Who was that masked chessplayer?

 The local chess clubs in Canberra normally play at licensed clubs (eg Eastlakes Gungahlin or Tuggeranong Vikings). Due to the new Covid restrictions in place in the ACT, playing chess while masked up is now mandatory. At least at Gungahlin this evening, this seemed to be a minor inconvenience, and even some of the younger players (Under 12 years are exempt) still wore masks, either for safety, or simply to appear more grown up.

However you can remove your mask if you are eating or drinking, so at least one enterprising player parked a drink next to him soon after the game started, and played without his mask for the rest of the game. For those collecting data in whether this helps or hinders your chess it was mask 1 - no mask 0

One reason I don't play online

 This post was originally going to be another one about very short losses by people who should know better. I downloaded the latest set of games from TWIC and sorted them by length, to find likely candidates. I quickly discovered that almost all the miniatures I was looking at occurred in online events. I'm assuming with the games played at a fast time limit (3m+1s) that mistakes will happen, but these were pretty horrible. Clearly the online chess boom has made chess more popular, but at least in this format, there is a price to be paid.

Here is one example of what I am talking about!

Zhukov,Anton (2174) - Boyer,Mahel (2412) [A01]
Titled Tuesday 15th June chess.com INT (5), 15.06.2021

1. b3 g6 2. Bb2 Bg7 3. Bxg7 1-0

The heavy piece middlegame -> ending

 Most people regard chess as a game of three phases. Opening, middlegame and endgame. This is taught in instructional books, and is often used in chess programming. However, the transition between the phases isn't always clear. In the following game, it contains elements of both the middlegame (significant material on the board, not safe to bring the king out) and the ending (pawn promotion is the goal). John Nunn might consider this a 'tactical ending', while Mihail Marin refers to it as the 'Fourth Phase'. It turned out that the win depended on both features being present, with the lack of king safety allowing tactics that assisted pawn promotion.

Press,Shaun - Brown,Jordan [E11]
Belconnen Cup, 22.06.2021

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. Nc3 O-O 6. a3 Bxc3 7. Bxc3 d6 8. g3 Nbd7 9. Qc2 b5 10. cxb5 Bb7 11. Bg2 c5 12. O-O cxd4 13. Nxd4 Bxg2 14. Kxg2 Nc5 15. Nc6 Qb7 16. Bxf6 gxf6 17. b4 Qxb5 18. Ne7+ Kh8 19. bxc5 Qb7+ 20. c6 Qxe7 21. c7 Rfc8 22. Rfc1 a5 23. Rab1 Kg7 24. Qe4 d5 25. Qg4+ Kh6 26. Rb8 Qf8 27. Rcb1 e5 28. R1b6 Qh8 29. Rxf6+ Qxf6 30. Qxc8 1-0

2021 World Cup draw announced

 The draw for the 2021 World Cup has been published, although the new format leaves it looking a little weird. The top 50 players now get seeded into round 2, but they are included in the first round (all paired against Bye). After that it becomes a normal 128 player knockout.

Possibly the changes have encouraged Magnus Carlsen to play this year, although a number of players in the top 20 are missing, although the cause is likely to be connected to travel difficulties. Such difficulties resulted in the top 3 qualifiers from the Oceania Zonal pulling out, and our spot now goes to CM Elmer Prudente from Guam. The short notice has not done him any favours, and he is running a gofundme campaign to help fund his trip.

Australia and New Zealand are also entitled to enter one player each, with Australia being represented by GM Bobby Cheng and NZ by FM Allan Fan. Full details for the event can be found at https://worldcup.fide.com/ 

Coaching for grown ups

 While there is a lot of coaching activities for junior players, there is a lot less for older players. Partly this is because there is less desire and time in the adult community for such things, but it is fair to say, junior coaching is where the money is.

I do a mixture of both (adult and junior coaching), but I rarely charge for adult coaching. In part because there isn't enough adult coaching on offer, but also because I'm happy to talk chess for an hour in return for coffee and cake (or a fabulous Moroccan Chicken and Rice lunch one of my students cooked for me)

GM Alex Baburin is also dipping into this pool, offering coaching and webinars for older players. His website even has a dedicated section for adult coaching https://www.alexbaburinchess.com/chess-school/lessons-for-adults/ His latest offerings are two webinars for players above 25 years of age, over the next couple of weeks. The two topics are 'Calculate like a chess pro' and 'Mastering Basic Rook Endings'. They are at reasonable times for players on this half of the world, starting at 7pm in the evenings. If you wish to find out more about these courses, just click on the above link for further details.

