Round 1
In the first round of a junior tournament there are hardly ever many upsets. This year was no exception – all of the top seeds crushed their opponents, with the exception of Pablo Oriol, who lost a drawish looking ending against Julian McDonald. On board 11 Sasha Soloveychik peat Anand (SA, unr)! Well done Sasha!
Perhaps Mr Anand was tired after playing thirty games in a row in the ‘official’ world championship. I have a much fairer proposition for the world championship – the winner of the
knockout tournament flies to Switzerland, where he will play a game of rock-paper-scissors with Mr Karpov.
Best of three wins.
Round 2
Round 2 could easily have been a very
different story. Both Ricky Lopis and I
had to win tricky endings against our
much lower rated opponents. I was a
pawn up in a very difficult knight ending
against Onofreichuk, and won after
a prolonged struggle, while Ricky
ground down Raposio in a pawn ending.
Moylan, Smerdon, Switzer and Tan
won fairly easily, while John Nemeth’s
Kings Indian was completely annihalated
in about 20 moves by Michael
Chow. A warning to the other players, I
think! On board ten Andrew Lai played
1.a3 against 1997 Australian Girls
Champion Elaine Chong and was rewarded
with a twenty-four move win!
Maybe its a good opening …
Round 3
On board one Ricky played a nice game
to crush Sasha Soloveychik, who was to
be back on the top boards later in the
tournament. Michael Lip played the
Kings Indian Attack against Michael
Chow and was wiped from the board in
convincing fashion, while against me
Sean Ong invented a way of playing the
Catalan as Black no one had ever
thought of before. He played Nb8-d7-
b6-d7 -fS-g6 within the space of about
ten moves! In the meantime I was developing
a nasty kingside initiative. To his
credit, Sean defended well, but I transposed
into a better ending and eventually
won. Gareth Charles made a bad
‘fingerslip’ in the opening against
David Smerdon, and despite the
‘Smurfs’attempts to lose on time, did
not survive for many more moves.
Michael Chow made a bet with a certain
Queenslander to have his hair coloured
and his nails painted if Laura Moylan
could beat top seed Ricky Lopis on
board one tomorrow.
Round 4
As usual, in round 4 the top seeds start
playing each other. On board one Laura
Moylan made an interesting and, according
to Manuel’s computer, strong
exchange sacrifice against Ricky. However
Laura got slowly outplayed and
around move 35 Michael was looking
safe, until Ricky blundered a pawn and
then a whole rook. He resigned straight
away, and a teddy-bear carrying girl was
equal leader in the tournament, and the
nail polish was readied for Michael’s
game to finish.
Michael Chow had a nice opening
against David Smerdon, but made a
pawn blunder, and was ground down
inevitably by the Smurf, who was in his
element in the ending. On board three
Justin Tan misplayed the c3 Sicilian
against me after being move-ordered.
He was forced to jettison his queen for a
rook on move 23, but played on for
thirteen more moves until he was
mated. On board four Tim Switzer had
. to concede a draw against Matthew Sonter,
while Oriol and Lip both won, Lip
after a massive swindle. The Adelaide
‘Advertiser’ ran a story on Laura, with
a nice picture of Laura and her teddy
bear. Some consternation was caused
when the newspaper reporter came to
the tournament venue and was under the
illusion that Michael Chow was the girl!
Round 5
I,tound 5 followed a much needed two
day break, in which I was bombarded
Victorian Junior Chess News
with draw offers. I beat Laura in a game
of rather dubious quality – she blundered
the exchange for nothing in an equal
endgame. In any case the quality of play
by both sides before was not very good.
David Smerdon played a good game
after Ricky Lopis made a serious mistake
in the opening, after being moveordered
in the Caro-Kann by the Smurf.
Michael won easily against Sean Ong;
Oriol, Switzer, Tan, Lip and Soloveychik
all won. There were a lot of long
games today, Smerdon-Lopis (60),
Castor-Tan (53) and Lip-Sonter (60),
indicating either good fighting spirit or
people playing on a queen down. In any
case there were decisive results on the
top ten boards.
