O2C Doeberl Cup 2010 - Premier filling fast

3 2 months to go until Australia's Number 1 chess tournament, the O2C Doeberl Cup, begins. As with the last couple of years the main interest, and the early entries, have been concerntrated on the Premier Section. As of today there are already 32 players entered into this tournament, and with a size limit of 90 players, it means there is only room for another 58 entries.
There is still plenty of room in the other events (U/2000, Under 1600 and Under 1200), although there are size limits for these tournaments as well.
In terms of the strength of the fiels the Premier already has 11 GM's and 6 IM's. Once again there is a sizeable contingent from India, and it looks like some of the players who mplayed last year enjoyed the event so much they are coming back again.
If you wish to enter the tournament (or just see who else has entered) just click on the link to the tournament website and choose the appropriate heading.

(Disclaimer: I am a paid official for this event )

Time as a factor in chess

I've just read Chess Vibes very harsh review of "Revolutionize your Chess" by Moskalenko. As I haven't read the book In have no way of judging either the book or the review. However the reviewer correctly takes Moskalenko to task for the following quote

Advantages may change during a game, or may even be overruled by an endangered position of the king, or by the factor which has thus far been neglected in theoretical works: Time. This dynamic factor should be included in any chess system if we want to call it conclusive.

The reviewer observes that time has been considered by other recent writers, including Jonathon Rowson in "Chess for Zebras". In fact 'time' as a specific chess concept pre-dates even that with Larry Evens devoting a chapter to it in his book "New Ideas in Chess", first published in 1958.
In the chapter on time he give some opening analysis which I had not previously seen. After the normal moves of the Two Knights Defence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.0-0 Nxe4 (D) he quotes some Soviet analysis which suggests that 6.Nc3 may be playable. He goes on the recommend the safe reply 6. ... Nxc3, reasoning that as Black is ahead material, he should catch up in time. He gives as a footnote the obvious line 6. ... dxc3 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qd5+ Ke8 9.Re1 Be7 10.Rxe4 d6 11.Bg5 with the conclusion that Blacks faces a fierce attack. All very true, but sadly it is time (and the development of strong computer programs) that have caught up with this analysis. These days plugging this position into Fritz would quickly reveal that Black can hang on, no matter how scary the position looks.

Gibtelecom Masters

The 8th Gibtelecom Masters is underway in Gibraltar. As usual the Masters section is crammed with GM's head by French GM Etienne Bacrot. GM Michael Adams is also taking part in the big swiss (and currently shares first place), which is a little bit of a surprise, as up until last year he was more of your 'Elite GM Round Robin' player.
The only Australian player in the field (that I could spot) was Ibrahim Ogada-Osir who is on 1.5/3, along with a popular visitor to these shores, Henrik Mortensen.
While the homepage for the event is top notch as always, the organisers have added a little extra with live video feeds of GM Stuart Conquests commentary. The link for this feature is here, and the action should begin at Midnight Canberra time.

Canberra Chess for 2010

Traditionally the chess clubs in Canberra normally start in the first week in February, but this year a couple are so eager to get going that there first tournaments for the year are underway. For those chessplayers coming to Canberra this year, or in fact are already here but hiding away here are the details for each of the clubs

• Tuggeranong Chess Club - Monday nights 7pm Vikings Rugby Union Club, Ricardo St, Wanniassa
• ANU Chess Club - Wednesday nights 7:30 pm, 4th Floor, Asian Studies Building, Childers St, Australian National University
• Canberra Chess Club - Wednesday nights 6pm Magpies City Club, Canberra City
• Belconnen Chess Club - Friday nights Belconnen Community Centre, Belconnen Town Centre

There are also a couple of junior chess clubs that meet during school term

• Souths Junior Chess Club - Thursday 4:00 - 5:45 pm, Holy Trinity School, Curtin

• Norths Junior Chess Club - Friday 4:00 - 6:00 pm Aranda Primary School, Aranda

And of course

• Street Chess - Saturday 11am-3pm City Walk, Canberra City

Detailed calendars for each club can be found at Ian Rout's chess page.

The drawing master

Sometimes you get into a 'drawing rut' and no matter what you do, you can't seem to get out of it. Depending on who you are it may be your fault (happy to draw with higher rated opponents) or the fault of your opponents (happy to draw with you).
In the current Corus tournament, World Champion Viswanathan Anand has halved the point in every game he has played so far. Given his title and rating, I suspect this doesn't make him as happy as it does his opponents. At the top end of the tournament Shirov is still in first place, tied with Vladimir Kramnik, who joined him after defeating Magnus Carlsen in Round 9.

And speaking of mate in 1's as I was a few days ago, US GM Ray Robson walked into one in the top of the table Group C clash with Li Chao. However it wasn't as egregious as the example I previously gave, as Robson's final move didn't create the mate in 1, instead merely ignoring it. In the diagrammed position Robson played 33. ... Qf5?? which at least threatened Qxc2 and offered the exchange of queens. Unfortunately it was refuted by 34.Qh8#

Bobby Cheng wins Australian Junior

World Under 12 Champion Bobby Cheng is the new Australian Junior Champion, the youngest in the tournaments history. He scored 10/11 finishing ahead of Andrew Brown on 9/11. The decisive game between the 2 players was in round 6, which Cheng won, as both players finished the event with 4.5 points over the last 5 rounds.
In the under 12 Championship, top seed Andrew Pan totally dominated the event with a Fischer-esque 11/11. Second placed Joshua Behar finished a full 2.5 points back. The girls championship was won by Leteisha Simmonds after defeating Abbie Kanagarajah in the playoff for the title, after both finished on 8/11. The under 12 girls championship saw another perfect score after Savithri Narenthren scored 9/9 in the 10 player event.
Full standings and title winners in the other age groups can be found at the tournament website.

Rooks on non-open files

Rooks usually belong on open files, and the normal script is (1) open file (2) stick rook on it. Sometimes you reverse the order, especially if you are playing uber-positional chess, in a Karpovian style. However putting the rook on a closed file as an attacking move is a much rarer thing instead.
Idly leafing through "Take my Rooks" by Minev and Seirawan I found the following game. To get at the enemy king Black puts his rook on a very closed g file, before sacrificing a piece to open it up.Interestingly Fritz had no difficulty in finding Blacks attacking idea, and just as interestingly, suggested the best defence for White was to mimic the manoeuvre and place his rook on the same, closed file (with 15.Rg1)

Gomes - Netto [C46]
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, 1942

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Bc4 d6 5.d3 Bg4 6.Be3 Nd4 7.Bxd4 Bxd4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Nb5 Bb6 10.Qe2 Ne7 11.0-0 a6 12.Na3 Ng6 13.g3 Qf6 14.Kg2 (D)
14. ... Rg8 15.c3 Nh4+ 16.gxh4 g5 17.Rg1 Bxf3+ 18.Qxf3 gxh4+ 0-1