2018 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 2

Day 2 of the 2018 O2C Doeberl Cup saw plenty of upsets across all the events. With the Major, Minor and Under 1200 events starting, the spacious venue at the Canberra Southern Cross Club filled up nicely, with around 240 players sitting down to play.
The big surprises in Round 3 were the loss by GM Qun Ma to IM Irine Sukandar, and FM Dusan Stojic's win over GM Anton Smirnov. However round 4 saw both giant killers come back to earth, with Sukandar losing to GM Deep Sengupta, and Stojic losing to IM James Morris.
After 4 rounds the lead is shared by GM Timur Gareyev, GM Deep Sengupta and IM James Morris, all on 4/4. Today sees the shift to the morning/afternoon schedule (never popular with the players), with Gareyev and Sengupta playing on the top board.
The Major has traditionally seen less upsets than either the Premier or Minor, and so it is this year. After 2 rounds most of the top seeds are on 2/2, although this will of course change when the begin to clash in the third round. The Minor on the other hand has seen most of the top 10 seeds drop points to lower rated opponents. Of course with 5 rounds left to play, there is a good chance that they can recover, setting up a challenging finish for all concerned.
Today's rounds start at 9:30 am (Canberra time), and you can see the live coverage (8 board from Premier, plus boards 1 from the Major and Minor) at the tournament website.

2018 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 1

The first day of the 2018 O2C Doeberl Cup saw the first 2 rounds of the Premier. Quite unusually for the tournament, there were very few upsets in the first round, with the top 19 seeds beating their lower rated opponents. Probably the closest player to upsetting the form guide was Fred Litchfield, who lost on time against GM Abhijit Kunte in a position where he was still better. Otherwise it was smooth sailing, at least until round 2 came along.
The first shock was IM Trevor Tao losing to Sean Christian Goh in pretty quick time. This was then topped by FM Pengyu Chen's win over GM Kunte, who now seems a little out of form. The board 4 clash between IM Stephen Solomon and GM Anton Smirnov was a hard fought struggle, with Smirnov unable to break down Solomon's defense. Wins for Stojic over Ikeda and Bennett over Kuan were further evidence that no one is safe in this field.
There are still 11 players on 2/2, including 3 of the 5 GM's. Each of the leading GM's face an IM keen to create further updates. Round 3 starts at 1pm (Canberra time) and you can catch the action from the top boards at https://www.doeberlcup.com.au/broadcast.html

Gareyev 10 from 10 in simul

GM Timur Gareyev help kick off this years O2C Doeberl Cup by scoring a perfect 10 from 10 in a blindfold simul. It was pretty impressive feat, given that the field had a number of strong club players taking part, as well as a few up and coming juniors.
To keep the simul to a manageable time, clocks were used, with Gareyev having 90 minutes with a 1 minute increment, while his opponents had 55 minutes and no increment. Unlike a normal simul where players move in turns, each player could move at anytime, and push the clock to start Garayev's time running. It turned out that time was a factor in a couple of games, with two players losing on time, although their positions were collapsing at this point.
Probably the best game of the evening was against Leron Kwong, where a mistake in the opening by Kwong saw Gareyev throw all his pieces at the kingside, leaving Kwong unable to defend (If I get a copy I will try and post it)

With the first event out of the way, the next tournament up is the Premier. This starts at 1pm at the Southern Cross Club in Woden. There will be live coverage of the games via Chess24, albeit with a 30 minute delay. If you are in Canberra (and not already playing) you can come to the venue and watch GM Ian Rogers give live commentary. This normally starts about an hour into the round.

Being a smarty-pants

The diagrammed position came from a club game I played recently. I was a little luck that my opponent had given me a piece in time trouble, but there was still a bit of work to be done in the ending. I could have gone down the slow and steady route, but I spotted a couple of nice tricks in the position that lead me to a fancier way of winning.

32.e5+ Kf5 33.Nh4+ Kg5 34.Ke4! Trick number 1. If 34... Kxh4 then 35.Kxf4 imprisons the Black king and allows the e pawn to promote. 34...f3 35.gxf3 Kxh4 36.fxg4 hxg4 Setting up trick number 2. 37.e6 g3 38.Kf3! And here it is. The Black king is forced to an unfavourable square. 38...Kh3 39.e7 g2 40.e8Q Now promoting to anything but a knight allows mate in 1, while promoting to a knight doesn't help. 40...Kh2 41.Qe2 1-0

Claymation

I just came across the following clip, which is definitely worth watching. I'm not sure how long it took to create, but hats off to those that did.

