Loh, Zachary 1429 4.5 28.5 19.0 35.71
Chen, Vincent 1559 4.5 25.5 16.5 34.29
8-13 Wang, Oscar 1798 4 30.5 20.0 32.86
Gu, Sean 1826 4 28.5 17.5 31.43
Behar, Joshua 1425 4 27.0 18.0 30.00
Koh, Cedric 1450 4 26.5 16.5 28.57
Taminsyah, Aston 1632 4 25.0 16.5 27.14
Jack, Martin 1409 4 24.5 16.0 25.71
14-21 Pyper, Matthew 1169 3.5 28.0 17.0 24.29
Siow-Lee, Dylan 1329 3.5 25.0 13.5 22.86
Hughes, Harry 1060 3.5 25.0 12.5 21.43
Ruan, Harry 1720 3.5 23.5 14.0 20.00
Mason, Stuart 1351 3.5 23.5 12.0 18.57
Derwent, Ethan 1399 3.5 22.5 14.0 17.14
Gray, Callum 1292 3.5 21.5 12.5 15.71
Nicholls, Stuart 1220 3.5 19.5 10.5 14.29
22-23 Narenthran, Savithri 952 3 26.5 14.5 12.86
Christian, Kashish 789 3 23.0 10.0 11.43
24-26 Gu, Shirley 1415 2.5 20.5 10.5 10.00
Mason, Joanne 965 2.5 20.0 7.5 8.57
Koh, Clarise 1242 2.5 17.0 7.5 7.14
27-28 Kiripitige, Punala 1405 2 24.5 9.0 5.71
Gu, Theresa 832 2 22.0 6.0 4.29
29 Alvares, Grace 627 1.5 21.5 8.5 2.86
30 Drastik, Penelope 830 0.5 8.5 1.5 1.43
31 Pretorius, Jana 1050 0 17.0 0.0
Cross Table
No Name Feder Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Guo, Emma 16:W 10:W 7:W 2:D 4:L 12:W 5:W
2. Pan, Andrew 17:W 11:W 23:W 1:D 5:W 4:D 10:D
3. Gu, Sean 18:W 12:L 19:W 13:W 10:L 23:D 11:D
4. Ruan, Jack 19:W 13:D 15:W 5:W 1:W 2:D 7:L
5. Wang, Oscar 20:W 24:W 12:W 4:L 2:L 27:W 1:L
6. Ruan, Harry 21:W 15:D 13:L 17:D 19:L 24:D 26:W
7. Perera, Pasan 22:W 31:W 1:L 11:D 13:D 19:W 4:W
8. Taminsyah, Aston 23:L 29:W 21:W 27:D 17:W 10:L 15:D
9. Chen, Vincent 24:L 22:W 18:W 12:D 27:D 13:D 20:W
10. Dale, Ari 25:W 1:L 30:W 23:W 3:W 8:W 2:D
11. Koh, Cedric 26:W 2:L 24:W 7:D 12:L 16:W 3:D
12. Loh, Zachary 27:W 3:W 5:L 9:D 11:W 1:L 23:W
13. Behar, Joshua 28:W 4:D 6:W 3:L 7:D 9:D 18:D
14. Gu, Shirley 29:D 23:L 27:L 31:W 21:W 15:L 24:L
15. Jack, Martin 30:W 6:D 4:L 18:D 20:D 14:W 8:D
16. Kiripitige, Punala 1:L 21:L 29:W 22:W 23:L 11:L 30:L
17. Derwent, Ethan 2:L 26:W 31:W 6:D 8:L 20:L 27:W
18. Mason, Stuart 3:L 25:W 9:L 15:D 24:D 30:W 13:D
19. Siow-Lee, Dylan 4:L 28:W 3:L 30:W 6:W 7:L 22:D
20. Gray, Callum 5:L 27:L 25:W 28:W 15:D 17:W 9:L
21. Koh, Clarise 6:L 16:W 8:L 24:D 14:L 28:W :
22. Nicholls, Stuart 7:L 9:L 26:W 16:L 28:W 31:W 19:D
23. Pyper, Matthew 8:W 14:W 2:L 10:L 16:W 3:D 12:L
24. Hughes, Harry 9:W 5:L 11:L 21:D 18:D 6:D 14:W
25. Pretorius, Jana 10:L 18:L 20:L 26:L 30:L : :
26. Mason, Joanne 11:L 17:L 22:L 25:W 31:D :W 6:L
27. Narenthran, Savithri 12:L 20:W 14:W 8:D 9:D 5:L 17:L
28. Gu, Theresa 13:L 19:L :W 20:L 22:L 21:L 31:W
29. Drastik, Penelope 14:D 8:L 16:L : : : :
30. Christian, Kashish 15:L :W 10:L 19:L 25:W 18:L 16:W
31. Alvares, Grace :W 7:L 17:L 14:L 26:D 22:L 28:L
For a clearer view see here.
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS Tournament_Round 7 Results
Code:
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Dale, Ari [5] =:= Pan, Andrew [5]
2 Ruan, Jack [5] 0:1 Perera, Pasan [4]
3 Guo, Emma [4.5] 1:0 Wang, Oscar [4]
4 Koh, Cedric [3.5] =:= Gu, Sean [3.5]
5 Jack, Martin [3.5] =:= Taminsyah, Aston [3.5]
6 Chen, Vincent [3.5] 1:0 Gray, Callum [3.5]
7 Pyper, Matthew [3.5] 0:1 Loh, Zachary [3.5]
8 Mason, Stuart [3] =:= Behar, Joshua [3.5]
9 Siow-Lee, Dylan [3] =:= Nicholls, Stuart [3]
10 Derwent, Ethan [2.5] 1:0 Narenthran, Savithri [3]
11 Mason, Joanne [2.5] 0:1 Ruan, Harry [2.5]
12 Hughes, Harry [2.5] 1:0 Gu, Shirley [2.5]
13 Christian, Kashish [2] 1:0 Kiripitige, Punala [2]
14 Alvares, Grace [1.5] 0:1 Gu, Theresa [1]
Friday, July 9, 2010
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Round 6 Results and Round 7 Draw
Round 6: Ari Dale shows his form by defeating Aston Taminsyah and is now joint first with Andrew Pan and Jack Ruan (who drew with each other) going into the final round. Another junior who is showing some form is Matthew Pyper drawing with Sean Gu. The junior of "draws", Joshua Behar, manages another draw, this time against Vincent Chen. Savithri Narenthran's good run comes to an end losing to Oscar Wang. Callum Gray defeats Ethan Derwent. Harry Ruan's poor from continues when he drew with fellow Harry (Hughes).
