The blitz kids

 It is normally a given that after a certain age you lose to younger players, especially at faster time controls. But not always ....

I decided I needed to play some more chess (inspired by my time at the World Cup) and so wandered into an end of year blitz event at one of the local Canberra Clubs  (a club I normally don't play at), It was a 9 round event with a generous 5m+3s time control and with more than half of the 36 players being juniors, there was a good chance I would play at least some of them.

By the end of the night I finished on 7/9, which was good enough for 3rd, but more significantly, the two players who finished ahead of me (and who I lost to) were both older than me. All my wins came against younger players (including 5/5 against juniors) , which did make me smile.

Of course there were a few lucking escapes but old age and treachery will always beat youth and enthusiasm!

Casto Abundo (1950 - 2025)

 Casto Abundo has passed away at the age of 75. Casto  (Toti to his friends) was a fixture on the international chess scene for the past 50 years, as a tournament arbiter, organiser and administrator. Initially a trusted colleague of Florencio Campomanes, Toti filled a number of important roles in FIDE. He was FIDE General Secretary from 1988-1990 as well as FIDE Excutive Director from 1994-1998. Even after Campomanes retirement, Toti stayed on, being a member of the FIDE Rules commission, FIDE Qualification Commission as well as serving as Executive Director of the Asian Chess Federation.

As an Arbiter he was the Chief Arbiter for the 2000 World Championship Match and the 2001 World Cup. He was one of the organisers of the 1992 Chess Olympiad, and was an active FIDE Arbiter Lecturer. Although he had suffered ill health in recent years, he remained active in the chess world, organising events, and conducting arbiter trainer courses. 

As a member of the Qualification Commission he provided valuable information on the history of previous decisions of QC, and insight into what federations or organisations needed in terms of rating and title services. He was also a strong player in his own right, being rated 2175 at the time of his passing. 

His loss will be felt throughout the chess community, especially in the Asian region, and across the many FIDE Commissions and committees.

Late entries

 Entries for the 2026 O2C Doeberl Cup have been open for a month. The event already has 4 GM's registered (all from overseas federations), and a couple of IM's. At this stage overall entries are small, but I do want to highlight something related to this.

For 2025 I handled a number of begging emails from players who missed entry into their preferred sections. Some of these were from players who did not qualify anyway, but a number were from players who tried to enter after the sections reached capacity. Although they could play in a lower section, they were quite insistent they needed to play in the higher section.

As far as I can see, none of these players have entered for 2026. Possibly the nature of the email exchange with me has put them off, but given the 'it will help my chess development' nature of requests, such a decision seems unlikely. Instead I assume a lack of planning is to blame, which is both a fatal flaw in life as it is in chess.

So if you don't want to miss out (or cop an earful from me), click https://www.doeberlcup.com.au/ and get your entry in

Chasing numbers

 A couple of important rating lists were released yesterday. There was the FIDE list, as well as the Australian Rating List. The release of the FIDE rating list results in some extra work for me (due to my roles as QC Secretary), not so much the ACF list (having stopped being the ACF Ratings Officer long ago).

A lot of the extra work is due to people 'chasing' numbers. For example, I received a request to certify a player as the youngest ever player to get a rapid rating. 'Nope, not doing it' was basically my reply, as (a) this is something FIDE does not do and (b) such records are exploitative. 

But a more general issue of this nature is players only wishing to play certain players or events. This is because they wish to maximise their chances of a rating increase. The flipside of this is that possibly maximise a rating decrease for an opponent, which should hardly be considered 'fair'. To paraphrase a popular saying 'ratings don't care about your feelings'. They simply measure your results against other players, and to be truly accurate, that group of players should be reasonably representative of the general chess playing population. 'Gaming' the rating system at best is a short term fix for yourself, but ultimately creates problems for other chess players. 

2025 QC Meeting

 The 2025 FIDE Congress is happening right now. The various commission are meeting online, but the meetings have been recorded. If you wish to see me talk for far too long, then the QC meeting is at https://youtu.be/M_azwPqcS1U You can find the other meetings via https://congress.fide.com/commission-meetings-2025/

2025 FID World Cup - Sindarov!

 Javokhir Sindarov is the winner of the 2025 FIDE World Cup. He defeated Wei Yi in the 2nd playoff game to win the match 2.5-1.5 After 3 fairly even games (2 standard and one 15m+10s) the 4th game exploded into tactics with both players running short of time. Yi actually held an advantage, but having to move with 1 second on the clock (which he did a few times) eventually led to a mistake, and a win for the 19 year old.

At 19 Sindarov is th youngest World Cup winner ever, and is part of the surging Uzbekistan chess culture. With state support, and plenty of opportunities after their 2022 Olympiad win, the Uzbek players are becoming a force to be reckoned with. 

Yi has the consolation of qualifying for the Candidates tournament, as does Esipenko, who won the third place playoff yesterday. 

2025 Vikings Weekender - Win for Stopa

 GM Jacek Stopa has won the 2025 Vikings Weekender, finishing on 5/6. After starting with a round 1 HPB, he scored 3 wins, before drawing with 2nd seed FM Fred Litchfeld in round 5. He then faced Masaki Horikawa in the final round, needing a win to overtake Horikawa. He managed to do this in style (winning in 27 moves) to reach 5 points. He could have been joined by CM Hui Li on 5, if Li had decided to push for a win against Litchfield in a significantly better position. However Li decided that a guaranteed 2nd prize (shared) was better than risking going home empty handed, and so took the draw. These results left seeds 2,3 and 4 (Litchfield, Li and Horikawa) tied for 2nd on 4.5/6

The Under 1600 event finished in a tie between Nicholas Lee and Trent Parker on 5.5/6. Their Round 4 game ended in a draw, and they went 5-0 in their remaining games. Third place on 5/6 was taken by the quickly improving Kyle Zhang (861 ACF!) , whose only loss came at the hands of Lee.

The event attracted a capacity field of 73 players and offered a prize pool of over $3000. Tim Pearce did a great job as Chief Arbiter, handling the various tasks of tournament management, dispute solver, and DGT board  wrangler with great skill. The event organisers, Tuggeranong Chess Club, once again put on a great tournament, and look to welcome back all the players in 2026.

Results: https://www.vegaresults.com/vr/4577

Games (Top 4 boards): https://view.livechesscloud.com/#8412fb38-3d81-4a63-904d-f42b9a1a52cf