The actual moves were:
Roesche - Schlage 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. Qe2 b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. c3 O-O 8. O-O d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nf4 11. Qe4 Nxe5 12. Qxa8 Qd3 13. Bd1 Bh3 14. Qxa6 Bxg2 15. Re1 Qf3 16. Bxf3 Nxf3#

And speaking of cheating ...

The Australian Cricket Team is quite fortunate that FIDE isn't running world cricket (in so so many ways I must add). I'm not sure what the exact equivalent for 'ball tampering' in chess is (probably clock tampering), but if that sort of cheating went on at say a Chess Olympiad, I would expect both player and captain (or coach) to no longer be playing for the rest of the event. Of course cricket doesn't have a 'send off' rule (so the players involved can continue in this Test), but players can be suspended from future matches, which is what I expect will happen here.

I woke up this morning ....

I've just woken up to see a couple of results from the Candidates tournament that have thrown the whole thing wide open. Both leaders (Caruana and Mamedyarov) lost overnight, which means that there are now 5 players within half a point of the lead.
The most significant result is Karjakin's win over Caruana, as they are now tied for 1st place, although the most surprising win was Ding Liren over Mamedyarov. This was Liren's first win of the event, after he had drawn his previous 11 games.
With 2 rounds to play I think Caruana still has the best chance of winning, but after last nights results, anything could happen!

Australian Kangaroos fail to jump final hurdle

The Australian Kangaroos fell just short of qualifying for the Pro Chess League Semi Finals after narrowly losing their final match against Chengdu Pandas. The Kangaroos had qualified 4th in the Pacific Zone before beating top placed San Diego Surfers to set up a match with Chengdu. The Chinese team won 9-7, after trailing for most of the match.
Looking at the makeup of the team (both in the regular season and finals) it seemed that GM Anton Smirnov was carrying the Australian flag. For a lot of the matches, the remaining three players were from other countries (although to be fair, FM Brandon Clarke is living in Australia, while still registered with England). A few other strong Australian players (Zhao, Li, Morris, Ikeda) did make brief appearances, but as the rules allow OS players, it looked like the team relied heavily on that.

That one time I lost to Lloyd Fell

One of the reasons my wife stopped coming to chess tournaments was Lloyd Fell. Not because she had any personal issues with him mind you, but simply because his games were almost always the last ones to finish. And as I always hung around for the prize giving (despite never winning a prize), this meant hanging around until Lloyd finished.
Over the years my wife has conflated her memories of watching Lloyd play, with watching Lloyd play me. "I hope you don't have to play Fell in the last round" would often be the farewell she would give me as I left for a weekend (when Lloyd was still alive). As it turns out, I may have only ever played Lloyd on a single occasion, although it certainly was in the last round. And looking over the score of the game, it seems it wasn't a very long game, as I blundered a pawn early, and lost without too much effort.

Fell,Lloyd - Press,Shaun [C56]
Sydney Uni Open, 10.08.1989

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. O-O Nxe4 6. Re1 d5 7. Bxd5 Qxd5 8. Nc3 Qd8 9. Rxe4+ Be7 10. Nb5 Be6 11. Bf4 Bd5 12. Nxc7+ Kf8 13. Re1 Rc8 14. Nxd5 Qxd5 15. Qe2 Bf6 16. a3 d3 17. cxd3 Nd4 18. Nxd4 Qxd4 19. Bd2 h6 20. Rac1 Qd7 21. Rxc8+ Qxc8 22. Bb4+ Kg8 23. Qe8+ Qxe8 24. Rxe8+ Kh7 25. Rxh8+ Kxh8 26. b3 a6 27. Kf1 Kh7 28. Ke2 Bd4 29. g4 Kg6 30. Kf3 f5 31. h3 fxg4+ 32. hxg4 b5 33. Be1 Kf6 34. Ke4 Bb2 35. a4 bxa4 36. bxa4 Ke6 37. f4 1-0