Highlight for me is seeing Stuart Nicholls managing another win (in a winning position) with only 2 minutes on his clock (and 10 seconds increment). Also, in analysis, he explains to GM Johansen that he was trying to play like the famous GM Bent Larsen (Stuart, playing white, opened with 1 g3). BTW, Stuart is playing my son tomorrow with Black. Hmmmm! I have to see what Larsen played with Black. :) :) :)
Round 7 (last round) is tomorrow 9:30 am Saturday 10th July 2010. The three leaders need to win to prevent any of the others from pipping them at the post. Pasan Perera can play spoiler if he defeats Jack Ruan. Emma Guo theoretically can emerge as joint winner if she wins and all others drew their games. Exciting finish tomorrow.
Highlight for me is seeing Stuart Nicholls managing another win (in a winning position) with only 2 minutes on his clock (and 10 seconds increment). Also, in analysis, he explains to GM Johansen that he was trying to play like the famous GM Bent Larsen (Stuart, playing white, opened with 1 g3). BTW, Stuart is playing my son tomorrow with Black. Hmmmm! I have to see what Larsen played with Black. :) :) :)
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 6
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Pan, Andrew [4.5] =:= Ruan, Jack [4.5]
2 Taminsyah, Aston [3.5] 0:1 Dale, Ari [4]
3 Loh, Zachary [3.5] 0:1 Guo, Emma [3.5]
4 Gu, Sean [3] =:= Pyper, Matthew [3]
5 Narenthran, Savithri [3] 0:1 Wang, Oscar [3]
6 Perera, Pasan [3] 1:0 Siow-Lee, Dylan [3]
7 Behar, Joshua [3] =:= Chen, Vincent [3]
8 Gu, Shirley [2.5] 0:1 Jack, Martin [2.5]
9 Gray, Callum [2.5] 1:0 Derwent, Ethan [2.5]
10 Kiripitige, Punala [2] 0:1 Koh, Cedric [2.5]
11 Ruan, Harry [2] =:= Hughes, Harry [2]
12 Mason, Stuart [2] 1:0 Christian, Kashish [2]
13 Nicholls, Stuart [2] 1:0 Alvares, Grace [1.5]
14 Gu, Theresa [1] 0:1 Koh, Clarise [1.5]
15 Mason, Joanne [1.5] 1:0 BYE
Round 7 (last round) is tomorrow 9:30 am Saturday 10th July 2010. The three leaders need to win to prevent any of the others from pipping them at the post. Pasan Perera can play spoiler if he defeats Jack Ruan. Emma Guo theoretically can emerge as joint winner if she wins and all others drew their games. Exciting finish tomorrow.
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 7
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Dale, Ari [5] : Pan, Andrew [5]
2 Ruan, Jack [5] : Perera, Pasan [4]
3 Guo, Emma [4.5] : Wang, Oscar [4]
4 Koh, Cedric [3.5] : Gu, Sean [3.5]
5 Jack, Martin [3.5] : Taminsyah, Aston [3.5]
6 Chen, Vincent [3.5] : Gray, Callum [3.5]
7 Pyper, Matthew [3.5] : Loh, Zachary [3.5]
8 Mason, Stuart [3] : Behar, Joshua [3.5]
9 Siow-Lee, Dylan [3] : Nicholls, Stuart [3]
10 Derwent, Ethan [2.5] : Narenthran, Savithri [3]
11 Mason, Joanne [2.5] : Ruan, Harry [2.5]
12 Hughes, Harry [2.5] : Gu, Shirley [2.5]
13 Christian, Kashish [2] : Kiripitige, Punala [2]
14 Alvares, Grace [1.5] : Gu, Theresa [1]
For Standings and X-Table after Round 6, see here.
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Round 5 Results and Round 6 Draw
Round 5: Big result as Jack Ruan defeated Emma Guo on Board 1. Big upsets as Ari Dale defeated Sean Gu, Dylan Siow-Lee defeated Harry Ruan, Matthew Pyper defeated Punala Kiripitige, and Kashish Christian defeated Jan Pretorius. Savithri Narenthran drew yet again against a higher rated player, this time it was Vincent Chen; so did Joshua Behar against Pasan Perera. Harry Hughes drew with Stuart Mason, Grace Alvares drew with Joanne Mason, Callum Gray drew with Martin Jack. Very interesting round.
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 5
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Guo, Emma [3.5] 0:1 Ruan, Jack [3.5]
2 Wang, Oscar [3] 0:1 Pan, Andrew [3.5]
3 Dale, Ari [3] 1:0 Gu, Sean [3]
4 Behar, Joshua [2.5] =:= Perera, Pasan [2.5]
5 Derwent, Ethan [2.5] 0:1 Taminsyah, Aston [2.5]
6 Chen, Vincent [2.5] =:= Narenthran, Savithri [2.5]
7 Koh, Cedric [2.5] 0:1 Loh, Zachary [2.5]
8 Siow-Lee, Dylan [2] 1:0 Ruan, Harry [2]
9 Jack, Martin [2] =:= Gray, Callum [2]
10 Pyper, Matthew [2] 1:0 Kiripitige, Punala [2]
11 Koh, Clarise [1.5] 0:1 Gu, Shirley [1.5]
12 Hughes, Harry [1.5] =:= Mason, Stuart [1.5]
13 Nicholls, Stuart [1] 1:0 Gu, Theresa [1]
14 Alvares, Grace [1] =:= Mason, Joanne [1]
15 Christian, Kashish [1] 1:0 Pretorius, Jana [0]
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 6
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Pan, Andrew [4.5] : Ruan, Jack [4.5]
2 Taminsyah, Aston [3.5] : Dale, Ari [4]
3 Loh, Zachary [3.5] : Guo, Emma [3.5]
4 Gu, Sean [3] : Pyper, Matthew [3]
5 Narenthran, Savithri [3] : Wang, Oscar [3]
6 Perera, Pasan [3] : Siow-Lee, Dylan [3]
7 Behar, Joshua [3] : Chen, Vincent [3]
8 Gu, Shirley [2.5] : Jack, Martin [2.5]
9 Gray, Callum [2.5] : Derwent, Ethan [2.5]
10 Kiripitige, Punala [2] : Koh, Cedric [2.5]
11 Ruan, Harry [2] : Hughes, Harry [2]
12 Mason, Stuart [2] : Christian, Kashish [2]
13 Nicholls, Stuart [2] : Alvares, Grace [1.5]
14 Gu, Theresa [1] : Koh, Clarise [1.5]
15 Mason, Joanne [1.5] 1:0 BYE
Jana Pretorius withdrew from the Tournament after Rd 5.
