GM David Smerdon off to Harvard ......

Courtesy of the ClosetGM comes this story of Australian No 2 GM David Smerdon and his forthcoming foray into the US of A. And a PhD at Harvard no less. So it is going to be GM Dr Smerdon. There is the well known story of GM John Nunn achieving a PhD in mathematics at ripe old age of 23 (youngest undergraduate at Oxford when he was 15) (see here for chess games).

David will be in good company as there are a number of GMs who have PhDs including the recently retired (from economics) GM Ken Rogoff with a PhD in Economics and now at Harvard (see here for chess games). Surprise surprise; perhaps David can get a few games going with Ken, eh?.

Another tip for David: Harvard is in Boston in Massachusetts. The New England Nor'easters, new expansion team, has just won the 2010 US Chess League Championship. See here. New England Nor'easters included IM Sam Shankland on first board, he of the "I'll quit chess!!!" 'cos he could not achieve the GM title fame. But to be fair, Sam is actually playing at GM strength. (see my earlier blogs here and here.) Sam is attending nearby (to Harvard) Brandeis University.

I think David will also benefit associating with IM David Vigorito who leads The New England Nor'easters. IM Vigorito is a renowned US chess theoretician who has written several well-received chess books on opening theory including Attacking Chess: The King's Indian, Volume 1, UNDERSTANDING THE MARSHALL ATTACK, CHESS EXPLAINED: THE MAIN-LINE SLAV, Play the Semi-Slav, Challenging the Nimzo-Indian as well as being a regular author/contributor to the premier chess opening website (subscription-based), ChessPublishing, and forum (free). Hmmm ...... I think even David Smerdon has visted the ChessPub forum.

Sam Shankland blogged on how David Vigorito prepared the team to tie the match against their cross-city rivals, the he Boston Blitz!

I would like to go back to week 8 for a moment.

At the time, we decided, as a team, not to reveal what happened so that our formula for success would not be known. Now that the season is over, I think it’s a good time to do a proper report on the beginning phase of the match. The boards in question were boards 1 and 3, where FM Braden Bournival and myself had black against IM Irina Krush and GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, respectively. Kachi is a great player, and he has had very good results in the league. With him having the white pieces against some random dude, he must have been expected to win. Likewise, IM Krush is quite reasonable on the third board, and Bournival is a little bit out of practice. These were the two boards where we seemed to be most vulnerable.

Enter IM Dave Vigorito, our manager, a renowned opening theoretician and author, the USCLs 2010 father of the year, and the brains behind the whole operation. His keen eye noted a key game from the last round of the 2010 World Open- the game Kacheishvili – Vallejo Pons. This game featured the piece sacrifice line of the mainline Slav, and Kachi played an interesting idea with 9. … Nxf7!?. Vallejo, however, was up to the task and managed to force an equal endgame. This had not gone unnoticed by yours truly, but Dave took it one step further. He realized that Krush is Kachi’s student, and he likely had shown her this line. As a result, he recommended that Braden play the piece sacrifice line, in hopes of surprising Krush’s intended “surprise” move by following Vallejo’s plan. She never could have suspected that he would know exactly what to do, and Braden held a draw without any difficulties on the board where our opponents were the most favored. Kachi naturally assumed that when I played the piece sac line I had prepared for Nxf7 (which I had), but I spent much more of my time preparing for the mainline, 9. fxe4. I found some interesting ideas, and Kachi erred at some point, leaving me with a slightly better endgame that I ground into a win. However, the most genius part of this operation was Dave’s recommendation for me to stall a little so that the Krush-Bournival game reached the position after 8. … Bxe4 first. While Kachi would know that I had prepared this line, there would be no way for Krush to know that we had heavily prepared Nxf7- she has never played it before, so why would Brad even look at such a move? As a result, we got exactly what we wanted from the opening in these games, and we scored 1.5/2 where we seemed to be underdogs on paper.

For The Australian story on David see here.