Some pretty obvious cheating

I'm not sure when I decided I was 'old', but I have no doubt that I am know. One of the warning signs is getting sucked into watching too many detective mysteries such as 'Lewis', 'Midsomer Murders' or 'Murdoch Mysteries'.
And it was the last of these shows that had a very chess heavy episode on last night. The plot revolved around the murder of a Russian chess master before a tournament in Toronto. To investigate the murder, one of the young constables has to go undercover as a competitor in the tournament.
Without giving too much away, there was a large amount of what we would now call cheating involved. To pass himself off as a chess master, the young constable (Crabtree) had the moves relayed to him via an earpiece, which was pretty novel technology for the turn of the 20th century (when the series is set). However, to transmit his opponents moves, he had to say them out loud, so they could be picked up my the microphone. No one seemed to either mind, or notice. And in at least one game, his opponent was also cheating, via the real player tapping signals on his shoulder, which most people could see.
Of course it was all part of the slightly tongue-in-cheek nature of the show, so it could be excused. Especially as  they seemed to get most of the chess right. Openings were called by their correct names (eg Queens Gambit) and even followed the correct moves. The tournament had demonstrations boards hanging up (although not used), and the tables had country flags. One thing that was missing however were chess clocks, allowing the games to be dragged out.
Overall it was a good 'chess' episode, and one worth watching if it pops up on a TV channel near you.

2018 O2C Doeberl Cup - Blindfold Simul and Lecture

World record holder GM Timur Gareyev is the latest GM entrant to this years O2C Doeberl Cup. He holds the record for the largest documented blindfold simul, with 48 games in 2016.
As part of his trip to Canberra, he will be conducting a 10 board blindfold simul at the Southern Cross Club on Wednesday 28 March (the night before the Doeberl Cup begins). This event is being organised by the ACT Chess Association, and members are invited to take part. You can either contact ACTCA President Cam Cunningham if you are interested (contact details here)  or respond to the email invitation if you are on the ACTCA mailing list.
Gareyev will also be giving a lecture on Friday morning (30 March) to junior players. As space is limited, this will be for ACT junior players with a FIDE rating (or ACF rating above 1000). Invitations will be sent out shortly, or you can reply directly to me at the above link if you wish to attend.
Both these events are free to ACTCA/ACTJCL members

2018 Dubbo Open - IM Stephen Solomon wins

IM Stephen Solomon completed a clean sweep of the 2018 Dubbo Open scoring another 3 wins on day 2. He started off the day with a win over joint leader WFM Alana Chibnall, followed it up with a win over Trevor Bemrose, before reaching 6/6 by scoring a nice win of Don Keast.
The battle for second place was a little more dramatic, with 4 Canberra players paired together on boards 2&3 in the final round. Matt Radisich reached 4.5 by beating a somewhat flagging Graham Saint, while Glenn Ingham leapfrogged Chibnall in the last game to finish, converting a tricky opposite coloured bishop ending. This left Ingham and Radisich tied for 2nd place.
Milorad Lukic and Stephen Taylor (4/6) finished equal first in the Under 1650 category, Keith Farrell (3.5) had an excellent event to collect the Under 1400 prize, while 10 year old Eamonn Fitzgerald (3.0) was the best unrated player.
Full standings from the event, plus a small selection of games, can be found at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/dubbo2018/wwwDubboOpen2018/


Solomon,Stephen J (2412) - Keast,Don A (1913) [C06]
Dubbo Open 2018 Dubbo AUS (6), 18.03.2018

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ne2 f6 8. Nf4 Qe7 9. Qh5+ Qf7 10. exf6 Qxh5 11. fxg7 Bxg7 12. Nxh5 Bh6 13. Nf3 Bxc1 14. Rxc1 e5 15. dxe5 Ndxe5 16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. Be2 Bd7 18. Nf6+ Kf7 19. Nxd5 Bc6 20. Ne3 b5 21. O-O Rhg8 22. f4 Nd7 23. Bf3 Bxf3 24. Rxf3 Nf6 25. Nf5 Rgd8 26. Re1 Rd2 27. Rf2 Rad8 28. h3 Nh5 29. Ref1 Nf6 30. Rxd2 Rxd2 31. Rf2 Rd1+ 32. Kh2 a6 33. g4 Ne4 34. Re2 Nf6 35. Kg3 Rd3+ 36. Re3 Rd2 37. Re7+ Kf8 38. Re6 Rd3+ 39. Kh4 Nd5 40. Rxa6 Nxf4 41. Rf6+ Kg8 42. Ne7+ Kg7 43. Rxf4 Rd2 44. g5 Rxb2 45. Rf6 Rxa2 46. Nf5+ Kg8 47. Kh5 Ra7 48. g6 hxg6+ 49. Kxg6 b4 50. Nh6+ 1-0

