by Charles Zworestine

Well OK, I am using a bit of poetic licence here! While there were originally meant to be an even dozen events, a disappointing turnout of only 5 seniors meant that this was not in fact run as a separate event, but instead combined with the Major. So the organising team of Graeme and Wendy Gardiner, John Humphrey, Ian Murray and Lionel Smerdon "only" had 11 events to organise, not 12! A Herculean test, which they nonetheless passed with flying colours. Thus leaving me to report on these 11 events, which I will do adults first then juniors, and in order from shorter time limits to longer:

It was the zenith of Zong-Yuan Zhao's efforts in Brisbane, anyway! The 19 year old is the new Australian Lightning Champion, winning the event with the outstanding score of 12/13. Along the way he beat Igor Bjelobrk, Stephen Solomon, Leonid Sandler, Lee Jones (who upset Igor Goldenberg early), Moulthun Ly (reigning Australian Junior Champion at the time), and Igor Goldenberg. Only Norwegian visitor Geir Sune Tallaksen could stop him from registering a perfect score. Bjelobrk got second on 10/13, with Tallaksen and Ly equal third on 9.5, half a point ahead of Sandler and Goldenberg. Many times champion Stephen Solomon struggled for once, losing to Lee Jones as well as practically all the prize winners and finishing on just 8/13.

He HAD entered the junior rapid - but at the last second he changed his mind, and the precocious 14 year old decided to play in the adult event instead. So prodigiously talented is he that he won the whole thing! Helped by a stunning first round upset of top seed Igor Goldenberg by Sherab Guo-Yuthok, ninth seed Moulthun marched on, drawing with Stephen Solomon in Round 3 after winning his first two games. By the end of Round 4, Charles Pizzato was leading on 4/4; but Sandler drew with him in Round 5, enabling Ly and Solo to catch up. Moulthun then took care of Pizzato in Round 6; so the last round was reached with Solomon and Ly equal first on 5.5/6. But Sandler took care of Solo in the last round, enabling Ly to win the event on 6.5/7 by beating Mark Robertson; Sandler was second on 6, and Solo third on 5.5.

Over the second week, this Under 1800 event was run at 2 rounds a day over 11 rounds. It was a see-sawing affair, with second seed Tony Weller drawing already in Round 1, as did top seed Ernest Cheung in Rounds 2 and 3, fourth seed Leo Wilkinson in Round 2 and fifth seed Mos Ali in Round 3. By the end of Round 4, we had an outright leader in Mark Craven after Andrew Fitzpatrick had drawn with Eliot Hoving. And then the lead kept changing hands: Fitzpatrick and Hoving on 4.5 after Round 5 after Fitzy beat Craven, four of them in Round 6 when Fitzy drew with Cheung and Weller beat Hoving; and then Weller and Fitzy on 6 after Round 7. Fitzy was on his own after beating Weller in Round 8, but with Hoving only half a point behind after beating Cheung; then it was Hoving on his own on 7.5 after 9, when he beat Anthony Lam and Fitzy lost to Wilkinson. But a Hoving draw with Wilkinson enabled Fitzy to join him on 8/10 by beating Ali; and a last round Hoving loss to David Messina g ave Fitzy the outright win on 9/11 when he beat Chris Poulton. Wilkinson was second on 8.5, and Hoving third on 8.

Played at the same time and using the same time controls (90 minutes each, plus 1 minute per move from the start - Fischer) as the main event (the Australian Championships), this was also a see-sawing affair! Top seed Kevin Sheldrick got off to a flyer, reaching 5/5 after his Round 5 win over Craig Duxbury seemed to persuade the latter to withdraw. Kevin conceded his first half point against Gavin Marner in Round 6, but still seemed bullet-proof after a Round 7 win over Dizdarevic. But then the crash: he lost to Neil Wright and Matthew Sonter in Rounds 8 and 9, enabling Wright to take the outright lead on 7.5/9 after having earlier drawn with Zvedeniouk and lost to Lee Jones. Neil beat Bob Krstic in Round 10, but was still not safe after Zvedeniouk took care of Sonter to remain just half a point behind. And then an amazing last round: Wright, Zvedeniouk and Sheldrick all lost, leaving Neil the winner on 8.5/11 from Ben Lazarus, Tredinnick and Zvedeniouk on 8. Krstic was se niors champion on 7/11, from Phil Viner and Lovejoy on 6.5.