PS. I too have dabbled in behavioural economics. Really fascinating and a change from the neo-classical selfish profit maximiser. Check out David Smerdon's blog for his take on behavioural economics. If you are intrigued, check these out: Herbert Simon one of the so-called father of behavioural economics, Nobel laureate and his Nobel lecture; Daniel Kahneman, nobel laureate, famous for his collaboration with Amos Tversky (both Kahneman and Tversky are truly the "fathers" of behavioural economics) and his Nobel lecture; Richard Thaler (and here)and here for academic papers and this one.

PPS In case you are wondering why Amos Tversky did not receive the Nobel prize, it is because he died before it was awarded in 2002 and the rules of the Nobel prixe is that it can only be awarded to living persons.

2010 State Junior Champions — Roll Call

I thought I would acknowledge the achievement of Australian juniors in gaining the 2010 state junior titles.

Australian Capital Territory
Junior Champion (Open)
Alana Chibnall

Girls Junior Champion
Alana Chibnall

Boys Junior Champion
Yin WenLin

U14 Champion (Open)
Willis Lo

Girls U12 Champion
Zalia Lai

Roll-call of title winners here; Junior Championship results here; U14 results here.

New South Wales
Junior Champion (Open)
Bernard Chau

Girls Junior Champion
Shirley Gu

U12 Champion (Open)
Cedric Koh

Girls U12 Champion
Kashish Christian

Results for Junior Championship here; Girls Junior here; U12 Championship here; Girls U12 here and results of playoff here.

Queensland
Junior Champion (Open)
Liu Yi

Girls Junior Champion
Natasha Bortsova

U16 Champion (Open)
FM Gene Nakauchi

U14 Champion (Open)
Alex Stahnke

U12 Champion (Open)
Daniel Lapitan, Harry Hughes and Matthew Pyper are joint champions.
Note that Eddie Han from SA won the tournament but is ineligible for the title.

U10 Champion (Open)
Kevin Song
Note that Denny Han from SA won the tournament but is ineligible for the title.

U8 Champion (Open)
Xavier Lim and Sam Durden are joint champions.

Girls U12 Champion
Elizabeth Kay

Junior Championships results here; Girls Championship results here; U12 Results here; U10 results here; U8 results here.

Tasmania
Junior Champion (Open)
Alastair Dyer

U16 Champion (Open)
Vincent Horton

U14 Champion (Open)
Mason Carter

U12 Champion (Open)
Oscar Brown

U10 Champion (Open)
Lenard Lange

Girls U10 Champion
Yuvini Perera

Results are here.

Victoria
Junior Champion (Open)
Laurence Matheson

Girls Junior Champion
Savithri Narenthran

U16 Champion (Open)
Thomas Feng

Girls U16 Champion
Janaki Narenthran

U14 Champion (Open)
Kyle Gibson

Girls U14 Champion
Stephanie Gu

U12 Champion (Open)
Joshua Devarajh

Girls U12 Champion
Savithri Narenthran

U10 Champion (Open)
Finley Dale

Girls U10 Champion
Foo May Yi

U8 Champion (Open)
Ethan Lim

Girls U8 Champion
Jody Middleton

Junior Championships results here; U12 results here.

Western Australia
Junior Champion (Open)
Ryan Sam

Girls Junior Champion
Amy Brown

U16 Champion (Open)
Ryan Sam

Girls U16 Champion
Amy Brown

U14 Champion (Open)
William Williams

U12 Champion (Open)
Varun Mukhedkar and George Carolin-Unkovich are joint champions.

Girls U12 Champion
Indira Savory

U10 Champion (Open)
David Stebbins

Girls U10 Champion
Indira Savory

Results are here under "Juniors tab".

Blogging again ......

Again, my apologies for not blogging as frequently and regular as before. Lots of stuff still cogitating in my head and I am trying to find the time to put in down in e-print. But I thought I should at least do a round-up of the state junior champions for this year as well as note some local tournaments where juniors competed.