2018 Dubbo Open - Day 1

IM Stephen Solomon and WFM Alana Chibnall lead the 32 player Dubbo Open at the end of the first day. The are on 3/3, and will play in the first round on Sunday morning.
Solomon had two fairly straightforward wins in the first two rounds, but had to work a little harder in the third round. Chibnall got to 100% by overcoming former winner Don Keast in the third round after Keast played a piece sacrifice that was almost, but not quite, winning.
Tied for third are Trevor Bemrose and Slavko Kojic on 2.5. They will also meet in the 4th round, with the winner up against the winner of Solomon and Chibnall.
The club also hosted the regular handicap blitz event, which was won by WFM Alana Chibnall for the 4th time in the last years. Going the final round she was tied with Glenn Ingham, but an upset win by Helen Aylwin over Ingham in round 5 saw Chibnall finish outright first.

Kanostrevac,Zeljko (1764) - Solomon,Stephen J (2412) [A45]
Dubbo Open 2018 Dubbo AUS (3), 17.03.2018

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. e3 Bg7 4. Nd2 d6 5. Bd3 Nbd7 6. Ngf3 Nh5 7. c3 Nxf4 8. exf4 O-O 9. f5 Nf6 10. fxg6 hxg6 11. Qc2 a5 12. O-O-O a4 13. Ng5 a3 14. b3 e5 15. dxe5 Ng4 16. Ndf3 Nxe5 17. Be4 Qf6 18. h4 Nxf3 19. gxf3 Qxc3 20. Qxc3 Bxc3 21. h5 Ra5 22. Rd5 Rxd5 23. Bxd5 c6 24. Be4 d5 25. hxg6 dxe4 26. gxf7+ Rxf7 27. Nxf7 Kxf7 28. fxe4 Be5 29. f3 b5 30. Kc2 c5 31. Rh6 Be6 32. Rh5 Bd4 33. Kd3 Bxb3 34. axb3 a2 35. Rh1 a1Q 36. Rxa1 Bxa1 37. f4 Ke6 38. Ke3 Bb2 39. Kd3 Bc1 0-1

2018 Dubbo Open

The 2018 Dubbo Open begins tomorrow at the Dubbo RSL Club. The event has attracted a very strong last minute entry in IM Stephen Solomon, who  is making journey back from Ballarat to Queensland, and has decided to have a chess break along the way.
While Solomon looks to be the clear favourite, I'm sure other players in the event hold out hope of scoring an upset win, especially at the slightly faster time limit of 60m+10s
While there will not be live coverage of the games, you can get all the tournament results at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/dubbo2018/wwwDubboOpen2018/ If I get enough time during or between rounds I will try and enter a few games, which can be replayed from the result web page.

(** I am a paid official at this event **)

Rollercoaster

Way back in 1988, the NSWCA organised an International Swiss at the Hakoah Club in Sydney, to take advantage of the World Junior, which had just finished in Adelaide. Towards the end of the tournament FM Craig Laird was looking good for an IM norm, having beaten one of the overseas GM's (IIRC). But it all came crashing down in the next round, when he lost a game that many thought he was a lock to win. Despite my hazy knowledge of who Laird's opponents were, I can still clearly remember a quote from Patrick Halpin about what happened. "One day a rooster, the next a feather duster"
I suspect Vladmir Kramnik might be feeling that way, having followed up his crushing win over Aronian in the Candidates Tournament, with a disastrous loss to Caruana in the next round. It wasn't that he was expected to win against Caruana that was the issue, but how the game played out. At first Caruana was winning, then it was equal, then Kramnik was winning, then it was equal, before Kramnik blundered in time trouble and lost. So instead of streaking ahead in the tournament, he has fallen back into the pack, and will need to regroup for tonight's game. It will be interesting to see if he bounces back, plays it safe, or goes 'on tilt'


