2024 ANU Open - Day 1

 The first day of the 2024 ANU Open saw a significant number of upsets, both in the Open and in the Minor. This was mainly due to the closeness in rating between the top and bottom halves of the pairings, at least for the middle boards. 

In the Open CM Hui Li recovered from a lost ending to draw with Kamal Jain on board 3, while Donghoon Shin upset 4th seed Oladoyin Fasakin on the next board. Overall the bottom half picked up 5.5 points across 15 games in the 1st round. In the Minor (Under 1600) it was a similar story, starting with drawn games on boards 2 and 3. While the top half did a little better than in the Open, 2 wins and 4 draws was still a good result for the lower rated players. Tournament standings can be found at https://www.vegaresult.com/en/event.php?id=2715

On of the most interesting games from round 1 was played between two junior players in the Open. Dev Raichura played an Evans Gambit and after his opponent lost control of the centre, Dev steamrolled his way to victory.

Raichura,Dev - Verma,Rudra [C51]
ANU Open (1), 26.07.2024

They must do things differently in Canberra

 Another year of interschool chess, another set of weird rule interpretations.

At yesterdays interschool event I 9and the other arbiters) were overwhelmed by a hug number of illegal move issues. This in part is caused by our '3 strikes' policy, in which the first illegal move receives a warning, rather than a penalty, thereby increasing the number of illegal moves we have to handle by 50%. In on case a player tried to castle through check and when told that this was not allowed simply said "They must do things differently in Canberra". And apart from the use "both kings in check" situations, one case involved a player dealing with a check by moving their king 5(!) squares away, although this was only to another square where the king was still in check.

The other strange situation involved the non reporting of a result. Due to the tight schedule, if a player did not report a result they ran the risk of receiving a double forfeit. This happened in 3 separate rounds. But in one case this led to a bizarre situation. Having always recorded such results a double forfeit (0F-0F) the pairing program simply paired the same opponents against each other in the next round (this is allowed under the Swiss Pairing Rules, as it assumed the game had not been played). To heap further pain on the player who had one the previous round, he then lost the return bout, thereby scoring 0/2 against the same opponent. Of course my mistake was recording the game as a forfeit, when I should have used 0-0.

World Record washup

 If the numbers quoted on various news feeds are correct, there were 5.4 million games of chess were played in a 24 hour period on July 20 2024. I suspect the vast majority of these were played online although a significant contribution did com from the 820+ OTB events that were also held on that day. In this part of the world there were events held in most capital cities, while Auckland also put on a couple of quite  large tournaments. I was asked what the pervious record was, and while I don't know for sure, I assumed it was 0. Not because no games of chess have ever been played, but because I think this is the first time it has been officially counted.

By all reports everyone (worldwide) seemed to really enjoy being part of something global, and so I suspect this will become an annual event.

Street Chess - In the news

 As part of yesterdays International Chess Day, Street Chess Canberra contributed to setting a record for the most number of recorded games of chess played in a day. The regular Saturday event attracted 55 players, which was one of our biggest fields evet. As a special event, we even attracted a large amount of media interest with coverage on local and national radio, newspaper interviews and even a live cross on Australia's national news network (ABC). 

There was a larger story broadcast on ABC in the evening, which you can see here

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x92kcc8

Off to set a World Record

 Today is International Chess Day. As part of the 100th anniversary of the founding of FIDE, there will be an attempt to set a record for the most number of games of chess officially recorded in a 24 hour period. Street Chess is part of this attempt, so if you wish to be in it, just get along to Street Chess at 10:45am at King O'Malley's City Walk, Canberra City. It runs until 3pm ad open to anyone who wants to take part (NB $10/$5/$1 entry fees)

2024 Olympiad Team Lists

 The first set of team lists for the 2024 Olympiad have been posted. You can see who is currently registered at https://chess-results.com/tnr967173.aspx?lan=1 (and there is a link to the Women's event as well) 

Points of interest - USA is seeded 1st in the Open, and Georgia is seeded 1st in the Women's Olympiad. China makes a return after missing Chennai, but Russia and Belarus are still excluded. Australia is 40th in the Open and 44th in the Women's.

However, as there is a possibility of late team changes, these seedings may change. 

Biel 2024

 The Biel Chess Festival starts this evening (Canberra time) with a number of large events. Apart from the 2 GM events right at the top, there is a couple of big swisses, for amateur players and for aspiring masters. A couple of Australian players are in the entry lists for these events. FM Albert Winkelman is in the Masters Open, seeded 62nd out of 128 players. Walter Wolffs is in the Amateur section, seeded 100th out of 129 players. 

You can follow all the action at https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Homepage.html (Just as I clicked on the link, it looks like the games in the GM event have just started!)