Noble Park Chess Club

December 2012 Issue 9 Noble Park Chess Club

2013 Committee Paddy O'Donoghue Centre, 18-32 Buckley Street, Noble Park, Victoria 3174 President: FM Dusan Stojic Treasurer FM Domagoj Dragicevic Secretary: Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian Publicity/Newsletter Svetozar Stojic

Junior Coaching Coordinator: Greg Dingfelder Tournament Director: President's message John Nemeth What an exciting year it has been for the club! We have for the first time in our Equipment/Webmaster: young history hosted a weekend tournament, the Northern Star Noble Park Classic. Phillip Drew The event was a resounding success. Fifty‐nine players from all over Melbourne, some of whom hadn’t visited the club before, came to play. We are committed to Website: http://www.nobleparkchess. hosting the event again next year, and we look forward to it becoming a permanent org.au/ fixture on our yearly calendar.

The first real fruits of our Junior Coaching Program have started to show. This year Inside: we’ve implemented the Reserves membership program, which has enabled the President's message 1 juniors to be exposed to a real tournament atmosphere, before graduating to our Noble Park Classic 2 senior tournaments. We have had several juniors make the full journey already, Masters & Challengers 3 and some had even taken scalps from our seasoned veterans. Reserves Winter Swiss 4 Victorian Women's Champs 5 Throughout these changes, we have preserved the foundations that have worked World Youth Olympiad 6 well in the past. With more members, our weekly FIDE rated tournaments have CV Interclub 10 World Youth Champs 11 been as competitive as ever. The newsletters have been instrumental in providing a N Y Arbitering 12 nice narrative of our own tournaments as well as reporting on the success of our members outside the club.

It’s been a real pleasure to see the club grow from humble beginnings six years ago. I am confident that as our family continues to grow, the club will become even more enjoyable and competitive to play in. I look forward to next year and many Proudly supported by years ahead!

Dusan Stojic NPCC President

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Northern Star Noble Park Chess Club Marko Grabovac beating Ethan Lim, Vishal Bhat beating Classic Jason Chew, Milan Stojic beating Tanya Krstevska, Rebecca Strickland beating Carl Dingfelder, as well as nd rd another quota of draws. The top of the tournament saw The club's first ever weekender took place on 22 ‐23 another change, with Domagoj Dragicevic assuming the September in its venue and the club was delighted with lead after beating Justin Tan. The chasing pack grew larger the turnout with the event. 59 players in total came to after Mirko Rujevic beat James Morris and Miodrag play in the event. Milojevic beat John Ni to join Justin on 5/6.

Here's the report from arbiter Kerry Stead. The final round saw Domagoj Dragicevic playing Mirko

Rujevic for first place, while Justin Tan & Miodrag 59 players made the trek to Noble Park for the inaugural Milojevic fought it out for second (and a possible share of Noble Park Classic. Noble Park Chess Club has only started first). The top board clash went the distance, with Mirko in the last few years & in this time it’s gone a long way to seeming to have the better of a double rook endgame, establishing itself as one of the top chess clubs in until Domagoj managed to turn the tables in mutual time Melbourne (and arguably in the top 3 in Melbourne!), and trouble. Mirko's once‐active king went passive, while a weekender seemed like the next logical step for the Domagoj's king came to life & within an instant Mirko club. The tournament itself is very strong, with 2 IMs, 3 found himself faced with the prospect of losing a rook, or FMs & 11 players rated above 2000ACF! The early rounds seeing Domagoj have an extra queen, and resigned shortly also saw a few upsets, with Vishal Bhat beating Marcus afterwards, to make Domagoj Dragicevic the winner of the Raine in round 1, while Carl Dingfelder held Sylvester inaugural Noble Park Classic. Justin Tan won his game to Urban to a draw. Round 2 saw more upsets, with Jason take second place, while Carl Gorka beat Jack Puccini to Chew beating Miodrag Milosevic, Khadem Jahid beating secure third place. On the other boards there were the Thai Ly, Haran Salasan beating Jaime Yung & Lachlan usual share of upsets, with Tom Lea beating John Nemeth, Martin beating Denise Lim. Round 3 saw some normality Kris Chan beating Joseph Wong, Regan Crowley beating return, with the only upset being a draw between Rad Gary Lin, Ryan Kam beating Milic Sucevic, Alanna Chew Chmiel & Milic Sucevic.Round 4 saw two leaders emerge Lee beating Tanya Kolak, Haran Salasan beating Tristan from the pack, with Mirko Rujevic beating Dusan Stojic, Krstevski, as well as a few draws. while Justin Tan beat Chris Wallis. The upsets returned though, with Anurag Sannidhanam beating Marcus Raine, Prize‐winners are as follows: John Ni beating Rad Chmiel, Cameron Yung beating Bosko

Mijatovic, Vishal Bhat beating Jamie Yung & Ryan Kam 1st Domagoj Dragicevic beating Jamie Kenmure. Tomorrow's first round sees 2nd Justin Tan Justin Tan & Mirko Rujevic battle it out for the lead, with 3rd Carl Gorka plenty of chasers hot on their heels!