Tie-breaks

 I've been looking into the topic of tie-break systems again, and one of the challenges is how to define the difficulty of the field. Opinions on this seemed to be split pretty evenly, so I am interested in what other people think or prefer.

Here are the general choices

A) The more points my opponents score, the harder the field is for me (eg Buccholz)

B) The higher my opponents ratings are, the harder the field (eg Average of Opponents Ratings)

C) The earlier I hit the lead, the stronger my opponents will be (eg Sum of Progressive Scores)

D) If I have more games with Black, then the tougher it is to win (eg Most games with Black)

 

This is too good to ignore

 

Classical hack

 There are two reasons why I am showing the following game. 1) It has a nice mate and 2) I am testing how this blog handles newer pgn file formats 

(** Update: It did not work as expected, which is a bit of shame as I had annotated this one)

Steinkuehler, Guenter - Blackburne, Joseph Henry [C54]
London, 1863

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Bxd2+ 8. Nfxd2 Nxd4 9. O-O d6 10. Nb3 Nxb3 11. Qxb3 O-O 12. Re1 Nh5 13. e5 Qg5 14. exd6 Nf4 15. Bxf7+ Kh8 16. g3 cxd6 17. Nc3 Nh3+ 18. Kg2 Qf6 19. Bd5 Qxf2+ 20. Kh1 Qg1+ 21. Rxg1 Nf2+ 22. Kg2 Bh3# 0-1

2021 NSW Open - Photos

 If you want to see some good photos (and not so good ones of me) from the 2021 NSW Open, you can see them at https://flic.kr/s/aHsmVZkhyD 

Many thanks to Sabrina Koetsier for taking an uploading these pictures

Bananas

 Bananas are supposed to be good for your chess. GM Max Illingworth famously brings a bunch to the board for every game, while IM Gary Lane once convinced an entire Olympiad team that this was the secret to winning more matches.

One participant in yesterdays interschool event showed me another way that they can help your chess. Early on she told me that her mother had written (actually carved) a message on the banana skin, and I (Mr Grumpy) replied "As long as they aren't chess moves". On one side it read "Woot!! Chess" and on the other "Good Luck". So far so good, but her mother even carved a couple of chess pieces at the end. Although I remembered what happed to Wesley So at the US Championship, I decided that this was harmless enough to let it go. But if I find banana carving becoming a thing, I may have to revise my opinion.

Caught in the middle

 After a slow start to the 2021 Belconnen Cup (0.5/2) I have started to catch the leaders, after 3 straight wins. In what should be an important lesson to newer players, in each game I was winning before my opponent castled. In fact in two of the games, my opponent failed to castle at all. Here is the latest win, highlighting the difficulties you can run into if you fail to get your king out of the centre.

Press,Shaun - Teymant,Roy [D11]
Belconnen Cup, 15.06.2021

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 c6 4. g3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Qb3 Qc7 9. Bf4 Qc8 10. Rac1 Nh5 11. cxd5 Nxf4 12. gxf4 exd5 13. Nxd5 Bd6 14. Qe3+ Kd8 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. dxe5 Re8 17. Qd2 Qd7 18. exd6 Qxd6 19. Qa5+ Kd7 20. Ne3 1-0

A great escape

 Normally a game that holds up the end of a weekend tournament isn't that enjoyable, either to the players or organisers. However, there are exceptions, and the following is one of them. While the first half of the game involved a lot of manoeuvring of pieces, but little progress, FM Clive Ng decided to spice things up with an exchange sacrifice. The only problem with this approach was that it now meant he was worse, and after a few more moves, was in fact lost. The only ray of hope for Ng was the fact that his king was stalemated on h2, which gave him a drawing defence. When Anthony Fikh pushed his g pawn up the board, Clive was faced with being a whole rook down, but this actually helped him. After Rxg3, the 'desperado' rook sprang to life, offering itself to the Black king. As any capture lead to stalemate, Fikh was forced to march his king across the board, and after Ng found the very rare rook fork of king and rook, the draw was secured.