There was a reason why three foreign GMs were in the field; and IM David Smerdon vindicated the organisers' decision by achieving his first GM norm with three rounds to spare! His was the story of the event, though he did not win it - even there he came close, joint leading all the way into the last round… From Rounds 2-6, he played all 5 GMs in the field consecutively - and did not lose a game! First a draw with top seeded GM Ftacnik, then wins over GMs Schmaltz and Johansen; a draw with GM Chandler, and a fighting endgame draw with GM Rogers. Not content with this, Smurf perpetrated a winning attack on defending champion IM Gary Lane, mated George Xie, had another endgame draw with IM Stephen Solomon and sacrificed a piece to checkmate IM Alex Wohl. Only a misfired piece sacrifice and a resultant last round loss to Igor Goldenberg prevented him from coming equal first; a superb performance nonetheless…

But while all this was going on, a familiar tale at the top: Ian Rogers winning yet another Australian Championship with the outstanding score of 9/11. Undefeated himself, Rogers conceded draws to only Lane, Ftacnik, Smerdon and Wohl. Defeats of Bjelobrk and Solomon were just warm-ups to victories over Chandler, Schmaltz and Johansen. A last round win for Ian over Raymond Song wrapped it up. Smurf had to be content with equal second on 8/11 with Chandler, who drew with Lane, Schmaltz, Solo and Dave while scoring a fighting win in an opposite coloured bishop ending against Ftacnik, as well as beating IM Zhao. Schmaltz would have been content with outright fourth on 7.5 after beating Zhao, Lane, Ftacnik and Wohl.

An astounding 106 players in this one: too many for me to give anything other than a brief summary of the winners! After taking an early half point bye, James Obst was up there with the leaders by Round 6 of this 13 round event. By then we had an outright leader, Gareth Oliver on 6/6, but James was one of many on 5; and James, Rukman Vijayakumar and Max Illingworth joined Gareth in the lead on 7 points by Round 8, when The Obstacle beat Gareth. By this stage Rukman had beaten Junta Ikeda, who had also lost to Casey Barnard; but the little fighter from Canberra had fought to within a point of Obst by Round 10, where he beat Gareth. Just when we thought The Obstacle was immovable, he drew with Junta in Round 11 and lost to Dusan Stojic in Round 12, leaving us with a tie for first at the end on 10.5/13 after they both won their last round games (Junta beating Dusan). James beat Junta in the playoff, so he is the new Australian Junior Lightning Champion; Gareth, Rukman and Dus an shared third on 10/13.

Even more astounding: 107 players this time! Do these juniors ever tire of chess? But happily, only 7 rounds; and the cream came to the top quickly, with the top four seeds (in order) Ronald Yu, Junta Ikeda, Michael Morris and James Cronan reaching 4/4. Round 5 was crucial, as Michael upset Ronald to take the outright lead on 5/5 after James and Junta drew. But unperturbed, the Junta Juggernaut rolled Michael in Round 6, and was suddenly sharing the lead with Edwin Wu after the latter stunned Ronald and James Cronan could only draw with Jonas Muller. A last round win for Junta over Edwin, and Junta was the Champion on 6.5/7; Michael beat Jonas to share second with James on 6, after the latter defeated Andrew Brown.

Not so much to say about this one, really! Emma Guo was clear favourite in this 15 player field, by more than 400 rating points; she was expected to win easily, and she did… Conceding only a draw with Karen Khoo, her winning score of 10.5/11 was the best in any event. Fifth seed Charmian Zhang did superbly to take outright second on 9.5, losing only to Emma and beating three higher rated players. Karen Khoo claimed third by herself on 8.5/11. In a tournament with very few upsets, only Round 4 stands out: there Karen shocked the higher rated Megan Setiabudi (still Under 10 Girls Champion), and Caroline Shan (second Under 10, and rated at just 183!) upset Katrina Knapp (726).

