FIDE Congress

The 2009 FIDE Congress is happening as I post this. I had hoped to attend this year, but a shift in venue from Singapore to Haldiki in Greece made it difficult both in terms of time and money.
In non-Olympiad years the majority of the congress is taken up by technical meetings, as there is no General Assembly. My main reason for wanting to attend was to take part in the meeting of the Technical Administration Panel (TAP), which is responsible for Olympiad issues. I've received a brief report on the meeting from Nick Faulks who described it a 'purely technical' and confined to pairing rules for the 2010 Olympiad. The major decision to come out of the meeting is that Accelerated Pairings will not be used. I'm sure this will please most teams.

Young Masters

Canberra juniors are still performing well on the national stage, winning 2 out of 3 tournaments at the Australian Young Masters. In the top event, Andrew Brown (ACT) was a convincing winner on 7.5/9, a point and a half ahead of second place Blair Mandla (NSW). Current ACT Junior Champion Allen Setiabudi finished on 4.5, while WFM Emma Guo scored 3.5.
The Girls Masters was a 6 player double RR and was won by Alana Chibnall (ACT) on 7.5/10 while Megan Setiabudi (ACT) tied with Leteisha Simmonds Sophie Eustace on 6.5. Jo Mason (ACT) scored 1.5.
There was also a Junior Masters event, which was won by Sally Yu (Vic), although there were no ACT players in the field.


Chibnall, Alana v Eustace, Sophie
2009 Australian Girls Masters

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 e6 4.Bb5 Nge7 5.e5 a6 6.Ne4 Nd5 7.Bxc6 dxc6 8.d3 b5 9.Nf3 Be7 10.0-0 Qb6 11.c4 Nc7 12.Nfg5 Bd7 13.Nd6+ Kf8 14.Ngxf7 Rg8 15.Ng5 Bxg5 16.fxg5+ Ke7 17.Rf7+ Kd8 18.Qf3 Be8 (D)
19.g6 h6 20.Bxh6 gxh6 21.Qf6# 1-0

The Week in Chess

Before there were blogs and websites dedicated to up to the minute chess news, the best source for topical information on the current happenings in the world of chess was The Week in Chess. TWIC (as it is more commonly known) was, and still is, produced by Mark Crowther and is a weekly newsletter of current tournament from around the world. I used to rely on it heavily for news back when Paul Dunn and myself were doing The Chess Show on 2SSS-FM in Canberra.
Of course when someone becomes famous for one thing (as Mark is), it is often forgotten that they can do other things. In this case the other thing is playing chess! Mark has a current ECF Grade of 188, which is about 2100 FIDE. And while talking to him about other matters, he sent me a game from a weekend match played between his club, and the Alwoodley Chess Club, which is the home club of my PNG team mate, Rupert Jones. It turned out this was the decisive game of the match, and in part demonstrates the difference between individual chess and teams chess. As every game may be crucial to the final score, you need to hang in there for as long as you can.

Birkin,Mark - Crowther,Mark [C00]
Woodhouse Cup (2), 10.10.2009

1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.Ngf3 Bc5 5.e5 Nfd7 6.c3 a5 7.d4 Bb6 8.Bd3 c5 9.Bc2 Nc6 10.Nf1 f6 11.Nh4 cxd4 12.Qh5+ Ke7 13.exf6+ Nxf6 14.Qg5 Kf7 15.Ng3 Bd7 16.Nh5 Qg8 17.0-0 Rf8 18.Bf4 Bd8 19.Bd6 Ne7 20.Bxe7 Kxe7 21.cxd4 h6 22.Nxf6 hxg5 23.Nxg8+ Rhxg8 24.Ng6+ Kd6 25.Nxf8 Rxf8 26.Rad1 Bb6 27.Rd2 Rf4 28.Rfd1 Be8 29.g3 Rf8 30.Re1 Bb5 31.Bd3 Bd7 32.Be2 a4 33.Red1 Rc8 34.Bg4 Ba5 35.Re2 b5 36.Kg2 b4 37.b3 a3 38.Rde1 Re8 39.Bh5 Rf8 40.Bg4 Rf6 41.Re5 Bb6 42.Rxg5 Bxd4 43.f4 Rf8 44.h4 Bf6 45.Rg6 Rc8 46.Re2 d4 47.Rxf6 gxf6 48.Kf2 f5 49.Bf3 Rc1 50.Rd2 e5 51.fxe5+ Kxe5 52.h5 Be6 53.Re2+ Kf6 54.Rd2 Rb1 55.Ke2 Bxb3 56.axb3 Rb2 0-1