  

Ng,Clive - Fikh,Anthony [A29]
2021 NSW Open Sydney, Australia (7.7), 14.06.2021

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bg2 Nb6 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. d3 Be6 9. a3 O-O 10. b4 f6 11. Bb2 a5 12. b5 Nd4 13. Nxd4 exd4 14. Na4 Bd5 15. Nxb6 cxb6 16. Bxd5+ Qxd5 17. Qa4 Bc5 18. Rac1 Rad8 19. Qc4 Rfe8 20. Rfe1 h5 21. h4 Kh7 22. Qxd5 Rxd5 23. Rc2 Kg6 24. Kg2 Re7 25. Kf3 Rf5+ 26. Kg2 Rd5 27. Rc4 Re6 28. Kf1 Kf5 29. Rec1 Red6 30. Kg2 Kg6 31. a4 Re6 32. R4c2 Kf7 33. Ra1 Re7 34. Kf1 Re6 35. Ba3 Ke7 36. Bc1 Kd7 37. Bd2 Kd6 38. Rac1 Re7 39. Rc4 Re6 40. f3 Re8 41. Kf2 Re7 42. g4 Re8 43. g5 f5 44. g6 Rh8 45. R4c2 Re8 46. Rg1 Kd7 47. Rg5 Rh8 48. Bf4 Ke6 49. Rg1 Kd7 50. Rgc1 Re8 51. Bd2 Kd6 52. Rg1 Kd7 53. Rg5 Rh8 54. e4 dxe3+ 55. Bxe3 Be7 56. Bxb6 Bxg5 57. Rc7+ Ke6 58. hxg5 Rd7 59. Rc3 h4 60. Kg2 h3+ 61. Kh2 f4 62. d4 Kf5 63. Rc5+ Kxg6 64. Re5 Rf7 65. Bxa5 Rf5 66. Re6+ Kf7 67. Re4 Rxg5 68. Rxf4+ Ke6 69. Re4+ Kd5 70. Re2 Kc4 71. Bd2 Rg6 72. Bf4 Kxd4 73. Be5+ Kd5 74. f4 b6 75. Ra2 Rh5 76. a5 bxa5 77. Rxa5 Kc5 78. b6+ Kc6 79. Ra2 Kxb6 80. Rc2 Kb5 81. Rc7 Rh7 82. f5 Rg2+ 83. Kh1 h2 84. Rc1 Rf2 85. Bg3 Rxf5 86. Bd6 g6 87. Bg3 Rc5 88. Rb1+ Kc6 89. Rd1 g5 90. Rd6+ Kb5 91. Rd1 Rh3 92. Bd6 Rc2 93. Be5 Re2 94. Bb8 g4 95. Bc7 g3 96. Bxg3 Rxg3 97. Rb1+ Kc6 98. Rb6+ Kd5 99. Rd6+ Ke4 100. Rd4+ Kf3 101. Rf4+ Ke3 102. Rf3+ Ke4 103. Rxg3 Ke5 1/2-1/2

2021 NSW Open - Fernandez and Ikeda share the spoils

 GM Daniel Fernandez (ENG) and IM Junta Ikeda (AUS) have tied for first in the 2021 NSW Open, both with an undefeated 6/7. They started the day with draws in the 6th round (Fernandez against IM Gary Lane and Ikeda against IM James Morris), before both winning their final round games. Fernandez defeated Kerry Lin on the top board, while Ikeda beat Gary Lane on board 2.

The minor places were filled by IM James Morris, Sterling Bayaca and Harry Press. Due to the large field in the Open (78 players) and results in the earlier rounds, Fernandez and Ikeda did not play each other. Only Lin and Lane played both of the winners, while the field was much more varied for the other top finishers.

The Under 1600 tournament also saw a tie for 1st place, with Savin Peramunetilleke and Jason Pan finishing on 6/7. Pan lost to Peramunetilleke in round 4, but was able to catch up by winning his final round game against unrated Benjamin Tee. Tee who score an impressive 5/7, actually started the event with a bye, due to the alphabetical sorting of the unrated players in this tournament!

The tournament was very successful, with the 140 places on offer filling up 3 weeks out. Apart from the usual issues with poorly behaved junior players, the tournament ran pretty smoothly. Quite pleasing were the number of new (adult) players taking part, some of whom did very well.

