on the move - chess club · on the move march 2011 ... australian chess champion gm zong-yuan

On The Move March 2011

www.chessclub.com.au

The Future of Ratings

The Ballarat Begonia Weekender has, for as long as I remember, been the best Victorian weekender of the year. It's got a great venue, hard-working organisers and is on a convenient long-weekend.

This year the Begonia Weekender is sponsored by Tornelo - Online Tournament Management software and will be using the Tornelo software to run the event. This is a huge step forward and probably only a handful of people recognise the significance.

It will be like looking over the arbiter's shoulder as the tournament progresses...every time a result is entered it will instantly be displayed online. For players in the event, you can check the pairings for the next round on your internet connected mobile phone while eating dinner in the pub. And this is just the start ... live game streaming is planned and eventually a database of games will build up on the site, allowing you to see all sorts of stats about you and your opponent.

As well as being a pairings program (a web-based replacement for Swiss Perfect) Tornelo will also calculate and display ratings. In the not-so-distant future we could have a totally transparent and instantly updating ratings system! No need to wait 3 months for your next rating!

We'll have to wait and see how long it takes the ACF to recognise the benefits of a system like

this. The downside? None. Tornelo is free for anyone to use! Login to auschess.tornelo.com to see the test-site.

David CordoverChess Guru

STEPHEN

SOLOMON

Covering Chess in Victoria, Australia and the WorldEdited by IM Robert Jamieson

In This Issue ....

Australian Masters 2010

“Esfera” review

Australian Open 2011

ACF Medals 2010

Famous Last words

Oceania Zonal 2011

Letters to Bob

London Chess Classic

Warm-Up Puzzles

Profile - Lajos Steiner

Greg Hjorth RIP

Chess World New Home

Chess World Australia Pty. Ltd. ABN 41 118 087 862

On The Move

AUST

MASTERS

CHAMP

http://auschess.tornelo.com/

http://auschess.tornelo.com/

Australian MASTERS

2010by IM Robert Jamieson

The 2010 Australian Masters Tournament was held at the Box Hill Chess Club from 4th-12th December 2010 and was convincingly won by IM Stephen Solomon from Queensland. His performance rating was 2661! Bobby Cheng played well to secure second place but needed an extra half point for an IM norm. Thanks go to Leonid Sandler for organising the event and Halsteen Pty Ltd for sponsoring the tournament.

Australian Masters 2010IM M.Rujevic 2224IM J.Morris 2190Sicilian Defence1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.e5 Ng8 9.f4 d6 10.Qf3 dxe5 11.fxe5 Bxe5 12.Bc4 Nf6 13.0-0 0-0 14.Rae1 Bg4 15.Qf2 Bf5 16.h3 Qb8 17.Ne2 Qxb2 18.Bb3 Ne8 19.Qf3 Nd6

White to Play

20.Bc1 Qa1 21.Ba3 Be4 22.Qe3 Bh2+ 23.Kxh2 Qe5+ 24.Ng3 c5 25.Bxc5 Nf5 26.Rxf5 gxf5 27.Bd4 Qd6 28.Qg5+ Qg6



A triumphant Solo clutchinghis cheque and trophy.

29.Nxe4 fxe4 30.Qe5 Qd6 31.Rxe4 Qxe5 32.Rxe5 Rfd8 33.Rg5+ Kf8 34.Bg7+ and black resigned

The best game of the tournament was the following encounter between two players vying for IM Norms. A very nice game from Bobby featuring a pretty piece sacrifice.

Australian Masters 2010FM B.Cheng 2207FM E.Teichmann 2312Nimzowitch Defence1.d4 Nc6 2.d5 Ne5 3.e4 e6 4.f4 Ng6 5.dxe6 fxe6 6.Nf3 Bc5 7.Nc3 d6 8.Na4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 N8e7 11.g3 b6 12.Nc3 O-O 13.h4 Nc6 14.Bg2 Bb7 15.h5 Nh8 16.h6 g6 17.O-O-O Qe7 18.g4 Nf7 19.g5 a6

White to Play

20.Nd5! exd5 21.exd5 Na7 22.Rde1 Qd7 23.Bh3 Qa4 24.Qc3 Qxf4+ 25.Kb1 Nxh6 26.Be6+ Rf7 27.gxh6 1-0

For more pics, games and commentary see Carl Gorka’s blog at:

http://gorkachc.blogspot.com/



There are always new chess and chess-variant apps appearing for the iPad and iPhone.

I had occasion to try out one called “Esfera” the other day which is a chess-like game played on a spherical globe with hexagonal and pentagonal squares.

It’s fun twirling the globe around and the computer shows you the legal moves for any piece that you touch. Unfortunately I struggled to form a strategy as you can only see one side of the globe at any time.

