2011 Australian Open at Norths

Today is Round 6 at the 2011 Australian Open, half-way mark and heading to the rest day tomorrow. We had a surprising result, perhaps not that surprising considering recent events, of GM Zhao ZongYuan losing his Round 5 game to FM Junta Ikeda. Junta has been at university in 2010 which meant playing less chess but has been maintaining his performance. It looks like since university semester finished in November he has returned to full time chess with a vengeance. The prime example being his result in the recent Gold Coast Open which was fantastic, just pipping the other ex-junior wonder, Ly Moulthun, to the winner's podium. Re Junta's game with ZongYuan, I will be interested to know GM Ian Rogers analysis. I had a brief look at the game live yesterday afternoon on the Net and to my "novitiate's" eyes, I thought ZongYuan had the better position as Junta's bishop pair was relatively blocked.

PS: Update: On ChessChat (with game replayer), Jonthan Adams explained what happened, namely that ZongYuan lost on time whilst making his 39th move, Qg2. But that loses to Black's 39...Nxg3+.

He [ZongYuan] had indeed touched his Q, was going to move it to g2, started moving it in that direction then pulled it back. Next thing he knew Junta was pointing at his clock and claimed the win. Zhao's face was crestfallen. You can see from the game just how much he had been on top.

Since it is the beginning of the year (and influenced by my forthcoming vacation to Greece and the "pilgrimage" to the Delphi Oracle), I will hazard an augury. It looks to me that Australian chess is entering another generational change, albeit one that is on a smaller/shorter scale. In the last two years or so, we had the handover from GMs Rogers and Johanssen to GMs Zhao and Smerdon and GM-elect Xie. Now we have another generation of players (recently graduated from juniors ranks) challenging for chess supremacy. Who do I mean? I see Tomek Rej, Ly Moulthun Ly, Junta Ikeda, Max Illingworth as the four most promising (and still active in chess). A second group consists of Andrew Brown and Christopher Wallis. It would be interesting to see who will persist with chess beyond university (Tomek has finished university studies). On an aside, I heard on the grapevine that Moulthun, Max, Junta and Andrew are intending to take a gap year from university studies and travel overseas to play chess and chase that elusive IM title. Good on them and good luck! (Perhaps they should read my blog from yesterday with excerpts from GM Peter Svidler's Q&A at Crestbook. They should also consider the experience of GM Vinay Bhat form the US who recently just finished a year playing chess full-time and GM Mark Bluvshtein from Canada who is a third of the way into a full year playing chess as a professional, and perhaps also consider the experience of GM Luke McShane, a former junior chess wonder, who gave up chess to enter the lucrative banking career but who has returned to professional chess in 2010.)

Back to the Australian Open and today we have two interesting junior clashes in addition to the Max vs Moulthun game on Board 4: On Board 7 we have NSW Chen PengYu vs Qld FM Gene Nakauchi and on Board 15 we have NSW Anton Smirnov vs Vic Ari Dale. I wish I can be there to spectate ......

GM Peter Svidler Speaks ......

From one of the best chess websites in the world for chess commentary, Crestbook, comes an online Q&A session with one of the top Russian and self-professed Anglophile and cricket tragic, GM Peter Svidler. Alas, the website is in Russian but you can use Google Translator or equivalent or better still, rely on the good graces of Chess in Translation (which I have blogged about previously). See here for the full interview and here for excerpts in Chess in Translation. If you missed Part One, see here.

As per usual, I append excerpts which pertains to junior chess: On chess as a career:

Would you advise young 16-17-year-olds who’ve reached master levels (but far from a “super” level) to become professional chess players, or is it better nowadays to choose a different profession?

*Out of cheese error © * There’s too little data to give out such life-defining advice – but before choosing to become a professional player a young man should firmly understand that the bar is now set very high. One way of answering the question might be, for example, to say that I haven’t given my children up to chess (although, to be fair, I have to say they weren’t exactly chomping at the bit). Probably the correct answer would be: if someone can’t imagine themselves without it, then it’s essential to try and seriously achieve something so as not to regret a missed chance later on. But if it’s only one of many paths in life, then there are simpler professions, and more reliable ones.

