2009 Australian Player of the Year

Despite some outstanding individual performances in 2009, for me there is pretty clear choice for the (Chessexpress) 2009 Australian Player of the Year.
GM David Smerdon started the year both as an IM, and as the winner of the 2009 Queenstown Classic. He then moved his rating over the 2500 mark at the NSW Open, to confirm his GM title. A win in the Oceania Zonal booked a trip to snowy Siberia where he held GM Leinier Dominguez at bay in 2 classical time control games and then 3 rapidplay games before one bad move sent him home again. And as the icing on the cake, he was also the winner of the 2009 Yulgilbar - Think Big Grand Prix Series.
Congratulations David, and I look forward to next year being just as successful.

Nice Geometry

As I've stated before, I prefer to read the solution to a chess problem than actually solve it. I admire the cleverness of the problem setter in terms of how the solution looks, rather than how hard it is. And solutions that have a particular 'twist' to them appeal to me the most.
An example is the solution to the diagrammed position. It is a mate in 3, and the main line has an appealing 'shape' to it. To help you discover this shape, I'll give you a solution that doesn't work. The obvious 1.Qb1 (threatening Qb8#) fails to 1. ... Bg3, covering the target square. So you need to find another plan.

Deep thought for the Day

What are the odds that the best chess player in the world has never played chess?
This thought has occured to me over the years, especially after my trip to the Solomon Islands earlier this year. The basic thrust of the article is that societal factors influence both discovery and progress in a particular field. "Where are all the great Norwegian Australian Rules footballers?" is another way of thinking about it.
Now chess is a lot more universal than 'niche' sports, and it is easier to at least know what it is. But even so, there are still barriers that exist to impede progress to a higher level of play. Top of my list of things needed to progress would be access to organised competition, even ahead of access to coaching or books. Certainly this is the lesson I took away from the Solomon Islands, where a years worth of organised chess (individual and teams events), has taken local chess past countries like Papua New Guinea, where hardly any organised chess exists.

Korchnoi and Spassky halve out

The match between Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi ended all square after 8 games. The second half of the match saw 2 wins for Spassky and 1 for Korchnoi, but the final game ended in a draw after only 11 moves. No surprise really, although it is a result that is more indicative of an older generation.
Overall this is a better result for Spassky than Korchnoi, as Spassky hadn't played a FIDE rated game in 7 years. I'm assuming that this doesn't signal a comeback from the former World Champion but if the 'chess nostalgia' circuit takes off, he could make a little cash via that route.

Korchnoi,Viktor (2567) - Spassky,Boris (2548) [A28]
Match Elista RUS (5), 24.12.2009

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.a3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Qc2 Be7 7.e3 a6 8.Bc4 Nb6 9.Bd3 Qd7 10.b3 f5 11.e4 g5 12.exf5 g4 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Be4 Nc6 15.Ne2 Bf6 16.Rb1 Qd6 17.h3 gxh3 18.Rxh3 Bd7 19.Rd3 Qf8 20.Bxc6 Bxc6 21.Re3+ Kd7 22.Bb2 Nd5 23.Qd3 Bxb2 24.Rxb2 Qxa3 25.Rc2 Rae8 26.Qd4 Kc8 0-1

How not to publicise a tournament

Since the start of December I have been bombarded with press releases from the "World Championship" tournaments being held in Las Vegas by the World Chess Federation. Some of them are totally laughable, with my favourite being "FIDE take notice of World Chess Federation". The notice was in the form of a warning not to deal with this organisation.
The other press releases fall under heading of "totally pointless". They breathlessly announce that player X has beaten player Y, and now leads tournament Z. What they miss is all the other essential information that a press release needs, such as how many players are in the event, and how the other leading players might be performing. This information (including tournament crosstables) seem to be well hidden, both in the press release, and on the web page of the organisers.
I suspect that this type of PR will continue until there is a sudden announcement that some 2100 player is the new "World Champion", followed by a complaint a few days later from the "World Champion" that they have had trouble cashing their winners cheque.

Hastings Chess Congress

There are a number of traditional post-Christmas chess events, with the Hastings Chess Congress probably the most famous. For many years the top event was a strong round-robin, with a mixed field of top UK players and overseas masters, but these days it has fallen victim to economic necessity, and has become large swiss, like so many other events on the chess calendar.
Nonetheless it has attracted a strong lineup of players, with details to be found here. I was particularly pleased to see a preview of the tournament by Stewart Reuben, as he had been suffering from poor health a few months ago. Hopefully he is fully healed and back to his organising best.

A couple of different draws

Here is an interesting chess problem for Christsmas Day (and most of Boxing Day as well). It was composed by Rinck, and I came across it in "The Complete Book of Chess" by Horowitz and Rothenberg. At first I thought it was cute due to a stalemate motif, but as I was setting the diagram in Chessbase, Fritz showed me another interesting line, if Black refuses to 'play along'. My source was silent about the slightly longer line, which is a little surprising. For anyone involved in chess coaching it would also serve as a useful exercise in trying to deal with all attempts at counterplay.
White to play and Draw.