2025 Dubbo Open - Kempen and Vujasin tie for 1st

 The 2025 Dubbo Open ended ina tie between Nikola Vujasin and Leon Kempen, on 5/6. Kempen had started the tournament with 4/4, including a win over top seed Blake Lynch, but a loss to Vujasin left a 3 way tie for 1st going into the final round. Vujasin defeated fellow leader Ron Groenhout with a strong attack on the top board, while Kempen beat Cameron McLean on board 2. 

Groenhout had the consolation of sharing the Under 1600 prize with former tournament winner Fritz vander Wal on 4/6. Prakashbabu  Radhakrishnan was the best U1300 player, while Cameron McClean and Sarayu Prakashbabu shared the best unrated prize.

Although this years event was smaller than previous years, it was an enjoyable, and very social tournament. As usual, the Dubbo Chess Club did a great job of organising the tournament,  and with the support of the Dubbo RSL Club, were able to offer a generous prize pool. Next years event is likely to be on the weekend of the 14th and 15th of March, so plan your entries now!

2025 Dubbo Open

 The 2025 Dubbo Open has returned, after a break last year. A smaller than average field of 21 players turned up for the first round, with Blake Lynch as the top seed. Despite the small field, the first round was quite competitive, with a couple of upset wins recorded by the lower ranked players.  

The 2nd round is now underway, and at least one upset has already been recorded. If you want to keep up with the scores (or simply decide that YOU should have entered this year) you can do so at https://www.vegaresult.com/en/event.php?id=3583

Ozbase - Backup needed

 Ozbase has been an invaluable resource for maintaining the history of Australian Chess. managed by Paul Dunn. Up until recently it was a huge archive of historical Australian games and tournaments. Unfortunately, the website has disappeared, the domain name has been transferred elsewhere, and most importantly, the web hosting company claims there is no backup available. 

So if anyone has a recent backup of the database, a copy would be greatly appreciated. Reconstructing the html files shouldn't be too difficult, but a complete copy of the game files (or files) would be incredibly helpful. If you can help. just get in touch with me, and I will let Paul Dunn know. 

Not a good birthday week for Ivanchuk

 Vasyl Ivanchuk celebrated his 56th birthday last week, but based on the following game it might not have been a great birthday week. In round 9 of the European Championship, Ivanchuk faced Maxim Rodshtein who decided on move 17 to sacrifice a piece. In this case it was a 'real' sacrifice in that there was no immediate mating attack, or the change to win back material. Instead there was just pressure in the form of a central pawn mass, which caused to Ivanchuk to play some poor defensive moves. But the real shock came on move 28, when Ivanchuk allowed a mate in 1. Of course this may have been his way of resigning a lost position, but for a GM of his calibre, a surprise nonetheless

Rodshtein,Maxim (2623) - Ivanchuk,Vasyl (2604) [E07]
Round 9: European Championship (9.10), 24.03.2025

2025 ACT Teams Rapidplay

 The ACT Teams Rapidplay has grown in popularity over the last few years, with this years event attracting 21 teams. Some of the teams represented the local chess clubs (and were playing for the Larko Cup), some were just a group of friends (or friends dads), while other represented other chess organistations.

The clear winner of this years event was the Canberra Academy of Chess I team. They won all their matches and finished on 21.5/28. Tied for 2nd were the Purple Pineapple Pickers and the Tuggeranong Chess Club on 18. PPP took 2nd on countback, while third placed Tuggeranong took home the Larko Cup, their 2nd win in 3 years.

This years event was incredibly even on paper with the top 8 teams within 100 points of each other on average rating. It turned out that depth was what really counted with the winning team scoring 13.5/14 on boards 3 and 4. 

One highlight was the pairing of the All-Star Kids team, against the All-Star Dads team. Each board pairing saw father play son, with the Kids winning 3-1. There were also a few internal club match ups, with these matches being played with as much venom as the top boards.