Rating group Under‐1800 The second day of the Noble Park Classic was full of 1st Tom Lea exciting chess, with a number of games going right down =2nd Kyle Gibson, Shane Lawson to the wire! Ultimately it was local favourite, Domagoj

Dragicevic, who is the club treasurer, who was Rating group Under‐1300 triumphant, scoring an undefeated 6.5/7 to win the =1st Vishal Bhat, Alana Chew Lee, Ryan Kam, Denise Lim, tournament! Regan Crowley

As had become usual in this event, round 5 saw a number Best junior Under‐1000 of upsets, with Svetosar Stojic beating John Nemeth, John =1st Rebecca Strickland, Lachlan Martin, Haran Salasan Ni beating Kyle Gibson, Carl Loucas beating Tanya Kolak,

Rebecca Strickland beating Jamie Yung, as well as a large number of draws. At the top of the tournament, Justin

Tan took the outright lead after beating Mirko Rujevic, while both James Morris & Domagoj Dragicevic were half a point behind after wins over Christopher Wallis & Dusan Stojic respectively. Round 6 also saw some upsets, with

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Noble Park Masters and Challengers pieces with all 5 games ending with victories to players with black pieces. In the Challengers, after round 4 we had This was club's third tournament of the year and once sole leader after Kris Chan defeated Luis Chan to move to again it attracted a great turnout with total of 34 players 4/4. He was followed by three players on 3/4 with Anurag across two divisions. The Masters tournament was a Sannidhanam, Franz Oswald and Ege Girgin in the chasing round‐robin tournament which consisted of 10 players pack. We also had upsets in this round with Regan whilst the Challengers tournament was a swiss Crowley defeating Milan Stojic, Rebecca Strickland tournament which consisted of 24 players. We also defeating Phong Huynh, and Baris Girgin holding Joseph Sy welcomed club’s newest members Anurag Sannidhanam, to a draw. Bill Yuan, Cassandra Lim and Christopher Lim. Round 5 Round 1 Christopher Wallis became a leader with 4/5 after In the five matches from the Masters tournament, three defeating Justin Tan. Three players only half a point of the matches were wins to white pieces with Laurence behind were Justin Tan, Dusan Stojic and Laurence Matheson defeating Domagoj Dragicevic, Karl Zelesco Matheson. After round 5 in Challengers, Kris Chan beating Jimmy Ying, Justin Tan beating John Nemeth. Chris maintained his lead after drawing with Anurag Wallis defeated David Hacche with black pieces whilst Sannidhanam. Only half a point behind was Ege Girgin Dusan Stojic and Svetozar Stojic played a draw. The big after recording a win over Kevin Cron. Probably the big story of round 1 in Challengers was the fact that all the story of the round was Jack Cron, who finally recorded his top three seeds lost. I don't recall seeing a tournament first ever win at the club. Jack has been playing at the club where the top three seeds lost in the first round. The for over a year now, and he has won his first game upsets included on board 1 Carl Dingfelder defeating defeating Christopher Lim. Anurag Sannidhanam, on board 2 Rebecca Strickland defeating Franz Oswald, and on board 3 Hamish Jones Round 6 defeating Kevin Cron. Quite an eventful round in the Masters with the leader Christopher Wallis losing against John Nemeth. Dusan Round 2 Stojic and Justin Tan took full advantage to move to 4.5/6 In the Masters section, three players moved to 2/2 with with share of the lead by defeating Karl Zelesco and Chris Wallis defeating Svetozar Stojic, Justin Tan defeating Laurence Matheson respectively. A major upset also Jimmy Ying and Karl Zelesco defeating David Hacche. In occured in the round with Jimmy Ying defeating Domagoj Challengers tournament, the round 2 continued with Dragicevic, with rating difference of 569 points. In the upsets. On board 1, Carl Dingfelder had a win over higher Challengers, after round 6 we had a new leader with Ege rated Phong Huynh, Hamish Jones defeated Milan Stojic. Girgin moving to 5/6 after defeating Kris Chan. Top seed Kris Chan and Luis Chan also recorded wins to go to 2/2. Anurag Sannidhanam kept up the pressure on the leader moving to 4.5/6 after defeating Franz Oswald. The only Round 3 upset of the round was Baris Girgin defeating Elliott In the Masters section, after round 3, a sole leader Renzies. emerged after Chris Wallis defeated Karl Zelesco. There were upsets in this round 3 with John Nemeth defeating Round 7 Dusan Stojic, whilst David Hacche held Justin Tan to a The match between the leaders Dusan Stojic and Justin draw and Svetozar Stojic holding Domagoj Dragicevic to a Tan resulted in a win for Dusan moving him to the lead draw. In the other game, Laurence Matheson defeated with 5.5/7. Laurence Matheson defeated Christopher Jimmy Ying. In the Challengers, after round 3 there were Wallis to move to equal second with 4.5/7 with other two leaders after Kris Chan defeated Carl Dingfelder, and results going to rating. In the Challengers, we had another Luis Chan defeated Hamish Jones to move to 4/4. The only twist with new leader emerging with Anurag Sannidhanam upset of this round was Baris Girgin holding Kevin Cron to defeating Ege Girgin on board 1 to move into the lead a draw. with 5.5/7. Kris Chan failed to join Anurag as a leader after losing to Cameron Yung. Jack Cron continued his runs of Round 4 wins by defeating Sarkis Malkon whilst Christopher Lim Who said that it is an advantage in chess to have white scored his first point for the tournament by defeating pieces? This Masters round belonged to players with black Cassandra Lim.