IM Daniel Rensch speaks ...... Part 2

Here is my favourite excerpt from Part 1 of the Chesscafe Interview (on chess coaching for beginners to intermediate juniors):

Although he doesn't work with beginning players very much now, Danny described his preferred approach with kids new to chess:

"I'm a big believer in backwards-to-forwards chess, starting with how the pieces move, maybe let them play a couple games to keep their interest, because they'll keep asking, 'When are we going to play, when are we going to play?' But my opinion is to move as quickly as possible from how the pieces move to the king-and-queen checkmate. Then the two rooks – the rook roller checkmate, and from there moving on the differences between checkmate and stalemate.

"A lot of times I like to give them puzzles setting up positions and asking them, 'Is this checkmate or is this stalemate?' What happens if you don't do that, and you release them into the wild and they play a lot of games, for the next few weeks you're fielding questions with the kids raising their hands, 'Is this checkmate? Is this stalemate? What is this?' Even with the kids who are quick and get checkmate down, it's still so fresh in their head that they have a hard time with the differences. So what I like to do, immediately after teaching them checkmate/stalemate, is to give them worksheets that are just a bunch of positions and they circle checkmate or stalemate. I try to clarify the difference in their heads.

"My whole method is really Soviet – I like to do all endgames first, for a very long time. We start with the basic checkmates and go on to the king and pawn endings, hopefully being able to learn the basics of the opposition. But it's not even really about the dynamics of king play, it's about making sure that if they have a pawn, they can get it to the other side of the board and queen it, without cooperation from their opponent.

"I think psychologically for kids it's big when you get them to the step where they realize that they can develop a plan and win. It doesn't require their opponent to mess up. With little kids, they always want to play for tricks, or they think that their winning has to do with their opponent missing something. That's almost more fun for them, because there's still that game aspect of it, but at the highest level of chess, it's so much more of a science than it is an art. Kids have a hard time wanting to buy into the mindset that you can develop a plan, where the best move can come from your opponent and it doesn't make a difference.

"So I like to work a lot on endgames, because psychologically the sooner I can establish that in their thought process, then you can move on to all the other aspects of the game, tactics and everything. They have it in their head, 'Okay, I know how to get my king on the sixth and my pawn on the fifth and queen a pawn. Now I know how to checkmate, because I did that two months ago.' It's just backwards to forwards chess. They understand the evolution how that pawn gets to queen, and they already know how to checkmate with the queen. So they learn how to develop plans that don't require your opponent to mess up. Much later on, it's much easier to stop them from playing 'hope chess' and bad tactics, because they already have this discipline instilled – 'I want to develop a plan where the best move is coming from my opponent, and it doesn't matter.'

"Ultimately, it's a goal of getting them to think about positional chess rather than just tactics. It's the opposite of how a lot of coaches do it. For a lot of coaches, it's tactics, tactics, tactics, and more tactics, for a very long time. But if I had my way, for the first six months they would maybe play five chess games. Then they would have all the basic checkmates down, and they would be able to win a king and pawn ending, by force, against me. I also like to do a lot of positions where you start with king and three pawns against king and three pawns, and one side gets an extra a-pawn on the other side of the board. Then you move it to a b-pawn, then to a c-pawn. This employs principles of decoys, and they begin to understand this method where the pawn pushes forward and the king goes over. I would prefer to work with things like that, building principles of technique, how to win in positions they are supposed to win. That's my philosophy."

I also like this attitude about a strict focus on helping serious chess juniors to improve and foregoing income for a more quality return:

With his American Chess Events company, Rensch has chosen to work virtually solely with kids beyond the beginning stage, since his goal is to take kids who are already serious about chess, and provide them with the skills to reach master level or beyond.

"The tournaments that I run are for those rated 1000 and up," he said. "We maintain a pretty strict format. I'm usually pretty rigid about that. There's a lot more money to be made if I open it up. If there's an Under 1000 section, for the same venue, I'd have twenty more players, and that much more money, but it's just not what we do.

"Our philosophy is chess excellence, and wanting players to become masters, not just something they're going to do along with their list of soccer, piano, etc. They may do those other things, but chess is a top priority for them. That's our philosophy – the Master Treks.

IM Daniel Rensch speaks ......

