Poker Sharks

The rise in the popularity of Poker over the last decade has no doubt had an effect on the playing habits of some chess players. Indeed, when once Australian chess lost a number of future champions to Bridge, now they are more likely to be found on the felt.
At the Aussie Poker Millions tournament being held in Melbourne at the moment, there are a number of chess players playing for bigger stakes. Probably the most famous (or notorious) of these is James 'Andy McLeod' Obst, who began his career in online poker, although this career suffered a hiccup when it was discovered he was under the legal gambling age. He has since turned 18 and has been doing quite well ever since. Also spotted in action was Gary Benson, one of Australia's top Correspondence Chess players, and Kerry Stead, well known Sydney player and organiser.
However in the Limit Hold-em tournament it was another chess player, Jesse Maguire (a former Canberra junior) who did the best out of them all, scoring a third place finish, and picking up $17,500 in prize money.
But before you go running off to cash in on the big prize money at poker tournaments, I will warn you that along with the big prizes comes the big entry fees. $1100 to be precise. And given the chess communities ability to argue for hours over a $5 increase in club membership fees I'm guessing there won't be a mass exodus from our ranks any time soon.

**update: Kerry Stead has made it to the final (ie money) table of the HORSE event. Well done Kerry.

Cedric Antolis - Australian Junior Champion

Victorian junior Cedric Antolis is the 2009 Australian Junior Champion after defeating Yi Yuan 1.5 - 0.5 in a playoff match. The players had turned the 11 round event into a two man show, finishing tied on 10/11. Yuan's only loss was to Antolis back in round 3, while Antolis conceded 2 draws (to Andrew Brown and Sam Dalton).
Antolis's win brought to an end the run of success that the ACT has had over the last couple of years, with ACT juniors Junta Ikeda and Michael Wei winning the two previous championships.
The Under 18 Girls event was won by Sally Yu, the Under 12 event by Sean Gu, and the Under 12 Girls by Caroline Shan (defeating Joanne Mason in a playoff).

Here is the round 3 game between Antolis and Yuan.

IM Aleks Wohl and IM George Xie share first place in 2009 Australian Open

The 2009 Australian Open has finished in a tie for first place between IM Aleks Wohl and IM George Xie. Both players finished on 9/11 but IM Aleks Wohl was awarded the title of Australian Open Champion on tie-break. Wohl scored 8 wins, 2 draws and a loss (to Xie), while Xie lost 2 games but scored 9 wins, managing to win his last 5 games.
Equal third was shared between IM Mark Chapman, Eugene Schon and Jason Hue. Schon, still a junior, narrowly missed scoring an IM norm, after losing to Chapman in round 10.
The Under 1600 event finished in a tie between Calvin Bennett and Anton Smirnov. Smirnov's performance is very impressive, given that he is only 7 years old! Click on the above link for full results for both tournaments.

Congratulations Closet Grandmaster

Congratulations to the ClosetGrandmaster for winning the 2009 CJS Purdy Medal, awarded by the Australian Chess Federation for Journalist of the Year. I suspect that receiving the award from the ACF will be extra satisfying for TCG, given the recent comments from ACF officials about this post on his blog.
Other awards were Steiner Medal (Player of the Year): GM Zong Yuan Zhao
Koshnitsky Medal (for Chess Administration): Dr Charles Zworestine

(NB: I was on the voting panel for the Purdy Medal)

2009 O2C Doeberl Cup - 3 months and counting

Only 3 months to go until the 2009 O2C Doeberl Cup begins. Entries for the various tournaments have passed the 40 mark, with the Premier being a quarter full. For anyone planning to play in the Premier this is important as once the entries reach 40 players, the remaining 40 places are often filled in a rush. So the smart thing to do is to reserve your place by registering now, so you know you have a guaranteed spot.
Of the other events the Minor (U/1600) and the Mini (U/1200) already have a number of entries, although the Major (U/2000) has it's typically small number of confirmed entries at this stage (1!). The other event where it is important to enter early is the Seniors event (over 50), not so much because you might miss out, but to ensure the event is actually held. (Last years event wasn't held due to lack of entries).
For anyone wondering about accommodation, the website lists a number of options. If you aren't planning to stay close to the venue then my insiders tip is to stay in Civic, as there is a direct bus link from the City to Woden with a travel time of only 15 minutes. As a point of reference, this was about the same travel time most of the Olympiad teams had between their hotels and the playing hall in Dresden.

(Disclaimer: I am a paid official at this event)

Anticipating Anand

The story behind Anand's 6 move loss to Alonso Zapata in 1988 is reasonably well known. (The one where Anand repeated an idea from Miles v Christensen 1987 that he saw in an Informater, not realising that Christensen's 5 move was a blunder, or knowing that as Miles and Christensen had agreed to a draw prior to the game, Miles couldn't play the refutation).

Zapata,A (2480) - Anand,V (2555) [C42]
Biel-B Biel (9), 1988

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Bf5?? 6.Qe2 1-0

What is less well known is that Joe Rush from Papua New Guinea had played 5. ... Bf5 5 years earlier, during the 1982 Luzern Olympiad. Unfortunately for him his opponent found the right move, although Rush decided to fight on for another dozen moves.

Saleh,M - Rush,J [C42]
Luzern ol (Men) Luzern (12), 1982

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Bf5 6.Qe2 d5 7.d3 Be7 8.dxe4 dxe4 9.Nxe4 0-0 10.Ng3 Bg6 11.Be3 Qd5 12.Qd2 Qe6 13.Bd3 f5 14.0-0 Nc6 15.Rfe1 Qf6 16.Bg5 Qxb2 17.Bxe7 Nxe7 18.Rab1 Qxa2 19.Qb4 1-0

BTW If anyone who reads this is in contact with Joe Rush, could you please put him in touch with me.

(Thanks for this titbit goes to the Streatham & Brixton Chess Club Blog, where you can read the whole story here)

The King is Dead!

Not to be outdone by yesterdays dramas at the Australian Open, the Australian Junior Championship had some excitement of their own. When the organising team arrived for the days play there were a couple of things amiss. Firstly, board numbers and names tags had been randomly re-arranged in the hall, but more significantly, all the kings had been stolen from the sets. This forced the organising team to track down over 100 replacement kings from the venue, and from further a field to get the round started. Suffice to say the organisers weren't very happy, especially as the missing equipment has yet to be found.
This is likely to have been a prank gone wrong, especially as the Australian Junior has had similar incidents in the past (such as the 'Bishop Biting' incident), but if it was a prank it wasn't well thought out, or even funny.
However it is worth noting that today also happens to be the anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley, so it may not be so much of a prank, as a tribute.