ACT Autumn Junior Weekender

The ACT junior chess scene is undergoing a little bit of a generational change this year, with the top players of the last couple of years starting to move on (to senior schooling/university), and the younger high school players coming in to replace them.

An example of this is the 2011 ACT Junior Autumn Weekender. Previous years contestants such as Josh Bishop. Matthew Bennett, Alana Chibnall, Allen Setiabudi and Emma Guo were missing this year (although they were all at Street Chess today!). Instead the field was headed by Michael Kethro, Stu Mason, Jamie-Lee Guo, Harry Press and Ethan Derwent, who are all in the 11 to 13 years age group. While there is a tendency to look at such things an exclaim that this years event wasn't as strong as previous years events, such comparisons have been made for years, including the years when players like Yi Yuan, Andrew Brown, Junta Ikeda or Michael Wei were just starting out.

This years event attracted a solid field of 33 players, which is around the number that has played for the last few years (but nowhere near the 70 who played in 2003). After 3 rounds, Michael Kethro and Harry Press share the lead with 3/3, and will play on the top board in tomorrow mornings round.

Press,Harry - Litchfield,Fred [C10]

Autumn Weekender Gold Coast (3), 26.03.2011

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Bd3 Nf6 7.Qe2 Nbd7 8.0-0 Be7 9.c4 0-0 10.a3 b6 11.Re1 Nxe4 12.Bxe4 Bxe4 13.Qxe4 Nf6 14.Qe2 Re8 15.b4 h6 16.Bb2 c6 17.Ne5 Qc7 18.b5 cxb5 19.cxb5 Bd6 20.Rac1 Qb7 21.Rc6 Bxe5 22.Qxe5 Rac8 23.Rec1 Rxc6 24.bxc6 Qe7 (D)

25.d5 Rc8 26.d6 Qd8 27.d7 Ra8 28.Qd6 Ne4 29.Qd4 Nf6 30.c7 Qxd7 31.Qxd7 Nxd7 32.c8Q+ Rxc8 33.Rxc8+ Kh7 34.Rc7 Nc5 35.Rxf7 1-0