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Round 8 Kris Chan finished third with 6.5/9 after defeating Phong This round saw a historic moment for the club as it was Huynh. the first time the club broadcasted a game live on its website. Big thanks to Phillip Drew who provided the DGT The final results are as follows: board. The game broadcasted was between David Hacche and John Nemeth which David won. Dusan Stojic Masters maintaned his one point lead by defeating Laurence =1st FM Dusan Stojic Matheson whilst Justin Tan maintained the pressure by =1st Justin Tan defeating Svetozar Stojic. In the Challengers, we had the 3rd FM Christopher Walis battle between top two seeds Anurag Sannidham defeated Cameron Yung to move within touching distance Challengers of the tournament win. Ege Girgin maintained the 1st Anurag Sanidhanam pressure by defeating Luis Chan whilst Kris Chan and 2nd Ege Girgin Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian were further half a 3rd Kris Chan point behind. In upset wins Paul Kelsen defeated Josephy Sy whilst Carl Dingfelder defeated Kevin Cron. Cassandra Rating group Lim scored her first win of the tournament by defeating 1st Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian Sarkis Malkon. 2nd Paul Kelsen

Round 9 Best Junior An exciting last round in Masters with leader Dusan Stojic 1st Kris Chan losing his last round match against Christopher Wallis, and 2nd Luis Chan in the process giving Chris third place with 6/9.Justin Tan took full advantage of Dusan's loss by defeating Domagoj Best junior Under‐1000 Dragicevic to finish equal first with Dusan on 6.5/9. The 1st Bill Yuan Challengers tournament also went down to the last round =2nd Hamish Jones where Anurag Sannidhanam wrapped up the tournament =2nd Regan Crowley win by defeating Mangalaganesh Balasubramanian finishing on 7.5/9 and in the process qualifying to play in Best junior Under‐2000 2013 Masters tournament. Ege Girgin also had a good 1st Jimmy Ying tournament and won in the last round to finish on 7/9.

Noble Park Reserves Winter Swiss

The Reserves Winter Swiss ran alongside the Noble Park Here are the final standings: Open, and featured 9 players. The players participating in this event were juniors who were reasonably new to 1 Hau, Matthew 7 chess, and are part of our junior coaching program. The 2 Hau, Patrick 6 top 3 prize winners were awarded medals for their efforts. 3 Hau, Megan 4 After 7 rounds, first place went to Matthew Hau with an 4‐5 Ea, Ethan 3 impressive score of 7/7. Second place went to Patrick Hau Gao, Daniel 3 with 6/7 whilst third place went to Megan Hau with 4/7. 6‐7 Christabel, Andrew 2 Almeida, Ushan 2 8‐9 Mudannayake, Seniru 1 Shipley, Peverel 1

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Victorian Women's Championships 2012 The following article is from Cassandra Lim

Three of Noble Park members; Rebecca Strickland, Pearl In October 2012, I had the opportunity to compete in the Yung and Cassandra Lim participated in Victorian 2012 Victorian Women's Chess Championship. Seven Women's Championships, a tournament which is back games were held over two consecutive weekends. The after long absence. The tournament was won by Savithri competition was tough! I managed to win two of my Narenthran with an impressive score of 6.5/7. Noble Park games, scoring a total of three points (including a bye). member Rebecca Strickland finished on 3.5/7 whilst Although I didn't win any prizes, I thoroughly enjoyed the Cassandra Lim and Pearl Yung finished on 3/7. Here are experience. This was the first women's tournament I've articles from Rebecca Strickland and Cassandra Lim ever joined and it was fun just playing amongst women! describing their thoughts on the event. The following article is from Pearl The first article is by Rebecca. The Victorian Women Championship made a comeback Over two weekends during October, I and a couple of this year, revived by Chess Victoria and supported by a other Noble Park members played in the 2012 Victorian $1000 grant from the Victoria Government's office of Woman's Chess Championship at the Box Hill Chess Club. Multi‐Cultural Affairs and Citizenship.

This event was re‐introduced this year and hopefully will 23 players registered for the event, of which only 6 were become a regular competition for many years. The "women"! It is great to see the promising future of chess tournament was professionally run by the arbiters with no in the 17 junior female players putting their hats in the problems being experienced throughout all 4 days. The ring and performing so well. 2 players came from rural tournament had a different feel to it as during every game Victoria ‐ Zoe Harrison and Anna Yates. it was very quiet, probably because the numbers were not as high as most tournaments (or was it because there There were no easy games, all hard fought. Perhaps were no boys..lol). owing to the nature of participants, the event had a calm and quiet atmosphere and most games went on for a long A total of 23 girls/women entered the tournament, with time. The organisers, Box Hill Chess Club, offered yummy ratings ranging from 1698 to 321, although this was a chocolate prizes for upset wins and it paid to be good small number the standard was very good. friends with the Queen of Draws ‐ Alanna Chew Lee! Alanna, ranked 10th, managed impressive draws against There were a number of exciting games that went over 4 the 3rd seed (Savithri Naranthran), 4th seed (Jean hours; many games went past the three hour mark. I Watson) and 5th seed (Tanya Kolak). Zhi Lin Guo, ranked really enjoyed every game I played and I had many long 8th, also had impressive results against the top 5 seeds, games where the result was up in the air until very late in drawing with top seed (Vineetha Wijesuriya) and 2nd seed the game. I was pleased with my result of 3.5 wins out of (Sarah Anton), winning against 4th seed (Jean) and 5th 7, with a couple of better decisions against higher‐ranked seed (Tanya) and losing only to 3rd seed (Savithri). opponents, I could of snuck a extra point or 2. The 2012 Victorian Women Champion went to Savithri Pearl and I had a good battle where I was on top early, Naranthan, finishing undefeated on 6.5/7; Sarah Anton, with Pearl fighting back but in the end, I managed to hang Zhi Lin Guo and Jean Watson tied on 5 points and came on for the win, this was one of my favourite games of the equal 2nd; Best Junior prizes went to May Yi Foo and Zoe tournament. Harrison on 4.5.

