Volume 1 Issue 1 Editor: David Cordover March 1999 Chess Is The Winner Editorial There has never been a more active time in Victoria for junior chess. Tournaments are running almost every week, children are learning by the droves in schools and parents are struggling hard to keep up with their children. The recent Australian Junior Championships were held in Hervey Bay, yet 23 Victorian players made the effort to take a two week vacation in Queensland. What dedication! Geoff Saw, Victoria’s best junior, has been offered the opportunity to play in the Zonal Championships. The winner of the Zonal is given a place in the Inter- Zonal and the winner of that a place in At the Australian Junior Championships: the World Championship cycle. (l-r) Casey Barnard, Daniel Bluzer-Fry, Julian McDonald, Will Heyward, Craig It is a fantastic opportunity for Geoff to Barnard, David Smerdon, Lance Truong, Peter Kolokithas. raise his International ranking. Also there are chances of becoming an continue in chess is what it is all about. David Cordover will be taking a swag of International Master. Should he score It is good to see players like Geoff juniors to the Ballarat Open tournament 6/9 the title is his! A very achievable becoming very successful at a senior and the Doeberl Cup, in Canberra. The score of 4.5/9 would give him the title level. This should provide inspiration to experience gained from these will be of FIDE Master. some of our younger players. invaluable. The aim of junior chess organisations The VCA X-Mas Swiss attracted 52 It is great to see Chess Kids students should be two-fold. Chess is very much players, of which 25 of them were wanting to join in these adult like music and art, a great activity which juniors. Gordon Lindberg, rated only tournaments. Some have even joined will enrich a child both in mind and in 1300, defeated Mirko Rujevic, rated adult chess clubs to practice on a regular spirit. For this reason every child should 2200! While this was the most notable basis. (See Waverley Youth be exposed in some way to chess. upset there were many others. Championships advertisement on page The second aim is to persuade junior players to become adult players. The transition to adult chess is very difficult. Don’t forget to subscribe to Bridging this gap, or creating the desire in current junior players to want to “Chess Kids” Inside This Issue Australian Junior Pp 2-4 Adult Tournaments Page 5 Junior Masters Page 6 RJ Shield Page 7 Cordover Challenge Page 8 Junior Games Page 9 VJCL Rating List Pp 10-14 Interschool Championships Pp 15-21 Club Directory Page 22 Calendar for 1999 Page 24 Page 2 Chess Kids The Australian Junior Championships were held in Hervey Bay, the stepping stone to Fraser Island, in Queensland. 23 Victorian players made the long trip to compete in the two week tournament. It was a fantastic experience for all of them. For many it was the first time that they had the opportunity to play games which were considered serious and lasted so long. In the Under 12s the games lasted anywhere up to 4 hours, and in the Under 18s they could go for up to 6 hours per game! Most Victorian children travelled up with parents to make a nice family holiday. Some didn’t, and for them it was a nice holiday from their family! David Smerdon, from Qld (see page 1), Peter Kolokithas concentrating hard against Daniel Van Heerden in round 3. comfortably won the tournament. He drew only one game, to Laura Moylan, Girls Under 18 Championships Open Under 18 Championships and never really looked challenged in Player Rating Total Player Rating Total any of his games. Laura Moylan (ACT) 1 SMERDON David U16Q 1975 10.5 finished in second place after co-leading 1 NORRIS Shiloh U18Q 1342 9.5 2 MOYLAN Laura U16A 1778 8.5 2 LIP Catherine U14N 1350 9.5 3 TAN Justin U14N 1717 8 the tournament for a long time. 3 LAUER-SMITH Jasmine U18S 1550 9.5 4 SOLOVEYCHIK Sasha U16V 1816 8 4 PIZZATO Chiara U14Q 1019 7 5 SONTER Matthew U18Q 1484 7.5 Victorian players Julian McDonald and 5 ROSE Allinta U16Q 1147 6.5 6 SAINT Andrew U18S 1302 7 Leon Bowen performed very well for 6 CONSTANTINOU Andrea U16Q 1085 6 7 CASTOR David U18N 1385 7 7 KONG Holly U18N 1215 6 8 DAVIES Shaun U18N 1588 7 their ratings. 