Interesting how the top seed rarely seems to win these events (Emma Guo excepted)! Yi Yuan was favourite; but it seemed to me quite early on that the event would be a two horse race between Yi (1574) and third seed Kelvin Finke (1526). Beating Liam McGarity in Round 3, Yi proceeded smoothly to 4/4, as did Kelvin. Their individual Round 5 game was obviously critical, and Kelvin prevailed to lead outright on 5/5; but then drawing with Jonathan Ren (4.5/5) kept things close. When Yi beat Jonathan in Round 7, the two horse race was still on, with Kelvin leading Yi by half a point. Enter Edward Xing, defeating Yi in Round 8 while Kelvin put paid to Liam. Was Kelvin safe? Of course not! Gene Nakauchi came into the picture, drawing with Yi in Round 9 while Edward drew with Kelvin, and then beating Kelvin in Round 10! Suddenly Liam and Kelvin were equal first on 8/10 going into the last round, with Yi and Gene on 7.5; but Kelvin remained calm to win his last round game and the Und er 12 title outright on 9/11, while Gene beat Liam to share second with Yi on 8.5. The Under 10 title resulted in a playoff between Laurence Matheson and Joshua Lau, won by the former.

A 19 player, 11 round event, this one; and very competitive it was, too! Top seed Alex Jule just could not break away, but throughout the event she stayed calm - and undefeated… Miona Ikeda accepted her draw offer despite being ahead in Round 3; Kayleigh Smith drew with her in Round 4. Defeating dangerous rivals Jessica Kinder, Sally Yu and Deborah Ng, she then drew again, this time defending an ending against Susan Sheng. Then she beat Tamzin Oliver, but still she could not break away: just half a point above Sally Yu after 9 rounds. But then finally a Sally draw with Kieran Lyons gave her the breathing space she needed; and she wrapped up the title on 9/11 with a last round draw with Kieran. Sally was second, and Under 16 Champion after an outstanding event got her to 8/11; Kayleigh Smith took out the Under 14 title on 7.5.

Nothing like saving the best until last! This event raised a few interesting questions right from the start: could defending champion Moulthun Ly really manage playing in both the Juniors and the Championships, without tiring and fading at the end? Could Ronald Yu, Gareth Oliver or Vincent Suttor (who came so close last year) win it at their last attempt? If not, who would prevail? We had to wait to find out, amid much drama, with a stunning final result…

Moulthun made the pace early, winning his games with lightning speed to get to 3/3 while second seed Ronald Yu drew with Ben Harris in Round 2, where Edwin Wu upset fifth seed Dusan Stojic. Prophetically, Vincent was given a very tough fight before beating Justin Huang in Round 3, while Angela Song misplayed her winning rook ending against Sam Grigg and only drew… The top three boards (Gareth v Moulthun, James Cronan v Vincent and Junta Ikeda v Michael Morris) were all drawn in Round 4, leaving us with 8 leaders on 3.5/4. More draws in Round 5 (Vincent v Angela, and Michael v Gareth), and Moulthun was leading on his own on 4.5/5 after beating James Cronan. Then he beat Junta, and was still leading on 5.5/6, from Gareth (who beat Justin Huang) and Angela on 5/6. Could anyone stop him?

No answers in Round 7: draws for Angela v Moulthun and Gareth v Ronald, while Vincent joined the queue with a win. And then the fall for Moulthun: playing too fast, he suffered a crushing positional loss to Vincent in Round 8, got a forfeit from a very unfortunate sick Ronald (who had to withdraw) in Round 9 and then lost a bishop ending a pawn down to Justin Huang in Round 10! And during all this, Angela beat Gareth and Michael Morris to take a half point lead from Junta (who won a lengthy fighting struggle over Vincent in Round 9), which she protected in a beautiful game she was winning all the way against Junta in Round 10. Going in to the last round, the scores were Angela 8.5, Justin 7.5 and one of them had to win; could we have our first female Australian Junior Champion?

In typical fashion, they made us wait the whole final day… Missing a forced win on about move 30, Justin ground down Angela in 83 moves, winning the final rook ending with his last pawn (a rook pawn)! So, a playoff (both players on 8.5/11), and maximum drama. Angela was winning the first rapid playoff game the whole way, but Justin fought to eventually draw knight vs bishop a pawn down. Then Angela was worse in the second playoff game, but fought, turned it around and finished up winning a rook and pawn ending a pawn ahead! She was indeed our first female champion ever, and Justin was Under 16 champion; Edwin Wu (7/11) won the Under 14 title by winning a two game rapid playoff 1.5-0.5 against Andrew Brown.