Final crosstables for the tournament are at chess-results.com (Open and Minor)

Ikeda,Junta - Lane,Gary [C78]
2021 NSW Open Sydney, Australia (7.2), 14.06.2021

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bb7 7. Re1 Bc5 8. c3 d6 9. d4 Bb6 10. Be3 O-O 11. Nbd2 Re8 12. d5 Ne7 13. Bxb6 cxb6 14. Bc2 g6 15. Nf1 Nh5 16. Qd2 Kg7 17. Ne3 Rf8 18. g3 Bc8 19. Nh4 f5 20. exf5 Nxf5 21. Nhxf5+ gxf5 22. f4 Qf6 23. Rf1 exf4 24. gxf4 Kh8 25. Kh1 Ra7 26. Bd1 Ng7 27. Bf3 Rc7 28. Rg1 Bb7 29. Rg5 Re7 30. Rg3 Rc8 31. Rag1 a5 32. a3 Rce8 33. Nc2 Rc8 34. h3 Rc5 35. Kh2 Ba8 36. Nd4 Rc8 37. Nxb5 Rf8 38. Qg2 Qh6 39. Rg5 Bb7 40. Nxd6 Bc8 41. Nc4 Rg8 42. Ne5 Qf6 43. Qg3 Qh6 44. Bh5 Rf8 45. d6 Ree8 1-0

2021 NSW Open - Day 2

 With 5 rounds of the 2021 NSW Open completed, GM Daniel Fernandez, IM Junta Ikeda and IM Gary Lane share the lead on 4.5/5. In round 5 Fernandez once again demonstrated his creativity in complex positions, sacrificing a piece early on against Fred Litchfield, before reaching an ending a whole rook down, but with an avalanche of pawns as winning compensation. Lane got to 4.5 after Harry Press sacrificed a piece in the early middlegame, but this proved unsound, giving lane a quick win. Ikeda also had a quick win, punishing CM Isaac Zhao after Zhao went pawn grabbing in the opening.

Tomorrow mornings round has Lane against Fernandez and Morris against Ikeda. As none of the 4 have played each other yet, this will effectively be a playoff for the top board pairing in the final round.

2021 NSW Open - Day 1

 The first day of the 2021 NSW Open saw a capacity field of 140, and plenty of tough chess. There is still a bit of a logjam at the top of the tournament, although a number of top seeds have decided to have a bit of a sleep in, taking a half point bye for tomorrow mornings round. Nonetheless, GM Daniel Fernandez, IM Junta Ikeda and IM Gary Lane are all hoping to get ahead of the field with wins in the morning round.

With 8 DGT boards in operation there was plenty of chess to follow online. One quick game from round 2 was this win by Fred Litchfield over Ashley Rambukwella

Litchfield, Fred -Rambukwella, Ashley [E33]
2021 NSW Open, 2021.06.12

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 c5 5. Bd3 O-O 6. Nf3 d5 7. O-O Nc6 8. a3 cxd4 9. exd4 Bxc3 10. bxc3 h6 11. Re1 b6 12. cxd5 Nxd5 13. c4 Nf6 14. Bb2 Bb7 15. Qe2 Re8 16. Rad1 Qd6 17. Bb1 Rad8 18. Qc2 Ne7 19. d5 exd5 20. Bxf6 Qxf6 21. Qh7+ Kf8 22. Qh8+ Ng8 23. Bh7 Rxe1+ 24. Rxe1 1-0

2021 NSW Open - Live Coverage

 The 2021 NSW Open is up and running, with a maximum sized field of 140 players. Due to venue restrictions, we cannot have spectators in the playing hall, so following the event online is the best you can do. The top 8 boards of the Open are being shown live at this link. As I type this, Board 1 has already finished,but the remaining 7 games are still in progress.

On the road - again

 If my memory hasn't completely gone, this weekends NSW Open will be my first 'away' weekend event since early last year. I'm not going as a player mid you, but as an arbiter. The last event I directed outside Canberra was the 2020 Australian Championship and since then it has either been local events, or online ones.

The good news for the organisers is that there will be 140 players in attendance (actually the maximum allowed). The bad news for spectators/parents is that this is close to the venue capacity, so only 'essential' staff are allowed in the playing area. Otherwise you will have to follow the tournament online via nswopen.nswca.org.au

Yet another non rule

 The start of the local interschool competition always brings with a new set of 'non' rules, that children assure me are the correct rules (at least according to Dad). I in fact got two today, although is quite an old one, long since discarded.

The totally new one, was when a king makes it to the other side of the board you get one of your pawns back. Not quite sure where this even came from, but the possible logic behind it, is that as you cannot promote to a king, a kind of reverse promotion provides compensation for this. 

The very old one was 'bare king'. One of the players claimed a win on the grounds that he had captured all his opponents pieces. I explained to him that the goal in chess is the 'checkmate' your opponent, not just take everything. Fortunately he then proceeded to do this, and scored a point anyway. 

