Player caught with computer at Oz Open

Exciting times at the Australian Open Championship today when a player was caught using a 'hand held machine' in the toilets. The player, Eduard Naoumov, was taking part in the Under 1600 event and had been doing quite well up until this point starting with 5/5, although he lost in round 6, and today's round 7. Apart from the loss of the game, Naoumov was expelled from the tournament. He appealed this punishment, but the penalty was upheld by the appeals committee 3-0.
Further information on this case, including the score of today's game can be found here at The Closetgrandmaster Blog.

A New Years Blog Roll

By most standards, my blog roll (the links to other blogs from this one) is pretty small. In fact it is only 3 names long. After almost 2 years of blogging, it is probably time to add some extra links. But rather than just me choosing, I'm inviting suggestions from you, as this blog is as much a resource for you, as it is a project of mine.
So if you are a regular reader of another chess blog, and you think others would enjoy reading it as well, make a suggestion in the comments section. The only restrictions I would place on suggestions are (a) it should be a blog (and not a bulletin board etc), (b) it deals with chess and (c) it is updated regularly (at least once a day is good, but I may consider 4 or 5 times a week acceptable). Oh, and the usual guidelines concerning anonymous posts hold. (ie If you want me to take notice of your suggestion, put a name to your post, even if it is something as simple as 'Steve')

Photos from the 2009 Australian Open

I've put up a gallery of pictures from the 2009 Australian Open. Click here to see a selection of players from the tournament.
At the end of round 6 IM Aleks Wohl (pictured) has the outright lead on 5.5/6 with a group of players close behind on 5. Of the ACT players Ian Rout continues to do well with 4/6, although his joke that he may become "the weakest Australian Open winner ever" (made when the event only had 22 entries and he was seeded 7th) is now unlikely to come true.

A day at the cricket

I spent the day watching the third test between Australia and South Africa. The Australian batting was enjoyable, although the bowling attack once again leaves a lot to be desired. In terms of other excitment, there was only one streaker, and they weren't very good at it, as they seemed to get less than a metre onto the ground before being pounced upon by security.
I dropped inot the Australian Open this evening and took some pictures. I hope to get a few more from the start of tommorows round, and will try and post them later.
And speaking of cricket, at Dresden I bumped into Peter Svidler, Russian Olympiad player and well known cricket fan. Attempting to make small talk I asked him about the 2nd Australia v New Zealand Test that was in progress at the time (and had reached stumps on day 3). Like a true chessplayer he simply replied "This position, it is totally unclear"

Australian Junior Championship starts as well

Also starting yesterday was the 2009 Australian Junior Championship. Normally when the Junior and Senior Championship/Open events are on at the same time, they are also held in the same city. In this case however the Juniors are being held in Adelaide (with the Open in Sydney). Normally the juniors would be held later in the month of January but they (a) wanted to avoid a clash with Queenstown and (b) as there was no bidders for the Australian Open until the middle of last year, had taken dates which at the time were free.
The event has attracted a Bradmanesque 99 players across the 4 events, with 45 in the Under 18 Open, 15 in the Under 18 Girls, 29 in the Under 12 Boys and 10 in the Under 10 Girls. So far 2 rounds have been played, and full results plus some games and bulletins can be found at the above link.

2009 Australian Open underway

The 2009 Australian Open began this afternoon at the Manly-Warringah Leagues Club, just inland from Sydney's northern beaches. The move back to a major population centre like Sydney (as opposed to smaller places like Mt Buller or Canberra), had a positive effect on the numbers, with the Open attracting 15 more players than in 2006-07 (73 for round 1). The secondary event (the Norths Chess Club Centenary Tournament) attracted 53 players, giving a total turn out of 126 player (exceeding the 112 in Canberra 2 years ago).
IM Mark Chapman is the top seed, with IM George Xie, FM Vladimir Smirnov and IM Aleks Wohl filling out the top 4. All 4 top seeds won there first round games, although there were upsets on the lower boards. Live game coverage can be found at the tournament website (2 games today, hopefully 4 tomorrow) as well as links to all the games played in the 1st round for both events (Good work organisers!).
Probably the most noticeable game from round 1 was top seed Mark Chapman's quick demolition of Dennis Wan.

Alekhine to tour Australia!

According to Graham Clayton, author of 'The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia' column, Alexander Alekhine contacted the Australian Chess Federation in 1932 proposing to tour Australia in early 1934. Alekhine was heading this way as part of his tour of South East Asia, and was looking for 500 pounds to cover 10 simuls and a blindfold exhibition. The ACF declined the offer.
He then approached the ACF a second time, this time asking for 200 pounds + expenses for 20 simuls over a six week period. He even indicated a willingness to take part in the 1934 Melbourne Centenary Tour, but as history records, the trip did not eventuate.
I'm assuming that minutes of ACF meetings from that time no longer exist (or if they did would be considered confidential), but it would be interesting to see what reasons the ACF gave for rejecting the offer. Just as it would be interesting to see if the ACF would accept a similar offer today.

btw If you wish to read 'The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia' column, just go the the Chessville.com website and click on the links. You can even subscribe to their free weekly email newsletter while you are there.