Kramnik,Vladimir (2800) - Caruana,Fabiano (2784) [C42]
FIDE Candidates 2018 Berlin GER (4.4), 14.03.2018

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Qe2 Qe7 6. Nc3 Nxc3 7. dxc3 Qxe2+ 8. Bxe2 Nc6 9. Be3 Be7 10. O-O-O O-O 11. Rhe1 Bf6 12. Nd2 Re8 13. Bf3 Ne5 14. Bf4 Kf8 15. Bd5 c6 16. Bb3 Bf5 17. h3 g5 18. Bh2 Kg7 19. c4 g4 20. Ne4 Bxe4 21. Rxe4 Bg5+ 22. Kb1 gxh3 23. c5 f5 24. Rb4 hxg2 25. Rxb7+ Kh8 26. cxd6 Nf3 27. Ba4 Nxh2 28. Bxc6 Rad8 29. d7 Re2 30. Bxg2 Rxf2 31. Bc6 Ng4 32. Rxa7 Ne3 33. Rg1 h6 34. Rc7 Kg7 35. a4 Kf7 36. Bb5 Ke7 37. a5 Rf4 38. c3 Kd6 39. Rb7 Rg4 40. Re1 f4 41. a6 h5 42. a7 Ra8 43. b4 h4 44. c4 h3 45. c5+ Ke5 46. Rb8 Rxa7 47. Rg8 Bf6 48. d8Q Bxd8 49. Rxg4 Bf6 50. Rg6 Rb7 51. Be2 Rxb4+ 52. Ka2 Nc2 53. Rc1 Nd4 54. Bd3 Ra4+ 55. Kb1 Nb3 56. Re1+ Kd5 57. Kc2 Nd4+ 58. Kb1 Nf3 59. Rd1 Ra1+ 60. Kc2 Rxd1 61. Ba6 Rd2+ 62. Kc1 Bb2+ 63. Kb1 Kxc5 64. Bb7 Ne5 65. Rf6 f3 66. Rf5 f2 0-1

2018 Candidates - Aronian (and my tips) get crushed

The third round of the 2018 Candidates Tournament saw one of the biggest hammerings at this level that I can remember. Kramnik uncorked an opening idea against Aronian that he had kept up his sleeve for 2 years, and totally demolished him. 7. ... Rg8 looked on the surface to be a hackers move, but it was actually a good method of exploiting Aronian's setup. Aronian either didn't take the idea seriously, or just missed the key ideas, but within a few moves he was unsuccessfully trying to avoid being overrun on the kingside. The game finished in a complete rout, with Kramnik's pawns ending up on f3 and g2.
Having tipped against Kramnik at the start of the event, he has proved me wrong by leading with 2.5/3. Aronian is on 1/3, only ahead of So (someone else I thought had a chance btw) on 0.5.


Aronian,L (2794) - Kramnik,V (2800) [C65]
FIDE Candidates 2018 Berlin GER (3), 12.03.2018

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. O-O Qe7 7. h3 Rg8 8. Kh1 Nh5 9. c3 g5 10. Nxe5 g4 11. d4 Bd6 12. g3 Bxe5 13. dxe5 Qxe5 14. Qd4 Qe7 15. h4 c5 16. Qc4 Be6 17. Qb5+ c6 18. Qa4 f5 19. Bg5 Rxg5 20. hxg5 f4 21. Qd1 Rd8 22. Qc1 fxg3 23. Na3 Rd3 24. Rd1 Bd5 25. f3 gxf3 26. exd5 Qe2 27. Re1 g2+ 0-1

