Remember the name James Morris. James, a 15 year-old from Melbourne who was taught the moves of chess by David Cordover when he was about 6 years-old, has become Australia’s second youngest ever International Master.
James competed in the 2009 Oceania Zonal Championships on the Gold Coast, which finished last week, in a field containing seven International Masters, one Grandmaster elect and one Grandmaster and came second with 6.5 points from 9 games.   He scored 3 points out of 4 against the four IM’s that he played and only lost to GM (elect) David Smerdon in a game that he could easily have won.  A truly outstanding result for a young player whose FIDE rating was only 2114 before the event.

I remember James as a red-headed, freckled little boy some years ago who played in the RJ Shield and showed some promise.   He was coached by David Hacche for several years and David must be thrilled with his protege’s success.

James wants to be a journalist and is currently studying at University High, which co-incidentally is Ian Rogers’ old school.   Over the next week James will be working at Chess Kids on work experience.   We hope to have him write some articles for future issues of Knight Times plus a first hand report of the Zonal Tournament.

I’m sure that all the aspiring young chess players at Chess Kids will be thrilled with James’ success and will now seek to emulate his achievements.    We all need heroes, just look at how Australian Tennis is struggling because we have only one Leyton Hewitt, and James will now have to focus on climbing the next rung of the chess ladder and becoming a grandmaster.

Perhaps, if his studies allow, he could approach Ian and Cathy Rogers to mentor him and take him to some strong overseas tournaments such as the Gibraltar Open.   Not all young players who achieve success at an early age continue to improve and scale the chess heights, but certainly the earlier in life that you achieve success the greater is the potential to attain a very high standard.

James followed up his success in the Zonal with a trip to Adelaide to play in the Freytag Checkmate Open 2009.  Here his success continued with another second placing on 5.5 points out of 7, again behind Smerdon who scored 6.5/7.   They drew their last round game against each other.   It was a strong tournament with James finishing ahead of GM Johnansen and IM’s Goldenberg and Chapman.    This second result certainly shows that James’ success in the Zonal was no “flash in the pan”.

Here at Chess Kids we are all delighted with James’ recent success and wish him the best for his future in both chess and journalism.

James Morris v IM Stephen Solomon (Australian Champion) in their last round clash at the 2009 Zonal.