Round 6
There were only two players left on
perfect scores, David Smerdon and myself.
I had borrowed a book from the
NSW camp on the Scandinavian, but
had changed my mind and decided it
would be a Sicilian. Fortunately for me,
Michael Lip had “told” Smerdon what I
was intending to play. I had a very nice
opening against the Smurf, who was
settling into his habitual time trouble.
Some inaccuracies around move thirty
left me the exchange up – but it was an
endgame and the Smurf had a passed
pawn! Danger bells were going off in
my head. I played for tricks, and fortunately
for me David fell for one of them
- taking a indigestable pawn and winding
up a clear rook down. Michael
Chow beat Tim Switzer while Laura
had an interesting draw with Michael
Lip. Michael Lip was about to win a
pawn for nothing, but made the fatal
mistake of saying “draw?” which Laura
gleefully accepted. Sasha started his upward
rise by beating Oriol.
Round 7
Round seven saw me play, if not the
strongest junior in Australia, certainly
the most dangerous – Michael Chow.
Needing a win at all costs, he was sure
to be very aggressive. I didn’t think it
would be a draw, and the spectators
probably didn’t think so either. The game turned out to be a
Bogo-Indian, which I had
prepared in Melbourne -
Michael mis-played it completely,
but I missed several
chances to close the game
out and had to settle for a
perpetual check draw in the
end. Sasha Soloveychik had
good winning chances in
his game against David
Smerdon, but a draw was
the end result. Laura played
a nice game to beat Elaine
Chong on Board 3, Lip beat
McKay and Ayling beat
Ricky Lopis. Andrew Lai
played f.a3 (again!) – this
. time against Justin Tan.
Sadly enough the position
almost transposed into a
4.a3 Queens Indian, but
Justin won in the end!
Round 8
I played an extremely weak
and upsetting game today
against Michael Lip. Having
fallen (for the first and
last time in this tournament)
right into Manuel
Weeks’ (NSW coach) opening
preparation, I slowly
outplayed my opponent and
got into a better position.
Michael then sacked/blundered a piece for nebulous compensa-tion; however this compensation increased
significantly during my time-trouble,
due to extremely weak play on
my part and extremely resourceful attacking on the part of my opponent. The
result was drawn in a later ending
where I did not make the most of my
chances. Sasha beat Michael Chow for
the first time ever – and although the
game was decided by a gross blunder
Sasha played very well to defend a bad
opening position.
Round 9
This round I beat Soloveychik after winning
a pawn, but really struggled to
convert it to a win. Eventually Sasha
made a huge mistake in the rook ending.
This left me a point up on Smerdon
going into the last two rounds. Pablo
Oriol played excellent, confident chess
against Smerdon, but agreed to a draw when he could have won a pawn with a
crushing position. Switzer-Lip was a
titanic 60 move struggle eventually decided in favour of Lip. Elaine blundered
a piece in mutual time-trouble against
Michael Chow to decide matters. Laura
Moylan had a quick draw with Simon
Ayling, while Gareth Charles started a
good ru
n home by beating Ricky Lopis.
A professional cartoomst came in to
draw a picture of me playing Sasha – it
has been described by Laura Moylan as
obnoxious” and by 1997 Junior Champion
Max Leskiewicz as “exotic and
rampantly tusslable. ” What do you think?
Round 10
David Smerdon offered a draw after 10
moves against Lip after using up too
much time, so I was happy to offer Oriol
a draw, which was quickly accepted.
Michael Chow played the best game of the tournament to “chomp”
Justin Tan’s French. So I
was on 8.5/10, a whole
point ahead of Smerdon and
Chow. Moylan beat Soloveychik
and Charles beat
Ayling – they both moved to
7/11. Raposio beat Switzer
with a B+N vs K, while
Elaine Chong played a nice
game to crush Dima
Onofreichuk.