I hope that Chess Victoria continue to run this event for As a personal experience, I enjoyed the tournament years to come as it is always good to see girls/women immensely even though my results were not that great. I playing chess. I hope to improve over the next 12 months had not played chess for most of the year, and some of and maybe achieve few more wins than I did this year. these junior players, little girls with teddy bears and pet rocks, would play more chess in a week than I had played for the entire year! I had close games against some higher rated opponents and was happy with the way I played

Noble Park Chess Club Page 6 of 14 even despite a healthy dose of the proverbial chess rust. I World Youth Olympiad 2012 also enjoyed watching all the games, since I know all the players from having been a chess tournament spectator This year in Turkey world youth under 16 Olympiad was for so long. held with 40 countries participating. Three Australian teams participated this year. What was so special about Taking part in this tournament has inspired me to get back this year that we had 3 of the club members were into playing chess, and I urge all the female players out representing Australia in the event. there to do the same! I hope that following on from the Justin Tan and Laurence successful come back the event will be staying put on the Matheson played for the first Victorian chess calendar, and wish the event continued team alongside Bobby Cheng, success. Pengyu Chen and Liu Yi whilst Ari Dale played board 1 on A snippet of history on this tournament was unearthed, second team alongside Savithri courtesy of ACF President Gary Wastell. According to Narenthran, Leteisha Gary, the Victorian Women's championship used to be Simmonds and Mirakla combined with the Victorian Seniors championship. The Mithran. After 10 rounds, last Vic Women event took place in the mid 90's, and was Australia A finished 8th, won by Edytha Rozycki (Mrs. Swiss Perfect!). Australia C finished in 25th place and Australia B finished in 30th place. The event was Final Standings: won by Russia, Iran finished second whilst India finished third. Place Name Loc Score 1 Narenthran, Savithri 1646 6.5 Here is a report from the event from Laurence Matheson, 2‐4 Anton, Sarah 1692 5 member of Australia A team on the event. Guo, Zhi Lin 1152 5 Watson, Jean 1426 5 Round 0 5‐8 Wijesuriya, Vineetha 1698 4.5 We’ve been training with Darryl (plus a few guest Foo, May‐Yi 1166 4.5 coaches) for the last year on Sunday afternoons for the Kolak, Tanya 1282 4.5 U16 Olympiad (this year held in Turkey from 29th August Harrison, Zoe 1274 4.5 to September 6th). So that’s why we found ourselves at 9‐10 Chew Lee, Alanna 1056 4 Melbourne Airport playing blitz at 2am on a Monday night Chin, Chloe 734 4 while talking about how bad the music was and throwing 11‐14 Chin, Nicole 1088 3.5 pawns at Bobby. None of us slept particularly well on the Middleton, Jody 700 3.5 flights and we almost lost Bobby at Dubai airport, only to Mendes, Amelia 737 3.5 find him sitting on a chair about 15 metres from the gate. Strickland, Rebecca 838 3.5 We eventually arrived extremely tired at the 15‐19 Sim, Yen De Yue 3 accommodation at dinner time to find it most You, Jessica 651 3 appropriately styled in pink (especially considering the Lim, Cassandra 546 3 80% of the field that were male!?). Lu, Lillian 321 3 You, Jennifer 641 3 Round 1 20 Yung, Pearl 908 2.5 We expected to play Malaysia here, but when we arrived 21 Schapova, Natasha 2 at the venue (after passing through the usual thorough 22 Fan, Phoebe 616 1.5 but inadequate security checkpoint at the entry to the 23 Yates, Anna 461 1 building), Ian told us we were now most likely to play Australia B; what a dream start that would have been… Thankfully one of Armenia’s players had to drop out, so we moved ahead of them in the rankings and played Singapore. Bobby’s opponent went for the king‐side hack in a Stonewall but it didn’t make much progress as Bobby