For Standings and X-Table after Round 5, see here.
2010 World Youth Championships Haikidiki, Greece Oct 19-31
Dear All,
I am re-opening the selections for the World Youth Chess Championship in Haikidiki, Greece from Oct 19th to 31st for the following categories:
Under 16 Open
Under 8 Open
Under 18 Girls
Please submit your applications by 5 pm AEST Thursday 15th July 2010. For applications please see previous post here.
I am re-opening the selections for the World Youth Chess Championship in Haikidiki, Greece from Oct 19th to 31st for the following categories:
Under 16 Open
Under 8 Open
Under 18 Girls
Please submit your applications by 5 pm AEST Thursday 15th July 2010. For applications please see previous post here.
ASIAN YOUTH INVITATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010
I will interrupt coverage of the 2010 Putra-Johns JETS Tournament to inform readers of the Asian Youth Chess Championship starting today in Beijing.
Australia has 4 representatives: 2009 NSW Junior Champion, Chen Pengyu, is playing in the U14 Open; 2009 NSW Girls Champion, Caroline Shan, is playing in the U14 Girls; ACT junior Jaime-Lee Guo is playing in the U10 Open; and NSW junior Grace Shan is playing in the U10 Girls.
You can follow the progress here:
U14 Open;
U14 Girls;
U10 Open;
U10 Girls.
Australia has 4 representatives: 2009 NSW Junior Champion, Chen Pengyu, is playing in the U14 Open; 2009 NSW Girls Champion, Caroline Shan, is playing in the U14 Girls; ACT junior Jaime-Lee Guo is playing in the U10 Open; and NSW junior Grace Shan is playing in the U10 Girls.
You can follow the progress here:
U14 Open;
U14 Girls;
U10 Open;
U10 Girls.
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Standings after Round 4
Code:
Standings
Place Name Feder Rtg Loc Score Buch. Progr. GP
1-3 Guo, Emma 1843 3.5 14.5 13.0 100.00
Pan, Andrew 1837 3.5 13.5 13.0 50.00
Ruan, Jack 1806 3.5 13.0 12.0 40.00
4-6 Wang, Oscar 1798 3 13.0 12.0 38.57
Gu, Sean 1826 3 11.5 10.0 37.14
Dale, Ari 1499 3 9.0 10.0 35.71
7-14 Loh, Zachary 1429 2.5 13.5 10.0 34.29
Behar, Joshua 1425 2.5 11.5 10.0 32.86
Koh, Cedric 1450 2.5 11.0 9.0 31.43
Narenthran, Savithri 952 2.5 11.0 8.0 30.00
Perera, Pasan 1636 2.5 10.0 10.0 28.57
Taminsyah, Aston 1632 2.5 10.0 8.0 27.14
Derwent, Ethan 1399 2.5 9.5 8.0 25.71
Chen, Vincent 1559 2.5 9.0 8.0 24.29
15-20 Pyper, Matthew 1169 2 12.5 9.0 22.86
Ruan, Harry 1720 2 10.5 8.0 21.43
Jack, Martin 1409 2 9.5 8.0 20.00
Siow-Lee, Dylan 1329 2 9.5 6.0 18.57
Kiripitige, Punala 1405 2 9.5 5.0 17.14
Gray, Callum 1292 2 8.0 5.0 15.71
21-24 Hughes, Harry 1060 1.5 11.0 6.0 14.29
Koh, Clarise 1242 1.5 9.5 5.0 12.86
Mason, Stuart 1351 1.5 9.0 5.0 11.43
Gu, Shirley 1415 1.5 8.0 4.5 10.00
25-29 Alvares, Grace 627 1 10.0 5.0 8.57
Gu, Theresa 832 1 10.0 3.0 7.14
Christian, Kashish 789 1 9.5 4.0 5.71
Nicholls, Stuart 1220 1 8.5 3.0 4.29
Mason, Joanne 965 1 6.5 2.0 2.86
30 Drastik, Penelope 830 0.5 6.0 1.5 1.43
31 Pretorius, Jana 1050 0 8.0 0.0
Cross Table
No Name Feder Rtg 1 2 3 4 5
1. Guo, Emma 16:W 10:W 7:W 2:D 4:
2. Pan, Andrew 17:W 11:W 23:W 1:D 5:
3. Gu, Sean 18:W 12:L 19:W 13:W 10:
4. Ruan, Jack 19:W 13:D 15:W 5:W 1:
5. Wang, Oscar 20:W 24:W 12:W 4:L 2:
6. Ruan, Harry 21:W 15:D 13:L 17:D 19:
7. Perera, Pasan 22:W 31:W 1:L 11:D 13:
8. Taminsyah, Aston 23:L 29:W 21:W 27:D 17:
9. Chen, Vincent 24:L 22:W 18:W 12:D 27:
10. Dale, Ari 25:W 1:L 30:W 23:W 3:
11. Koh, Cedric 26:W 2:L 24:W 7:D 12:
12. Loh, Zachary 27:W 3:W 5:L 9:D 11:
13. Behar, Joshua 28:W 4:D 6:W 3:L 7:
14. Gu, Shirley 29:D 23:L 27:L 31:W 21:
15. Jack, Martin 30:W 6:D 4:L 18:D 20:
16. Kiripitige, Punala 1:L 21:L 29:W 22:W 23:
17. Derwent, Ethan 2:L 26:W 31:W 6:D 8:
18. Mason, Stuart 3:L 25:W 9:L 15:D 24:
19. Siow-Lee, Dylan 4:L 28:W 3:L 30:W 6:
20. Gray, Callum 5:L 27:L 25:W 28:W 15:
21. Koh, Clarise 6:L 16:W 8:L 24:D 14:
22. Nicholls, Stuart 7:L 9:L 26:W 16:L 28:
23. Pyper, Matthew 8:W 14:W 2:L 10:L 16:
24. Hughes, Harry 9:W 5:L 11:L 21:D 18:
25. Pretorius, Jana 10:L 18:L 20:L 26:L 30:
26. Mason, Joanne 11:L 17:L 22:L 25:W 31:
27. Narenthran, Savithri 12:L 20:W 14:W 8:D 9:
28. Gu, Theresa 13:L 19:L :W 20:L 22:
29. Drastik, Penelope 14:D 8:L 16:L : :
30. Christian, Kashish 15:L :W 10:L 19:L 25:
31. Alvares, Grace :W 7:L 17:L 14:L 26:
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Round 4 Results and Round 5 Draw
Round 4: Victorian and Australian Junior Girl U12 Champion Savithri Narenthran is continuing her good form by drawing with Aston Taminsyah. Ethan Derwent also drew with Harry Ruan.