2005 Australian Schools Championships

by Chief Arbiter Charles Zworestine

It was a sight to behold: four primary school aged girls laughing, embracing each other and generally looking as if they were having a great time! They were not the tournament winners, either: indeed the Wilderness School from South Australia finished last overall (on 5/16) in the primary girls section of the 2005 National Schools Finals. But in this particular match, they had just won the last game to draw their third round match with Somerville House from Queensland, the school who eventually claimed the third place trophy. And they were delighted about it: you'd think they had won the whole event! Their attitude and evident joy epitomised to me the spirit of this event; it was just as instigator Graeme Gardiner (who spoke magnificently at the opening ceremony) had intended…

In Sydney on the second weekend of December 2005, the NSWJCL put on an event that was full of this spirit, and indeed widely acknowledged as the best National Schools Finals yet. The venue was fantastic: from the playing venue to the analysis rooms to the boarding school, we owe a great debt of gratitude to Newington School. And indeed also to the huge team effort of the organising committee, especially Marge Lip, Bonnie Wu and Richard Gastineau-Hills: their terrific preparation ensured everything was in place for a great event. The social aspect was terrific too, with Marge and Bonnie putting on the dinner from heaven on the Saturday night: I have never attended such a widely praised dinner! And of course the chess, played at the standard time controls of 60 minutes plus 10 seconds per move from the start (Fischer), produced the usual excitement; so without further ado, let's move on to the chess…

Primary Girls Division

This event was won convincingly by the clear favourites, Curtin from the ACT, with 13/16. The team of Kayleigh Smith, Karen Khoo, Grace Huang and Natalie Shadwell started out with the aim of a clean score; so they were surprised (and so were a lot of other people) when they lost a game in the first round! They still won 3-1 against Wilderness (SA), then followed up with a second round 4-0 win against Summer Hill (NSW); so they just about had it wrapped up by the end of the first day (they had a third round bye in this five team event). Their toughest match was in Round 4 against PLC (Victoria), where Board 1 Sally Yu (PLC) beat Kayleigh for the first time ever (or so Sally told me); Curtin still won 3-1. But it could have been 2-2, as the Board 4 game was a thriller: Grace Huang managing to beat Sakthi Ravitharan with a knight and two pawns against queen and rook (see game below)! So PLC had to content themselves with second on 10/16, with Somerville House (Queensland) rel egated to third after a final round 3-1 loss to Curtin.

Ravitharan, Sakthi    --    Huang, Grace
ASTC   Sydney
????     0-1     C58a
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Be2?! h6 7.Nf3 e4 8.Nd4 Qxd5 9.c3 c5 10.Bb5+ Bd7 11.Bxd7+ Qxd7 12.Ne2 Qg4 13.d4 c4 14.Nf4 Qxd1+ 15.Kxd1 Bd6 16.b4 Nc6 17.b5 Na5 18.Ba3? Bxf4 19.g3 Bc7 20.Bb4 a6 21. bxa6 Rxa6 22.Na3 Rc6 23.Nb5 Bb6 24.Re1 Re6 25.Rb1 Nc6 26.Bc5 Bxc5 27.Nc7+ Kd7 28.Nxe6 Kxe6 29.dxc5 Rd8+ 30.Kc2 Rd7 31.Red1 Rxd1 32.Rxd1 Ne5 33.f4 Neg4 34.Rd6+ Kf5 35.h3 Ne3+ 36.Kd2 Nf1+ 37.Ke2 Nxg3+ 38.Kf2 Kxf4 39.Rd1 e3+ 40.Kg2 e2 41.Re1 Nge4 42.c6 bxc6 43.a4 Nxc3 44.a5 Nb5 45.a6 Nc7 46.a7 c3 47.Kf2 c2 48.Ra1 g5 49.Rc1 g4 50.hxg4 Kxg4 51.Rxc2 h5 52.Rxc6 Na8 53. Rc8 Nb6 54.Rb8 h4 55.Rxb6 h3 56.Rb1 Ne4+ 57.Ke3 Ng3 58.a8=Q h2 59.Qg2 f5 60.Rh1 f4+ 61.Kd2 f3 62.Qxh2 f2 63.Qg2 f1=Q 64.Qg1 e1=Q+

 

 

An amazing position

Primary Open Division: A Thriller!

