2022 ACT Women's Championship

 WFM Alana Chibnall is the 2022 ACT Women's Champion, after winning todays tournament with a perfect 7 from 7. 25 players took part in the tournament, which has returned to the ACT chess calendar after a gap of 8 years. The tournament was a 7 round Rapid, with a time control of 15m+5s.

Tied for 2nd place were Shriya Karthik and Jo Mason, who finished 5.5, drawing their Round 6 game, after both losing to Chibnall earlier in the tournament. Unrated newcomer Kenisha Gaind won the Best Under 14 Years player, while 7 year old Echo Feng finished in a tie for 5th, and won the Best Under 12 Years player. With Gain picking up a medal for the Under 14 title, Claire Bradbery was the best Unrated player.

The tournament was sponsored by the ACT Junior Chess League, and all the players had an enjoyable day. There was a good mix of adult and junior players, with a number of players playing in there first non-school tournament. There were also a couple of players returning after a break of a number of years, including Jo Mason who tied for 2nd.

It is hoped that next years event will be a two day weekend event, with a longer time control, and a bigger prize pool. This year's tournament showed that such events can be successful, and with the ACT's reputation as the home of high quality events, a well funded Women's weekend event could be another such event.

Spring Bookfair

 For those looking for good second hand chess books (in Canberra), this years Lifeline Bookfair has a good selection. There were around 30 books for sale when I passed through this morning, including a number that I already have in my own collection. I grabbed a couple of books (including a 2nd Edition of Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine), but I left plenty on the table. There was even at least one more box of books under the table, but the rules of etiquette frown on 'accidently' knocking it over!

The only issue for this year is that prices on some books have gone up. This may to be discourage commercial re-sellers from buying in bulk, or simply to reflect a fairer value, so it may be a more expensive trip if you decide to go. The Bookfair runs across the weekend, so there is still time to add to your collection.

B+N v K

Moving on from the short games at the Olympiad, I decided to have a look at the longer ones. While waiting for the round to finish, I did witness a number of interesting endings, including R+B v R, N+R v R, and in the following game, K+N+B v K. 

White was winning in the late middlegame, but gave Black drawing chances once the ending was reached. However Black missed the best moves, and as his position crumbled, decided to sacrifice his last two pieces for the remaining pawns, hoping to escape in a B+N ending. However, White knew exactly how to play this, and only took 21 moves to checkmate Black. For those who have never played this ending, it is well worth studying the approach that White used, as real life positions can be different from text book positions usually given in ending manuals.

Berend,Fred (2307) - Gerena Rivas,Eliam (2102) [A45]
44th Olympiad Chennai 2022 Mahabalipuram, Chennai (10.1), 08.08.2022

This is big

 The decision by Magnus Carlsen to withdrew from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup is big news, but the supposed reason behind it is definitely bigger news. Carlsen himself was very careful not say more than the minimum, but online commentators have been freely speculating about what happened in game against Hans Neimann.

At this stage I will not comment on whether the implied reason for withdrawing was valid, but I will point out that accusations of outside assistance seem to carry more weight if they come from a top 10 player than if they come from a lower rated player. Wesley So received a very quick hearing after his game against Petrosian in the online World Club Cup, but other cases have either taken longer to decide, or have been dismissed as 'sour grapes'.

Noting that all this has happened in the last 24 hours, it may be a few days or weeks before the full story comes out. 

The Draw Master

 In the 2006 Chess Olympiad I went through the event with 1 win, 3 losses and 9 draws(!). On reflection this was probably too many draws, and I should have made a greater effort to convert my advantages. 

However this was topped by a player at a recent schools event I ran. The player in question drew his first 6 games, and was well on his way to a 7th draw when his opponent instead lost on time. What was remarkable about these draws were that they were all stalemates and I'm pretty sure the player in question was winning in each position. As some of you might now suspect, they seemed to be K+Q v K positions that 'went wrong'. Certainly the two positions I observed fitted this description, and I assume the others did as well.

Sinquefield Cup 2022

 The 2002 Sinquefield Cup started with one decisive game, and 4 draws. The one decisive game involved Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi , and resulted in another victory for Carlsen. Having gone through the game a few times, I'm still not sure what really happened, as Carlsen's position did not look appreciably better, until Nepo kind of fell apart. If I had to criticise a move 23 ... c5 did not look right to me, although Stockfish thinks it is perfectly fine. The problem I had with this move was that it created a target for White to aim at, and eventually Black misplayed the defence. Of course just sitting on the position might have resulted in a different set of problems for Black, and a different kind of conclusion.

Carlsen,Magnus (2861) - Nepomniachtchi,Ian (2792) [D35]
Sinquefield Cup chess24.com (1.4), 02.09.2022

Getting fit playing chess

 Alan Turing once invented a version of chess called 'Round the House Chess'. After you moved you had to run around the outside of the house, and if you returned before your opponent had moved, you had another move (and another run). A good way to keep fit, but apparently not the only one.

Someone has invented a version of chess called "Chesst". Every time you capture an opponents piece, you have to do a set number of push-ups, based on the 'point value' of each piece. (Pawn = 1, Rook = 5 etc).  Possible modifications include making your opponent do the push-ups as punishment for having pieces captured, and adding a pushup penalty for being in check. An even crueller version would be to replace push-ups with burpees.

Of course you can go the other way, and simply play chess while getting fit. Blindfold chess while cycling as a pair, or in a group is one such possibility. Another variant is while one player is thinking, the other is doing sit-ups (or even rowing), and swapping over when a move is played. For this I would certainly recommend using a chess clock, although this may lead to a trade off between losing on time and wearing your opponent out.