At the top, it is a three-way tie between Emma Guo, Andrew Pan and Jack Ruan with Sean Gu, Ari Dale and Oscar Wang half-point behind.
At the top, it is a three-way tie between Emma Guo, Andrew Pan and Jack Ruan with Sean Gu, Ari Dale and Oscar Wang half-point behind.
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 4
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Pan, Andrew [3] =:= Guo, Emma [3]
2 Ruan, Jack [2.5] 1:0 Wang, Oscar [3]
3 Gu, Sean [2] 1:0 Behar, Joshua [2.5]
4 Perera, Pasan [2] =:= Koh, Cedric [2]
5 Taminsyah, Aston [2] =:= Narenthran, Savithri [2]
6 Loh, Zachary [2] =:= Chen, Vincent [2]
7 Dale, Ari [2] 1:0 Pyper, Matthew [2]
8 Ruan, Harry [1.5] =:= Derwent, Ethan [2]
9 Mason, Stuart [1] =:= Jack, Martin [1.5]
10 Kiripitige, Punala [1] 1:0 Nicholls, Stuart [1]
11 Siow-Lee, Dylan [1] 1:0 Christian, Kashish [1]
12 Gray, Callum [1] 1:0 Gu, Theresa [1]
13 Hughes, Harry [1] =:= Koh, Clarise [1]
14 Gu, Shirley [.5] 1:0 Alvares, Grace [1]
15 Pretorius, Jana [0] 0:1 Mason, Joanne [0]
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 5
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Guo, Emma [3.5] : Ruan, Jack [3.5]
2 Wang, Oscar [3] : Pan, Andrew [3.5]
3 Dale, Ari [3] : Gu, Sean [3]
4 Behar, Joshua [2.5] : Perera, Pasan [2.5]
5 Derwent, Ethan [2.5] : Taminsyah, Aston [2.5]
6 Chen, Vincent [2.5] : Narenthran, Savithri [2.5]
7 Koh, Cedric [2.5] : Loh, Zachary [2.5]
8 Siow-Lee, Dylan [2] : Ruan, Harry [2]
9 Jack, Martin [2] : Gray, Callum [2]
10 Pyper, Matthew [2] : Kiripitige, Punala [2]
11 Koh, Clarise [1.5] : Gu, Shirley [1.5]
12 Hughes, Harry [1.5] : Mason, Stuart [1.5]
13 Nicholls, Stuart [1] : Gu, Theresa [1]
14 Alvares, Grace [1] : Mason, Joanne [1]
15 Christian, Kashish [1] : Pretorius, Jana [0]
Thursday, July 8, 2010
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Round 3 Results and Round 4 Draw
Round 3
Upsets: Harry Ruan lost to Joshua Behar and Savithri Narenthran defeated Shirley Gu.
Upsets: Harry Ruan lost to Joshua Behar and Savithri Narenthran defeated Shirley Gu.
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 3
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Guo, Emma [2] 1:0 Perera, Pasan [2]
2 Pyper, Matthew [2] 0:1 Pan, Andrew [2]
3 Wang, Oscar [2] 1:0 Loh, Zachary [2]
4 Jack, Martin [1.5] 0:1 Ruan, Jack [1.5]
5 Behar, Joshua [1.5] 1:0 Ruan, Harry [1.5]
6 Gu, Sean [1] 1:0 Siow-Lee, Dylan [1]
7 Koh, Clarise [1] 0:1 Taminsyah, Aston [1]
8 Chen, Vincent [1] 1:0 Mason, Stuart [1]
9 Christian, Kashish [1] 0:1 Dale, Ari [1]
10 Koh, Cedric [1] 1:0 Hughes, Harry [1]
11 Derwent, Ethan [1] 1:0 Alvares, Grace [1]
12 Narenthran, Savithri [1] 1:0 Gu, Shirley [.5]
13 Drastik, Penelope [.5] 0:1 Kiripitige, Punala [0]
14 Pretorius, Jana [0] 0:1 Gray, Callum [0]
15 Mason, Joanne [0] 0:1 Nicholls, Stuart [0]
16 Gu, Theresa [0] 1:0 BYE
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 4
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Pan, Andrew [3] : Guo, Emma [3]
2 Ruan, Jack [2.5] : Wang, Oscar [3]
3 Gu, Sean [2] : Behar, Joshua [2.5]
4 Perera, Pasan [2] : Koh, Cedric [2]
5 Taminsyah, Aston [2] : Narenthran, Savithri [2]
6 Loh, Zachary [2] : Chen, Vincent [2]
7 Dale, Ari [2] : Pyper, Matthew [2]
8 Ruan, Harry [1.5] : Derwent, Ethan [2]
9 Mason, Stuart [1] : Jack, Martin [1.5]
10 Kiripitige, Punala [1] : Nicholls, Stuart [1]
11 Siow-Lee, Dylan [1] : Christian, Kashish [1]
12 Gray, Callum [1] : Gu, Theresa [1]
13 Hughes, Harry [1] : Koh, Clarise [1]
14 Gu, Shirley [.5] : Alvares, Grace [1]
15 Pretorius, Jana [0] : Mason, Joanne [0]
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Round 2 Results and Round 3 Draw
Round 2
Matthew Pyper (1169) continued his good form by defeating Shirley Gu (1415) and Savithri Narenthran (952) defeated Callum Gray (1292). Sean Gu was forfeited when his mobile phone in his pocket made an audible sound even when it looks like it has been switched off. DOP had to record the loss.
