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2005
Australian Junior championships
at mt buller
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We (Graeme & Wendy Gardiner) took a team of 10 players, 3 coaches and a parent to Mt Buller for the Australian Junior Chess Championships. The week before there was 1.5 inches of snow on the mountains, but unfortunately the temperatures went up too much for any further snow! But it was beautifully cool and the scenery is magnificent. We had fun and were delighted with the results of our group! See our picture gallery below. Moulthun Ly from Redland Bay (who wasn't with our group, but we regard him as an honorary Gold Coaster!) has become the youngest ever Australian Junior Champion at the age of just 13 years and two months. This is a remarkable achievement for Moulthun, who has only been playing for two and a half years. For the first few months he was coached by local coach Kerry Corker, but since then he has been entirely self-coached. Moulthun reads widely for his chess studies, and plays up to 100 games of bullet and lightning a day on the Internet Chess Club. In November, at his first visit to the World Junior Championships in Greece, he finished only one point behind the winner of the World Under 14s on 7.5/11. Moulthun is undoubtedly a potential grandmaster. If he were able to gain sponsorship to play in Europe for a year or two, it would be possible for him to gain the coveted GM title within the next 2 or 3 years. Our Gold Coast team all played very well at the championships, but it was the girls who took home the silverware. Alexandra Jule from Merrimac High won the Australian Girls Under 16 title for the second year in a row. She also won the Australian Girls' Rapid and Lightning Championships. Molly McGarity from Mudgeeraba Creek Primary, at her first attempt, won the Australian Girls Under 12 title. She showed that this was no fluke by also collecting the Australian Girls' Under 16 Rapid title. Jessica Kinder from Somerset College won the Australian Girls' Under 14 Lightning title. Toshi Kimura, at his final Australian Juniors, finished with four straight wins and seventh place on 7.5/11 in the open section. Ric Kaspar also performed very well. Sebastian Jule and Sam Grigg did best in the open under 12s, challenging for the lead at various times. Sam and Sebastian, along with Yitao Lei, Leoma Lee, Brendan Baker, Daniel Barrett and Mikio Kimura probably just need a little more experience to be challenging for titles. We thank our coaches IM David Smerdon and Matthew Sonter for doing a great job with the coaching. Also to Greg Baker for doing a wonderful job mucking in at the ski lodge where we all had a great time as a group. Also to Phachara Wongwichit, who stayed with our team but coached some kids from interstate. |
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Picture Gallery
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