Australian Tournament Streaming

 GM Ian Rogers has entered the world of live streaming, covering the current Ballarat Begonia Open at https://www.twitch.tv/gmianr He plans to follow this up with coverage of the 2022 O2C Doeberl Cup next month. The move to online coverage is both as a consequence of current covid rules, but also an understanding that technology has advanced to a level where the traditional in person lecture has been replaced with online versions. 

There are theree rounds of the Ballarat tournament today, so if you tune in from around 10am (I think) you should be able to watch around 12 hours of tournament play.

Pay to win - Chess?

 The concept of 'pay to win' games has always offended me. If you are not familiar with the concept, it is essentially allowing you to pay extra money to a free game, to receive benefits that other players do not get. It is a business model for some games, which while profitable, can annoy an existing user base. More so if the game starts out as 'free forever' before it isn't. 

In the past I played a few games like this, but as soon as they became 'p2w' I lost interest. But having said that, I do wonder what 'p2w' chess might look like. eg Buying takebacks, Rejecting your opponents first choice, two moves in a row, castling after moving your king

Some of these are probably too drastic (Playing QxQ and then blocking their recapture!), but the more subtle additions might be a thing. At least one possible advantage is that it may reduce the effectiveness of chess engines (at fast chess), but in the end it would probably fail in the same way that all attempts at 'improving' chess fail. They aren't really improvements.

Not knowing the classics

 One of the most famous games in chess history is the Morphy 'Opera Box Game'. I often show it to students I coach, and now know it off by heart. I even thought I knew it when I was a lot  younger, but it seems that I only knew the first few moves, and forgot the rest!

Press,Shaun - Mathe,Richard [C41]
ACT Junior Championship, 19.11.1983

2022 O2C Doeberl Cup Major and Minor

 An important update for players wishing to play in either the O2C Doeberl Cup Major and Minor. The Monir event (Under 1600 ACF) reached the 80 player limit late last week. As a result we have extended the size of the event to 120, but it is unlikely that it will be increased further. At the moment there are 20 places left in the Major (Under 2000 ACF), so if you wish to play the Major, you should get your entries in quick. At the moment there are over 200 entries for the event, and with 5 weeks before the event starts, a field well in excess of 300 is expected.

If you are eligible for two divisions (due to an overlap in rating requirements), picking the less crowded of the 2 would be great (eg play Premier instead of Major, or play Major instead of Minor). This was one of the reasons why the rating requirements were relaxed a bit this year, so as to balance the numbers better.

** I am chief organiser for this event **

A curious miniature

 For no particular reason I decided to see what was opening in the Bundesliga, which is running as I speak. Almost all the games were still in the opening stage, and yet one game was already finished. At first I thought it was a forfeit, or even worse, a mobile phone default, but instead it was just a misplayed opening that was quickly punished. White didn't play any outright blunders (in the usual sense), but every move seemed to make the position worse. Realising that f2 was about fall, White decided that they had seen enough.

Pitl,Jarno (1988) - Wegerle,Joerg (2404) [A04]
Schachbundesliga chess24.com (2.8), 06.03.2022

2022 Olympiad speculation

 After the cancellation of the 2022 Moscow Olympiad, FIDE have requested bids from other federations. At this stage it appears India have submitted a bid, but there is still a few days left for other federations to bid. I have heard (third hand I think), that at least 2 European federations are considering bids, while a suggested Middle East bid may not be feasible due to the short notice.

Although I am pretty sure that the FIDE Federations won't be part of the decision (due to the urgency of finding a venue), India would at least make travel quicker and cheaper. And based on comments I heard at a conference I attended this evening, the Asian Chess Federation (and countries) would strongly support such a bid.

Good Technique

 There is a huge difference between having an advantage, and converting that advantage. The gap is often so large that there is room for a step in between, which is increasing your advantage. During post-mortems I've often heard players sat "I thought I was winning here", without actually being able to say why.

Here is a game from the current Grand Prix series where White does a good job of slowing improving his position, based on the plan of targeting weaknesses in Black's position. This starts around move 15 when Black has an isolated e pawn. By forcing Black to defend this weakness, White is able to improve his position, creating further weaknesses in Black's position. As the game continues, this target/improve plan results in White's advantage increasing to such a point that Black can no longer defend.

(B) Giri,Anish (2771) - (B) Tabatabaei,M. Amin (2623) [C24]
All Pools | Belgrade FIDE Grand Prix chess24.com (1.4), 01.03.2022