3rd September 2011 Volume 1, Issue 4 Noble Park Chess Paddy O'Donoghue Centre, 18-32 Buckley Street, Noble Park, Victoria 3174 President: Club S p e c i a l J u n i o r E d i t i o n Kai Tan Secretary/Treasurer: Domagoj Dragicevic (0421 896 365) ([email protected]) Publicity: FM Dusan Stojic Any returning visitor to the club these days would be Webmaster: struck immediately by the transformation in the Mehmedalija Dizdarevic number of juniors playing chess in our club. The sight of a multitude of young children playing chess Committee Members: is one which is more usually associated with one of Mike Loh (Editor) Melbourne's more established junior clubs. Svetozar Stojic Unfortunately, junior numbers in our club had been steadily declining over the past few years. Reginald Chong This year, the club was determined to redress this Website: decline. The club's goal was two-fold: firstly, to http://www.nobleparkchess. maintain its program of strong FIDE-rated org.au/ tournaments to attract strong junior players but equally-important, at the other end of the spectrum, Inside: to introduce chess to children who are brand-new to Special Junior Edition 1 the game. Noble Park Junior Coaching 2 Our proudest achievement has been the Profiles: establishment of the new junior coaching program Justin Tan 3 at the start of this year. Word is spreading fast Karl Zelesco 4 among parents in our local community about our Zachary Loh 5 free coaching program. New plans are afoot to Kyle Gibson 6 Enoch Fan & Savithri 7 target local schools and we will be introducing a new Narenthran membership structure for graduates of this program. Jimmy Ying & Sam Gluzman 8 As a club, we have much more to do, but with a solid Baris and Ege Girgin 9 foundation of young newcomers and strong juniors Bonita & Mingus Gu-Yang 10 in our club, supported by our coaching team, the 2011 Victorian Juniors 11 club can look forward to a bright and exciting future! 2011 Noble Park Grades 12 Kai Tan (NPCC President) Proudly supported by Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc. Noble Park Chess Club Page 2 of 12 Noble Park Junior Coaching Program The Noble Park Junior Chess Program has been going from strength to strength since its inception Best of all, it is a free program! in April. The group has grown from 4 children to 22 in August. This program has benefitted immensely with the addition of Reginald Chong (Junior Program Coordinator), FIDE Trainer NY Wong (Coach) and Peter Morris. Our goal is to get kids interested in the wonderful game of chess and provide a pathway from learning about how chess pieces move through to playing club-level chess at Noble Park Chess Club. After that, who knows where that might lead them. NY’s coaching philosophy is that it is important to instil a strong foundation in the kids so that they understand why it is important to: 1. Put a pawn in the centre 2. Develop your pieces 3. Make sure your King is safe 4. Look at the placement of your pieces, your opponent’s unprotected pieces, etc. All the photos in this newsletter can be downloaded via this link: http://s1108.photobucket.com/albums/h414/mloh28/NobleParkChessClub/Newsletter4/ Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc. Noble Park Chess Club Page 3 of 12 Junior Profile: Justin Tan accomplishments include equal first in this year's Justin attends Year 9 with a Noble Park Club Championships and outright first scholarship from the in the Noble Park A-grade tournament (Editor: Victorian College of the see article on Noble Park Grades on page 12) Arts Secondary School. He has been a member of 6. Congratulations on winning the Victorian Noble Park Chess Club Gymnastics All Around title for your age group since 2008. and strong performance in the Australian National Championships as well. Which is your Currently ranked #2 in the favourite apparatus? Under-14 age group in My favourite and undoubtedly best apparatus is Australia, Justin has been the pommel horse – although I happened to stuff to many national and up really badly in the Nationals this year. But I overseas tournaments. He managed to win individual gold in the parallel will be in Brazil for the bars so I was happy about that. FIDE rating: 2154 World Youth Chess ACF rating: 2156 Championships in Nov. 7. How did you get started in gymnastics and how much training do you do? 1. How did you get started in chess? How many I started gymnastics in 2003 after my sister years ago was that? started – I thought it was a cool sport. I train I started playing chess when I joined my primary about 28 hours per week. (Editor: Holy cow! That school chess club in Year 3. But my first is on top of school work!) competitive tournament was at the beginning of 2007 – I was 10 years old. 8. Who is your favourite gymnast and why? Xiao Qin for his amazing pommel swings/circles. 