There is many a slip betwixt cup and lip

Thinking you have a winning game, and finding out you don't can be a painful experience. In the diagrammed position White looks like he has it in the bag. He however chose to take the pawn on c7 and after Qa5, it all came unstuck pretty quickly.
Myself, the ever helpful kibitzer, suggest a way to win a piece using a 'windmill' combination of 1.Qxh5! gxh5 2.Rg7+ Kh8 (2. ... Kf8 3.Rf1#) 3.Rxc7+ Kg8 4.Rg7+ Kh8 5.Rxa7+ 6.Kg8 Rxa3 However even this suggestion wasn't the best as White can instead mate after 3.Rg6#

Chess and Baseball

Something has been bugging me for a while. When I do a search on "chess" on google news, I get a number of mentions of the current Division Series playoffs in American Major League Baseball. I recall seeing the same thing last year as well, and so my question is: Does the term "Chess Match" refer to something specific in baseball (ie the current playoff series, long standing rivalries) or is it just a popular term amongst sports writers to add gravitas to the game?
Answers appreciated.

Birthday Chess

As my birthday (today) falls on a Friday this year, it coincided with me playing members of the public on the giant chess board in Garema Place, in the Canberra city centre. I had blogged about this before (the giant board that is, not my birthday), and I have a few new observations to add.
Firstly, there is plenty of hidden talent wandering the shopping malls of Canberra. Although I won the 4 games I played, all my opponents (including a 5 year old child) had some idea of what to do. This actually makes for some good chess, as the game usually requires some 'cleverness' to win.
Secondly, once each game started quite a large crowd gathered. I could see various spectators passing on their chess wisdom to their friends and there was a lot of nodding and pointing before and after each move. However,once the game finished the crowd seemed to completely vanish, to be replaced by a different group of people 4 or 5 moves into the next game.
Here is one of the games I played, against an opponent who was probably a little single minded in his attempts to checkmate me. Towards the end of the game he even got as far as to threaten mate in 1, but unfortunately for him it was my move, and got my checkmating attack in first.

Other,A.N. - Press,Shaun [C20]
Casual, 09.10.2009

1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.Qf3 Bc5 5.Nh3 d6 6.Qg3 0-0 7.d3 Qd7 8.Bh6 Qg4 9.Bg5 Qxg3 10.hxg3 Nd7 11.Be3 Bb6 12.Ng5 h6 13.Nf3 f5 14.Rh5 Nf6 15.Rh4 fxe4 16.dxe4 Bxe3 17.fxe3 Be6 18.Nbd2 Ng4 19.Bc4 Bxc4 20.Nxc4 Nf6 21.g4 Nxe4 22.b4 Nxc3 23.Kd2 Nd5 24.Rah1 Ncxb4 25.g5 hxg5 (D)
26.Nxg5 Rf2+ 27.Ke1 Nd3+ 28.Kd1 Nc3# 0-1

An attack starting from nothing

Chess coaching is often full of contradictions. While it is important for beginners to learn the virtues of solid, mistake free chess, this isn't the stuff that makes chess exciting. So after 35 minutes of 'put your pieces on safe squares, keep material even or in your favour', you wheel out the Morphy 'Opera Box' game to show them something interesting, and all they take away from the lesson is that you should sacrifice all your pieces to win.
Another good piece of advice is "develop your pieces before you attack". But if you are going to teach that lesson, then make sure you don't show the following game at any stage. It was played in the 1916 match between Janowski and Marshall (two obsessively attacking players for sure), but after 12 moves Black has only one developed piece, and he sacrifices that on move 13. Then with no pieces off the back rank, he proceeds to launch the mating attack. Not a great advertisement for the aforementioned advice.
Nonetheless it does serve as an example that chess is not just about one thing or another. In this case the other factors in play were White's lack of King safety (12.Qg4 was the culprit here) and Black's use of the open f and c files.

Janowski,Dawid Markelowicz - Marshall,Frank James [D00]
New York m3 New York (7), 1916

1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Nc6 4.c3 e6 5.Nd2 Bd6 6.Bg3 f5 7.Ngf3 Nf6 8.Ne5 0-0 9.f4 Bxe5 10.fxe5 Ne4 11.Nxe4 fxe4 12.Qg4 cxd4 13.exd4 Nxd4 14.cxd4 (D) 14. ... Qa5+ 15.Kd1 Bd7 16.Qe2 Ba4+ 17.Kc1 Rac8+ 18.Kb1 Rxf1+ 19.Rxf1 Bb5 20.Qd1 Bd3+ 21.Qxd3 exd3 22.a4 Rc2 23.Bf4 Qb4 24.Bc1 Rxg2 25.Ra3 d2 0-1