ISSUE 6 SpecialEdition February 2012 noble park chess club FEATURES: • Australian Championships • Australian Juniors Championships • Queenstown Chess Classic • Noble Park Club Championship • Noble Park Open Day Our first Multimedia newsletter CONTENT PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 1 President’s address 2 Open Day 3 2012 Club Championship 4 2012 Australian Juniors 6 2012 Queenstown Chess Classic 8 2012 Australian Chess Championships 9 Chess games 10 Arbiter’s column By FM Dusan Stojic, President Noble Park Chess Club 10 Calendar On behalf of Noble Park Chess Club, welcome back to all our returning members and a warm welcome to our new members. Some of us used the summer holidays to get a break from chess, while others took part in tournaments during the ‘chess season’. Victoria has had the privilege of hosting both the Australian Championship and Reserves as well as the Australian Junior Championships. Some (more adventurous) members took the trip to New Zealand for the Queenstown Classic, while others stayed in Melbourne for the Canterbury Day Nighter or the MCC Australia Day Weekender. After two months of each member pursuing their own endeavours, the Noble Park Chess Club family is reunited yet again for another year of great chess! Editor: Michael Loh Last year the Club celebrated its 5th birthday, which makes Contributions: Dusan Stojic, Kai Tan, Domagoj Dragicevic, us quite young among Victorian clubs. We are also young Omar Khaled, Elliot Renzies, Leonid Sandler, NY Wong because juniors make up a large proportion of our members. Template courtesy of designfreebies.org. The Junior Coaching Program (JCP) has been growing steadily from its inception last year, under the masterful All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without permission is prohibited. coaching of FIDE Trainer N.Y. Wong. Several kids from the program are already playing in our club tournaments and testing their skills against seasoned veterans. We are implementing the new Novice Tournaments for the first time this year to provide exposure and tournament experience for children from JCP and less experienced players. Also brand new to this year is the inaugural NPCC Classic, a weekend tournament that will take place on 22nd and 23rd of September, at the start of the school holidays. It is the first FOR MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN FREEBIES: VISIT WWW.DESIGNFREEBIES.ORG VISIT FREEBIES: DESIGN GRAPHIC MORE FOR time that the Club will host a weekender, and we hope that it will be successful enough to encourage us to keep holding it every year. FOR MORE ON NOBLE PARK CHESS CLUB: VISIT WWW.NOBLEPARKCHESS.ORG.AU VISIT CLUB: CHESS PARK NOBLE ON MORE FOR However, first up is the traditional Club Championship. Will Domagoj Dragicevic continue his amazing form and defend the title? Or will one of the youngsters create an upset and claim the trophy? I look forward to many great battles and exciting chess. 2 OPEN DAY By Kai Tan Although our first open day of the year saw a modest turn-out, it kicked off our new season and WWW.NOBLEPARKCHESS.ORG.AU VISIT CLUB: CHESS PARK NOBLE ON MORE FOR new year with a friendly welcome, free food and of course, plenty of exciting chess. It was great to see so many new visitors to the club, and especially nice that so many decided to join as new members. After Dusan gave his inaugural speech as the new Club President, it was time to get down to the serious business of playing chess. Our new FM-elect Dom conducted a small simul with Dom took no prisoners and did not concede about 7 players (including a courageous seven any points in his simul. Unfortunately, our new year old girl), while everyone else entered with President conceded too many in his bonus blitz unabashed enthusiasm into our brand-new games - well, the bonus blitz was his own idea! In “bonus blitz” tournament. Over twenty players the end after 9 rounds, the blitz was won outright were given little stickers with an assigned number by new member Ari Dale - a great start to our designating their bonus points based on their club by winning his debut event here. Laurence ratings, up to a maximum of +4 points. John (the Matheson (whom I am told played the same club’s new tournament director) directed his very dodgy opening in every game except one) first club tournament and as befits our club, all came second - and true to our aim to ensure that went smoothly with no disputes and some very everyone had a chance of winning, the third prize sporting manners being shown. went to young Carl Dingfelder who was obviously performing above his rating. NY , our ever-present club coach, was busy supporting the youngsters and Omar with Dusan presented the prizes - vouchers for free admirable patience took care of all the