ChessCafe Scholastic Column by Steve Goldberg this month is carrying part 1 of an interview with IM Daniel Rensch. IM Rensch has an interesting story. He is a former junior champion who

At the age of 18 I had it all: I was rated over 2400 USCF and 2350 FIDE; I had won numerous National Championships through out my years as a scholastic chess player; I was a six-time All-American Team Member; and I was the captain of the Shelby School chess team for ten years (a team that won 11 National Championships during that stretch).

Read the first part of his story "Road to GM" here.

What is remarkable is the fact he was taught chess by his grandfather who also started the chess coaching business with the intention of handing it over to him sometime later.

2004 was my senior year in High School and it was "the best" chess year of my life. I won the High School National Championship, earned my first IM-Norm at the Foxwoods Open, and achieved my peak ratings in both USCF and FIDE. Many people around me observed that Daniel Rensch's "Road to GM" looked more like a Highway with a 75 mph speed limit and no stop signs.

BUT

In September 2007, I was 21 years old, I was a failure, and I knew it. [......] during the summer of 2007 I watched myself (practically from another person's shoes) lose over 70 USCF Rating points and 50 FIDE in just three tournaments: The World Open, The Canadian Open, and the New England Masters. It was a summer where IM and maybe even GM Norms were supposed to come to me easily. I was supposed to pick up right where I left off...

The low point of my terrible summer of tournaments was a loss to someone rated almost 400 points lower in a line I know very well.

What happened between 2004 and 2007? Two things, 5 operations on the ear which prevented any aeroplane trips to interstate chess tournaments,and marriage. Also, the chess coaching business began to mushroom. Then there was the psychology factor to overcome:

As much as I would like to think that I was mature enough to know that my chess accomplishments and bad games didn't define me as a person (especially given the way my life had changed over the last three years), truth is, I wasn't very mature at all. I still considered myself the child prodigy I once was. [......] Chess had been my whole since the age of 10. Accepting the fact that I might not get the titles I "deserved", and certainly not in the way I imagined, was very difficult for me to do. [......] Perspective is everything, and with perspective, it is easy for me to see now how destructive the "child prodigy mindset" was for me in my return to a chess playing career. In a "hype" and "media driven" society, many of us our made to feel that if we haven't "taken over the world by 25", then we have failed in some way. What I experienced over my "three-year medical leave of absence", if you will, was just as important, if not more, to my life and future as anything I ever achieved or won as a child chess prodigy.

At the end of 2008, Daniel Rensch overcame whatever shadows there were and armoured himself with a new mindset (he also credits GM Gregory Kaidanov and GM Alex Yermolinsky for their mentoring):

I would stop trying to make up for every game I had ever lost with every new game I played - in other words, I was going to focus on what I could control and let go of what I couldn't; Secondly, I was going to accept who I had become, which was a chess teacher who loved and enjoyed his work and who had let go of aspirations of becoming a Super-GM and the lifestyle that required; Finally, I was going to stop being flustered when something didn't go my way. "I am now in chess for the long haul", I told myself, "which means that even if I don't make GM overnight, I plan to get better for the next 20 years, and my sights are set on being U.S. Champion at least once or twice before I am done :) (gotta dream right)."

This is a story with a happy ending (or midpoint as Daniel Rensch road to Gm is not finished as yet: here is part two of his story which won the USCF Chess Life Online Best of 2009 award.

I’ve learned that chess players as a species have a hard time letting go of the past, even when it consumes our lives and makes us miserable. [......] Although I can’t speak for everyone, I can definitely say that those personality traits existed, and perhaps dominated my thoughts for a long time. Letting go of the past was the best decision I ever made, and a lot has changed since the last time I wrote about my journey towards the highest title in chess.

At GM Susan Polgar's 2009 SPICE Cup, he earned his final IM norm but he also discovered something else:

Upon submitting my application for the IM-title to FIDE, I learned that I had earned not one, but two International Master Norms!? One at the SPICE Cup, and one over 7 years ago at a tournament in Moscow, Russia, when I was just 15 years old. The organizers of the Moscow event informed me that I had fallen just short of the Norm, and I never checked myself. Upon applying for the title, we learned that my performance in Lubbock was actually my fourth Norm. Of course it didn’t really matter, but it did mean that I was already an IM when I wrote my last article for CLO in 2009 … The irony of life huh???