Round 11
In the last round I had to
draw with white against
Gareth Charles to win the
tournament outright. The
white pieces made me more
confident, though as Gareth
said “No one ever won a
game merely by having
white.” Although I found
Michael Chow’s instant reply,
“”.congratulations on
winning the Australian Junior”
heartening, I decided
to be very careful. Despite
interested spectator Brett
Tindall’s prediction that I
would crack under the pressure
as he had done three
years earlier, the result was
never really in doubt (Y2 – Y2)
and I was the 1998 and the 50th ever Australian Junior
Champion! Looking at the game at
home I realised I had overlooked a
crushing and thematic piece sacrifice on
move 13 of my game. Michael was dead
lost after about ten moves against Laura
Moylan, but he is a tricky customer and
once he had used his “magical powers”
to break free, outplayed Laura and won
easily. Smerdon-Chong was an interesting
endgame in which the Smurf was
allowed to display his good endgame
technique for the last time in the tournament,
while Oriol and Lip had a quick
draw. I’d like to thank the organisers,
and in particular Mrs Evelyn Koshnitsky
for running such a wonderful tournament.
Justin Tan – Geoff Saw
Australian Junior Championships, 1998
Geoff Saw
1.e4 e5 2.NfJ e6 J.eJ Nf6 4.e5 Nd5
5.d4 exd4 6.exd4 b6 7.Be2 Bb4+ 8.Bd2
Bxd2+ 9.Qxd2 Bb7 10.Na3!?
Aiming for the vulnerable central dark
squares, but I found a good plan – opening
up the f-file for a kingside attack.
10 … 0-0 11.0-0?
This is weak – the consistent 11.Nc4
was much better, and i would have answered
with … Ba6, followed by Nc6 and
f6.’
11 … f6!
12.Ne4 fxeS 13.dxeS
This gets white into huge trouble -
12.Nfe5 was better, though after … d6
whites opening has obviously been a
failure.
13 … Nf4 14.Nd6
14.Bd1 Nxg2 15.Kxg2 Qh4 16.Ne3
(16.b3 Qg4+) 16 … Qg5+ 17.Kh1 Rx:f3.
14 … Nxe2+ lS.Qxe2 Bxf3 16.gxf3 Ne6
17.Qe3 Qh41S.Rad1
Here I found a long forced win.
lS … Rf4 19.Nb7 Rat’S 20.Rxd7 RSfS
21.Rfd1
21.Rc7 Rg5+ 22.Kh1 Qxh2+ 23.Kxh2
Rh4# mate; 21.Rc1 Rg5+ 22.Kf1 Qh3+
23.Ke1 (23.Ke2 Rxe5 24.Rxc6 Rxe3+
25.fxe3 Qxf3+ 26.Kd2 Qxc6) 23 … Rxe5
24.Rxc6 Rxe3+ 25.fxe3 Rx:f3 -+
21 … RgS+ 22.Kf1 Qh3+ 23.Ke1 RxeS
0-1
Michael Chow – Justin Tan
Australian Junior Championships, 1998
&Michael Chow
1.e4 e6 2.d4 dS 3.Ne3 Bb4 4.eS eS S.a3
Bxe3+ 6.bxe3 Ne7 7.Qg4 NfS S.Bd3 hS
9.Qf3
I think 9.Qh3 is the book move.
9 … exd4 10.BxfS exfS 11.exd4 Ne6
12.Ne2 Be6?!
Better would be 12 …. b6 followed by
Ba6. 12 …. Be6 seems too passive.
13.Rb1 RbS14.Bd2
This was to prevent blacks queen developing
to a5 or b6.
14 … Qh4 lS.Qe3
If 15.Qd3 Qe4 leaves white a slightly
worse ending.
lS … 0-0
This is almost forced as white is threatening
Qxc6.
16.g3 Qe7 17.Qf3 g6 lS.0-0
18.Bh6 Rfc8 19.Qe3 Na5 20.Bg5 Qf8
21.Bf6 Nc4 22.Qg5 Followed by Nf4
and Nxh5 gives white a strong attack.
22 …. Nxa3 doesn’t work because of
23.Be7!
lS … b6
18 … f6 19.exf6 Qxf6 (19 … Rxf6
20.Bg5+-) 20.Bf4 Followed by Rxb7 is
crushing.