2018 ACT Chess Championship - Lo and Brown share title

The final day of the 2018 ACT Chess Championship could not split the overnight leaders, leaving IM Andrew Brown and Willis Lo sharing the title of 2018 ACT Champion. Lo had the slightly tougher run to the finish, but also had fortune go his way, after a dramatic round 6 win over FM Michael Kethro. Short of time Kethro played an unsound combination which left Lo a piece up, but Kethro still had possible drawing chances. However he lost on time after mishitting his clock, giving Lo the point. In the final round against Brian Butler, Lo gambled on a king and pawn ending which was still drawn after both players queened, but a misstep by Butler allowed Lo to reach another king and pawn ending, but this time a winning won.
IM Andrew Brown played two pretty convincing games against Adrian de Noskowski in round 6 and Joshua Lee in round 7. The game against Lee was probably the best game of the event, with Brown offering a rook for a number of moves while building up a winning attack. These wins left both Lo and Brown on 6.5/7, and joint champions.
Equal third was shared by Sankeertan Badrinarayan and Tim Pearce on 5/7. Ricky Luo and Lachlan Ho shared the Under 1500 prize, with Ho picking up the best performance against rating prize (otherwise known as W-We). Thomas Lin was the best FIDE unrated with 4/7, while Liam Miller won the best newcomer prize.
Full results, plus a selection of games (including the top 4 boards from each round) can be found at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/actchampionship2018/

2018 ACT Championship - Brown and Lo share lead after 5 rounds.

IM Andrew Brown and Willis Lo share the lead in the 2018 ACT Championship after 5 rounds. The two players met in round 4, with Brown looking good early in the game, before Lo turned the tables, and reached an almost winning position around move 40. However Brown found enough to keep the game going, and after Lo was not able to find the right lines, the game ended with KvK!
Adrian De Noskowski is outright third on 4 points, after a good 5th round win against Brian Butler. He faces Brown in the mornings round, while Lo is up against FM Michael Kethro. Kethro had a tough day 3, being held to a draw by Sankeerten Badrinarayan, before losing a quick game against Brown in the afternoon round.
With two rounds to play Lo and Brown are in the box seat, but with 7 players tied for 4th on 3.5, the final placings are still a little up in the air. Round 6 starts at 10am (Canberra time). Live coverage of the top 4 boards can be found at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/actchampionship2018/


Brown,Andrew (2278) - Lo,Willis (2005) [D19]
2018 ACT Championships Canberra AUS (4), 11.03.2018

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Qe2 Bg6 10. Rd1 O-O 11. Nh4 Bh5 12. f3 Bxc3 13. bxc3 Ne4 14. Qe1 Nxc3 15. Qxc3 Qxh4 16. e4 Rfe8 17. Be3 Qe7 18. Rab1 b6 19. Ba6 Nb8 20. Bf1 Qb7 21. Rdc1 Bg6 22. g4 f5 23. Bg2 fxg4 24. fxg4 e5 25. h4 h6 26. h5 Bh7 27. dxe5 Qe7 28. Rf1 c5 29. e6 Qxe6 30. Rf4 Nc6 31. Rbf1 Ne5 32. Bc1 Rad8 33. Bb2 Rd4 34. Qg3 Nd3 35. Bxd4 Nxf4 36. Rxf4 cxd4 37. g5 hxg5 38. Qxg5 d3 39. Rg4 Re7 40. h6 d2 41. Bf3 Bxe4 42. Bd1 Bf5 43. h7+ Bxh7 44. Kh2 Qe5+ 45. Qxe5 Rxe5 46. Rd4 Bf5 47. Rxd2 Kf7 48. Kg3 Kf6 49. Rd8 Kg5 50. Rf8 g6 51. Bf3 Re3 52. Kf2 Kf4 53. Bc6 Rc3 54. Bb5 Rc2+ 55. Ke1 Rc7 56. Ke2 Kg4 57. Ke3 Re7+ 58. Kf2 g5 59. Be2+ Kf4 60. Bd3 Re5 61. Rf7 g4 62. Bxf5 Rxf5 63. Rxa7 g3+ 64. Kg2 Ra5 65. Rb7 Rxa4 66. Rxb6 Ra2+ 67. Kg1 Re2 68. Rb4+ Kf3 69. Rb3+ Kg4 70. Rb8 Re5 71. Rg8+ Kf3 72. Rf8+ Ke2 73. Kg2 Re3 74. Rg8 Kd3 75. Rxg3 Rxg3+ 76. Kxg3 1/2-1/2