The most audacious attempt to alter the rules was by a 5 year old who simply declared he had won, ran off to the score table to enter the result, and then refused to return to the board to explain exactly why he had won. As you can guess, he did not actually win (and his opponent did)

Late night sports

 The French Open is currently being broadcast, and the Tour de France isn't far away, but of course, the late night sports I'm talking about is the Superbet Chess Classic. It starts late evening Canberra time, and while there are plenty of commentary choices, the one that I have settled on St Louis Chess Club coverage via youtube. Both Yasser Seirawan and Maurice Ashley are part of the commentary team, along with team of supporting GM's. 

The tournament is currently up to round 3 and the link for this round is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pce2ncWepDY 

ACT Interschool 2021

 After a break last year, the ACT Junior Chess League interschool series is up and running for 2021. Term 1 saw one of Girl's zones held, while the open Primary School zones are about to commence for term 2. The North Canberra/ Gungahalin zone is running this Tuesday, and it looks like around 100 players will take part. Over the following weeks 2 other zones are being held, while Term 3 will see the Secondary events taking place.

One thing that is slightly concerning is that not all the event information is getting passed on to the school's chess player. So if you are a junior player in Canberra, and you haven't heard about the upcoming events, head over to https://actjcl.org.au/actjcl/calendar.php and pass the information on to your schools chess teacher.

London 1932

 While not as well known as the London 1922 International Congress, the 1932 London Tournament was still quite an event. The event was won by Alekhine with 9/11, ahead of Flohr who finished a point behind. Sultan Kahn, Maroczy and Tartakower also played, and the tournament saw Vera Menchik* add more members to he 'club', beating G.A Thomas and William Winter.

The second place finish by Flohr was part of a successful run early in his career that saw him touted as a possible World Championship contender. However he was not able to raise the stakes for such a challenge and by the end of the 1930's his cautious, positional style, saw him fall behind his contemporaries. Nonetheless, the following game from the 1932 event showed what might have been.

(* btw Menchik's mothers maiden name was Illingworth 

** Many thanks to IA Roly Eime for sending me the 1932 London Tournament book) 

Flohr,Salo - Milner Barry,Philip Stuart [E33]
London International Masters London (5), 05.02.1932

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. Qxc3 O-O 8. b4 e5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 dxe5 11. Qxe5 Re8 12. Qb2 Ne4 13. Bf4 Bf5 14. f3 g5 15. Bc1 Nd6 16. Qc3 f6 17. Bb2 Kg7 18. O-O-O Qe7 19. e4 Bg6 20. c5 Nf7 21. Rd7 Qxd7 22. Qxf6+ Kh6 23. Qg7+ Kh5 24. g4+ Kh4 25. Bd4 1-0

The easy rook ending

 Rook endings are difficult to play, as even a pawn advantage isn't enough to secure the point. However I have seen both recently, and in the past, the easiest way to play them is when you have an extra rook! This was spotted in 2 games at my local club last night, and in one of my games from the 2004 Olympiad. 

Despite having to play a rook up for 30 moves, the highlight was after the finish when a passing IM congratulated me on converting a 'difficult rook ending'. To be fair, clearly they hadn't expected my opponent to play as many moves as they did.

Niyontegereje,Edison - Press,Shaun (2070) [C55]
Calvia ol (Men) Mallorca (Spain) (8.61), 23.10.2004

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. Nxe5 Nxe5 6. Re1 d5 7. Bb3 Qh4 8. g3 Qf6 9. Qe2 Nf3+ 10. Kg2 Nxe1+ 11. Qxe1 Be6 12. d3 Nc5 13. Bxd5 O-O-O 14. Bxe6+ Nxe6 15. Nc3 Bb4 16. a3 Bxc3 17. bxc3 Rhe8 18. Be3 Ng5 19. c4 Qf3+ 20. Kf1 Qh1+ 21. Ke2 Qxe1+ 22. Rxe1 Ne6 23. Kd2 Nd4 24. Rh1 Nf5 25. Rf1 Nxe3 26. fxe3 f6 27. e4 Re5 28. Kc3 Rd6 29. d4 Ra5 30. Kb4 Rh5 31. e5 Re6 32. exf6 Rxf6 33. Re1 Kd7 34. Re2 Rhf5 35. Re4 Rf2 36. Rh4 h6 37. c3 Rb2+ 38. Kc5 b6+ 39. Kd5 c6+ 40. Ke4 Re2+ 41. Kd3 Rfe6 0-1