At $3.99 it’s cheap so give it a go if it sounds like it appeals to you.

In the first two weeks of 2011 Norths Chess Club in Sydney hosted the Australian Open Chess Championships.The Open tournament was won by IM George Xie, Moulthun Ly and the 2010 Australian Chess Champion GM Zong-Yuan Zhao.

George Xie IM became the 2011 Australian Open Chess Champion on a tie-break.

In twelve days over 150 players from Australia and overseas competed in three tournaments: The Australian Open, Australian Minor, Norths classic and Australian Lightning. Unfortunately not many Victorians made the trip, although Doug Hamilton was the exception and picked up the Seniors prize with 7 points.

Illingworth v Ly - Black to Play

How not to win the Australian Open.In the above position, in response to Bc5! by White, Black decided to resign. He subsequently came =1st in the Open and lost on count-back. Instead he should have followed Stephen Solomon’s advice at the post-mortem and played K-b7-a8-b7. It turns out that White’s winning attempts only result in stalemate!



ACF MEDALS 2010

John Purdy presents David Cordover with the C.J.S.Purdy Medal.

The ACF Medals for 2010 were presented at the closing ceremony of the Aust.Open.

Evelyn Koshnitsky presented the Australian Chess Federation’s 2010 Koshnitsky Medal (for chess administration) to ACF Vice-President Dr Kevin Bonham. John Purdy presented the 2010 CJS Purdy Medal (for chess journalism) to David Cordover. Phil Viner presented the ACF’s 2010 Steiner Medal (for the best senior player in Australia) to IM George Xie. Dr Charles Zworestine announced that the winner of the ACF’s 2010 Arlauskas Medal (for the best junior player in Australia) was FM Bobby Cheng, who won the World Under 12 Championship in 2009



Victorian Chess ClubsFor a complete list of chess clubs visit:


Melbourne (Every Day)Box Hill (Tuesday/Friday/Sunday)Dandenong (Wednesday Nights)Noble Park (Saturday afternoons)Croydon (Thursday evenings)Elwood (Saturday afternoons)Ranges (Tuesday & Thursday nights)Hobson’s Bay (Tuesday nights)Ballarat (Wednesday nights)

Knights are better than Bishops!

AUSSIE CHESS CHATYou have two options: the “official” one

www.chesschat.orgor for those who prefer the dark side:

www.ozchess.com.auENJOY

Famous Last Words...

Jose Capablanca, (World Champion 1921-27) was watching a skittles game in the Manhattan Chess Club in New York in 1942. He asked “Can someone help me with my coat” then collapsed and died. He was only 53 years of age. Not particularly inspiring, but at least he died in a chess club.

Gary Koshnitsky, twice Australian Chess Champion and dubbed “the Grand Old Man of Australian Chess” did much better. He was on his death bed in 1999 aged 91 years, barely able to talk but surrounded by his family. His eldest son, Peter, was holding his hand and said, “Well Dad, you have lost all your pieces, you have only your King left and the opposition pieces are closing in.” There was silence for a moment then Kosh was heard to murmur “checkmate” as he collapsed into unconsciousness and died.

Australia’s other contender for the “grand old man” title also did quite well. In 1979, aged 73, Cecil Purdy was playing in a tournament in Sydney and was sitting next to a player who smoked and kept blowing smoke out of the side of his mouth towards Purdy’s board. This caused Purdy to start coughing and the coughing fit brought on a sudden heart attack. Purdy, semi-conscious was being taken away by the ambulance officers when he protested “But what about my game! I have a win but it may take some time.” At least he went out fighting.

They all did better than Alexander Alekhine (World Champion 1927-35 & 1937-46) who died in his hotel room in Portugal in 1946 after choking on a piece of meat. His last words were not recorded.

ZHAO TRIUMPHS

Oceania Zonal 2011 Rotorua, New Zealand January 2011.

Zong-Yuan Zhao (AUS) outshone the competition to finish clear first on 8½/9, only dropping half a point to FM Bobby Cheng (AUS).

Andrew Brown (AUS) was second and claimed the IM title with a performance well above the usual rating requirement. FM titles go to Moulthun Ly and Gareth Oliver.Top kiwi was FM Stephen Lukey, fifth equal.

Because of the small and inconvenient number of players (11) there was no choice but to run the Women's Zonal as an all-play-all, which meant some extra mornings in the tournament hall. IM Irina Berezina-Feldman and WFM Emma Guo (both AUS) will play a match for the Women's World Championship place, later in the year. See full details on the Oceania Zonal page of the NZ Chess Federation.

One of the games that I most enjoyed from the Zonal was Zhao’s last round clash against Vladimir Feldman. Zhao makes a very strange move 19.Qb5 but soon his idea becomes apparent and he brings home the point.