2018 Candidates

The 2018 Candidates tournament is about to start in Berlin (1am Canberra time). The field of 8 players will play each other twice to determine who will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship. While there are a couple of notable names missing from the field (Nakamura and Anand spring to mind), the fact that only 46 rating points separate the top seed (Mamedyarov) and the bottom seed (Karjakin) means that the tournament will either be incredibly competitive, or super cautious. I'm certainly hoping for the former, but I wouldn't be surprised if Round 12 (out of 14) is reached with 1 point separating the entire field!
As for who is going to win, I honestly don't know. I'm going to discount Ding Liren and Grischuk's chances, and I can't see Kramnik taking first place either (despite his 2800 rating). That leaves 5 players (Aronian, Caruana, So, Mamedyarov and Karjakin) that I think could all take first place. If I had to pick one of form, I'd take Mamedyarov, while one sentiment, I'd like to see Aronian across the board from Carlsen later in the year.
The official tournament website is here, while chess24 is also covering the game at this link.

2018 ACT Championship - Round 1

The first round of the 2018 ACT Championships saw no real upsets, with the top half of the field winning on almost all the boards. The only exception was a draw between unrated James Minogue, and Banner Shafer, where a drawn rook and pan ending was reached after 3 hours of play.
There was quite a gap between the top seeds and the rest of the 37 player field, although the longest games did occur on the top boards. Probably the game of the round was played by FM Michael Kethro against Ricky Luo, with Kethro finding some nice tactics in the middle game. (You can see the top 4 games here)
The first round tomorrow starts at 10:00 am, with live coverage of the top 4 games. You can also late enter the event, taking a half point bye for the first round. Current standings from the tournament (and future draws etc) can be found here.

Time to get your entries in

If you are planning your chess activities over the next month, no is the time to get entries in for each of these.
The 2018 ACT Chess Championship is starting tomorrow night, at Campbell High School, Cambpbell ACT. This is a 7 round FIDE rated event with a time limit of 90m+30s per move. As it is a long weekend in the ACT (Canberra Day!) the tournament has a relativity relaxed schedule of 1 round Friday evening, followed by 2 rounds on each of the following days. There are already 24 player entered, and entries will be taken up until the start of the first round at 7:00pm. Further details can be found here.
If you are in Victoria, or planning to travel there, the 2018 Ballarat Begonia Open is being held this weekend as well. Considered the number 2 weekend event in Australia (after the Doeberl Cup) it looks like a strong event, with 4 Australian GM's at the top of the field. Entry details can be found at the tournament website.
Next weekend is the 2018 Dubbo Open, in western NSW. This event normally attracts a personable mix of players from Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, and the host city, and often provides a good opportunity for players in the 1700 - 2000 rating range to win a weekend event. Event details can be found at this link.
And of course Easter sees the 2018 O2C Doeberl Cup. Entries have sailed past the 120 mark, with the Premier starting to fill up. (NB each section has a maximum number of available places). The Premier already has 4 GM's and 7 IM's officially entered, with at least one more overseas GM close to being confirmed. You can enter online at the tournament website, as well as see who has already entered in each of the sections.

(** I am a paid official at 3 of these events **)

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Losing a game over the board is bad enough, but to lose it for other reasons can be especially painful. By now most experienced players are familiar with the dreaded mobile phone forfeit, but if you've played chess long enough, you eventually learn there are other ways to hand over a point.
Oversleeping is always a goody, and looking over Bill Egan's book on the Doeberl Cup, I see that a few players have fallen foul of this. IM Aleks Wohl did this on at least two occasions, missing out on playing GM Eduard Gufeld in 1988, while I was even guilty of this offence in my first Doeberl Cup in 1985 (In my defence I had worked a 10pm to 6am shift, and my mother ignored my instructions to wake me at 9am).
Flipping a chess board is a rarity, but I know of at least one incident (at a local club) where a player upended a table, and walked out before being defaulted. (It seems that the player had tangled his bag around the table leg, and in grabbing the bag, upset the table.)
Of course with the various "no draw before x moves" rules in play, it is now easier to be double forfeited. This has happened on occasion, but not in any tournaments I've directed. On the other hand, failure to report a result has resulted in me recording 0-0 in lots of tournament, usually in blitz, but also in at least one Doeberl Cup.
Fortunately the one object that has caused more forfeits during the game (the mobile phone), is probably responsible for less accidental forfeits by sleeping in. Whether it has been a net gain, I'm not totally sure.