However, having "at least “one-title-monkey” off of my back, and I made the decision to stay home with my family."

Now, fast forward to the interview with Chesscafe and you could say that IM Daniel Rensch has everything to be proud of and that one day, that GM title would be his!

This story immediately reminded me of a former junior chess Champion in Sydney who also achieved the FM title at a very young age, started a very successful chess coaching school ...... The parallels are there. Perhaps if he reads this blog, he can also be inspired to pursue the IM and then the GM title. All I can say is: Go on! Pursue the dream!

And you thought you are paying too much for chess......

Last weekend, in the SMH, there was an article about juniors intending to follow in the footsteps of Australia's very own F1-racing and possible world title winner, Mark Webber. It seems that aspiring juniors begin on go-kart racing. In Sydney, that is located at Eastern Creek International Karting Raceway. For Canberrans, you would already have known that Mark Webber is Queanbeyan born and bred. You can also view Mark Webber's first No 27 kart on display at the Queanbeyan Council.

Now to get started in go-karting, you obviously need a go-kart. A good second-hand cart cost $3,000 while a brand new cart will set you back by $8,000. That is not all. If you become good (and of course practice is the key as I keep saying), then competition beckons. Michael Porter is Canberra Kart Racing Club's top junior go-kart racer holding the Mark Webber Trophy. The Porter family recently travelled to Darwin for a race meeting and the cost? $10,000.

Now how much does a chess board, pieces and chess clock and chess training material cost?

But I guess that is bit unfair. We need to ask the juniors and their parents who regularly travel interstate for the Australia Yugilbar Think Big Grand Prix chess tournaments how much that is costing them. And how about those who travelled overseas to Malaysia, Poland and Greece this year?

There are always wags who say that parents should get their kids into tennis or golf where the big prize money is. But what is the cost of getting there?

Remember too that there is always the side benefits of overseas travel to play chess. Read GM David Smerdon's blog and recent interview on his experience. Travel does make the world smaller and makes us better human beings. As the Mastercard ads say it: "That is priceless."

2010 World Youth Championships Haikidiki, Greece Oct 19-31

In my previous blog I mentioned the amazing result of Steven Zierk from the USA who won the U 18 and the IM title and a GM norm to boot. His hometown newspaper ran a story about his achievement, see here. What was interesting about his story are the following:
1) Steven Zierk took a 5 year break from chess when he was around 10; he did other things including 2nd dan black belt in tae kwan do;
2) He likes mathematics and is ahead of his peers;
3) He coaches other kids including a boy who came 5th in the U 10 at the World Youth.

Check out the article in full if you are intrigued.

Here is a US chess report on the 2010 World Youth, see here.

GM Giovanni Vescovi Speaks ......

Here is a video interview of Brasilian GM Giovanni Vescovi during the just concluded 2010 World Youth in Halkidiki Greece. Things started to get interesting at around the 4 min mark. After describing the scholastic chess scene in Brasil (growing!), he went on to point out the problem areas. And it is one familiar to readers of this blog, problems in Australia as well as the UK (see here.). Namely, lots of numbers in primary school chess but no development programme for kids after that.

[Note: The videos run with an advert featuring the advertising trailer for the movie, Jackass. If you feel that is not suitable for children, please do not proceed.]

2010 World Youth Championships Haikidiki, Greece Oct 19-31

For those who could not be there and those who aspire to be there, here are two videos on and form the 2010 World Youth courtesy of Chessdom. The first is a "A special 4-minute video with highlights from the World Youth Chess Championships, produced by Vijay Kumar, was broadcasted on the big screen during the closing ceremony." And the second is the Closing Ceremony and Prizegiving. There are some short interviews with some of the winners right at the end of the 2nd video. More videos are available from Chessdom here, here and here.
[Note: The videos run with an advert featuring the advertising trailer for the movie, Jackass. If you feel that is not suitable for children, please do not proceed.]