Oceania Zonal 2011Z. Zhao GM 2586V.Feldman IM 2262ECO "D70"1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.Be3 O-O 8.f4 f5 9.e5 e6 10.Nf3 Nc6 11.Qb3 Ne7 12.Rc1 a5 13.a4 Nbd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Bc4 b6 16.Bxd5

exd5 17.Kf2 Bb7 18.h4 h5 19.Qb5 Re8 20.Rc6 Bxc6 21.Qxc6 Qe7 22.Ng5 Bh6 23.Qxg6+ Qg7 24.Qxf5 Re7 25.Rh3 Rf8 26.Qd3 Bxg5 27.hxg5 c5 28.Rf3 c4 29.Qc2 Qh7 30.g6 1-0



Zhao with NZCF patron Jim Benson, who presented the prizes.

Mens Zonal - Leading Scores

Womens Zonal

http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/Zonal2011/index.html

http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/Zonal2011/index.html

A favourite feature returns to OTM...

Letters to Bob...

This letter is from Nikki of Brighton,

Dear Bob,

I want to be a good chess player, and my coach says that I have a good understanding of the basics, but I keep losing my pieces to one-move blunders. What can I do?

Dear Nikki,

You are clearly losing your pieces because they are straying too far away from home (probably by themselves) because you are trying to attack. Personally I never attack in my games. I hide my King away where it can’t be checked and I always try to have my pieces protecting each other. The other option, if one of your pieces really wants to attack, is to have your mother drive the piece to the attack in her 4 wheel drive and then pick it up again when it has finished attacking. That way your pieces will be safe and always under parental supervision.

Now David from Canterbury writes...

Dear Bob,

I think that I have found a new move on move 17 of the Blackmar-Diemer Counter-Attack and am dying to use it in my next correspondence game. My problem is that no-one ever writes to me these days so I don’t have a chance to use my “new move.”

Dear Dave,

I think that your problem is that you haven’t caught up with the latest technology yet. Correspondence chess went out of fashion when they invented something called “the internet.” That means that you will have to buy a computer (preferably a Mac) and learn how to type. I’m sure that there are thousands of people out there who would love to hear in detail about your new move in the Blackmar-Diemer so you shouldn’t have any further trouble.

PS. Be sure to use two fingers when you type (as I do) not just one as it’s too slow that way.

Finally, James from Ormond writes,

Hi Bob,I’ve been doing well this year but I read in Chris Depasquale’s chess column in the Age Newspaper that he thinks I am weak positionally and should get some lessons from you. Is that a good idea?

Dear James,

You should listen to expert advice. Chris has always been hopeless positionally himself so he really knows what he is talking about. In fact, I can remember back to the 1970’s when Chris was a young player and I spent many years not coaching him which probably explains how he rose to such heights in the chess world.

I’d be happy spending sometime showing you how to play positionally, but you’d have to agree to teach me tactics in return. I keep making one-move blunders as my brain is really old and doesn’t like calculating.Cheers, Bob.



On the world scene an exciting recent event was the London Classic which featured both the World Champion Anand and the world’s highest rated player, Carlsen.

Carlsen started with a surprise loss in the first round as follows:

2nd Chess Classic LondonLuke McShane 2645Magnus Carlsen 2802English Opening1.c4 c5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.0-0 Nh6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Bxh6 Bxh6 9.Nxd4 Ne5 10.Qb3 0-0 11.Rfd1 Nd7 12.Qa3 a5 13.b4 Ra6 14.b5 Ra8 15.e3 a4 16.Rab1 Bg7 17.Ne4 Qb6

18.Nc6! Re8 (If 18...bxc6!? 19.bxc6 Qa5 (19...Qxc6?? 20.Nf6+ wins the queen) 20.cxd7 Bxd7 21.c5!? Bg4 22.Rdc1 may be playable.)19.Nb4 f5 20.Nc3 Qc5 21.Nxa4 Qa7 22.Na6 bxa6 23.b6 Nxb6 24.Rxb6 Rb8 25.c5 Be6

26.Rdb1 dxc5 27.Rb7 Rxb7 28.Rxb7 Qa8 29.Nxc5 Qc8 30.Qxa6 Bf7 31.Bc6 Rd8 32.Nd7 Rxd7 33.Bxd7 Qc1+ 34.Qf1 Qxf1+ 35.Kxf1 Bc4+ 36.Kg1 Bxa2 37.Ba4 e5 38.f3 Bh6 39.Bb3+ 1-0



McShane v Carlsen

Warm-Up PuzzlesI love a good puzzle, particularly when I can solve it! These are ranked in order of difficulty.

Position 1

White to PlayPosition 2

White to Play

Position 3

White to Play

Position 4 (Greco 1619!)

