4NCL Last weekend

 My current tourist excursion to Europe is not particularly chess related, even though there have been some small chess activities along the way. To emphasise this, I'm even missing the final weekend of the 4NCL, even if I will be quite close to the venue this weekend (well 60km's away, which is close if you are an Australian, but a 2 hour journey if you're not). I will at least be there in spirit, as I do provide some sponsorship support for the White Rose team. They have been having a 'middling' season in Div 1 so far (5 match wins, 4 losses), but they did win the 1st round of the final weekend today. This was aided by a top board win for GM Gawain Maroroa-Jones, over fellow GM Danny Gormally

 

Gormally,Daniel W (2377) - Maroroa Jones,Gawain C B (2645) [C78]
4NCL Div 1 2025-26 England (9.25), 02.05.2026

Jardin du Luxembourg

 According to some tourist guides Jardin du Luxembourg is a place to find some park chess. However it depends upon which day you visit. During the week the chess tables seemed empty but a second visit by myself on a Sunday afternoon saw the chess tables overflowing with players and spectators.

Watching some of the games it was a little hard to estimate the strength of players. For every game decided by sacrificial kingside attack, there would be another where one of the players hung their queen. Opening theory also seemed a little rough and ready, so my guess is that for a lot of the games, 1600 would be about right.

But to prove that chess is a universal language, I was able to follow a lot of the discussions, despite having a very basic understanding of French. In one game a player (as white) had played Rxb7, and the opponent was presumably asking if he could castle queenside.   'Non' was the incorrect reply , and so he castled in the opposite direction, dropping the c pawn. I assume it was a case that neither player knew the rules, rather than deliberate trickery. Supporting this theory, I also noticed that 'clock move' seemed to be the rule, as a number of obvious blunders were corrected by moving the piece to a better square before the clock was pressed.

So if you are visiting Paris, definitely drop in, but make sure it is on the weekend, rather than a weekday. 

Testing new-ish software

 Recently I blew up my aging desktop computer (with real smoke etc) and with it, by very aging copy of chessbase. As luck would have it, O was able to score a cheapish copy of Chessbase 17 , which is apparently the last version you could get on physical media. 

One feature I like is the provision of live event databases. This may help me find more interesting games for this blog, as previously I had the choice between downloading pgn files (usually from TWIC) or pretending that Keres v Petrosian was still cutting edge opening theory.

As an example, here is a game from the current World Seniors Teams Championship. It caught my eye because the winner was a contemporary of formerly active Canberra player Andrey Bliznyuk, while his opponent was also a pretty useful player, having toweled me up in the 2017 Gibraltar Masters.

 

Bergstrom,Rolf (2148) - Vaisser,Anatoli (2412) [C02]
FIDE WSTCC-65 2026 Durres (3.21), 21.04.2026

Who needs a queen?

 In more increasingly busy role as Secretary of the FIDE Qualfication Commission, I receive a lot of strange queries that do not always have anything to do with my job. One recent query was from a player claiming a record for playing the longest game without moving his uncaptured queen. The first important point is FIDE QC do not endorse or approve such records, as it isn't our job, and secondly, such claims are often incorrect. In this specific case the claim was for a 35 move game, which turned to be around 10 moves short of the actual record. Indeed there was even a GM v GM clash that went for 40 moves, and resulted in a win for the player who did not need to use his queen at all!

  

Panno,Oscar (2520) - Biyiasas,Peter (2460) [E69]
Interzonal-10b Manila (7), 22.06.1976

A nice story about chess in Port Moresby

 

A fantastic initiative and if you are in Moresby, worth dropping in for 

Flaming hot chess

 The perils of outdoor chess are mainly weather related. Usually for a city like Canberra it is the cold weather that affects events like Street Chess, but just for a change, it was the heat that was the real issue today. With a top temperature of 41C (106F) I am pretty sure it was the hottest Street Chess on record. For me, just reading out the pairings was exhausting, in part because 40 players turned up! For the players, not only was the heat an issue, but failure to find shade also meant that the chess clocks screens would turn black (due to overheating of the liquid crystals). 

So well done for everyone who turned up and survived!

2026 Australian Junior - FM Reyaansh Chakrabarty wins title

 FM Reyaansh Chakrabarty is the new Australian Junior Champion winning with a score of 8/9. Tied for 2nd were CM Joel Leong and FM Yifei Hu on 6.5. Going into the final round he held a half point lead over Leong, but a loss for Leong and a win for Chakrabarty widened the gap at the top.

While some players were fighting for final placings, there were a number of other interesting games between players looking to improve there final score. Larry Cheng was involved in one such game albeit on the losing side. There were also some good games in the Under 16 event (won by CM Micah Young with 8.5/9!) which can be found on the tournaments Lichess link. 