Round 3
Penelope Drastik withdrew from the tournament at the start of Round 3.
Matthew Pyper (1169) continued his good form by defeating Shirley Gu (1415) and Savithri Narenthran (952) defeated Callum Gray (1292). Sean Gu was forfeited when his mobile phone in his pocket made an audible sound even when it looks like it has been switched off. DOP had to record the loss.
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 2
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Dale, Ari [1] 0:1 Guo, Emma [1]
2 Pan, Andrew [1] 1:0 Koh, Cedric [1]
3 Loh, Zachary [1] 1:0* Gu, Sean [1]
4 Ruan, Jack [1] =:= Behar, Joshua [1]
5 Hughes, Harry [1] 0:1 Wang, Oscar [1]
6 Ruan, Harry [1] =:= Jack, Martin [1]
7 Alvares, Grace [1] 0:1 Perera, Pasan [1]
8 Gu, Shirley [.5] 0:1 Pyper, Matthew [1]
9 Taminsyah, Aston [0] 1:0 Drastik, Penelope [.5]
10 Nicholls, Stuart [0] 0:1 Chen, Vincent [0]
11 Kiripitige, Punala [0] 0:1 Koh, Clarise [0]
12 Mason, Joanne [0] 0:1 Derwent, Ethan [0]
13 Mason, Stuart [0] 1:0 Pretorius, Jana [0]
14 Gu, Theresa [0] 0:1 Siow-Lee, Dylan [0]
15 Gray, Callum [0] 0:1 Narenthran, Savithri [0]
16 Christian, Kashish [0] 1:0 BYE
*mobile phone went off
Round 3
Penelope Drastik withdrew from the tournament at the start of Round 3.
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 3
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Guo, Emma [2] : Perera, Pasan [2]
2 Pyper, Matthew [2] : Pan, Andrew [2]
3 Wang, Oscar [2] : Loh, Zachary [2]
4 Jack, Martin [1.5] : Ruan, Jack [1.5]
5 Behar, Joshua [1.5] : Ruan, Harry [1.5]
6 Gu, Sean [1] : Siow-Lee, Dylan [1]
7 Koh, Clarise [1] : Taminsyah, Aston [1]
8 Chen, Vincent [1] : Mason, Stuart [1]
9 Christian, Kashish [1] : Dale, Ari [1]
10 Koh, Cedric [1] : Hughes, Harry [1]
11 Derwent, Ethan [1] : Alvares, Grace [1]
12 Narenthran, Savithri [1] : Gu, Shirley [.5]
13 Drastik, Penelope [.5] : Kiripitige, Punala [0]
14 Pretorius, Jana [0] : Gray, Callum [0]
15 Mason, Joanne [0] : Nicholls, Stuart [0]
16 Gu, Theresa [0] 1:0 BYE
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Round 1 results and Round 2 draw
Round 1 has finished and there were two upsets based on ratings: Matthew Pyper (1169) defeated Aston Taminsyah (1632) and Harry Hughes (1060) defeated Vincent Chen (1559). In addition, Penelope Drastik (830) managed to draw with Shirley Gu (1415).
JETS 2010 - Round 1
Results
JETS 2010 - Round 1
Results
Round 1 has finished and there were two upsets based on ratings: Matthew Pyper (1169) defeated Aston Taminsyah (1632) and Harry Hughes (1060) defeated Vincent Chen (1559). In addition, Penelope Drastik (830) managed to draw with Shirley Gu (1415).
