Retired Hurt

The first round of the ACT Championship saw one of the more spectacular finishes to a chess game I have seen in recent years. White had been a little too ambitious with his attack, and Black looked like he had the upper hand. But on move 26 White threated to win back material by playing Qe3. However just as he played the move he jumped up from the board and clutched the back of his leg. Clearly in pain he moved away from the board, before going down with a leg cramp. There were attempts to mitigate the pain, but to no avail, and he crawled back to the board, to resign the game. At this point the physio ran onto the playing area to provide first aid, but of course the game was over. Kind of a shame, as the position was not lost by any means.

McPherson,Erick - Yin,Wenlin [B23]

2011 ACT Championship (1.6), 05.03.2011

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.f4 Bg7 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Be2 e6 6.0-0 Nge7 7.d3 d6 8.Qe1 0-0 9.Nd1 d5 10.Nf2 b6 11.c3 Bb7 12.Ng5 Qd7 13.Ng4 f6 14.Nf3 f5 15.exf5 Nxf5 16.Nfe5 Nxe5 17.fxe5 h5 18.Nf6+ Bxf6 19.exf6 Rxf6 20.d4 Raf8 21.Bg5 R6f7 22.Bd3 cxd4 23.cxd4 Nxd4 24.Rxf7 Qxf7 25.Qe5 Qg7 (D)

26.Qe3 Re8 0-1

2011 ACT Championship - Day 2

The second day of the 2011 ACT Championship saw the top seeds begin to meet. In round 3 pre-tournament favourites Junta Ikeda and Andrew Brown both scored wins, although Ikeda walked the time trouble tight-rope for the second half of his game, but amazingly managed to win on time in an even position. Allen Setiabudi and Daniel Abrahams kept pace with the leaders after drawing their game, while defending champion Andrey Bliznyuk amoved to 2.5/3 after beating Alana Chibnall.

Round 4 saw Brown and Ikeda play on the top board, with Abrahams and Bliznyuk playing on board 2. Ikeda employed his usual 'slow build up' strategy, organising his pieces before opening up the position. When the pawn break came, Brown found his king in the firing line, and after missing a key defensive idea in time trouble, resigned when faced with mate. Abrahams and Bliznyuk drew their game, allowing Allen Setiabudi to move into outright second after surviving an interesting attack from Willis Lo.

The tournament continues next weekend, when the final 5 rounds will be played.

Results and games are available at the ANU Chess Club website (click on Current Tournaments and Games links).

Brown,Andrew - Ikeda,Junta [E15]

2011 ACT Championship (4.1), 06.03.2011

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Bg2 Bb4+ 7.Nbd2 Be4 8.Qd1 0-0 9.0-0 Bxd2 10.Qxd2 d6 11.b3 Nbd7 12.Bb2 Qe7 13.Qf4 Rfe8 14.Rac1 a5 15.a3 Nf8 16.h4 Ng6 17.Qg5 h6 18.Qe3 Bb7 19.Nd2 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 Qd7 21.Qc3 Rad8 22.e4 e5 23.f3 Nh5 24.Rh1 f5 25.d5 Rf8 26.Rce1 Rf7 (D) 27.exf5 Qxf5 28.Re3 Rdf8 29.g4 Ngf4+ 30.Kf2 Qg6 31.Ne4 Nf6 32.Nxf6+ Rxf6 33.h5 Qf7 34.Rh2 e4 35.Rxe4 Nxd5 36.Qd4 Rxf3+ 37.Ke2 Nf6 38.Kxf3 Nxe4+ 39.Ke2 Qf1+ 0-1

2011 ACT Championship - Day 1

As with open events of this type (smallish field, large spread of ratings), the first day is often about 'pre-sorting' the field, with the real action occurring in the future.

A field of 34 players (2 more than last year), entered the tournament, although the field is slightly weaker than 2010. However FM Junta Ikdea and defending champion Andrey Bliznyuk have once again entered the tournament, along with (IM) Andrew Brown. (A number of other strong players were invited to play, but were unable to take part, for various reasons).

At the end of Day 1 6 players are on 2/2. They are pre-tournament favourites Junta Ikeda and Andrew Brown, along with Daniel Abrahams, Mos Ali, Wenlin Yin and Allen Setiabudi. Most of the games have gone according to rating, although Willis Lo held Andrey Bliznyuk to a draw in the final game of round 2.

Results from the tournament are available from the ANU Chess Club page (under Current Tournaments) along with the games under the Games link.

Setiabudi,Allen - Radisich,Matt [C64]

2011 ACT Championship (1.7), 05.03.2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Qf6 4.0-0 Bc5 5.c3 Nge7 6.d4 exd4 7.Bg5 Qg6 8.Bxe7 Bxe7 9.cxd4 Qxe4 10.Re1 Qd5 11.Nc3 Qd6 12.d5 Nd8 13.Qe2 c6(D)

14.Nd4 cxb5 15.Nf5 Qb4 16.Nxe7 Kf8 17.Ng6+ 1-0

With Easter coming late this year

Easter is the trickiest of holidays, as it moves around due to the cycles of the move. As the Doeberl Cup (and other tournaments) like to use the 4 day break to hold their events, the differing Easter dates can both affect the number of entries to the tournament, and the actual holding of other events.