Board medals went to: Bd 1 CM Hui Li (PPP), Bd 2 Jonah Gear (CAC I) , Bd 3 Jordan Brown (CAC I), Bd 4 Douglas Shuttleworth (CAC I)

Best team name was won by Yogis and the Beare, Best reserve Hakoo Desai (Rosary), Biggest rating gain Sanat Hegde (All Star Kids) and best female Varshini Mididuddi (Canberra Rising Stars)

Target: c6

 Here is another great example of following a simple plan to its obvious conclusion. White employs a king side fianchetto, training all his pieces on the c6 pawn. But in the end, the pawn itself survives the entire game. Instead, in trying to defend the pawn, Black falls victim to various other tactics, resulting in a winning final position for white.

Lagarde,Maxime (2615) - Yilmaz,Mustafa (2576) [A20]
Round 6: European Championship (6.11), 20.03.2025

The most English chess player ever (and he isn't even English)

 While scanning the results of the 2025 European Championship, I cam across the most English player ever. FM Henry Edward Tudor is the player concerned, and he is apparently quite a talent. Born in 2011 he is already 2384 on the current rating list, and won his national Under 20 Championship at the age of 12. But the truly strange thing (at least to me), is that he is Romanian. 

2025 European Championship

 or How to work on your openings

Find a strong event (in this case the 2025 European Championship). Look for an opening you wish to work on (eg Catalan). Find wins for your side (in this case White). Play through the game looking for knowledge and inspiration. Ignore the evaluation bar!

Bosiocic,Marin (2518) - Lohia,Sohum (2365) [E11]
2025 European Championship, 16.03.2025

We are all just prisoners here

 Piece mobility is an important factor in assessing a position. So much so that Karpov (or his ghost writer) once said that the most important strategy in chess is to increase your mobility and reduce your opponents. If White in the following game had followed this advice, he might not have chosen 42.Ra7. The attempt to win the pawn was futile, but at least it provided an entertaining final position.

Palma Araya,David (2003) - Tristan,Leonardo (2542) [D38]
ZONAL 2.5 ABSOLUTO CHILE 2025 Polideportivo Estadio Nacional (1.1), 09.03.2025

2025 O2C Doeberl Cup Entry update

 The 2025 O2C Doeberl Cup has just passed to 200 entries mark. While there are still 5 weeks before the tournament starts, it is certainly better to get your entry in sooner, rather than later. This goes double if you are playing in the Major event (Under 2100), as there are already 81 entries, and each tournament is limited to 100 players. So if the event fills up you will either be moved to net available event you are eligible for (most likely the Minor), or plan for 2026!

A chess development index

 While looking at some issues regarding the makeup of various zones and regions for chess events, I did a little messing around with data. The goal is to try and equalise the makeup of zones, based on measurable criteria. 

As a first attempt I used recent rating data to come up with a number that measures the 'strength' of a federation. This does not just come down to average rating (in fact my first attempt ignored ratings), but to number of players and number of titled players. As a rough cut I came up with the following top 20 (with the score I found for them)

RUS 1842.932

GER 1101.273

USA 694.061

ESP         573.55

UKR 537.533

IND         532.761

SRB 465.432

FRA 448.532

POL 408.356

HUN 397.325

NED 315.182

CZE 295.835

ENG 245.108

ISR         243.719

CUB 239.675

ROU 232.501

ARG 225.578

CHN 221.433

CRO 216.734

ITA         199.595

Now I am not going to say what scoring system I used (or weightings), as I am interested in what jumps out here. India and China may look to be ranked too low, but there is a reason for this. Both countries do not rate enough events in the FIDE system, and this in part is the consequence. Also, Serbia might be a little high these days, but this is due to historical factors.

If you are interested, Australia is 38th (120.943) with NZ 73rd (29.868)

Finding the right mate

 Checkmates in competition chess are quite rare. Normally both players see what is coming and one player decides to resign. But if your opponent gives you the chance to checkmate them, then finding the 'right' sort of checkmate can be an interesting challenge.