Form is temporary

But class is permanent. So goes an old saying, which could be applied to Vishwanathan Anand. After winning the most World Rapid Championship he has backed it up with a win in the 2018 Tal Memorial. While the event isn't quite what it was (previously it was a classical all play all, now it is a rapid and blitz), it did have an incredibly strong field. His 6/9 was a full point ahead of Mamedyarov, Nakamura and Karjakin. He lost to Mamedyarov, but beat Nakamura, Dubov, Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi. Quite an impressive feat for a player many were suggesting was past it towards the end of 2017!

One rule to change?

Of all the rule proposals that I read while I was a member of the FIDE Rules Commission, there was one potential rule change (to how the game was played) that I did not reflexively dismiss.
It was in fact a very very old rule (rather than a new 'I can make chess better' rule), and it used to be part of the game. I am talking about the 'Bare King' rule, where losing all your pieces (except your king) counted as a loss.
Now, while I said I didn't reflexively dismiss it, I don't actually think it should be reintroduced to the game, with a possible exception. One variation on this rule was that a win by 'Bare King' only earned you half the stake for winning the game (when chess was a betting game). Using that idea, it may be possible to use it as a tie-break, or secondary scoring system. Keep the usual result system, but assign a secondary score based on this feature. The diagrammed position is an example, where under the old rules this is white to play and win, under the current rules this should be a draw (with best play), but incorporating secondary results, this is a draw, but White earns more from the game than Black.
Of course proposals like this tend to fall foul of my "Exactly what problem are we trying to fix here" rule, so apart from its possible use in novelty events, I don't see it catching on.

Innovations can come from anywhere

While looking at the latest coverage of the Pro Chess League at chess.com, I saw a shout out to GM David Smerdon, from a game played by World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen had a quick win as Black playing the Scandinavian, and Smerdon's book on the opening was given credit. However I thought the opening idea looked both familiar and older, and a bit of research confirmed this.
Where I remember it from was the 1998 Australian Junior Championship, where Kylie Coventry scored a 19 move win using the same line. I'm pretty sure the FM Manuel Weeks was the source of the idea (as he coached Coventry on the way to winning the Australian Girls Championship that year), although the line was first played (unsuccessfully)  in 1994. But it is no surprise that Smerdon included it in his book, as he played in the Australian Junior that year, and probably saw how powerful it was, as it was being played!


Norris,Shiloh (1348) - Coventry,Kylie (1533) [B01]
AUS jr ch U18 Girls Adelaide (2.33), 13.01.1998

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. f3 Bf5 5. c4 e6 6. dxe6 Nc6 7. exf7+ Kxf7 8. Be3 Bb4+ 9. Nc3 Re8 10. Kf2 Rxe3 11. Kxe3 Nxd4 12. Bd3 Qe7+ 13. Kf2 Bc5 14. Kf1 Re8 15. Bxf5 Nxf5 16. Qb3 Qe3 17. Nh3 Qd2 18. Ne4 Ne3+ 19. Kg1 Qxg2# 0-1

Before I found the Traxler

There was a time when I did not play the Traxler against the Two Knights Defence. Way back in the dim distant past I did play the more normal 4. ... d5 lines, although even this move "simply loses a pawn" according to Nigel Short.
But if the following game is anything to go by, the reason I switched to the Traxler is if I was going to surrender material (as I did in this game), then I should do so for the right reasons (rather than just missing my opponents moves)


Austin,David - Press,Shaun [C59]
Belconnen, 1986

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Be2 h6 9. Nf3 e4 10. Ne5 Bd6 11. d4 Qe7 12. Bf4 Nd5 13. Bg3 Bb7 14. Bh5 g6 15. Bxg6 fxg6 16. Nxg6 Qf6 17. Nxh8 Bxg3 18. hxg3 O-O-O 19. Qg4+ Rd7 20. Ng6 Qxd4 21. c3 Qf6 22. Nd2 e3 23. Ne4 exf2+ 24. Ke2 Ba6+ 25. Kd2 Nc4+ 26. Kc1 f1Q+ 27. Rxf1 Qxf1+ 28. Kc2 Nce3+ 29. Kb3 Qb5+ 30. Ka3 Nc2# 0-1