This year Easter is quite late in April, and indeed runs over another Australian holiday, ANZAC Day. In the past there have been tournaments organised to take advantage of this normally separate holiday, but not this year (although the Melbourne Chess Club have just decided to organise an easter weekender and call it the ANZAC Day Weekender).

However the lateness of Easter has also freed up the normally busy March/April calendar. The Dubbo Open (always popular with Canberra players) is now on the 9th & 10th of April, while the Ballarat Weekender (12,13,14th of March) may benefit from the longer gap between it and the Doeberl Cup.

As for numbers, I always feel the Doeberl gets better numbers the later Easter is, but I must confess this assertion isn't backed up by any analysis. Of course if it is true, then the Doeberl should get more than 250 players this year :)

OK, you can have white

Another from the White=Black files.
The following game was one of the longer CC games I have played in recent years. There were a couple of interesting points, including the offer of a queen, and the choice of opening variation by my opponent. His 6th move (Bd2) looks like a novelty, although by playing 8.Bg5 he transposed back into theory, with one important exception. As he took two moves to get his bishop to g5, while I played Bg4 in 1 move, we effectively swapped colours, and as long as I remembered I was playing 'white' I could follow existing theory for a number of moves.
As for the queen offer, he did something that you can't do in over the board chess, but is perfectly ok in CC. "nice move but i not novice :)" was his comment after declining the offer. I decided not to reply after I won his queen a few moves later.

franknicol - Press,Shaun [C49]
Chessworld Friendly, 03.03.2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.d3 d6 6.Bd2 0-0 7.0-0 Bg4 8.Bg5 Nd4 9.Nd5 Nxb5 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Nxb4 Nd4 12.c3 Nxf3+ 13.gxf3 Bh3 14.Re1 Kh8 15.Kh1 Rg8 16.Rg1 c6 17.Rxg8+ Qxg8 18.Qg1 Qg6 19.Qg3 Be6 20.f4 exf4 21.Qxf4 Rg8 22.Qg3 Qh6 23.Qe3 Bg4 (D)
24.f4 Qh5 25.Rf1 Bh3 26.Qf2 Bg2+ 27.Qxg2 Rxg2 28.Kxg2 a5 29.Nc2 Qg4+ 30.Kf2 Qxf4+ 31.Ke2 Qxh2+ 32.Rf2 Qh5+ 33.Kd2 d5 34.Nd4 dxe4 35.dxe4 Qg5+ 36.Kd3 h5 37.Rf5 Qg3+ 38.Kc4 h4 39.Rh5+ Kg8 40.Nf5 Qg2 41.Rxh4 Qxb2 42.Rg4+ Kf8 43.Kc5 Qxc3+ 44.Kb6 Qb2+ 45.Kc7 Qe5+ 46.Kxb7 c5 47.Rh4 Kg8 48.Rg4+ Kh7 49.Ka7 c4 50.Rg7+ Kh8 51.Rg4 c3 52.Rh4+ Kg8 53.Rg4+ Kh7 54.Rh4+ Kg6 55.Rg4+ Kh5 56.Rg2 Qc5+ 57.Ka6 c2 0-1

2011 ANU Masters - Round 4

The 2011 ANU Masters now has joint leaders after FM Junta Ikeda defeated (IM) Andrew Brown in their round 4 game. The opening was a Queens Indian, and at first Brown looked better with the two bishops and more space on the queenside. However Ikeda struck back in the centre, and eventually trapped Brown's queen after it went on a pawn grabbing excursion.

Alana Chibnall broke her duck for the tournament with a win over Peter Pullicino. Her choice of a closed sicilian resulted in better posted pieces, which was enough to win the ending. Ian Rout defeated Adrian De Noskowski after the latter seemed to lose control of the position early on. Rout won material with a nice tactic and quickly converted it into a mating attack.

There are a couple of deferred games from the early rounds of this event but at the moment Ikeda and Brown share the lead on 3/4, with Andrey Bliznyuk on 2.5/4

Brown,Andrew (2175) - Ikeda,Junta (2262) [E15]

2011 ANU Masters (4), 02.03.2011

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Bg2 Bb4+ 7.Nbd2 0-0 8.0-0 Bxd2 9.Bxd2 Be4 10.Qc3 d6 11.Rac1 Nbd7 12.Rfd1 Qe7 13.b4 Rfc8 14.a4 h6 15.Bh3 a5 16.b5 c6 17.Qa3 c5 18.dxc5 Nxc5 19.Bf4 Rd8 20.Nd2 Bb7 21.f3 Rac8 22.Nb3 Nxb3 23.Qxb3 d5 24.Qe3 dxc4 25.Qxb6 Nd5 26.Qxa5 Qc5+ 27.Kf1 c3 28.Rd3 Ra8 29.Rcxc3 Qf8 30.Qxd8 Rxd8 31.Bc7 Rc8 32.Rxd5 Bxd5 33.e4 Qb4 34.Rc1 Bc4+ 0-1

Chess in Schools Videos

The FIDE Chess in Schools Commission has launched a competition to find the best videos on the subject of schools chess. The videos themselves are at their video site, and each month there is a vote for the best video. I'm not sure what the best video wins (apart from fame and glory) but one lucky voter wins a prize. Click on the above link for full details and the to watch the videos (including one from Australia).