White to Play

Answers below:



ANSWERS:#1 1.Qf6##2 1.Qxc6+ bxc6 2.Ba6##3 1.Qe6+ Kh7 2.Rxh6+ gxh6 3.Qf7##4 1.Be6+ Kxe6 2.Qe8+ Nge7 3.d5#

Many strong chess players have visited Australia to play chess but few have stayed. Perhaps it’s the climate or the mosquitos, but the exception was the Hungarian IM Lajos Steiner.

Steiner was a player of GM standard who played in a number of international tournaments in the 1930’s. He visited Australia in 1933 - played in the Australian Championship and scored a perfect score. He returned to settle in Sydney and won the Australian Championship four times, eventually passing away in 1976 at the age of 75 years.

Steiner coached some of Sydney’s top juniors such as John Purdy and John Hanks who themselves went on to be good players.

Here is a good example of his attacking play against the Argentinian grandmaster Eliskases.

Budapest 1933A.EliskasesL.SteinerEnglish Opening

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6

Now we have in effect a reversed Sicilian defence where White has an extra move.4.e3 Bb4 5.Nd5 e4 6.Nxb4 Nxb4 7.Nd4 O-O 8.Be2 d5 9.a3?Probably a waste of time forcing the black N go to where he wants to go anyway.9...Nd3+ 10.Bxd3 exd3 11.c5 Ne4 12.b4 This saves the “c” pawn but 12.0-0 to make the King safe was probably better.12...Qg5 13.g3 Bh3 14.f3Now not 14...Nxg3 15.Rg1 winning the N.

14...f5!! Black has overwhelming force on the kingside if only there were open lines to get in. Clearly 15.fxe4 fxe4 is suicide for White.15.Qb3 f4!! Black will do anything to create those open lines.16.exf4?16.Rg1 was a better defence.16...Rae8 17.fxg5 Nxc5+ 18.Kd1 If 18.Kf2 Nxb3+ 19.Re2+ is winning.18.Nxb3 19.Nxb3 Bg2 20.Nd4 Bxh1 21.f4 Re4 22.Bb2 Rfe8 0-1An impressive execution of an all-out attack on the Kingside.



PROFILE: Lajos Steiner With IM Robert Jamieson

Greg Hjorth14.6.1963 - 13.1.2011

IM Greg Hjorth sadly passed away from a heart attack in Melbourne in January this year aged 47 years.

He rose to prominence in the 1980 Australian Championship, finishing runner-up to Ian Rogers, was Commonwealth Champion in 1983 and represented Australia in two Olympiads in 1984 and 1986. Unfortunately for chess he decided to concentrate on a career in Maths and was a Professor of Maths at both UCLA in the USA and Melbourne University.

Guy West comments: “Greg was a chess player with a deep appreciation of the artistic side of the game and he played games of great beauty and subtlety. Interestingly he combined a strong competitive drive with quite a dreamy, dissociated demeanour at the board, almost as if he was playing in a mild trance sometimes.”

I remember Greg as a very talented, fresh-faced young kid who was a vegetarian, went around in bare feet and wouldn’t hurt a fly. It is a tragedy that he has been taken from us so early.

Greg had a number of victories to his credit over prominent players, such as Tony Miles, but even though he lost, I rather like his game against Kasparov from the 1980 World Junior Championships in Dortmund.

World Junior 1980G.Kasparov - RUSG.Hjorth -AUSECO D341.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Nf6 7.Nc3 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.Bg5 c4 10.Ne5 Be6 11.f4 Nxe5 12.fxe5 Ne4 13.Bxe7 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Qxe7 15.e4 Qd7 16.a4 Rfd8 17.Qh5 Rac8 18.Rf4 Rc7 19.Raf1

19...Qxa4 20.exd5 Rxd5 21.Bxd5 Bxd5 22.e6!! Bxe6 23.d5 Qb5 24.Rh4 Qc5+ 25.Rf2 Bxd5 26.Rd4 Rd7 27.Rf5 1-0

For some detailed tributes to greg go to http://www.math.ucla.edu/pictures/hjorth_tributes.pdf



Jammo’s Chess PuzzleS

Want to fine-tune your brain for your next chess tournament? Have a go at

”Jammo’s Chess Puzzles”appearing weekly at

www.chesskids.com.au

A bit of chess chat, news, advice, reminiscences and a puzzle!



Chess WORLD has a New Home!Come visit our exciting, new modern premises at 758 North Road, Ormond.

758 North Rd, Ormond www.chessworld.com.au Ph. 1300 424 377

Chess Worldfor all your chess requisites.

Chess Quote:

“Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.”

- Mikhail Botvinnik (World Chess Champion)

on the move - chess club · on the move march 2011 ... australian chess champion gm zong-yuan

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