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 1
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Guo, Emma [0] 1:0 Kiripitige, Punala [0]
2 Derwent, Ethan [0] 0:1 Pan, Andrew [0]
3 Gu, Sean [0] 1:0 Mason, Stuart [0]
4 Siow-Lee, Dylan [0] 0:1 Ruan, Jack [0]
5 Wang, Oscar [0] 1:0 Gray, Callum [0]
6 Koh, Clarise [0] 0:1 Ruan, Harry [0]
7 Perera, Pasan [0] 1:0 Nicholls, Stuart [0]
8 Pyper, Matthew [0] 1:0 Taminsyah, Aston [0]
9 Chen, Vincent [0] 0:1 Hughes, Harry [0]
10 Pretorius, Jana [0] 0:1 Dale, Ari [0]
11 Koh, Cedric [0] 1:0 Mason, Joanne [0]
12 Narenthran, Savithri [0] 0:1 Loh, Zachary [0]
13 Behar, Joshua [0] 1:0 Gu, Theresa [0]
14 Drastik, Penelope [0] =:= Gu, Shirley [0]
15 Jack, Martin [0] 1:0 Christian, Kashish [0]
16 Alvares, Grace [0] 1:0 BYE
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 2
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Dale, Ari [1] : Guo, Emma [1]
2 Pan, Andrew [1] : Koh, Cedric [1]
3 Loh, Zachary [1] : Gu, Sean [1]
4 Ruan, Jack [1] : Behar, Joshua [1]
5 Hughes, Harry [1] : Wang, Oscar [1]
6 Ruan, Harry [1] : Jack, Martin [1]
7 Alvares, Grace [1] : Perera, Pasan [1]
8 Gu, Shirley [.5] : Pyper, Matthew [1]
9 Taminsyah, Aston [0] : Drastik, Penelope [.5]
10 Nicholls, Stuart [0] : Chen, Vincent [0]
11 Kiripitige, Punala [0] : Koh, Clarise [0]
12 Mason, Joanne [0] : Derwent, Ethan [0]
13 Mason, Stuart [0] : Pretorius, Jana [0]
14 Gu, Theresa [0] : Siow-Lee, Dylan [0]
15 Gray, Callum [0] : Narenthran, Savithri [0]
16 Christian, Kashish [0] 1:0 BYE
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS_Tournament Round 1
JETS 2010 - Round 1 (Time control: 60' + 10" increment from move 1, total 7 rounds Swiss-style)
Pairings
Pairings
Code:
JETS 2010 - Round 1
Draw
No Name Total Result Name Total
1 Guo, Emma [0] : Kiripitige, Punala [0]
2 Derwent, Ethan [0] : Pan, Andrew [0]
3 Gu, Sean [0] : Mason, Stuart [0]
4 Siow-Lee, Dylan [0] : Ruan, Jack [0]
5 Wang, Oscar [0] : Gray, Callum [0]
6 Koh, Clarise [0] : Ruan, Harry [0]
7 Perera, Pasan [0] : Nicholls, Stuart [0]
8 Pyper, Matthew [0] : Taminsyah, Aston [0]
9 Chen, Vincent [0] : Hughes, Harry [0]
10 Pretorius, Jana [0] : Dale, Ari [0]
11 Koh, Cedric [0] : Mason, Joanne [0]
12 Narenthran, Savithri [0] : Loh, Zachary [0]
13 Behar, Joshua [0] : Gu, Theresa [0]
14 Drastik, Penelope [0] : Gu, Shirley [0]
15 Jack, Martin [0] : Christian, Kashish [0]
16 Alvares, Grace [0] : BYE
2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS
Today is the fourth day of the 2010 AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS and it is tournament time with 31 juniors in a Swiss-style 7 rounds.
The Putra-Johns JETS began on Monday 5th July in the cold, cold North Shore of Sydney at the grounds of the Abbotsleigh Girls School, Wahroonga. Thirty juniors and 2 GMs and 3 IMs and supporting parents made up the crowd.
The annual training camp for the best and brightest promising chess talents in Australia (and preference this year given to those U14) started with a Hypothetical-style series of scenarios on ethical issues in chess. The recent World Chess Championship between GM Vishy Anand and GM Veselin Topalov became the base situation for a series of hypotheticals to assist the juniors in understanding the rules of chess. There was Anand and Topalov, their managers, the arbiter and assistant, and IM Javier Gil standing in as the tournament organiser. (Somehow, as one junior quipped, Anand and his wife, Aruna, changed places.) Real-life International Arbiter, Cathy Rogers, was on hand to provide the official view of the rules.
A perennial question for arbiters: is Anand permitted to eat potato chips at the board? Not surprisingly the answer was no! Eating is permitted but away from the board and not in the line of sight of your opponent.
Now, a tough one: Is Anand allowed to adjust Topalov’s chess pieces? Most juniors said yes but according to IA Cathy Rogers, the answer is actually no! So, if your opponent’s chess pieces are placed correctly, how do you get that adjusted? One way would be to ask your opponent and failing that, seek the assistance of the arbiter. However, GM Ian Rogers had a novel idea to resolve the situation if and when the opponent refused to adjust. In a real-life experience, he began placing his own pieces in very awkward positions as well until his opponent took the hint adjusted his/her own pieces.
GM Rogers also ran through hypotheticals on pre-arranged draws as well as pre-arranged games fixing and drove home the message that these behaviour are not acceptable. All in all, a very fun time and fun way to bring home the rules of chess to juniors.
The hypotheticals was followed by a session with a sports psychologist, Gerard Faure-Brac. He spoke about performance and similarities between chess and other sports. One similarity is stress and he then took the juniors on an exploration of stress, causes of stress and how to manage stress. I may blog later with a bit more information on these issues.
Beginning on Monday afternoon, the juniors were divided into 5 groups based on ratings and they attended five coaching sessions of 3 hours duration each over the next two and a half days.
The group Anand consists of Andrew Pan, Sean Gu, Jack Ruan, Oscar Wang, Harry Ruan and Pasan Perera. Group Carlsen were Aston Taminsyah, Vincent Chen, Ari Dale, Cedric Koh, Zachary Loh and Joshua Behar. The 3rd group, Kasparov, was made up of Shirley Gu, Martin Jack, Punala Kiripitige, Ethan Derwent, Stuart Mason and Dylan Siow-Lee. Next were Callum Gray, Clarise Koh, Stuart Nicholls, Matthew Pyper, Harry Hughes and Jana Pretorius making up Group Fischer. The last group was Group Polgar consisting entirely of girls: Joanne Mason, Savithri Narenthran, Theresa Gu, Penelope Drastik, Kashish Christian and Grace Alvares.
The coaches were GM Rogers, GM Darryl Johansen, IM Andras Toth, IM Javier Gil, IM Vladimir Feldman (Monday and Tuesday), and IM George Xie (Wednesday). It seems the juniors enjoyed the coaching sessions especially as the coaches also made it competitive. Answering questions correctly gave you points which go towards competing for prizes for best performing junior.
The first round has begun and already there are three results. Next blog on the draw and results.
The Putra-Johns JETS began on Monday 5th July in the cold, cold North Shore of Sydney at the grounds of the Abbotsleigh Girls School, Wahroonga. Thirty juniors and 2 GMs and 3 IMs and supporting parents made up the crowd.