Noble Park Chess Club Page 7 of 14 won on the Queenside, while Justin was a pawn up in a trouble. Yi (playing on board 2 as Justin had a rest) fairly boring position until his opponent decided there was blundered a pawn from a tactical error, and his position mate in 3 to be had by sacrificing a rook. Needless to say quickly deteriorated. My opponent seemed to think that there wasn’t and his opponent resigned on the spot. I won an attack would be very effective with Knights on h4 and a pawn and the two bishops in the opening, but had a h5 and a Queen on g5. After I spotted the threat of mate tough time converting after he found some tricky on g2 his Knight on h5 was in trouble due to an e4‐e5 counterplay. Eventually I managed to grind him down in advance and he quickly lost. Pengyu played as Black in an an opposite coloured bishop ending with rooks a pawn up Italian which transposed to a Ruy Lopez and won on the that was always going to be tough to hold. The result on Kingside while his opponent did almost nothing. By this Pengyu’s board was never in doubt although he gave us a time we had discovered a much better use for the slightly few nervous moments with the clock… stale packaged bread rolls that appeared every meal at the canteen; after a frustrating game it became Round 2 commonplace to have a bread roll fight which usually I sat out for this round where we faced Greece. This was ended only when one of the packages burst, showering never going to be an easy one, Greece being seeded not the person it was aimed at with bits of bread roll. We far below us. Bobby made his opponent think for himself would usually have these at least once daily. early on, but couldn’t find any advantage and wound up having to draw a Bishop vs Knight ending a pawn down. Round 5 Justin had an early positional advantage in a French and Round 5 was the low‐point of after winning a couple of pawns found a nice 2 Rooks for the tournament, as we faced Queen sac that chased his opponent’s king from b8 to h4 lowly ranked Turkey‐Turkuaz with just a Knight and Queen. Yi didn’t get much play on (with an average rating of just the Black side of an exchange QGD and then made a 1756). Pengyu won a pawn tactical error in the endgame which sealed the game. and then a piece and wound Pengyu also found himself in a QGD, this time on the up winning in less than an White side, waiting for a long time to play an e4 advance hour and a half. I gradually which virtually decided the game, as Black quickly lost outplayed my opponent, pawns and his King couldn’t find shelter. We also had our before eventually breaking first encounter with “Mr ONE”; the guy who said “ONE” through on the Kingside and every time you tried to pick up two of anything from the choosing to win 2 pawns canteen. instead of trying to play with a much better position. It Round 3 turned out a bad decision as I couldn’t hang on to either This time we faced our first higher‐rated opposition in the of them and ended up in a draw rook ending. Yi found form of second seed Iran. Bobby went down quickly after himself in a troublesome ending early on and offered a falling into an opening trap, while on board 2 Justin played draw, which was rejected by their coach. He finally got well and won quickly after picking up a pawn. Yi went for (mostly) back into the game before blundering again then an ambitious exchange sacrifice for some menacing centre somehow drawing a completely lost ending. Things went pawns, but couldn’t get them to roll and they were from bad to worse when Justin dropped a piece and lost a eventually picked up. I played a Benoni line I had prepared few moves after his opponent got cautioned for a couple of years ago that won a pawn with a seemingly distracting. won position, only to my horror to have it refuted over the board. Today Justin also learnt the important life skill Round 6 of balancing 2 water bottles on his head at 1am. Nice one We had to pick ourselves up quickly for round 6 as this Justin. was a double round day, and faced Turkmenistan, not a team to be underestimated. Justin’s opponent obviously Round 4 decided not to play and bashed out a theoretical draw line Now it was time to face Kazakhstan, a team we out‐rated to finish in less than 20 minutes. Bobby had no hiccups on every board (except 2, which had the same rating). and won solidly, while I won a pawn from an opening Bobby was doing well and had what was probably a cheapo and the ensuing ending didn’t offer too many winning attack, but a few miscalculations saw him in reasons for my opponent to play on. Pengyu also won

Noble Park Chess Club Page 8 of 14 smoothly after winning a pawn and then the ending. This style. It must’ve helped, as Yi ended his bad streak, was a perfect note to enter the rest day on. The rest day winning quickly. Bobby also outplayed his opponent and was fairly uneventful as we got taken on a tour of famous though the game was long, the result was never really in places in Istanbul, including the Hagia Sophia (insert doubt. My opponent played the same line for a while as expression of awe or amazement here). The whole time the Kazakhstan had played, but I differed earlier based on we were there, the weather didn’t seem to dip below my analysis of that game. I got a good Knight vs bad about 25 and during the day would have been up around Bishop scenario but failed to put the ball into the net with the mid‐30s, creating another job for the now infamous rooks on and off, eventually ceding the draw. Justin’s packaged bread rolls; to jam the window open at night game was a real rollercoaster; he seemed to be on top at (and during the day). These were later replaced by the the start, until he forgot that O‐O was both a legal and sheets we realised we didn’t need. good move after which he found himself in deep trouble, but in time trouble his opponent couldn’t find the Round 7 knockout blow. In mutual time trouble they found The day after the rest day we had Peru. Justin got off to a themselves in a 2P+B+R ending with white pawns on a‐ great start, mainly thanks to playing the line the night and b‐files and black pawns on g‐ and h‐files where I before against me in 1+1 (jk), but Yi was struggling to thought if anything Justin would be slower. He proved me reorient himself in a French that didn’t go to plan, while wrong with a surprising tactic and won the game. Pengyu was in trouble early after allowing a dangerous exchange sac. Bobby appeared to take a dangerous pawn Round 10 but when the tactics cleared up he was much better and We found out at 12am that night that the 3.5‐.5 of the soon won more material. Justin also won to finish with a previous day had been especially important, as we now 2‐2 scoreline. had a serious chance at 3rd place. We would probably need a 3‐1 victory against 3rd seeds India, but it wasn’t out Round 8 of the question. Things seemed rosy when Pengyu and The second round of the day had us paired against top Justin equalised early, and Pengyu even looked like he had seeds and hot favourites Russia. They chose to play their a slight advantage, while I, despite forgetting my top team against us, and their class showed on the White preparation, had my opponent firmly on the back foot. boards, where Justin and Pengyu had a hard time of it. Bobby was having trouble finding play early on and Bobby seemed to eventually settled for a perpetual check combination. get a dead equal Justin didn’t get further than equal and his highly rated ending but opponent was happy with the draw. I built up a good played well and position and had a chance to put the ball in the net, but was very unlucky instead thought I could insert a zwischenzug before not to win it, just winning the pawn, completely forgetting that the missing a fairly combination now lost the exchange. I quickly lost and straightforward soon after Pengyu agreed a draw to leave us with a rather win towards the inadequate 1.5‐2.5 scoreline and =7th place. We got over end. My opponent fell for an opening trap and was in the loss the only way we knew how; by chucking packaged trouble from early on; I missed a few fairly simple wins bread rolls at each other and “cleaned up” by trying to and wound up in a rook ending a pawn ahead which I throw the unused ammo at a bin located outside our didn’t manage to win. Despite the non‐success over the window but 3 floors down… For the record I think we board, the “kitchem” staff were becoming friendlier made 2/8 attempts. (except Mr ONE), deciding to put up signs for the English speaking players telling them to “HAVE A NICE LAUNCH”. Many thanks have to go to the people who helped us in We certainly did. every way, from the coaches to the parents and all the supporters back home in Australia. Round 9 The penultimate round saw us playing the top Turkish side in the competition, Turkey Red. Yi was still asleep when we got up and we had plenty of spare water bottles so we put two and two together and Yi was woken in grand