This one proved to be the most exciting of the four events, with a clear division between the top three and the bottom three schools. The NSW School (Sydney Grammar St. Ives) were the favourites; but they were always going to be challenged by the Victorians (Essex Heights) and Queenslanders (Somerset College). How would they go? The first two rounds provided very few clues, as all three schools won against lower ranked opposition. Somerset, however, gained a head start by winning both their first two matches 4-0 to get to 8/8, while Grammar conceded two draws (7/8) and Essex Heights (6.5) a draw and a loss when their Board 1, James Morris, got the move order wrong and popped a piece!

Round 3 was the first critical match up (Essex Heights vs Grammar). Grammar Board 3 Bob Teoh overlooked a standard mating net and lost in 18 moves to Nicholas Liu; while on Board 2 Eugene Schon (Essex) beat William Xu (Grammar) (see game below). When Grammar Board 1 Raymond Song won a tense game against James Morris, Board 4 became the critical game. Justin Cheung (Grammar) was winning (an exchange ahead) against Jerome Lugo (Essex), but allowed his central passed pawns through and also lost. So 3-1 to Essex, while Somerset again won 4-0. Progress scores Somerset 12, Essex Heights 9.5 and Grammar 8 going into Day 2…

Xu, William    --    Schon, Eugene
ASTC   Sydney
????     0-1     C01i
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Nf3 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bxf6 Bxf6 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.Qb3 Ne7 12.Rfe1 c6 13.Qc2 b6 14.b4 Qc7 15.Nb3 g6 16.a4 Be6 17.a5 Nf5 18.Ne5 Kg7 19.Re2 Re7 20.axb6 Qxb6 21.Nc5 a5 22.Nb3 a4 23.Na5 Bxe5 24.Rxe5 Qc7 25.Ree1 Nh4 26.Qxa4 Qf4 27.Re3 Rae8 28. Rae1

 

Bh3!! 29.Rxe7 Rxe7 30.Rxe7 Qc1+ 31.Bf1 Nf3+!!

( 31...Nf3+ 32.gxf3 Qxf1# )

Things were even tighter after Round 4, as Grammar won 4-0 while the two leaders battled out a thrilling 2-2 draw; James Morris should have beaten Kelvin Finke on Board 1 to give Essex Heights 3-1, but Kelvin fought manfully and eventually got James in his time pressure… With scores going into the last round Somerset 14, Grammar 12 and Essex 11.5, Grammar needed to win 3-1 or better against Somerset and Essex Heights needed 4-0. Essex reached 3-0; but then Jerome Lugo popped his queen and lost to make it 3-1! But hope for Grammar was short-lived despite a win by Bob Teoh over Brendan Baker on Board 3, as Justin Cheung lost to Kantley Wu on Board 4 and Raymond Song allowed Kelvin Finke to double rooks on the seventh and force a draw by repetition on Board 1. Despite William Xu grinding down Jonas Muller on Board 2 in the last game to finish, the 2.5-1.5 win was not quite enough for Grammar: Somerset won by a point, and Grammar were relegated to third behind Essex on countba ck.

Secondary Girls Division

North Sydney Girls (NSW) were the favourites in this five team event, and they did not let the home state down. Starting with a bye, they then won their first match 3.5-0.5 against PLC (Victoria), and their second match against Pembroke (SA) by the same score. So they already took a convincing lead into Day 2. When they won their second last match 3-1 against Belconnen (ACT), they only needed a point in the last round against Brisbane State (Queensland) to wrap it up. But of course they were not content with this, winning again 3-1 to match Curtin's winning primary girls score. They nearly put Brisbane's second place in jeopardy, too, with this last round thrashing; fortunately for the Queenslanders PLC dropped half a point in the last round, enabling Brisbane State to come equal second with them and win second place on countback.

