2025 ACT Interschool Year

The ACT Junior Chess League has had another successful year of Interschool Chess. The first event was held at the start of April and the last events (ASTC playoffs) finished on the weekend of the 25th and 26th of October

In terms of numbers we had 527 players in our Primary School events and 334 players in our Secondary events. The largest primary event had 115 players (Tuggeranong) and the largest secondary event had 101 players (North Canberra).

The winning school in each event was

Primary Zones

Central Canberra Zone: Ainslie Primary

Belconnen Zone: Kaleen Primary

Tuggeranong Zone: Trinity Christian School

Gungahlin Zone: Brindabella Christian College

Primary Final: Brindabella Christian College

Girls Primary Final: Canberra Girls Grammar 

Secondary Zones

South Canberra Zone: Canberra Grammar School

North Canberra Zone: Lyneham High

Secondary Final: Lyneham High School

ASTC Playoff Primary: Majura Primary

ASTC Playoff Secondary: Marist College

Next years interschool will start in Term 1 (Girls Primary and Secondary), with the Open Primary and Secondary Zones in Term 2 

The ironing is delicious

One of the more borderline cases in 'sudden death' chess is K+R v K+R Normally sensible players would agree to a draw one the last pawn cam off the board (and their were no immediate mates or tricks) but some players insist they can play one. 

I had such a case in a junior rapid I was running today, where the aforementioned position occurred. I was alerted to it by an illegal move claim, and I dutifully gave an extra minute to the player making the claim. This left him with 9 minutes and his opponent 8 minutes. The opponent then offered a draw, but the player with the extra minute insisted on playing on. Maybe he was hoping for a 2nd illegal move (which would have been a poor way to win), or maybe he was hoping to flag his opponent. But in avoiding any repetitions etc he managed to get his pushed to the edge of the board, where all he need to do was check the opponents king to avoid mate. But did he do so? Of course not! He moved his rook and then seemed shocked when his opponent mated him. 

So my usual speech about poor sportsmanship was replaced with a speech about karma instead.

Better OCR with AI

 I've been avoiding the whole AI revolution (ChatGPT etc) if only because I have seen earlier attempts fail (going bake into the 1980's). But I deided to see if it could solve one issue for me, and it seems to have done so.

Converting old chessbooks (out of copyright of course) into text has been a challenge in the past. The formats and notations left traditional OCR software struggling, and the unusual fonts also lead to trouble. But I threw the first page of an old pdf I have titled "Chess Sparks" into it, and after 15 seconds it came back with 

"CHESS SPARKS.

1.

This game affords the earliest instance on record of a kind of mate,

of which many examples will be found in the following pages.

It was played by M. de Kermur, Sire de Légal, who was born in 1702, and at the age of 85 was still the best Chess player in France, after his pupil Philidor.

White gives Q Rook.

M. de Légal.

1 P–K4         P–K4

2 B–B4         P–Q3

3 Kt–KB3       Kt–QB3

4 Kt–B3        B–Kt5

5 Kt×P         B×Q

6 B×P ch       K–K2

7 Kt mates

2.

Played at the Castle of Montmorenci in 1760.

Giuoco Piano.

J.J. Rousseau.        Prince de Conti.

1 P–K4         P–K4

2 Kt–KB3       Kt–QB3

3 B–B4         B–B4

4 P–B3         Q–K2

5 Castles       P–Q3

6 P–Q4         B–Kt3

7 B–KKt5       P–B3

8 B–R4         P–Kt4

9 Kt×KtP       P×Kt

10 Q–R5 ch     K–B sq

11 B×P         Q–Kt2

12 P–B4        P×QP

13 P–B5        P×P ch

14 K–R sq      P×P

15 B×Kt        P×R (queens)

16 P–B6        and Black resigns.

3.

Played between 1780–1795.

Philidor gives Count Bruhl the QKt in exchange for Pawn and move.

Philidor.         Bruhl.

1 P–K4         P–Q4

2 P–K5         B–B4

3 P–KKt4       B–Kt3

4 P–KR4        P–KR4

5 Kt–KR3       Q–Q2

6 Kt–B4        B–B2

7 P–Kt5        Q–B4

8 P–Q4         Q–K5 ch

9 Q–K2         Q×R

10 P–Kt6       P–K3

11 Q–Kt5 ch    Kt–Q2

12 P×B ch      K–Q sq

13 P×Kt (queens) R×Q

14 Kt×P ch     K–B sq

15 B–K3        Q×RP

16 Q×QP        B–K2

17 B–QR6       R–QKt sq

See Diagram on next page.

18 Q–B6        B–Q sq

19 B–KKt5      and wins."

which appears to be an accurate translation of the moves, and the notes.

Assuming that the level of accuracy holds up, then I look forward to resurrecting some of the more ancient works in a quick and easy manner. 

2025 ACT Junior Chess Championship

 Congratulations to Sanat Hegde for winning the 2025 ACT Junior Chess Championship. He scored an amazing 8.5/9, with ACT Girls Junior Champion Sahasra Selva the only player to take a half point off him. Amazingly, Hegde was eligible for the Under 8 section (having turned 8 this year). He won the ACT Under 10 Championship last weekend (it was a combined Under 8/10 event), but curiously, was runner up in the Under 12 Championship. 

Masaki Horikawa finished 2nd in the championship (winning the Under 16 title), with Nivin Vinothkumar 3rd and Owen MacMullin 4th. There were a number of interesting games, including the following one, which decided the final placings in the event.

Hegde,Sanat - Horikawa,Masaki [B10]
2025 ACT Junior (4)