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CV Interclub Championships In B grade, Noble Park 3 drew their match against MCC 2‐2. Here are the individual results. Here’s a run‐down of the CV Interclub competition B1: Anurag Sannidhanam (NP) ‐ Ian Stone (MCC) 0‐1 th since the last newsletter, which concluded on 18 B2: Serif Tuglaci (NP) ‐ Richard Voon (MCC) 0‐1 November. In the end, Noble Park 1 finished second B3: Milic Sucevic (NP) ‐ Tony Tosevski (MCC) 1‐0 whilst Noble Park 2 finished fourth in A grade, whilst B4: Paul Kelsen (NP) ‐ Elizabeth Warren (MCC) 1‐0 Noble Park 3 finished eighth in B grade. Round 7/Finals ‐ November This was it. The last round of the interclub, or in other words finals where first was playing second, third playing fourth etc. Noble Park 1 was playing for first place against MCC, Noble Park 2 was playing for third place against Canterbury Juniors whilst in B grade Noble Park 3 was playing against Geelong for 7th place.

Noble Park 1 lost its match against MCC 2.5‐1.5 B1: Domagoj Dragicevic (NP) ‐ Jesse Jager (MCC) 0‐1 B2: Dusan Stojic (NP) ‐ Pano Skotis (MCC) 0‐1 Round 5 ‐ September B3: Justin Tan (NP) ‐ Sylvester Urban (MCC) 0.5‐0.5 In A grade, Noble Park 2 did not have a good day losing B4: John Nemeth (NP) ‐ Frank Lekkas (MCC) 1‐0 4‐0 to MCC. Here are the individual results. B1: Miodrag Milojevic (NP) ‐ Jesse Jager (MCC) 0‐1 Noble Park 2 drew its match with Canterbury Juniors B2: Thai Ly (NP) ‐ Pano Skiotis (MCC) 0‐1 2‐2. B3: Marcus Raine (NP) ‐ Sylvester Urban (MCC) 0‐1 B1: Miodrag Milojevic (NP) ‐ Bobby Cheng (CJ) 0‐1 B4: Bosko Mijatovic (NP) ‐ Phillip Drew (MCC) 0‐1 B2: Thai Ly (NP) ‐ Jason Tang (CJ) 1‐0 B3: Marcus Raine (NP) ‐ MIchael Chan (CJ) 0‐1 In B grade, Noble Park 3 lost 2.5‐1.5 to Ballarat B4: Omar Khaled (NP) ‐ Allen Yu (CJ) 1‐0

B1: Serif Tuglaci (NP) ‐ Rob Loveband (Ballarat) 0‐1 Noble Park 3 lost its match against Geelong 2.5‐1.5. B2: Franz Oswald (NP) ‐ Patrick Cook (Ballarat) 1‐0 B3: Paul Kelsen (NP) ‐ Kevin Perrin (Ballarat) 0.5‐0.5 B1: Milic Sucevic (NP) ‐ Alistair Anderson (Geelong) 0‐1 B4: Milan Stojic (NP) ‐ Rob Bailey (Ballarat) 0‐1 B2: Carl Dingfelder (NP) ‐ Michael Sugrue (Geelong) 0.5‐0.5 B3: Milan Stojic (NP) ‐Chris Schulz (Geelong) 0‐1 Round 6 ‐ October B4: Paul Kelsen (NP) ‐ Nicholas McClaren (Geelong) 1‐0

In A grade, Noble Park 1 played two matches, one of So in the end, Noble Park 1 finished second and Noble which was a catch‐up match. In the first match, the Park 2 finished fourth in A grade whilst in B grade Noble team defeated MCC 2.5‐1.5. Park 3 finished eighth. Congratulations to MCC for B1: Domagoj Dragicevic (NP) ‐ Jesse Jager (MCC) 1‐0 winning the A grade tournament and Canterbury B2: Dusan Stojic (NP) ‐ Laurent Michaille (MCC) 1‐0 Juniors 2 for winning the B grade tournament. B3: Justin Tan (NP) ‐ Pano Skiotis (MCC) 0.5‐0.5 B4: Svetozar Stojic (NP) ‐ Sylvester Urban (MCC) 0‐1