There are a lot of reports on the Internet on the World Youth. Here are some that are quite good:
http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/world-champions-crowned-including-an-american-at-youth-tournament/
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6781
http://reports.chessdom.com/news-2010/world-youth-chess-championships

There are two outstanding success stories:
1) Steve Zierk (USA) winning the U18 title (and IM title) overcoming lots of GMs and IM;

2) Canada's Jason Cao winning the U10 title (and the FM title) having learned and played chess for only two years (see here for pre-tournament write up and interview:

The young Cao is deep in preparations for the tournament leaving school at noon everyday instead of the normal 3 p.m. to come home to practise chess, a routine he has followed for three weeks leading up to the event.

Training four to five hours every day has been grueling for the Campus View elementary school student but his confidence is high.

He will play one match every day from Oct. 20 to 31 missing Halloween in order to follow his dream. With each match expected to last approximately four hours, he knows he has to be mentally prepared for battle.

“It pays off to study … When you are finished a tournament and you done really well because you beat a lot of strong players you feel happy,” he said.

“I am hoping to get a grand master title (one of the highest honours in chess) when I am about 15. If I am a really good grand master then my goal is to become world champion.”

. Here are GM Kevin Spragett's comments and advice to Jason Cao (and other juniors):

Jason had qualified for the World Youth Championship by virtue of his 2nd place finish in Canadian Youth Championship this past summer. Already something of a media star in BC, Jason hopes one day to win the World Championship. I am certain that all my readers wish him the best of success in the future!

Taking a fast look at the top finishers of the other sections, I could not help but notice that starting from the Under-12 section and above there is a big leap in average strength of the players. For example, the Under-12 already has a number of master level players; the Under-18 has GM-level players.

If Jason is to repeat his success next year, then he will need some serious coaching and training. Players really start to develop between the age of 10 and 12, and this is when Canadian players usually start to lose ground and competitiveness with their colleagues from countries that have a more professional infrastructure in organized chess.

That is why, for instance, the top places in the older sections almost always go to players from India, China, Russia, Armenia, Poland, Turkey and so on. It makes a big difference if a player gets coaching from an experienced GM as opposed to a local trainer at the chess club.

GM Spraggett had a look at some of Jason's games and produced these critical moments in the games. Can you find the right moves?

Game#1


Black had just advanced his d-pawn, an overly ambitious move that he can not really be faulted with as it was very difficult to see Jason's next move! What is it?

Game#2


What did Jason play?

Game#3


What did Jason play?









Game #1: Jason Cao-Gholami: GM Spraggett: "23.Bc8!! A fabulous move that sets up a mate threat on the back rank! If Black captures the Bishop with his Rook then Jason sacrifices his Queen (23...RxB 24.QxRch!!) and mates the next move on f8. So Black played the only good 'move': resigning!"

Game #2: Jason Cao vs Valerio Carnicelli 2010 World Youth U10 Rd 6: GM Spraggett: "25.Rxg6!!"

Game #3: Jason Cao vs Tommy He 2010 World Youth U10 Rd 8: GM Spraggett: "25.Rxf5!!"

2010 World Youth Championships Haikidiki, Greece Oct 19-31

I would like to begin my wrap up with my congratulations and thanks to the Australian Junior Team Manager, Michael Loh, for such a wonderful job and such interesting reports. Well Done! Hope you can do it again next year!

