Zhao scores final GM Norm

With a win in Round 9 of the Gibraltar Masters, Zong Yuan Zhao has scored his third (and final GM Norm). This means he will be awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE at some point later this year (when the FIDE Executive Board meets). Zhao defeated French player Gildas Goldsztein to move to 6/9 and a tournament performance rating of 2648 (well above the 2600 required for a norm).
Zhao now becomes Australia's third FIDE Grandmaster (after Ian Rogers and Darryl Johansen), and the title caps of a remarkable 13 months where he won the Australian Open, the Oceania Zonal, and then scored 3 GM Norms is quick succession.

Zhao,Z (2487) - Goldsztejn,G (2380) [C96]
Gibtelecom Masters Gibraltar (9.24), 30.01.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 d5 A new idea in an old position (although there is one game dating back to 1995 in my database). 11.d4 dxe4 12.Nxe5 c5 13.Be3 This looks new. 13.Bg5 has been played here. 13...Bb7 14.Nd2 Nd5 15.Nxe4 Nxe3 16.fxe3 Qd5 17.Nf3 cxd4 18.exd4 f5 Black is hoping that the 2 bishops and open board compensate for the (extra) passed d pawn White has. 19.Ned2 Bd6 20.Qe2 Bg3 A good piece of advice I received years ago was "Use the 2 bishops to keep your opponents rooks off open files". Black is clearly trying to do this. 21.Qe6+ Qxe6 22.Rxe6 Bd5 23.Re2 Rae8 24.Ne5 Nc6 25.Bb3 [ 25.Ndf3 seemed safer. Now Black wins back the pawn. ] 25...Bxb3 26.axb3 Nxe5 27.dxe5 Bxe5 28.Nf3 Bh2+ An unnecessary trick that causes Black's defeat. 29.Kf1 Rxe2 30.Kxe2 Rf6(D) Thinking only of the a pawn, Black forgets about his bishop. 1-0

The Value of Pieces

The traditional scale for piece values in chess is P=1, N=B=3, R=5, Q=9. The King doesn't have a material value, although a number of juniors I coach always say "King equals the game", which for some reason irritates me. Some people also quibble about the value of the Bishop, suggestion 3 and a quarter (or a half), as Bishops are often better than Knights.
Of course there are alternatives. One system I used in one of my computer chess programs was P=1, B=N=4, R=6 and Q=12. The aim of this system was to discourage swapping 2 pieces for a Rook and Pawn or sacing a piece for 2 pawns and a check (also known as "Coffee House compensation").
But the weirdest system I've seen recently came from a book titled "An Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess" by Benjamin Franklin, William Jones, and Francois Philidor. In this book (published in 1820) the suggested piece values are N=9.25, B=9.75, R=15 and Q=23.75. The real question of course is "What is the value of a pawn?" and the author (who I think for this section is Philidor) values the pawn as 3.75 (due to the chance of promotion), and this rises as it gets closer to the "adversery's royal line".
If you want to read this book you can do so online at Google Books. The direct link is here , and the book also contains the oft talked about (but rarely seen) "The Morals of Chess" by Dr Benjamin Franklin (Page 223)

Is Carlsen the "Chosen One"?

This is the question some people have been asking after his tie for 1st (with Lev Aronian) at the Corus tournament this week. Of course young prodigies abound these days (and draw the inevitable comparisons to Fischer), but the fact that he finished ahead of Anand, Kramnik and Topalov (amongst others), indicates to me that he should become the dominant player of the new generation. What impressed me most was not that he finished first, but that he did so in a straight 14 player Round Robin. None of this 7 or 8 player Double RR stuff, where players simply draw with Black so that they can then draw with White during the rematch. Big Round Robins (like in the old days) are a much better test (and gauge) of a players strength.
And on the subject of Corus, former Canberran Anthony Peck managed to get across for the final two rounds of the tournament. Anthony used to teach at Radford College in Canberra, and was instrumental in setting up a lot of chess activities at the school, activities that continue to this day. These days he is teaching in England and was able to sneak over to Wijk An Zee for the weekend. His report is here, including video from the tournament.

Zhao rolls on

Australian IM Zong Yuan Zhao has had a pretty remarkable 3 months since traveling to the FIDE World Cup Knockout as the Oceania Champion. After being knocked out in Rd 1 by Magnus Carlsen (who just tied for first at Corus btw), he went on to win the December 1st Saturday Tournament in Hungary (GM Norm No.1), then win the Cerrado GM Event in Spain (GM Norm No.2) and is now on 4.5/6 at the Gibraltar Masters and is looking good for his third and final GM Norm. He has played 4 GM's so far (scoring 2.5/4) and is paired against GM Mikhail Gurevich in Round 7. Zhao's two big games of the tournament was his Round 5 win over GM Hikaru Nakamura (2670) and his Round 6 draw with GM Alexander Beliavsky (2638). Currently he has a performance rating of over 2700 (shades of the 2006/07 Australian Open!), and if he maintains his form, should easily score another GM norm.