 

Huang,Billy (1829) - Morris,James (2431) [B07]
Begonia Open 2025 Ballarat, Australia (5.6), 09.03.2025

It is still King Safety

 While chess strategy is still undergoing a bit of a revolution (due to the long term effects of computers, and the shorter term effect of Machine Learning Algorithms) there are still truths that remain unchanged. No matter how much risk taking players think they can get away with, exposing your king is still asking for trouble. Wei Yi used this to his advantage, after David Navara decided that castling was the correct strategy after pushing his kingisde pawns up the board (Narrators voice: "No it wasn't")

Wei,Yi (2760) - Navara,David (2663) [C54]
PICF 2025 - Masters Prague, Czech Republic (4.3), 01.03.2025

Ambitious, but unsound

 As I was the 'house player' at my club last week, I ended up playing a casual game against a player who had the bye in another event. She actually took it more seriously than I did, as she was recording the game (and we were playing with a clock). The player in question is fairly inexperienced, but the first few moves were still interesting. After 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.bxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bc5 6.Bg5 Nge7 7.Bb5 0-0 8.0-0 h6 she played 9.h4. Although I figured that this was just a blunder, I still wondered if 9 ... hxg5 10.Nxg5 night be an issue for me. No less of a player as Kasparov was known to like this sort of attack, although not in this exact position. It turns out I can survive after Nxg5 as 10. ... g6 11.h5 Kg7 holds, and there aren't many moves to improve the attack. 

It turns out that whole point was moot, as she recaptured with the pawn (rather than the knight), and the extra material was enough to win more material

When Spassky came to Canberra

 In 1989 former World Champion Boris Spassky came to Australia for a series of simultaneous displays and lectures. At the time he was still competing at the top level (including the short lived PCA Grand Prix series) and still 3 years away from his infamous re-match with Bobby Fischer.

The tour was organised by Jaques Englander, who was a well known chess sponsor and importer of Novag Chess Computers. While Englander handled most of the tour, he asked me to handle the Canberra leg of the trip. I enlisted the help of Alan Hartstein to coordinate local transport, as he had one important attribute, the keys to his fathers Mercedes. 

Picking up the former World Champion at the airport, we immediately took him for a round of interviews with local radio and television. He was particularly taken with the variety of plants in Canberra, sampling some of berries and seeds he spotted, despite our concerns of their health effects. 

The main purpose of his visit was a 20 board simul at the Belconnen Mall. Organised with the help of the Games Cupboard, it attracted both a strong field of players, and a huge group of spectators. Before the simul began, Spassky announced that he would play 1.e4 on every board, and if his opponent chose to play 1. ... e5, then 2.f4 would be his next move. A number of players took up this challenge and the simul got underway.

As an old hand at these kind of events, Spassky soon spotted who the main threats were and strategically offered some early draws. One player who accepted the offer was former ACT Champion Milan Gricic. One player who definitely played on was Michael Mescher, who chose to meet the Kings Gambit with Be7 (1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Nf3 Be7) While I believe the game score has been lost to history, Mescher stayed a pawn ahead before converting the ending into a win. This was only one of 2 losses by Spassky during the entire tour, and was a cause of great celebration for the spectators. 

Apart from the loss, and 3 or 4 draws, Spassky of course won the remaining games. At one point words were exchanged between one of the player who took an early draw, and a participant who had reason to resign, but chose not to. The suggestion that he was not being 'respectful' to the former world champion was met with the reply 'But who has got the most value for money tonight'

After the simul had finished, Spassky, Mescher, myself, Alan Hartstein and former ACF President Nathan Stirling  (plus others) returned to city and had late night coffee at Gus's Cafe. Spassky and Mescher spent most of the time analysing the game just played, trying to find improvements for the ex World Champion!

The next day, we took Spassky out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, to see the local flora and fauna. He took great delight in seeing the kangaroos and koalas, and exploring the Australian bush. He mentioned that as a younger man he worked as a forest ranger, and so such adventures were very enjoyable. 

His last full day in Canberra was spent playing tennis, and relaxing. At one point he needed assistance in ringing his wife from the hotel ( in those pre-mobile phone days) and when told he needed to start with 0 (to dial out) followed by 00 to start an international call he remarked 'So we start by castling long.'

After that he continued his journey around Australia, entertaining hundreds of local players with his charm, kindness and brilliant chess play.