My congratulations to the team for their results:

SNo Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts. Rk. Group
113 Willathgamuwa Kevin 0 AUS 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 ½ ½ 1 7,0 25 Open U08
114 Willathgamuwa Rowan 0 AUS 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 ½ 1 6,5 35 Open U08
96 Loh Zachary 1711 AUS 0 1 0 ½ ½ 1 0 0 0 1 1 5,0 106 Open U12
112 Addamo Michael 1860 AUS 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 1 1 0 ½ 0 4,0 119 Open U16
72 Kanagarajah Abbie 1644 AUS 0 0 1 ½ 0 1 0 0 0 1 ½ 4,0 83 Girls U14
82 Webb-Liddle Miranda 1467 AUS 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 3,5 90 Girls U16

2010 World Youth Championships Haikidiki, Greece Oct 19-31_Final Report

Final words

The mass exodus began yesterday afternoon even before the closing ceremony. Most of the people will leave the resort today with multiple trips to Thessaloniki Airport via multiple buses for each trip. The organisers have assured everyone that there will be enough buses for each trip. We shall see… As I am typing, I can hear voices in the lobby from my hotel room of the people getting ready for the 3AM trip to the airport.

Yesterday’s closing ceremony was a bit of a debacle. It started well enough with slideshow of photos from the tournament followed by speeches by local and state dignitaries, sponsors, etc. Then there was a cultural show of Greek dances followed by the award presentation for each age group. Eight prizes were awarded for each age group. When the winners for the first group were announced a gaggle (?) of people, with still cameras or video cameras in hand, swarmed the open space between the stage and the where the dignitaries and the rest of the audience were sitting. For the rest of the evening, the audience, sitting in a semi-circle around the stage, only saw the backs of the photographers and not much of the stage. For an event of such magnitude with 1400 players from 87 countries and a total of 2500 people attending, the stage management should have been better. This was the largest FIDE event ever.

A few last observations:

To the players:
You have tried hard in this tournament for chess success for yourself, your family and your country. We didn’t win any prizes this time and there were days when we thought it couldn’t get any worst but it did. We rue the opportunities lost and admonish ourselves for the games badly played. But through it all you keep going and you didn’t give up. We enjoyed each small success that your efforts afforded us and you ought to be congratulated for that. Now that the event is over, you need to take the lessons learnt and apply them. GM David Arutinian has given you some common threads of what he saw and how you need to resolve those chess issues. You need to act on that advice.

To the parents:
Thank you for your support for the children and for me. It made my job much easier. I’ve enjoyed your company and look forward to our next event including Rio de Janeiro, Slovenia or other Australian chess events.

To GM David Arutinian:
Thank you for your professionalism. We got through the event, even with the double-round day, without any complaints. The players have formed a close bond with you during the event and we hope that you will be able to come to Australia to meet up with us again. From the team, I can safely say that I hope future Australian teams will consider you as their coach, particularly for European events.

To the Porto Carras Organisers, my score card of the event looks like this:
Location:
7/10. Beautiful location and great weather (except for 1 day) but not much to do outside of the resort.

Resort:
8/10. Great rooms with ocean views but that shower curtain (and the wet floor after each shower) really P**S me off!

Meals/food:
6/10. Plentiful but lacked variety.

Internet access:
3/10. Woeful.

Event organisation:
7/10. Even through power outage caused by the freak storm, you managed to work through. The score could have been higher had you issued Certificates of Participation for every player, like in Vung Tau, Vietnam and Antalya, Turkey.

Competition halls:
7/10. We needed more room for the Under-8s and Under-10s. The Olympic Hall was great but space utilisation could be improved to allow greater access for the delegates.
To the players:
9/10. The games were played in great spirit and I didn’t hear of any cheating going on.

To the people who attended the event:
8/10. Made many friends from around the world. However, there are people starving in the rest of the world and for some people to waste the amount of food from the buffet bars is unconscionable.

Final standings:
Code:
Rk. FED gold silver bronze Total
1 AZE AZE 3 0 0 3
2 CHN CHN 2 0 0 2
3 USA USA 1 2 0 3
4 POL POL 1 1 1 3
5 KAZ KAZ 1 1 1 3
6 UKR UKR 1 0 1 2
7 MGL MGL 1 0 0 1
8 BLR BLR 1 0 0 1
9 CAN CAN 1 0 0 1
10 IND IND 0 3 3 6

Lastly, I want to thank the people who expressed their well-wishes on both chat forums. We tried our best...


This is Mike Loh signing off from WYCC 2010
(I always wanted to say that :-)


PS
Note to future team managers - remember to bring the Australian flag!