Heather Huddleston was her usual rock solid self on Board 1, winning her first three games and then acquiescing to a last round draw (through boredom or exhaustion?) to reach 3.5/4. Declining a draw and losing against Belconnen, Deborah Ng nevertheless won all her remaining games to score 3/4 on Board 2. Heather was matched by Shan Shan Qiao (3.5/4) on Board 3; while Board 4 was shared between Amy Cao and Stephanie Leung (both 1.5/2). Hence the outstanding winning score of 13/16. Brisbane State and PLC both scored 8 points, while Belconnen and Pembroke both got 5.5.

There follows Heather Huddleston's first up win over Sally-Anne Richter (PLC):

Huddleston, Heather    --    Richter, Sally-Anne
ASTC   Sydney
????     1-0     E61q
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bf4 O-O 6.h3 Nbd7 7.e3 c5 8. Be2 b6 9.O-O Bb7 10.Rc1 d5 11.dxc5 Nxc5 12.Ne5 Rc8 13.b4 Ne6 14.Bf3 Nxf4 15.exf4 e6 16.cxd5 Nxd5 17.Nxd5 Rxc1 18.Qxc1 Bxd5 19.Rd1 Qa8 20.Bxd5 exd5 21.Nc6 Bf6 22.Rxd5 Rc8 23.Rd6 Kg7 24.b5 a6

 

25.Rxf6!! axb5

( 25...Kxf6 26.Qc3+ Ke6 27.Qe5+ Kd7 28.Qe7# )

( 29...Qxb8? 30.Nd7+!! Rxd7 31.Qh8+ )

Secondary Open Division

This event had previously only ever been won by NSW or Queensland; but boy, were they in for a shock this time! It all began when St. Peter's (SA) defeated Knox (NSW) 3-1 in the first round; while the Queensland school (Somerset) also lost 3-1 (to Applecross from WA). With Radford (ACT) winning 2.5-1.5 win over Melbourne High (Victoria), NSW and Queensland were already trailing. In Round 2 Somerset inflicted another 3-1 loss on Knox, while St. Peter's beat Melbourne High 3-1 and Radford were 2.5-1.5 winners against Applecross. Then in the third round Knox held Applecross to 2-2, while Somerset beat Melbourne High 3-1 and Radford put paid to St. Peter's 2.5-1.5. Progress scores going in to Day 2 were Radford and St. Peter's 7.5, Somerset 7 and Applecross 6.5. A thrilling final day was in prospect…

Round 4 saw a 3-1 win by Knox over Melbourne High; but the main event was a race between St. Peter's and Radford, as the former beat Applecross 3-1 to take a half point lead over the latter (2.5-1.5 winners over Somerset) going into the last round. Knox then put Radford out of the picture by inflicting their only defeat (2.5-1.5) upon them in the last round, with James Cronan winning the last game to finish (a thrilling rook ending) against Gareth Oliver. So St. Peter's won it overall after beating Somerset 3-1, while Radford got second and Applecross (2.5-1.5 winners over Melbourne High) came third.

Good to see two females playing in the Open event. Their individual game was a wild affair:

Oliver, Tamzin    --    Kinder, Jessica
ASTC   Sydney
????     1/2-1/2     B23m
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 a6 5.a4 g6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.O-O Bg7 8. d3 e6 9.Bg5 Nge7 10.Qd2 h6 11.Bf4 g5 12.Bg3 O-O 13.h4 f6 14.hxg5 fxg5 15. Rab1 b6 16.Ne2 Ng6 17.Kh2 Nce5 18.Nxe5 Nxe5 19.Rh1 h5 20.Kg1 h4 21.Bxe5 Bxe5 22.Nc3 Bd4 23.Rf1 g4 24.Qh6 Rxf2 1/2-1/2

 

One of the nice things about this year's Australian Schools Championships was that the four events were won by four different states: South Australia in the Secondary Open, NSW in the Secondary Girls, Queensland in the Primary Open and the ACT in the Primary Girls. It was also good to see Western Australia (third in the Secondary Open) among the placegetters for the first time. Congratulations to all the winners. And of course well done to the NSWJCL for putting on such a great event. All in all, a success that Canberra will find hard to top next year…