In the last match of the preliminary round, Noble Park 1 suffered first loss of the event losing 2.5‐1.5 to Canterbury Juniors. B1: Domagoj Dragicevic (NP) ‐ Bobby Cheng (CJ) 0‐1 B2: Dusan Stojic (NP) ‐ Jason Tang (CJ) 0‐1 B3: Justin Tan (NP) ‐ Michael Chan (CJ) 1‐0 B4: John Nemeth (NP) ‐ Allen Yu (CJ) 0.5‐0.5

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2012 World Youth Chess Championships 16 Open), Ari Dale and Zachary Loh (Under‐14 Open), By Zachary Loh (edited by Michael Loh) Rowan and Kevin The 2012 World Youth Chess Championships was Willathgamuwa hosted in the small ski town of Maribor, Slovenia from (Under‐10 8th November to 18th November, 2012. There were Open) and 1584 players from Sophie Davis 92 different (Under‐8 Girls). countries in this GM Ian Rogers competition, was the including 242 titled Australian players ‐ 5 coach. He helped some of our players prepare for each Grandmasters game in the morning and analysis after the game. amongst them. The Play for each round started at 3pm except for a double‐ tournament had round day on Monday, 12th November. The first match two separate was at 10 am followed by another match at 3 pm. This playing venues, the was a tough and tiring day! Fortunately, this was main venue at Hotel followed by a rest day on Tuesday. After each round, Draš and another at the organisers of the tournament provided bulletins for Hotel Habakuk for that round with the top 10 games for each age group. the Under‐8’s and They also provided a live broadcast of the playing Under‐10 girls. The venues. This was great because the parents could main playing venue sometimes see their children play. was a converted gymnasium, which During the tournament, the Australian team had some accommodated over 1200 players. Even though it was a great days as well as some bad days. Whatever the large gymnasium, there wasn’t enough room to allow result, the team tried to have their meals together to spectators, so parents, coaches and team officials were share in the joys of victory and to help each other when not allowed to enter the playing hall during play. the result was less than expected. It was a very long and tiring tournament but we all enjoyed each other’s company. A very special person helped us celebrate the closing of the tournament. He was none other than Garry Kasparov, one of the best chess players of all time! He presented the Most of the Australian team stayed at ‘Hotel Merano’, a awards to the top 3 short five‐minute walk to the venue. There were also winners in each division. some Canadian players staying at this hotel. The rooms There were lots of photos of him, which can be were small but comfortable. The food buffet was downloaded from the WYCC website delicious. They had a wide variety of food from http://www.wycc2012.com vegetarian soups to fried chicken. My favourite dish was At the end of the the french fries that they made every night. The staff at tournament, Ari, Yi and I the hotel was very pleasant. They would always greet had a blitz night with the us and made sure that our stay was pleasant. Canadians, one of whom The tournament itself was very tough and mentally was Richard Wang, placed exhausting. It consisted of eleven rounds, played at a third in the Under‐14 rate of one round per day except for a single double‐ Open. It was a fantastic round day. Australia was represented by Yi Liu (Under‐ night of relaxation ‐ we

Noble Park Chess Club Page 12 of 14 played from 3pm to almost 11pm! Overall, this tournament was a great experience and we all enjoyed it very much. Next year’s tournament will be It was lots of fun and we made some new friends. We at Al‐Ain in the United Arab Emirates. played different variations of chess including Bughouse (Transfer) and Crazyhouse (One Person Transfer).

Final results for World Youth Chess Championships 2012: Tournament Winner Country Points Australian player Points Rank Under‐18 Open GM Dariusz Swiercz Poland 9 Under‐18 Girls WGM Aleksandra Russia 9.5 Goryachkina Under‐16 Open IM Urii Eliseev Russia 9 Yi Liu 6.5 =26th/123 Under‐16 Girls WFM Anna Styazhkina Russia 9 Under‐14 Open FM Kayden W Troff USA 9 Zachary Loh 5.5 =76th/168 Ari Dale 5 99th/168 Under‐14 Girls WFM M Mahalakshmi India 9 Under‐12 Open Samuel Sevian USA 9 Under‐12 Girls R Vaishali India 9 Under‐10 Open FM Anh Khoi Nguyen Vietnam 11 (!) Kevin Willathgamuwa 6 =61st/192 Rowan Willathgamuwa 5 =111st /192 Under‐10 Girls N Priyanka India 9.5 Under‐8 Open Nodirbek Uzbekistan 10 Abdusattorov Under‐8 Girls Motahare Asadi Iran 10 Sophie Davis 4 =68th/90

My time as an arbiter in the 2012 Chess The host country (in this case, Turkey) provided half the Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. required number of arbiters. The rest of the arbiters By NY Wong came from the rest of the chess world. This was mainly due to financial constraint. There were 157 teams in the Open Olympiad and 127 Typically, these arbiters should be International Arbiters teams in the Women Olympiad. The Chief Arbiter was (IA). However, no one expect the host country to have IA Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). some many IAs. Hence, in this Olympiad, there were 70 IAs, 23 FAs (FIDE Arbiters) and 59 NAs (National Reporting to him were two Deputy Chief Arbiters: Arbiters).  IA Güran Ünal (TUR) who was in charge of the They were then spread proportionally across the 6 Open Olympiad and sectors so that there were sufficient IAs to help out the  IA Carol Jarecki (IVB) who was in charge of the FAs and NAs. Women Olympiad. According to the Chief Arbiter, the sector 3s were the most difficult because some players from some The three sector arbiters reporting to IA Güran Ünal developing nations might not know the rules very well were: and he was spot on.  IA Evgeny Eletsky (RUS) ‐ sector 1, I was assigned to help IA Agnieszka Brustman in sector 3  IA Karl‐Johan Rist (NOR) ‐ sector 2, and (matches 45‐63) of the Women Olympiad. Even though  IA Mahdi Abdulrahim (UAE) ‐ sector 3. there were more incidents in this sector (as expected by The three sector arbiters reporting to IA Carol Jarecki the Chief Arbiter), I was really glad because of four were: reasons:  IA Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh (IRI) ‐ sector 1, 1. This sector was way out of the limelight.  IA Selçuk Büyükvural (TUR) ‐ sector 2, and 2. The arbiters in this sector were friendlier.  IA Agnieszka Brustman (POL) ‐ sector 3. 3. The players were also friendlier and more relax.

