2019 ASTC Day 1

The 2019 Australian Schools Teams Championship is underway at Canberra Grammar School. With 3 rounds out of the way, some sections have seen clear favourites emerge, while others have a number of teams still in contention.
In the Secondary Open Scotch College (Vic) and Anglican Church Grammar (QLD) lead with 11 and 10 respectively. They meet in the morning round, with the heavy win for either team prbablt guaranteeing first place. The fight for third looks like it will be between Canberra Grammar (ACT) and Sydney Boys High (NSW) who also play in the 4th round.
The Secondary Girls event is wide open, with 4 teams in with a chance of first. Sydney Girls High have to play both Lyneham High (ACT) and PLC (Vic), with Kings Christian College (SA) hoping a slightly easier run home is to their benefit.
Waverly Christian College holds a big lead in the Primary Open, but they still have to play Somerset College and Emmanuel School who are currently 2nd and 3rd. Mount View Primary (Vic) lead the Primary Girls, but just an the Primary Open, have to play Neutral Bay (NSW) and Turner School (ACT), who occupy the nest two places.
Full results are being posted after every round, and can be found at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/ASTC2019/ Round 4 starts at 9am tomorrow, with the final round starting at 12:30 pm.

Octa Chess

When I turned up at Belconnen Chess Club the other evening, I found a number of envelopes addressed to the club at the door. This was slightly unusual, as we normally don't receive correspondence at the venue. Inside each one was a description of a chess variant title "Octa-Chess".
Without giving too much away, it is normal chess on an expanded board, with the addition of 1 extra piece. The piece is called a "Pike" and moves 2 squares diagonally  (with the ability to jump I assume), but capture moving 1 square up/down or left/right. The reason it is called Octa-Chess is is shaped like an octagon, with it being 20 squares across at its widest (middle 2 ranks) and 12 squares long at its highest (middle 10 columns).
Not having a board handy (or coding a computer version as yet), I'm guessing that the Knights and Pawns will suffer (due to the larger board), while Bishops will become stronger (for the same reason). With 8 extra Pikes the game will also be longer than normal chess, but as chess variants go, it isn't a bad one.
The game was invented (I assume) by Tell Arstargazer and based on the distribution of letters, I'm guessing Belconnen Chess Club isn't the only club to receive a copy of the rules.

Short timers disease

2019 has been a pretty good chess year for me. Up until this evening I had only lost 4 long time control games all year, and 2 of those losses were against Liren Ding. So reaching the end of the calendar year, I just needed to avoid any accidents to end up with a big plus score.
Then I managed to lose the following game. It didn't get off to a good start when I misplayed the opening (Qe7 instead of d6 is book), but my opponent took a lot of time to work out what to do. So much so that after Qxb5 I was dead equal. And then I blundered!

Butler,Brian - Press,Shaun [C63]
Canberra Club Championship (9), 27.11.2019

Can't help myself, bad habits.

Over the years I have tried to rid myself of my bad chess playing habits. This change includes calculation sacrifices to the end end, avoiding risky openings, and playing simplified positions against junior players.
However I still can't help ignoring my own advice when facing the Two Knights as black. Despite some setbacks in recent years, I will still play the Traxler if given the chance. This is despite knowing that modern computer analysis does not think it is sound. Still, if my opponent isn't aware of all the tricks, it can still score some good wins for Black.


Kong,Dexuan - Press,Shaun [C57]
Swiss Festive Fun (4), 26.11.2019

A guide to Canberra

Next weekend the Australian Schools Teams Chess Championship will be held in Canberra, Australia's Capital City. For those not familiar with the sights of the city, here is a visual guide to Canberra (NB It may be slightly out of date)

Study,study,study

White to play and win

Solving studies is a good way to improve your chess but it isn't for everyone. Like solving cryptic crosswords, you either get them, or you don't. But also like cryptic crosswords, once you crack the code, you can usually solve lots of them quite easily.
I'm not sure where this study fits in to that theory. It is White to play and win, and to be honest, the first few moves kind of suggest themselves. With Black threatening to promote on c1, White's first few moves are designed to deal with this. It then gets more interesting after that, and the full solution is quite entertaining. But like a lot of long studies, it turns out that while there is one line that fits the overall theme, there is an alternative line which is a lot less fun.

Knowing when to dig in

Faced with a totally lost position, there are often 3 choices. Firstly you can simply resign and head home. If you don't wish to do that, then you can either dig in, or play for tricks. Which one works best often depends on the situation you are facing. If you suspect your opponent may not always find the best move in a complicated position, then playing for tricks is probably the best strategy. If however, you suspect your opponent may struggle to find the best plan, then digging in and defending often pays off.
Continuing on from yesterdays post, the rest of the game saw me trying to avoid insta-death by choosing moves that did not lose on the spot. While I didn't get everything right, by keeping the game going, the onus was on my opponent to find the win. Eventually his shortage of time began to tell, and not seeing any clear path to victory, exchanged in what looked like a winning ending (which it probably was). However my counterplay looked stronger than it was, which again meant he need to find a winning plan, and when he didn't, I was able to reach a drawn King and Pawn ending.


Press,Shaun - Chan,Darryl [B19]
Canberra CC (8), 20.11.2019