The annual training camp for the best and brightest promising chess talents in Australia (and preference this year given to those U14) started with a Hypothetical-style series of scenarios on ethical issues in chess. The recent World Chess Championship between GM Vishy Anand and GM Veselin Topalov became the base situation for a series of hypotheticals to assist the juniors in understanding the rules of chess. There was Anand and Topalov, their managers, the arbiter and assistant, and IM Javier Gil standing in as the tournament organiser. (Somehow, as one junior quipped, Anand and his wife, Aruna, changed places.) Real-life International Arbiter, Cathy Rogers, was on hand to provide the official view of the rules.
A perennial question for arbiters: is Anand permitted to eat potato chips at the board? Not surprisingly the answer was no! Eating is permitted but away from the board and not in the line of sight of your opponent.
Now, a tough one: Is Anand allowed to adjust Topalov’s chess pieces? Most juniors said yes but according to IA Cathy Rogers, the answer is actually no! So, if your opponent’s chess pieces are placed correctly, how do you get that adjusted? One way would be to ask your opponent and failing that, seek the assistance of the arbiter. However, GM Ian Rogers had a novel idea to resolve the situation if and when the opponent refused to adjust. In a real-life experience, he began placing his own pieces in very awkward positions as well until his opponent took the hint adjusted his/her own pieces.
GM Rogers also ran through hypotheticals on pre-arranged draws as well as pre-arranged games fixing and drove home the message that these behaviour are not acceptable. All in all, a very fun time and fun way to bring home the rules of chess to juniors.
The hypotheticals was followed by a session with a sports psychologist, Gerard Faure-Brac. He spoke about performance and similarities between chess and other sports. One similarity is stress and he then took the juniors on an exploration of stress, causes of stress and how to manage stress. I may blog later with a bit more information on these issues.
Beginning on Monday afternoon, the juniors were divided into 5 groups based on ratings and they attended five coaching sessions of 3 hours duration each over the next two and a half days.
The group Anand consists of Andrew Pan, Sean Gu, Jack Ruan, Oscar Wang, Harry Ruan and Pasan Perera. Group Carlsen were Aston Taminsyah, Vincent Chen, Ari Dale, Cedric Koh, Zachary Loh and Joshua Behar. The 3rd group, Kasparov, was made up of Shirley Gu, Martin Jack, Punala Kiripitige, Ethan Derwent, Stuart Mason and Dylan Siow-Lee. Next were Callum Gray, Clarise Koh, Stuart Nicholls, Matthew Pyper, Harry Hughes and Jana Pretorius making up Group Fischer. The last group was Group Polgar consisting entirely of girls: Joanne Mason, Savithri Narenthran, Theresa Gu, Penelope Drastik, Kashish Christian and Grace Alvares.
The coaches were GM Rogers, GM Darryl Johansen, IM Andras Toth, IM Javier Gil, IM Vladimir Feldman (Monday and Tuesday), and IM George Xie (Wednesday). It seems the juniors enjoyed the coaching sessions especially as the coaches also made it competitive. Answering questions correctly gave you points which go towards competing for prizes for best performing junior.
The first round has begun and already there are three results. Next blog on the draw and results.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Interview with GM Alexander Khalifman ......
My apologies for not blogging but I have been away on holidays to Singapore and Thailand (which is very quiet as a result of the recent unrest). But no chess when I was overseas.
I am just catching up on chess news and came across this extraordinary interview with GM and former World Chess Champion Alexander Khalifman (posted on 14th June 2010) originally conducted in Russian on the russian website, Crestbook (connected with GM Sergey Shipov, a past visitor to these shores and arguably one of the best commentator of live games around which you can catch on Crestbook using Google translator). I have to confess that GM Khalifman has been one of my heroes since I began to dabble in chess. I admire his guts and fighting chessic ability although I will be the first to admit not to be able to understand all his games. In the interview he describes himself as an universal player. And he is born in the same year as me!!
The whole interview is available, and Part 1 is now in English translated by US chessplayer Dana Mckenzie (see here). Dana Mackenzie explains (here):
For those who are unaware, here is a brief bio of GM Alexander Khalifman:
Here are some snippets which may interest Australian juniors and parents (especially those where I have bolded in the answer):
I am just catching up on chess news and came across this extraordinary interview with GM and former World Chess Champion Alexander Khalifman (posted on 14th June 2010) originally conducted in Russian on the russian website, Crestbook (connected with GM Sergey Shipov, a past visitor to these shores and arguably one of the best commentator of live games around which you can catch on Crestbook using Google translator). I have to confess that GM Khalifman has been one of my heroes since I began to dabble in chess. I admire his guts and fighting chessic ability although I will be the first to admit not to be able to understand all his games. In the interview he describes himself as an universal player. And he is born in the same year as me!!
The whole interview is available, and Part 1 is now in English translated by US chessplayer Dana Mckenzie (see here). Dana Mackenzie explains (here):
This is a translation of a “KC-conference” with former FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman. The “KC” stands for “KasparovChess,” which is the name of the discussion forum at Crestbook. The KC-conferences are an ongoing series where members of the public can pose questions for the leading chess players in the world. The interview with Khalifman is the ninth one in the series, and it is going to be a two-parter (the second part will come in a few days).Part 1 is here; Part 2 (use Google translator or wait for Dana Mackenzie's translation to be posted) here and Part 3 (ditto) here.
For those who are unaware, here is a brief bio of GM Alexander Khalifman:
Alexander Valerievich Khalifman was born on January 18, 1966, in Leningrad. He studied in the mathematics and mechanics department at Leningrad State University. He served in the army. He is married and has a daughter.Of course, GM Khalifman is also nowadays more well-known for his extraordinary series of opening monographs, The Opening for White According to Kramnik (5 volumes in the 1st edition and 6 volumes in on-going revised 2nd edition) and The Opening for White According to Anand (12 volumes published thus far with vol 13 expected din July 2010 and a final volume 14 sometime after.) Although these books are recommended for chessplayers with Elo over 2450, who has not bought them and imagine playing those same GM lines. One can always dream ......