2. Why should kids take up chess? He will always be the best on the pommel horse. I Chess is a good way to use your brain. It involves also admire Phillip Boy of Germany; he is problem solving, lateral thinking and memory. I unbelievably good at high bar. enjoy it because even though it is a simple concept, it is a very complicated game. 9. How do you balance between school, chess and gymnastics? 3. You have played in many chess tournaments. It is very difficult to balance them all out. I’m not Which is your favourite Australian and overseas sure which one of them comes first on my list of tournament? priorities because they’re all really important to My favourite tournaments in Australia have to be me. Doeberl Cup and ANU Open – it is just a coincidence that they’re both in Canberra! I 10. What do you do in the little spare time that you probably prefer the Doeberl Cup because it has a have? stronger field. My favourite overseas tournament Play and study chess! is definitely the Malaysian Open! Apart from the 11. Hopefully you don’t have to make this choice but tournament itself, I get to stay with my if you had to make a choice, which would you grandparents! pick – chess or gymnastics? 4. Who is your favourite chess player and why? Without hesitation, I would go with chess simply I have three favourite players: Karpov for his because you can’t really get injuries from it (apart subtlety, Fischer for his fluency and Aronian for from back/neck aches). his tactical genius (I also met and chatted to him last month!) 5. What is your best chess accomplishment? Coming equal first in the Melbourne Cup Weekender in 2010 (after winning against IM Stephen Solomon) was a highlight for me! Other All the photos in this newsletter can be downloaded via this link: http://s1108.photobucket.com/albums/h414/mloh28/NobleParkChessClub/Newsletter4/ Copyright © Noble Park Chess Club Inc. Noble Park Chess Club Page 4 of 12 Junior Profile: Karl Zelesco and Malaysia. I have never played in a Karl is in Year 6 at tournament that had 10 GMs and 10 IMs before. Deepdene Primary School. It is certainly the toughest tournament I’ve ever He is ranked #2 in Australia played in. for the Under-12 age group and current Victorian 4. You have had a very successful 12 months in Under-12 champion. chess. What do you attribute that to? I guess playing a lot has helped me. I play at many Karl’s dream is to chess clubs in Melbourne and really enjoy the represent Australia for stronger FIDE rated tournaments with the 90/30 chess. He will fulfil his time controls. I found that my chess improved dream this November after I started playing longer time controls and when he represents against stronger people. At first I was losing every Australia at the World game, but I then started to make connections and Youth Chess improve. I also have a very good coach in Vanja FIDE rating: 2012 Championships in Brazil. ACF rating: 1894 Rozenblat. A good coach and regular play in strong tournaments seemed to help me improve. 1. How did you get started in chess? How many 5. You have been the "Most improved" player in the years ago was that? ACF ratings twice. What is that like? My Dad taught me the moves when I was about It was very exciting for me to be named “Most 7. I didn’t do much with my chess then. I started Improved Player” and I still remember Mum becoming interested when I had a chance to play waking me up to tell me that the rating list was in an interschool chess tournament at the end of out and that I had done it. I played in lots of Grade 3. Our school ended up 1 point short of tournaments in the quarter in order to try and qualifying to play in the State Final. So we formed achieve this and I also had to give up a Gym class a team and decided to try again the following (which I loved) to accommodate an additional year (2009). After that, I became more serious tournament. At the time, it was very hard to do about chess and started playing at chess clubs. In as my chess schedule required me to sacrifice lots Sep 2009, I obtained my first chess rating of 487.