Zhao,Z (2487) - Beliavsky,A (2638) [C93]
Gibtelecom Masters Gibraltar (6.7), 27.01.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Re8 10.d4 Bb7 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a3 h6 13.Bc2 Nb8 14.b3 Nbd7 15.Bb2 g6 16.a4 Bg7 17.Bd3 c6 18.Qc2 Qc7 19.c4 bxa4 20.c5 d5 21.bxa4 dxe4 22.Bxe4 exd4 23.Bxd4 a5 24.Bd3 Ba6 25.Bxa6 Rxa6 26.Rxe8+ Nxe8 27.Re1 Ra8 28.Ne4 Bxd4 29.Nxd4 Ndf6 30.Nd6 Nxd6 31.cxd6 Qxd6 32.Qxc6 Qxc6 33.Nxc6 Ra6 34.Rc1 Nd7 35.Nb8 Nxb8 36.Rc8+ Kg7 37.Rxb8 Rf6 38.Rb5 Rf5 39.Rxf5 gxf5 40.Kh2 f4 41.g3 Kf6 42.gxf4 Ke6 43.Kg3 f5 44.Kh4 Kf6 45.Kh5 Kg7 46.f3 Kh7 47.h4 (D) ½-½

Problems at Corus

No I'm not talking about problems with handshakes etc, but the Problem Competition that was held as part of the Corus Tournament. Most of the top places were taken by specialist composers but Jan Timman (1st Commendation) and John Nunn (5th Commendation) also took part.
Now I'm not much of a problem solver, but I do like looking at the solutions. The great joy of problems (especially studies) is seeing how one side escapes from an seemingly impossible position.
A quick glance through the prize winners had a number of wonderful problems, but the one tht looked closest to a game position was the one shown on the right (Vlasenko, 1st Honorable Mention). Although White is down a rook and a piece, the pawn on b7 is a threat, if only White can drive away the Black rook.

Vlasenko,V
1st HM Corus, 2008

1.Rc1+! [ 1.Rc8? thematic try 1...Ne5! 2.Rxb8 Nc4! 3.Rg8 Rxg8 4.Ka7 Na5 5.b8Q Nc6+;
1.Ka7? Rgg8] 1...Kg2 2.Rc2+! Kg3 [ 2...Nd2 3.Rxd2+ Kf3 4.Ka7 Rgg8 5.Rb2] 3.Rc8! Ne5 [ 3...Rg8 4.Rxg8+ Rxg8 5.Ka7;
3...Nd4 4.Ka7! Nc6+ 5.Rxc6 Rgg8 ( 5...Rh8 6.b8Q+ Rxb8 7.Kxb8) 6.Rb6] 4.Rxb8 [ 4.Kb6? Nd7+ 5.Kc7 ( 5.Ka7 Ra5#) 5...Rc5+ 6.Kxd7 Rxb7+] 4...Nc4! 5.Rg8 Rxg8 6.Ka7 Na5 7.b8Q+ ½-½

Why are some tournaments succesful?

Actually I have no idea. It is actually a source of frustration with me that a well organised tournament with good prizes and conditions struggles to attract a reasonable size field, while an event that doesn't do anything special gets flooded with entries.
An example is three tournaments being held this long weekend. There is a tournament in Sydney ($75 entry fee), one in Melbourne ($55 entry fee) and one in Brisbane ($40 entry fee). Now I haven't seen the standings from the Sydney event, but based on the list of top seeds (Antic, Bjelobrk etc) and the fact that some Canberran's were making the trip to play, I'm assuming that it will be a well attended event. On the other hand the Melbourne event had a field of 22, and the Brisbane event a field of 20.
Now I don't think the difference is the "chess culture" in each city (as each has held far more successful events both recently and regularly), or even the publicity is to blame (as I have seen all three advertised on the net, and both Melbourne and Brisbane seemed to "push" their events more).
This leaves me to think that this may be an example of "targeted networks" being encouraged to play. By "targeted networks" I mean players who have a social network, and will often play as a group. This could be members of the same club who feel like some weekend chess together, chess players who also hang out together off the board, or even sets of people who use the tournaments to meet up.
The advantage in identifying these groups is you don't just get 1 player per advertising "hit" but 4 or 5. A further refinement to this strategy is to locate "opinion leaders" and get them interested in the event. This will then get their direct group to play, and even sweep up indirect contacts as well.
Of course the challenge is to either find these groups or leaders, or even to create them. How to do that is of course the big question. And one that I'll keep thinking about for now.

Australian Junior Champion 2008 - Junta Ikeda

Canberra Junior Junta Ikeda is the new Australian Junior Champion, after a comprehensive victory in the Under 18 Open Section which finished this afternoon in Sydney. With 1 round to go Ikeda was 2 points clear of the field, and couldn't be caught, no matter what happened in todays game. Ikeda succeeds last years champion Michael Wei (also from Canberra), meaning that the ACT has taken this prestigious title 2 years running.
In the Under 12 Championship Laurence Matheson (VIC) has at least a share of first place, leading by a full point after 10 rounds. Deborah Ng is in a similar position in the Under 18 Girls Championship, while the Under 12 Championship still has a couple of players in contention for the title.

(Actually I had hoped to bring you the full results for all the events, but the tournament website hasn't been updated yet. So some gentle criticism for the organisers. While the event has been excellent in updating the scores at the end of the day, and the end of the tournament is often busy with prize giving, packing up etc, it is still fair to say that the final standings are the most important. Indeed, when I was the webmaster for the 2006-07 Australian Open, I even updated the last round result table in real time (ie when each game finished) so online spectators knew the exact state of the event at that time. )

*** Update - Complete scores are now available here
Junta Ikeda finished on 10.5/11(!) 2 points ahead of Fedja Zulfic and Gene Nakauci.
Deborah Ng won the U.18 Girls (11.5/13), Laurence Matheson the Under 12's (9.5/11), and Leteisha Simmonds the Girls U/12 (10/11)