entry to our club championships, and then membership administration. Meanwhile, Mike presented two trophies for our club’s winning was making sure everything was running performances in the Interclub B and C divisions smoothly, demonstrating our new website, last year. blog and facebook pages. Su took care of all the catering and Elliott and Mike between them All in all, it was a very enjoyable day for everyone, provided “stereo” photography. players and parents, andwe hope it signals a great and successful start to our year! 3 2012 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP FM Dusan Stojic had to forfeit his game due to an unfortunate accident in the gym. Fortunately he’s OK and we wish him a speedy recovery. Michael Chan generation of Victorian Juniors. At the completion of Round 2, six players are leading the table Round 1 pretty much went with 2 points: FM-elect Domagoj according to ratings, with a small Dragicevic, Laurence Matheson, Club record! number of byes. There were a few Richard Voon, Ari Dale, Omar surprise results in Round 2 with Khaled and Jimmy Ying. They are By Omar Khaled and Mike Loh Zach holding Dusan to a draw on followed by another six players Board 1, Laszlo and Karl drawing on 1.5 points: FM Dusan Stojic, The 2012 Noble Park Club in a rescheduled game and Laszlo Nemeth, John Nemeth, Championship began on 11 Michael Chan losing to Richard Zachary Loh, Karl Zelesco, and February with 38 players. This is Voon in one of the last few games Khadem Jahid. All the results a fantastic outcome and a new to finish that day. On Board can be found on our website club record, continuing on from 2, Bosko Mijatovic played an www.nobleparkchess.org.au. the efforts of 2011 to rejuvenate the club with new players and Round 3 of the Club introduce the club to a younger Championship is scheduled for generation of players. 3:00PM on 25th of February. Spectators are most welcome! The player list comprises of a group of strong and well- established players within chess-playing circles in Victoria including FM Dusan Stojic, FM- Cameron Yung v John Nemeth elect Domagoj Dragicevic, Justin Tan, Omar Khaled, John Nemeth excellent game against FM-elect and Bosko Mijatovic. We also Domagoj Dragicevic but lost the FOR MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN FREEBIES: VISIT WWW.DESIGNFREEBIES.ORG VISIT FREEBIES: DESIGN GRAPHIC MORE FOR welcome a group of younger end-game due to an oversight. players who have made Noble The Yung brothers didn’t have FOR MORE ON NOBLE PARK CHESS CLUB: VISIT WWW.NOBLEPARKCHESS.ORG.AU VISIT CLUB: CHESS PARK NOBLE ON MORE FOR Park Chess Club their home. a good day out with Cameron Players like Laurence Matheson, drawing with Baris (although Karl Zelesco, Ari Dale, Michael Cameron was decidedly unwell) Chan, Zachary Loh, Kyle Gibson and Jamie losing to Paul Kelsen. and Jimmy Ying, certainly reads There is certainly more than like whos who of the next meet the eye with Paul! Justin Jamie Yung 4 2012 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2012 AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS FOR MORE ON NOBLE PARK CHESS CLUB: VISIT WWW.NOBLEPARKCHESS.ORG.AU VISIT CLUB: CHESS PARK NOBLE ON MORE FOR Final results 5 2012 QUEENSTOWN CHESS CLASSIC Photos courtesy of Raelene Zelesco By FM Dusan Stojic and players did everything from by a raft below. It was incredibly hiking in the mountains, running thrilling, although the whole The 2012 Queenstown Chess along the famed tracks, speed thing happened so quickly that it Classic was one of the strongest boating on the Shotover River, was hard to take it all in. tournaments ever held in cruising along Lake Wakatipu, Was it scary? Of course – a little – Oceania, with 11 grandmasters to bungy jumping or even sky but I understood that it’s actually leading a field of 148 players diving. A popular choice was the not at all dangerous. It’s one of from all over the world. Some of Gondola ride up the mountain, those things that if you think too these GMs have played before and then the ‘luge’ at the top of hard about, you won’t end up (it was previously held in 2006 the mountains. An amusing thing doing, but if you spur yourself and 2009), and evidently there’s to do every round was to see and do it confidently, it seems something about the event that which of the top players would almost natural. This is often the makes it special. Situated in the come to the board with LUGE case with chess: if you’re not sure heart of New Zealand’s South stamped in thick black letters on about a move (e.g. a sacrifice) Island, Queenstown is flanked by their wrist. that feels intuitively strong, often the picturesque Lake Wakatipu it’s better to just play it and not and the Remarkables mountain THE JUMP get confused calculating deep range.