2007 Australian Player of the Year

Not that this award carries any significance outside the readers of this blog, but I though it a nice way to end my first year of blogging.

There were a couple of outstanding candidates in Australian chess this year, in Zhong Yuan Zhao and David Smerdon.
Smerdon fulfilled the norm requirements for the GM title this year, although he still needs to pick up a few rating points to break the 2500 barrier. He had a successful chess tour of Europe, flying the Australian flag in England, Netherlands, etc
Zhao started the year in spectacular fashion, dominating the Australian Open and finishing with a GM performance (but not a norm). He then won the Oceania Zonal, to qualify for the FIDE World Cup. After being knocked out in the first round (by Magnus Carlsen) he scored a GM norm in the First Saturday Tournament in Budapest. He is currently playing in a GM event in Spain, and is leading with 4.5/5
But having lauded the performance of these two future GM's, it is to a third player I turn.
2007 saw Ian Rogers retire from competitive play. It was somehow fitting that in the year of his retirement he won the Doeberl Cup, a tournament he has won a record number of times, and finished his last tournament in Adelaide in first place. His retirement, while a loss for Australian chess, brought into focus the massive contribution he has made to the chess culture in this country, and for this reason he gets my nod for 2007 Australian Player of the Year.

Australian Open Report

One of the requirements for organising an event on behalf of the Australian Chess Federation is to provide a report to the ACF Council at the end of the event. The ACF by-laws specify what is to be included in the report, eg financial statement, results, and any disciplinary recommendations. The organisers of the 2006-07 Australian Open dutifully submitted the report to the ACF (recommendations and all) but up until now we haven't had a response. No follow up questions, no queries, and most sadly, no apparent actions on the things we highlighted in the report. I can only assume that the ACF decided the detail we provided them was perfect, while the observations we made required no action. And given 6 months has past since the report submission, I'm also assuming that it is safe to release it in the public domain (after all, Stephen and I did write it). So if you click on the link http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=drvkdd2_1d66qmnzw you can read the report yourself. (NB This is the first time I've published something in Google Docs, so fingers crossed).
To be honest there isn't anything dramatic in the report. Just the usual run of the mill reporting, although Stephen's observation on the number of players entering the event should be read by any prospective tournament organiser.

PNG Team in action at Street Chess

Due to a coincidence of holidays and geography, three quarters of the Papua New Guinea Olympiad team played in Street Chess today. Stuart Fancy (pictured) , Shaun Press and Craig Skehan were part of the 22 players who took part in the end of year edition of Canberra's weekly outdoor chess tournament. Also playing was Vladimir Smirnov (visiting from Sydney) and the "unofficial" World Under 6 Chess Champion, Anton Smirnov. Overall there were 5 players with 2000+ ratings.
In the end Vladimir outclassed the field with 6/7 (5 wins, 1 draw and a half point bye), half a point ahead of the second place getters. The PNG team finished mid field (4/7 by Press and Fancy), although Stuart Fancy did confirm the board order for next years Olympiad in Dresden by defeating Press in their individual game.
Street Chess runs every Saturday in Canberra City, and to bring in the new year, the three PNG players will be playing next Saturday as well.

A lucky escape

As promised, my game from the chess exhibition in Commonwealth Park just before Christmas. As with any public demonstration it is hard to judge the ability of the player in front of you, and although I suspected my opponent had a fair idea of what he was doing, I still played an unsound sacrifice. Of course I didn't know it was unsound, even going so far as to say "This should work" as I played Nxf3. Of course it didn't and I was just down a piece. Fortunately for me my opponent missed my plan of f6 and g5, trapping the bishop on h6. I then offered a draw by repetition with Kg6-f7-g6, but my opponent played on for a win. Unfortunately it didn't quite work for him.

Gifford,Toby - Press,Shaun [C45]
Sunsets 07 , 22.12.2007

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Nc3 d6 9.Qd2 Ne5 10.b3 Re8 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.exd5 Nxf3+ 13.gxf3 Qh4+ 14.Kd1 Re5 15.Bf4 Re8 16.c3 Bd7 17.Rg1 Bxd4 18.Qxd4 g6 19.Kd2 Qh3 20.Rgf1 Bf5 21.Rae1 a5 22.Rxe8+ Rxe8 23.Re1 Rxe1 24.Kxe1 Qxf3 25.Bh6 Qe4+ 26.Qxe4 Bxe4 27.b4 axb4 28.cxb4 f6 (D)
29.Kf2 g5 30.Kg3 Kf7 31.a4 Kg6 32.Bf8 Kf7 33.Bxd6 cxd6 34.a5 Ke7 35.b5 Kd8 36.a6 bxa6 37.bxa6 Kc7 38.Kg4 Bg6 39.Bb5 Kb6 40.Kf3 h5 41.h3 f5 42.Ke3 f4+ 43.Kf3 and I went on to win 0-1

Poor writing on chess

In my journeys to west of Canberra I often pass through the town of Harden. A few years ago an excellent second hand bookshop opened up, and I always drop in (to the annoyance of my wife and kids). There aren't many chess books there, although if you are a bridge player you will have more luck.
What I usually buy there are a couple of volumes of Patrick O'Briens "Captain Jack Aubery" series. For those that don't don't read, it is the source of the film "Master and Commander" with Russell Crowe.
In the fourth book "The Mauritius Command" chess gets a mention. Unfortunately the excellent research skills O'Brien brings to his books didn't extend as far as the royal game with the following line getting past his editors.

I can and do dislike him intensely when he pins my king and rook with his lurking knight

An interesting concept, and one I've not witnessed myself.

Hastings 07-08

One of my chess ambitions is to one day play in the Hastings International Chess Congress. This may have to wait until I retire (or win Lotto) and for now all I can do is follow the event from afar. Sadly the reality of chess finances means that there is no longer a separate GM Round Robin, with the Hastings Masters a large, although still strong, swiss. The most recent list of entries had 17 GM's in the field of 102 players. Alongside the masters is a number of subsidiary events which have attracted good fields.
The home page for the event is http://www.hastingschess.org.uk/ if you, like me, want to follow the event on line.

Cheery Mismus

Thank you to all the kids from Saturday Morning Chess who gave me Xmas presents. It will take me a month to get through all the chocolates! I hope everyone else got the presents they hoped for (or at least deserved), and the presents they gave were greatly appreciated.
And it wouldn't be Christmas without a Christmas puzzle. So here is a famous puzzle by TR. Dawson. White to play and Mate in 2 (and yes, it is an upside down Christmas Tree).