Full results and links to replayable games from the Under 18 and 16 events can be found at the tournament website https://australianjuniorchesschampionship2026.org/

Cheng,Larry (1759) - Wang,Daniel [D05]
2026 Australian Championship Under 18 ye https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (9.4), 24.01.2026

2026 Australian Junior - Blitz and Problems

 Although the Australian Junior Chess Championship has a scheduled rest day, a lot of players do not use it for rest. Instead some (almost 100) spend the morning solving problems of various difficulties, and the traditional Problem Solving Competition. It is a very enjoyable event (I was a problem setter this year), but oddly, is probably the only in person problem solving competition in Australia. As I have yet to start helping with the marking process, but based on the number of players who took the full 2 hours to complete (or incomplete) the paper, it was certainly challenging.

In the afternoon there was the 2026 Australian Junior Blitz Championship. It was held in 2 sections (Under 18 and Under 12) and ran for 11 rounds. I was pleased to say there were zero disputes, with the players showing excellent sportsmanship throughout, allowing the tournament to run to schedule. FM Yifei Hu was the over all winner, but you can see all the results at https://www.vegaresults.com/event/4813

2026 Australian Junior

 After a gap of 11 years, the Australian Junior Chess Championship returns to Canberra. There are around 400 entries this year, across 12 sections. The Under 18 (Championship section) has 31 players, with FM Reyaansh Chakrabarty the top seed. Although the event runs for 9 days, only the older age groups play all days. Tomorrow sees the U110 and Under 8 sections also start, but these sections are played over 3 days (with a faster time control).

Event details can be found at https://australianjuniorchesschampionship2026.org/ with links to live boards and results (when the even starts)

2026 Australian Championship - 1 and done

 FM Yi Liu looks to have the 2026 Australian Championship sewn up, holding a 1 point lead going into the final round. The only player with a chance of catching him is CM Tedric Li who sits a point behind. Yi, who has won 9 of his 10 games, dispatched FM  Reyaansh Chakrabarty with some clever play in a double rook ending.

Chakrabarty,Reyaansh (2271) - Liu,Yi (2329) [C17]
Australian Chess Championship 2026 https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (10.1), 20.12.2025

The Avalanches

 Although the following game from the 2026 Australian Championship is pretty one sided, it is still interesting to look at. White got tangled up in the centre (do not open lines when behind in development is the relevant hint here), and was struggling from then on. Black maintained his advantage throughout, alternating between fending of simple mate threats, and rolling his pawns down the board. Eventually the black pawn on d2 proved the key to the winning combination, although White resigned before the pawn could promote.

Min,Ren (Alex) (2012) - Rodgers,Jack (2198) [A45]
Australian Chess Championship 2026 https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (8.15), 12.01.2026

Bananas

 Looking for an attacking opening against 1.d4 as Black. If you aren't confident enough to sacrifice a pawn in the opening with the Benko, you could always try it's slower cousin, The Benoni. Although White often gets up and running with a central pawn avalanche, if White gets it wrong, then Black often powers through.

Chang,Ethan (2052) - Testolin,Ryder (2238) [A56]
Australian Chess Championship 2026 https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (6.8), 09.01.2026

Time is on my side, yes it is

 For a long time, the thinking time of players was not published as part of game scores. So when looking through games, it wasn't always clear if a mistake was due to a simple miscalculation or as a result of 'zeitnot', With most major events being broadcast online, it is now easier to look at thinking times, and at least make an educated guess. This is certainly the case from the current Australian Championship, where a number of games seem to be decided by poor decisions while short of time. An example of this follows

Tang,Terrence (2108) - Richards,Heather S (2125) [A46]
Australian Chess Championship 2026 https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (5.11), 08.01.2026

Scrambled like an egg

 Often I recommend playing against computers as a way of improving your chess. I suggest starting at a low level and then keep moving up every time you win at that level. Putting this into practice, I am facing of against a series of online bots , normally as I lie awake in bed in the morning. Of course it does get more challenging the higher you go, and I now often lose (or draw) a sequence of games before winning. But it does help when the bot plays into an opening you are familiar with.

2026 Australian Championship Day 2

 Following on from yesterdays choice, I decided to select another win from the 'older' brigade. IM Gary Lane had a pretty convincing win over FM Kai Jie Soo. Possibly Gary was better prepared, as he once wrote a book called "Beating the French" although in that volume, the Advance Variation was recommended, rather than the Tarrasch

Lane,Gary W (2230) - Soo,Kai Jie (2276) [C03]
Australian Chess Championship 2026 https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (3.4), 06.01.2026

2026 Australian Championship Rd 1

 No idea who is going to win this event at this stage, but when I can I will share a game of interest. For round 1, it is a nice win by GM Daryl Johansen over strong Queensland player Benjamin Leong.

Johansen,Darryl K (2272) - Leong,Benjamin (2089) [A12]
Australian Chess Championship 2026 https://lichess.org/broadcast/ (1.5), 05.01.2026