And back from Blayney tonight

A quick summary of results from the 2008 Blayney Open. The tournament attracted 40 players (up from 34 last year) and would have more except for a number of last minute emergency drop outs.
Top seed Endre Ambrus won the event with 5.5/6. He started with 5 wins and finished the event with a game against David Castor that went 1.b3 Draw? which was then accepted by Castor. Second place went to Peter Abbott on 5/6 with a 4 way tie for third on 4.5. David Dick won the title of NSW Country Champion (repeating his win from 1985!), while most of the other prizes were collected by players from Canberra.
How I managed to go from 4/4 to 4/6 will be the subject of tomorrows post. It won't be pretty.

Off to Blayney today

Heading off to Blayney this morning to play in the 2008 Blayney Open. If I get net access at the motel I'm staying at I'll try and post some results, otherwise I'll have to wait until I return to Canberra on Sunday evening.

An odd collision

While reading The Closet Grandmaster's blog (which I do almost everyday) I decided to check out his story on Eric Schiller. The story itself wasn't that interesting, just a run of the mill cheque forwarding scam (which btw is usually the intent behind the 'Earn money from home by processing payments' spam that most people get), but there was a nugget of interest buried at the bottom. Schiller also writes a blog on the DailyKos website.
The DailyKos is one of the most popular political blogs and one I read every day (if not more often), along with Atrios and Crooks and Liars. Schiller posts under the name of makechessnotwar , which is a noble sentiment, and his most recent posts are in support of regime change in the USA.
I'm not sure Schiller's diary will be added to my list of everyday reads, especially given the mixed quality of his chess writings, but I'll probably check it out every now and then.

Smerdon - The King of Chess

IM David Smerdon had a productive trip to the Gold COast last weekend, winning the 2008 Surfers Paradise Open. Organised by the modestly named Kings of Chess club, this event was attempted to combine the weekend chess format, with a FIDE rated event. 

The 6 round tournament attracted a strong field, with GM Darryl Johansen, IM's Stephen Solomon and Peter Froelich and WIM's Arianne Caoili, Alexandra Jule and Narelle Szuveges also taking part.

 Smerdon scored a perfect 5.5/6, with the half point coming from a first round bye. On his way to outright first Smerdon defeated  both Froelich and Caoili and finished a full point ahead of Froelich and Solomon.
One innovative idea for the tournament was a brilliancy prize, which is to be judged by GM Alexi Shirov. Quite possibly Smerdon will win this prize as well, for this game against Nik Stawski.

Chrome

I've hopped on the bandwagon and installed chrome on my computer. At this stage I can say (a) this blog seems to work ok with it and (b) it even lets me edit my posts that have replayable chess games on it (which firefox is a bit contrary about doing).

Zhao wins in Brazil!

After taking an early lead in the 2nd Euwe Stimulans Tournament in Brazil, Australian GM Zong Yuan Zhao ended the event tied for first with Brazilian GM Gilberto Milos, on 6.5/9. Zhao scored 5 wins, 3 draws and a single loss, the Dutch GM John van der Wiel.
Zhao's score of 6.5 was good enough for a performance rating above 2600 and indicates that he is in good form going into this years Olympiad.

but, rules are rules.

A controversial end to the first round of the Women's World Championship Knockout, with the result of the sudden death game between Monika Socko and Sabina-Francesca Foisor being decided by the appeals committee. This was an "Armageddon" playoff, with Black (Foisor) advancing to the next round if the game was drawn. The game reached a K+NvK+N ending (with no pawns) and Foisor claimed a draw (although she didn't stop the clock). After she lost on time the arbiter declared the game drawn. Socko then appealed the result, and the game was awarded to her by this committee.
The appeal was upheld on Article 9.6 which reads "The game is drawn when a position is reached from which a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series of legal moves, even with the most unskilled play. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing this position is legal."
As it is possible to construct a mate with K+N v K+N (see diagram) the appeals committee that the result be a win for White. The full judgement can be read here.
Now I've always thought that this was a terribly worded rule, precisely because of situations like this. When I have been confronted in situations like this when directing tournaments (eg player with K+NvK+Q+3P claims a win and argues that the player may underpromote and build a self mate), I usually roll my eyes, declare it a draw, but suggest to the player they can appeal the result "if they want to win that badly".
Obviously Socko did want to win the game "that badly", although given the absurdity of just moving knights back and forth while waiting for a win on time is not a win I'd be proud of.
But was the decision of the appeals committee wrong? Clearly not according to the rules. Should the rule be rewritten? Certainly yes, but almost certainly not at the upcoming FIDE Congress, as their are no proposed changes to this rule.
And one final question. What would have happened if the arbiter had declared the game drawn before either flag had fallen?
(Thanks to Andrey Bliznyuk for the links on this)