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4. The matches tended to finish earlier than the  Before the games: Arrive at tournament hall 1.5 rest; hence I get to have dinner at a more hours before the start of game. reasonable time.  Report to Sector Arbiter.  Sector Arbiter will assign matches to arbiters. All my matches finished around 6:30pm (starting at  Collect scoreboard, Match Protocol, 8 3pm), except for one which lasted till 8:30pm. scoresheets (pre‐printed with players name, In contrast, the last game of each round for the whole Chess Olympiad normally finished around 9pm with one country, and colour they are playing) from finishing at 10:30pm. Sector Arbiter for the match you are assigned.  Make sure countries and players written on The matches that I was involved in were: scoreboard are the same as those written on Rd 1: Pakistan (0 ‐ 4) Philippines Match Protocol. Rd 2: New Zealand (3.5 ‐ 0.5) Netherlands  Attach each of the 8 scoresheets to clipboard Antilles and place them in their correct table. Rd 3: Fiji (0 ‐ 4) Uganda  Check to make sure chess clocks are set Rd 4: Thailand (1.5 ‐ 2.5) Zimbabwe correctly. Rd 5: Suriname (0.5 ‐ 3.5) Botswana  Check to make sure chess clocks have sufficient Rd 6: Palestine (3 ‐ 1) Aruba battery power. Rd 7: Thailand (2.5 ‐ 1.5) Malta  Check to make sure the pieces are set up Rd 8: Suriname (3.5 ‐ 0.5) Uganda correctly. Rd 9: Yemen (1.5 ‐ 2.5) Qatar  If other arbiters are late, help to set up their Rd 10: Japan (0 ‐ 4) FYROM match for them. Rd 11: Lebanon (1 ‐ 3) Uruguay  When the players arrives: In contrast, the shortest game of the whole Chess  Check that they wear a security badge with Olympiad was 6 moves. The shortest checkmate of the their name and photo of their face on them. whole Chess Olympiad was 9 moves. The longest game  Check to make sure the photo matches the of the whole Chess Olympiad was 204 moves. person. Almost all the arbiters stayed in the Titanic Hotel (4‐  Check to make sure the name on their security stars) which was a very good hotel. We were provided badge matches the name on the scoresheet. with free accommodation with 3 meals a day, free  Check to make sure they have a green card internet connection and free access to the gym and (only players playing on the day will be given a indoor swimming pool. The buses brought us to/from the hotel to the playing venue (Convention Centre) green card; hence reserves are not allowed into about 10‐15 minutes drive every playing day. the playing hall).  Remind captain/players to stand behind their Each arbiter was given the following items from the Chess Olympiad organiser: own players, not in front, if they want to watch 1. One messenger bag with the Chess Olympiad their games. Logo. The bag can be sling across the body.  When the Chief Arbiter announces the start of the 2. Two T‐shirts with the Chess Olympiad Logo. We game: were supposed to wear them during the  If any player is not seated, the player loses the tournament. game. 3. Two ball‐point pens with the Chess Olympiad  Make sure the chess clocks are working Logo. properly.  Make sure the 30‐seconds increment is working Some of the duties the arbiters have to perform include properly. (This is easily achieved because after the following: 2‐3 moves, the time should increase by a

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minute due to the 30‐seconds increment per  Report to Sector Arbiter for next assignment, move) maybe to help other arbiters.  For the first 10 minutes, taking photos are allowed by captains/players/officials.

 During games:  Make sure players follow the rules of chess (like touch/move).  Make sure players record move by move.  Record the number of moves and the times taken by players every half hour (in case of clock failure).  Make sure captain/players stand behind their own players, not in front.  Look out for time trouble situations.  If you need a short toilet break or tea‐break, make sure you ask the arbiter next to you to look after your match while you are away.  Draw Offer:  Make sure at least 30 moves were played.  Unless it was due to 3‐times repetition or stalemate.  At the end of game, check both scoresheets for:  Results.  Signatures of both players.  Sign the scoresheets yourself.  Keep the top 2 copies of scoresheets.  Give 3rd scoresheet to player.  Record score on the match protocol.  Record score on the scoreboard.  Collect Green Card from both players. (Once the players finish their game, they become spectators and are not allowed in the tournament hall any longer).  At the end of the match:  Make sure you have all the scoresheets.  Record the team score on the match protocol.  Get both captains to sign the match protocol.  Sign the match protocol yourself.  Return all Green Cards to both captains (4 each for the next round).  Record the team score on the scoreboard.  Give completed scoresheets and match protocol to Sector Arbiter.  Clean up the match area ready for the next match.