Would you want your children to become professional chess players, and why?
Will your children be chess players? Would you wish them such a future?

No, I wouldn’t wish it on them, though I wouldn’t get in the way if they were really keen and I saw that they had great aptitude for chess. As I said before, there are professions that are simpler and more reliable.

When did you realise that chess was your destiny?

Quite early on. Definitely by the time I was 15, but perhaps before that as well – I can barely remember a non-chess player me.

What’s been greater in your life, what professional chess has taken away, or what it’s given you?

Of course, what it’s given. I can’t say I’ve turned down a lot in life because of chess. You can discuss whether that was correct or not, but I don’t regret it.

On reading chess books:

The first book in my life, which I read until it was in tatters, was a Russian translation of “How to Beat Bobby Fischer”. Then there was a “My System” period, then a “Zurich 53” period. The last chess (-related) book to strike me, was Donner’s “The King”.

I read a lot when I was younger – but not very much since completely devouring the library of chess literature from the Soviet era my parents built up for me when I was just beginning. At the same time, I practically stopped buying chess books 10-15 years ago. I think it's a mistake, to be honest – at least professionally. There are a lot of very good opening books around these days - everything Borya Avrukh, Khalifman and co., and Marin (to name a few) write is well worth a read. *

6. On chess improvement

Turas30: How can you raise your level?
* kenhabeeb: Hello Peter – You are one of my favorite players, by the way, and you are known to have a very fine understanding of strategy over the board.
- Did you make a conscious effort in years of training to reach that ability, or was that mostly developed through experience? - If it was via training, what helped you the most – an instructor, or studying master games? Thanks in advance! *

I read an awful lot in my childhood – my parents put together an enormous chess library for me which I practically assimilated in its entirety. The real breakthrough, however, coincided very closely with the moment I started to work with Andrey Mikhailovich Lukin – without him I really might have come to nothing. So the role of a trainer strikes me as very important – but there, of course, you have to get lucky. It’s also absolutely essential to play a lot, at least when you’re just starting out – until the age of about 20-22 you absorb new information with extraordinary speed, and simply playing gives you a great deal.

On the perennial question of what to teach juniors, but here the question is addressed to teaching toddlers??? The answer is instructive:

What skills in general and in what order of priority should one teach toddlers (1 yr age onwards) — e.g. is it pattern recognition, or attitude, or memory … so that it will help them in rapid chess development when they are introduced to it later (say at 3-4 yrs of age).

Should probably be addressed to Laszlo Polgar. All of the things you mentioned are very important – but I believe a child should be given a say in this. As I said earlier – chess is a harsh mistress, and there is no guarantee of success. [emphasis added]

There is quite a fair bit on calculation and middlegames in this part of the Q&A.

2011 Australian Open at Norths

I am back in Sydney after a brief visit down south to Melbourne (and visiting the Canterbury Summer Swiss). n the meantime, the 2011 Australian Open has started at Norths Chess Club in North Sydney. Again, it looks like Norths has done a great job organising the event. There were the usual first day online hiccups.

There are three events being rum concurrently, the Open, the Minor and the Classic. There is also a Lightning. The website is here.

Many juniors are playing in the Open including (I am going to exclude those whose age I am not sure about; an usual problem at this time of the year) FM Gene Nakauchi, John Papantoniou, Anton Smirnov, Chen Pengyu, Oscar Wang, Kevin Tan, Allen Setiabudi, Benjamin Cheung, Pasan Perera, Vincent Chen, Sean Gu, Ari Dale, and Joshua Behar.

In the Minor are the following juniors: Kinto Wan, Cedric Koh, Martin Jack, Megan Setiabudi, Leo Jiang, Clarise Koh, Victor Dai, Kevin Willathgamuwa, Eric Shi, Finley Dale, and Rowan Willathgamuwa.

Jerry Xu, Jonathan Ren, Kashish Christian, Thumula Gamage, and Ray Nakauchi are the juniors playing in the Classic.

Live transmission of the first Three boards are to be found here and today's Board 4 clash between FM Vladimir Smirnov and Chen PengYu are still viweable. Completed games are replayable here as and when the games have been entered.