8 CHU Winnie U14N unr. 6 9 BOURMISTROV Denis U14V 1629 7 9 JOVANOVIC Marija U16A 1234 5.5 10 LIP Michael U16N 1739 7 The Girls Championships was a small 10 DISTELDORF Jessica U16Q 1273 5.5 11 RAPOSIO Robert U18N 1776 7 event eventually ending in a 3-way tie 11 LEE Melissa U14V unr. 5.5 12 ZONG-YUAN Zhao U14N 1793 7 12 YOUAKIM Krystal U14A 798 4.5 13 MCDONALD Julian U16V 1187 6.5 for first place. There will be a playoff 13 CASSIDY Kelly U16W 846 3.5 14 URBAN Sylvester U14N 1427 6.5 organised to determine the champion. 14 MCNAB Alexandra U14V unr. 2.5 15 POON Nick U18Q 1504 6.5 15 MCNAB Emma U16V unr. 1 16 REJ Tomek U14N 1545 6.5 17 AYLING Simon U18W 1560 6.5 18 NEMETH Janos U14V 1607 6.5 19 KINGSTON Robert U16Q 1124 6 20 WONGWICHIT Phachara U14Q 1124 6 21 TAYLOR Leon U16W 1512 6 r1999 National Junior Open r 22 MCKAY Chris U18W 1543 6 23 BOWEN Leon U18V unr. 5.5 24 GUTHRIE Aaron U18S 1052 5.5 7.4.99 - 9.4.99 25 ZVEDENIOUK Ilya U14N 1097 5.5 26 ROVERE Crispin U14W 1174 5.5 27 LAM Anthony U16Q 1180 5.5 Come to Canberra in April... Play in the 1999 Doeberl Cup then play in the 28 GOWOR Jacob U16A 1229 5.5 Inaugural National Junior Open!! 29 NISSEN Amir U14V 1274 5.5 30 RAFIZADEH Shervin U14A 1408 5.5 31 RICHARDS Allan U18T 1448 5.5 When: April 7th - 9th. Round times: 10am, 1pm and 3:30pm daily. 32 CHEUNG Justin U18N 1487 5.5 Where: The (Mr) Burns Club, Kett St, Kambah, Canberra. 33 CHARLES Gareth U16N 1861 5.5 Format: 9 Round, ACF-rated tournament, played with one hour each on the clock. 34 CARMICHAEL Stuart U16Q 1110 5 35 O'SULLIVAN Richard U16W 1220 5 There will be two sections, an Open and a Reserves. Entry to the Open is for all 36 CUELLAR Chris U18W 1270 5 chess players born in 1978 or later. Entry to the Reserves is restricted to chess 37 FITZPATRICK Andrew U16A 1280 5 38 MCKAY Andrew U16W 1371 5 players born in 1978 or later who have an ACF rating of less than 1200. 39 POON Timbi U14Q 1421 5 Entry Fees: $30 to play in the Open, $20 to play in the Reserves. 40 TAN Chao U14V 1508 5 41 LAU Vincent U16V unr. 5 Prizes: Open: 1st - $300, 2nd - $200, 3rd - $100 plus trophies. 42 GOULD Gary U16Q 637 4.5 Reserves: 1st, 2nd, 3rd - trophies. 43 BECKETT Joel U16Q 992 4.5 Other prizes will be given based on numbers. 44 TAYLOR Finley U14Q 1019 4.5 45 CAREY Mitchell U14Q 1100 4.5 46 POULTON Chris U14A 1215 4.5 For further enquiries please call Geoff Butler on (02) 6258-7383 or e-mail 47 RAKAUSKAS Rhys U16Q 1278 4.5 [email protected]. An entry form can be sent to you on request. 48 ONUFREICHUK Dima U16V 1401 4.5 ....58 players Chess Kids Page 3 Open Under 12 Championships Player Rating Total 1 JOVANOVIC Peter U12A 1668 10 2 CHOW Samuel U12V 1500 9.5 3 DOIDGE Matthew U12V 1426 9 4 XIE Ken U12N 1179 7 5 MACHET Richard U12V 1045 7 6 BARNARD Casey U10Q 1234 6.5 7 LUGO Ruperto U10V 1147 6.5 8 BUDIHARDJO Timothy U12N 978 6.5 9 TRUONG Lance U12V unr. 6 10 WEI Michael U10A unr. 6 11 HENG Jonathan U12S unr. 6 12 GOWOR Roman U12A 1107 6 13 KASPAR Ric U12Q 874 6 14 WRIGLEY Andrew U10A 820 5.5 15 LAU David U12Q 826 5.5 16 KOLOKITHAS Peter U12V unr. 5.5 17 CHU Louis U10N unr. 5.5 18 VAN HEERDEN Daniel U12W unr. 5.5 19 KIMURA Toshi U12Q unr. 5 Lance, Peter, Nick and Will. Exhausted on the boat home from Fraser Island. 20 LAZARUS Ben U10Q unr. 5 21 BLUZER-FRY Daniel U12V unr. 5 22 PAGE Chris U12Q 1356 5 23 BARNARD Craig U10Q 1092 5 24 WONGWICHIT Chatpong U12Q 1009 5 25 CHRISTY Rhys U12Q 862 5 26 UMAPATHYSIVAM Mahesh U12S792 5 27 HEYWARD Will U12V 832 4.5 28 DOIDGE Liam U10V 940 4.5 29 LEE Dylan U12S unr. 4.5 30 YOUAKIM James U12A 740 4 31 SKORIC Anthony U12Q unr. 4 32 DORRINGTON Alexander U12Q unr. 2 33 INNES Blake U12Q unr. 2 34 CAREY Blake U8Q unr. 1 Girls Under 12 Championships Player Total 1 LAUER-SMITH Jade U12S 9 2 GILLETT Robyn U12Q 8 3 LEE Michelle U10V 7 4 JOHNSEN Jenna U12Q 6 5 WRIGLEY Alison U12A 4 6 McNAB Jessica U12V 4 7 REID Vaness U10N 3.5 8 DAVIDOVIC Diana U8S 2.5 9 McNAB Scarlett U8V 0.5 10 UMAPATHYSIVAM Priya U8S 0.5 The Under 12 Championships was far Lance, Daniel, David & Will. We wish all players the best of luck in the stronger than last year.