2016/17 Hastings International - Day 3

Icelandic IM Gudmunder Kjartansson has taken the outright lead after three rounds of the 2016/17 Hastings International. Kjartansson was the only winner on the top 5 boards, beating English FM Ravia Haria.
Australian IM Bobby Cheng drew with English GM Mark Hebden on board 2, while compatriot Justin Tan had a nice win a little further down.
The leading pack is starting to sort themselves out, although there are a few dangerous players floating around the lower groups. Top seed SP Suthuraman scored his first win of the tournament to move up to 1.5, while the group of players on 2/3 contains no fewer than 6 GM's.
As this event has no rest day, there is both a New Years Eve, and New Years Day round. Players are able to take a bye (half point) on request, but surprisingly few have availed themselves of this option.


TAN,Justin (2451) - FOO,William J (2145) [A00]
Hastings Masters 2016/17 Horntye Park Sports Complex, B (3.8), 30.12.2016

If you wish to see the results, or follow the live games, then visit the tournament website at http://www.hastingschess.com/

2016/17 Hastings International Day 2 - A good day for the Australians

Day 2 of the 2016/17 Hastings International saw the 3 Australian players all end up with good results. IM Bobby Cheng defeated GM Deep Sengupta on the top board to go to 2/2, while IM Justin Tan had a quick win over IM Robert Bellin. Harry Press scored his second draw of the tournament, holding on despite being a pawn down against Alan Byron.
Top seed SP Sethuraman had another tough day, drawing with English FM Robert Eames. GM Danny Gormally was another upset loss, with FM Ravi Haria finding a nice win in a Q+2 Minors v Q+R position.
Currently 9 players are on 2/2, including GM's Allan Rasmussen (DEN) and Mark Hebden (ENG). Tomorrows round is the last accelerated round as well, with the top half getting a bonus 0.5 for this round (as defined in the new Baku rules). So far the acceleration seems to have worked well, with the pairings not being too problematic. In round 4 everyone will be paired using their 'natural' scores, but even then I don't expect too many unbalanced pairings.

2016/17 Hastings International - Day 1

It is tough at the top. The first day of the 2016/17 Hastings International saw a number of upsets on the higher boards, with seeds 1 and 3 losing, and the third second seed being held to a draw. The acceleration of the pairings obviously resulted in tougher first round opponents than usual, but it was still a surprise to see the carnage unfold.
After that there were more 'normal' results, although a number of higher rated opponents conceded draws to lower rated opposition. and there was still the odd upset victory. Nonetheless there some of the higher rated opponents still handed out the chess lesson to their opponents including the following quick win by Danny Gormally.


Gormally,Daniel W - Teh,Eu Wen Aron [E54]
2016/17 Hastings Masters, 28.12.2016

If you wish to see the results, or follow the live games, then visit the tournament website at http://www.hastingschess.com/

Hastings - First Impressions

I am starting to settle in at Hastings, with the 2016/17 Hastings International Chess Congress starting this afternoon. Despite the stories about trudging through 4 feet of snow, or the see freezing over, it is quite pleasant at the moment. I am staying on the sea front, with a nice view across the English Channel.
I spent yesterday evening helping the organising team set up at the venue. A lot of hard work goes into an event like this, especially as there are a couple of different events being held at the same time. Apart from the 97 player Masters events, there is a Christmas Congress, which is split into 4 sections. The top 24 boards from the Masters will be covered live via DGT boards, and you can follow the action from the tournament website.
One interesting feature of the Masters is that they are using Accelerated Pairings. The new Baku System is going to be tried although it is not clear if the pairing software ISwiss Manager/JavaFo) is able to handle it yet. So the first few rounds will be paired by hand (apparently a Hastings tradition anyway) before moving over the computer pairings.
Round times for the Masters is 2:15 pm local time, which is 1:15 am Canberra time. As the time limit is a very generous 40 in 100m followed by 50m with a 30 second increment, you may be able to catch the tail end of the games in the morning.

Rapid and Blitz in Qatar

For the last few years the Qatar Masters has been a big event this time of year, but for 2016 it has been replaced with the FIDE World rapid and Blitz Championship. 120 players in the Open and 36 in the Womens event are playing a 3 day 15 round Rapid, and a 2 day 21 round Blitz. Magnus Carlsen is the top seed, but plenty of the worlds top players are also taking part.
After the first day Anton Korabov is the only player on 5/5. Lev Aronian is on 4.5, with a number of players on 4. Carlsen had a very shaky start, drawing with SS Ganguly (with Ganguly missing a forced mate), and losing to Pantsulaia in the 2nd round. 3 straight wins kept him in touch with the leaders, but he now has some work too do.
The official website is here, while you can follow the games at Chess24

Christmas Cracking

It is Christmas Day here in the UK, so I've just enough time to throw in a late Christmas present. This was an online game played earlier today, where an early deviation from theory met with an untimely end. For those looking to repeat this line (with either colour), taking the knight on b4 was not sound, but neither was Na6 for Black (O-O!), The final big mistake was 15. ... d4 as White has a forced win after that.


Press,Harry - Saint,Nick [C17]
Xmas Blitz, 25.12.2016

Rapidplay Revisted

Having seen the success of big Rapidplay in the UK, I am still wondering why it didn't catch on in Australia. There was a push in the 1990's to make it a 'thing', including the Australian Rapidplay Open in Sydney, which had some big sponsorship, and an appearance by the Polgar Sisters. However it seemed to fizzle out after a couple of years, and hasn't really been tried since.
One obvious reason is the market for it. Players seem happy with weekend events with longer time controls (especially FIDE rated ones), or faster events like Street Chess. A single day rapid falls between the two, and so does not attract travellers from afar, or players willing to sacrifice an entire day.
Having said that, when I get back to Australia I may try and test the market, at least in Canberra. A single day 6 round Quickplay (as the ACF now calls it), with a time limit of G20m+10s per move, with a minimum prize pool of $900. $50 flat entry fee (sorry, no concessions) with 6 to 9 prizes on offer, depending on the size of the field. As it is a serious event, FIDE rating it is a given. I'd also use the English method for awarding category prizes, which is based on Score Achieved minus  Score Expected, so as to reward good play and avoid the luck of the last round draw.
To make it work properly I would need to run at least 2 events, to see how it performs as a concept. The only other issue I need to work around is the somewhat crowded Canberra chess calendar. ACT Champs and Doeberl are to big events early in the year, but possibly I can squeeze it in somewhere.