Alexander was six years old when his father taught him to play chess. His first trainer was Vassily Mikhailovich Byvshev. Later he worked for many years with a Honored Trainer of the Russian Federation, Gennady Nesis. Alexander achieved his first major successes in youth chess. He was the two-time junior champion of the USSR (1982, 1984) and junior champion of Europe in 1985. Among the titles he has won in official competitions are: two-time champion of Saint Petersburg in 1996-97, champion of Russia in 1996, member of the winning Russian world championship team in 1997, and a member of the winning Olympiad teams in 1992, 2000, and 2002.
He achieved the title of International Master in 1986, and became a Grandmaster in 1990. His highest FIDE rating was 2702 (October 2001, January 2003, April 2003). His current FIDE rating is 2625.
He was a participant in the Candidates’ matches in 1994. He has been the victor or a prizewinner in many international tournaments, among them Plovdiv 1986 (3), Dordrecht 1988 (1), Moscow 1990 (1), Groningen 1990 (1), New York Open 1990 (1), London 1991 (1), Ter Apel 1993 (1), Rakvere 1993 (1), Elenite 1994 (1), St. Petersburg 1995 (1), Hastings 1995 (1), Bad Worishofen 1996 (1), Ischia 1996 (1), St. Petersburg 1997 (1), Aarhus 1997 (1), Hoogoven 2000 (1), Kazan 2005 (1) (sharing first place in the premier league of the Russian championship) and others.
His greatest success was his victory in the FIDE World Championship in Las Vegas (USA) in 1999, a tournament in which practically all of the strongest players in the world participated, with the exception of Kasparov and Anand. The tournament was conducted by the knockout system. Alexander defeated the following adversaries consecutively: D. Barua (0-1, 1-0, 2½ -1½), G. Kamsky (1-0, 0-1, 1½-½), K. Asryan (½-½, 1-0), B. Gelfand (½-½, ½-½, 1½-½), J. Polgar (1-0, ½-½), and L.-D. Nisipeanu (½-½, ½-½, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, ½-½). In the final he defeated V. Akopian (1-0, ½-½, 0-1, 1-0, ½-½, ½-½). After winning the title of FIDE World Champion the Petersburg grandmaster admitted, "I always knew that someday I would be first!"
In 1998 Alexander Khalifman founded The Grandmaster Chess School.
Here are some snippets which may interest Australian juniors and parents (especially those where I have bolded in the answer):
klf: To promote children’s chess – what applied skills of chess education do you consider the most significant?
Chess is fairly unique for the precise reason that it teaches you to think. Most subjects taught in school only weigh your memory down with information, without giving you the skills of independent mental work. Even the solution of physical or mathematical problems most of the time can be reduced to one standard algorithm or another.
But chess teaches you to think, and not only that, it does so in a playful form that is very natural for children. And at the same time, it brings you face to face with a very concrete result – either you win or you lose.
Winpooh: Alexander, you wrote in your column on the match in "64" that Anand and Kramnik are geniuses, but Topalov is merely a talent. Could you develop this theme in more detail? And what place in the hierarchy of talent and genius can Magnus Carlsen aspire to, in your opinion?
This is, of course, only a subjective feeling. No special algorithm exists for measuring chess talent, and no units of measurement exist either. It simply seems to me that the talent of Anand and Kramnik is so outstanding that one can consider them geniuses. Topalov, of course, has great talent, but I can think immediately of ten other active chess players who are not less gifted. This number is already a little bit too large to consider all of them to be geniuses. This assessment is not intended in any way to offend Veselin. Quite the opposite. Talent comes from nature, but in order to achieve outstanding results with less talent, you need an extraordinary fighting spirit. The powerful natural gifts of Carlsen are obvious, of course, but for the time being I am not prepared to place him in the company of geniuses. Although this is, of course, more than likely.
Valchess: Alexander, people remind you regularly of the perhaps too pugnacious comment you made about Carlsen at the time of the Wijk aan Zee tournament in 2007, but I will not miss this chance: “… there is talent in Africa and there is talent in Norway, too. But there is not a SCHOOL … I don’t want to look like a naysayer and a reactionary, but for me the elite prospects for the young Norwegian are still hazy.” You also said that in order to acquire such a SCHOOL, the Scandinavian trainers Agdestein and Nielsen would not be able to help him—he would have to come to Russia… In the last three years the haze of doubt has dispersed, and it is become clear that a SCHOOL, in the most classical sense, exists, and this is in spite of the fact that Carlsen turned down the chance to work with the most famous Russian trainers, which was offered to him at one time. So: My question is not about the prediction itself, but about the concept of a “school.” What did you include in this concept when you were talking about Carlsen? And do you understand how he managed to acquire this school (which was barely noticeable from your point of view 3 years ago)?
Also, at the same time, if you can, characterize the strong and weak sides of Carlsen today.
I underestimated the scale of his talent, which of course can happen with anyone. Vishy also broke through nearly to the very top right away, and began to fill in the gaps in his schooling later. And in Carlsen’s play, too, in my opinion, certain gaps sometimes show through even to this day. By the way, he now has the assistance of a man who could even in passing teach not only a school but a university or an academy. So he wasn’t completely able to get by without the Soviet chess school.
What a school is and what its presence or absence means is something that you can understand very well if you analyze with Asian chess players. In February and March I worked a little bit with Le Quang Liem, and I will say honestly that sometimes my eyes popped out of my head. He is also a very talented boy (maybe not a Carlsen, but definitely out of the ordinary), and he is trying very hard to grow. But at the moment all he does is calculate and calculate variations. He calculates very well, by the way. But a school is, in my opinion, what you would call a basis of positional principles, playing from general considerations and this sort of thing. It’s very hard to learn it even from good books. In order to know which pieces should go where and when to exchange what, that is when it is very important to work with a qualified trainer.
Carlsen has a colossal natural talent in exactly this positional, intuitive direction, and that is his very strong side. It’s awkward to talk about weak sides with respect to a player who is number one on the rating list, but it seems to me that when the play enters into an irrational channel, that is when he sometimes starts to feel uncomfortable. In order to achieve his greatest victories he still needs to become more universal, because it is hard to believe that his current game will be enough, relying exclusively on technique and positional understanding.
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