Cave Chess

Susan Polgar's blog has a report of a blitz tournament that was played in Carlsbad Caverns in the United States. From the photos it looks as the games were played deep underground, and lamps had to be used to illuminate the boards.
When I was younger I did a little bit of spelunking, although chess was one thing I didn't do underground. I've crawled, swam and got lost in caves, and have even done some abseiling. Maybe next years trip to Blayney will involve a detour to Abercrombie Caves, with a few games of blitz to mark the occasion.

Blackburne's Shilling Gambit

There comes a time in every junior players career when they discover the venerable Blackburne Shilling Gambit. If all goes according to plan then 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4?! 4.Nxe5? Qg5 5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3# leads to the kind of quick win that juniors love. This discovery is then followed by attempts to play it at every opportunity, until their regular 'customers' get wise to the trap.
The problem with this trap is that Black's third move is both obvious and in a sense, wrong. Black chooses to both unprotect a pawn, and move the same piece twice in the opening, with no strategical gain. It only works if White 'plays along'
However, if you wish to demonstrate this trap in a way that doesn't seem to break so many opening principles, then this game, which I found in a 1998 issue of Chess in Russia, may do.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nd4 6.d6 Qxd6 (D)
7.Nxf7 Qc6 8.Nxh8 Qxg2 9.Rf1 Qe4+ 10.Be2 Nf3#

And a short, shameful confession. I won a game in my first serious tournament with the short version of this trap.

Minature of the Month - September 2009

I don't know whether 2600+ players decide that trying to grind down another 2600+ player is unproductive, but I am always impressed when both players try and mix it up. In the following game Sokolov tries a sharp sideline on move, which unfortunately blows up in his face. And bonus points for the game ending with a castling move!

Sakaev,Konstantin (2625) - Sokolov,Ivan (2657) [D17]
Serbian League Kragujevac SRB (5), 05.09.2009

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne5 Nfd7 9.e4 Nxe5 10.exf5 Ned7 11.a5 Nd5 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Qb3 g6 14.Qxd5 gxf5 15.Bb5 a6 16.Ba4 Qc7 (D)
17.Bf4 e6 18.0-0 1-0

Anand v Topalov 2010 Venue decided

According to the Sofia Sports Agency website, the 2010 Anand v Topalov World Championship Match will be held in Sofia Bulgaria in March 2010. The link to the story is here, and I assume the decision was taken at the FIDE Congress in Haldiki, Greece. For the moment the FIDE website has nothing on this story, but this may be due to the slowness in getting any news from the congress on to the website.

2009 Victorian Championship

The 2009 Victorian Championship has just started, and as usual is a strong tournament. The field includes GM Darryl Johasen and IM's Sandler, Morris and Rujevic. The event is being played at a rate of 1 round a week, and unlike previous years, seems to be keeping a strict 'all games at the same time' format.
Already there has been one interesting incident in the supporting Reserves tournament, which I have covered here, on my Chess Rules blog.
Results and pairings for the tournament can be found at the ChessVictoria website.

Johansen,Darryl - Dragicevic,Domagoj [B07]
Victorian Championship Melbourne (2), 13.10.2009

1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.f4 e5 5.Nf3 exd4 6.Qxd4 c6 7.e5 dxe5 8.fxe5 Bc5 9.Qh4 Qe7 10.Bf4 Bb4 11.0-0-0 Bxc3 12.exf6 Bxf6 13.Qg3 0-0 14.Bd6 Qe3+ 15.Kb1 Qb6 16.b3 Re8 17.Bc4 Nc5 18.Ng5 Bxg5 19.Qxg5 Ne4 (D)
20.Bxf7+ Kxf7 21.Qh5+ g6 22.Qxh7+ Kf6 23.Rhf1+ Nf2 24.Rd2 Bf5 25.Rdxf2 Qd4 26.Rxf5+ gxf5 27.Qh6+ Kf7 28.Rxf5+ 1-0

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