19.Qd3 Kg7?
Just wasting time, better is 19 … f6 immediately
or 19 … h4.
20.h4 f6
This is forced or white will just play
Bg5 and Bf6. .
21.Rfe1 fxeS 22.dxeS Qd7 23.B·gS NaS
24.Nf4 RbeS 2S.Rbd1 ReS 26.Nxe6+
Qxe6 27.Be3 d4 2S.Qxd4 Re7 29.Qb4
RfeS 30.Rd6 QeS 31.Qf4 Re6 32.e6
Rxd6 33.Qxd6 Re6 34.Bd4+ Kh6
3S.QeS 1-0
Will Heyward -1\lex Lam
Australian Under 12 Championships
by Will Heyward
1.e4 eS 2.Nf3 Ne6 3.Be4 Nf6 4.d3 BeS
S.BgS 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nbd2
I could have developed my knight to ‘c3′
but I wanted to play c3 then b4 and
attack his bishop. Then I can play pawn
a2-a4-a5 and trap his bishop.
7oo.h6 S.Bh4
If I take his knight it helps him develop
his queen and I also think that bishops
are better than knights.
Soo.Be6 9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.e3 Qd7 11.b4
Bb6 12.a4 as 13.bS Ne7 14.d4
I did this to get 2 pawns in the centre. 14oo.exd4 lS.exd4 dS 16.eS Ne4
17.Nxe4?
This move loses a pawn. Instead of this I
could have played Nb3 or Rc 1.
17oo.dxe4 lS.Ne1 Bxd4 19.Re1 RadS
20.Qe2
I saw that he was going to play … Bxf2+
and win my rook.
20oo.BxeS 21.Qxe4 Bf6 22.Bxf6 Rxf6
Now I can win back my pawn.
23.Qxb7 ReS 24.Qa7
Trying to get his a-pawn, I don’t think he
can save it.
24oo.Rft’S 2S.QxaS e6 26.b6
This move gives me a passed pawn.
26 … Qb7 27.Nd3 RfS 2S.NeS
This blocks the attack on my queen and
attacks his queen.
2Soo.QbS 29.Qa6 RdS 30.Nxe6 Rd6
31.b7
If he takes my knight then I can win his
rook and get another queen.
31oo.Re8 32.NeS Kf7 33.Qb6
I did that so I can attack his queen and
then he can’t stop my passed pawn and I
win his rook.
33oo.gS 34.Na6 QdS 3S.bSQ QxbS
36.NxbS1-0
Black resigned because he is a queen
down and white is going to get another
queen with his passed a-pawn.
Title Holders
Australian Junior Champion – Geoff Saw (Vic) 9/11
Australian Under-16 Champions – Michael Chow (Vic) and David Smerdon(Qld) 8.5/11
Australian Under-14 Champion – Sasha Soloveychik (Vic) 7.5/11
Australian Under-12 Champion – ZongYuan Zhao (NSW) 10/11
Australian Girls’ Champion – Kylie Coventry (SA) 10.5/11
Australian Under-16 Girls’ Champion -Sylvia Shields (NSW) 8/11
Australian Under-14 Girls’ Champion – C.Pizzato (Q), AConstantinou (Q), L .Chong (NSW) 6/11
Australian Under-12 Girls’ Champion -Catherine Lip (NSW) 10.5/11
Australian Junior Results (Victorian players)
U/18
Geoff Saw 9
Michael Chow 8.5
Sasha Soloveychik 7.5
Dima Onufreichuk 6.5
John Nemeth 5.5
Julian McDonald 5.0
James Doidge 4.5
Girls
5.5 Andjelica Zivanovic
5.0 Thilini Basnayake
4.0 Gayanie Basnayake .
2.0 Stephanie Kalkbrenner
U/12
7.5 Denis Bourmistrov
7.5 Matthew Doidge
5.5 Richard Machet
5.0 Ruperto Lugo
4.0 Tiko Gawin
3.0 Will Heyward
