Chess Tournament Report « Chess Kids – Chess Coaching and Chess Lessons

Chess Tournament Report

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #129

Written by Robert Jamieson on 18th May, 2012

Anand v Gelfand 2012

It should be an exciting time in the chess world at the moment as we are in the middle of a World Chess Championship match between Anand (champion) and Gelfand (challenger). The match being played in Moscow with games starting at about 9pm E.S.T. here in Australia. I’ve watched most of the games live at www.anand-gelfand.com but to-date we have had 5 relatively boring draws. Not quite as exciting as Spassky v Fischer 1972 but there are still 7 games left to provide some entertainment.

The best part of the live games is that they have a top grandmaster commenting live on the action. GMs such as Nigel Short and Jan Timman do the commentary, who themselves have been very close to the top of the chess tree, and it’s great to see what they talk about and how they think.

Game 4 was almost interesting and it looked like we may get some tactics, but as compensation we had a very unusual sight of all 8 squares on the “d” file being occupied by pieces, like a tower of pieces stacked on top of each other. I enjoyed game 5 also as Gelfand played my favourite Pelikan variation of the Sicilian Defence, an opening that our junior training squad is studying at the moment.

I guess the defending champion, Anand, now being in his 40′s has become a solid player, but I’m sure he still has a good eye for tactics. Take a look at the following example from Anand v Gerber 1988:

3k4/5pb1/2P5/pN5P/1p6/1P3p2/1P6/4K3 w – - 0 1White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #126

Written by Robert Jamieson on 27th Apr, 2012

Justin Tan wins MCC Anzac Day Weekender

The Australian 16U Chess Team (the “Chessaroos”) recently played an on-line match against Indonesia as part of their training for the 16U Chess Olympiad to be held in Turkey in a few months time. Unfortunately Australia went down 3.5 – 6.5 but we did not have our strongest team playing as several players were playing in other events.

Justin Tan, our no.2 player 16U, was participating in the MCC Anzac Day Weekender for instance where he had a outstanding tournament. He finished outright first on 6.5/7 winning the $500 first prize. Along the way he beat the top seed, IM James Morris, who had to be content with second place and 6/7. As well as being good at chess Justin is one of Australia’s top gymnasts in his age-group but, at the moment, hopefully chess is winning the battle for his time.

For today’s puzzle let’s see if you can match Justin’s tactical ability. The diagram shows Justin as White in his game against Tony Davis. Justin is trying to win a piece by trapping Black’s stray Knight. Your task is both to win the piece and find Black’s defence. Good luck.

2k4r/2p2pbp/2N1p1p1/1B6/2P2P2/6P1/1n5P/1R4K1 w – - 1 25White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #125

Written by Robert Jamieson on 20th Apr, 2012

Last week I mentioned the Doeberl Cup in Canberra played over Easter, and the following week Australia’s best players moved on to Sydney for the Sydney International Open. I was hoping to follow the games and find some nice puzzles to show you but the slack organisers didn’t get around to uploading the games onto their website. All the more disappointing as our better players are all fighting hard for a place in the Australian Olympiad team and it would have been great to see all their games.

What to do? A couple of weeks ago one of my on-line opponents, Check Norris, sent me a puzzle from one of his own games which I was able to use. Fortunately this week another of my on-line mates, Murray Beard, has sent me a puzzle that he thought may be of interest. It’s Black to play and win and it’s got me stumped. I’ve been studying the position for quite sometime and I can’t find a checkmate for Black. Worse than that, it dawns on me that Black is a Queen down so if he can’t checkmate he’s clearly going to lose. Perhaps Murray has sent me the wrong position and left off the black Queen by mistake? If so, which square should the Queen be on to solve the puzzle? Clearly, I need your help to solve this puzzle. Can you explain what has happened and whether or not there is a win for Black?

3rr1nk/pR6/3b3p/5p2/2Pp1PpP/P2n4/6BK/1RBQ2N1 b – - 0 1Black to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #124

Written by Robert Jamieson on 13th Apr, 2012

Last week I mentioned about the Doeberl Cup being played in Canberra over Easter and hoped that Bobby Cheng would come up with some interesting puzzles for us. I tried to follow the games live on the internet but the organisers made a fatal mistake. They allocated 4 live game boards to the Premier Division but invited 8 foreign grandmasters to play in the tournament. It’s simple maths! 8 grandmasters, 2 players per board, 4 live boards – there were no live boards left for me to watch the Australian players’ games! ARGHHH! Never-the-less, if you waited long enough, eventually the games would appear on the website so I did get to see a few of Bobby’s games. He started very well with an impressive win against Australia’s top player, Zhao Yuan-Zhong and in the last round a win would have given Bobby an IM result. I’m still waiting to see that game, but Bobby did come good with a puzzle for us.

In round 5 he was white against GM Attila Czebe from Hungary and they reached the following position. Czebe played 53…Nxc4 54.Kxc4 Ke5 and offered a draw. Bobby thought for a while and accepted. In this sequence of events there were two blunders and one “brilliancy”. What were they and why?

8/4p3/3k4/4n3/2BK4/4pP2/4P3/8 b – - 2 53What were the blunders and brilliancy?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #123

Written by Robert Jamieson on 5th Apr, 2012

Easter is a great time for chess in Australia because 50 years ago a Canberra builder named Eric Doeberl decided to sponsor a chess tournament in Canberra over the Easter break. The event became the “Doeberl Cup”, Australia’s biggest and strongest adult chess tournament, which of course is celebrating 50 years with the 2012 tournament. The field boasts 8 GMs, 1 WGM, 13 IMs and 1 WIM in the 78 player “Premier” division. It’s a great opportunity for our leading players and juniors to test themselves against international opposition and certainly many Victorians juniors are making the trip to Canberra. Fortunately you’ll be able to follow the games on-line at home also as David Cordover is going to Canberra to use Tornelo to record the results and games (just search under “Tornelo – Australian Trial”).

One Victorian junior making the trip is Laurence Matheson who finds himself paired against GM Czebe Attila 2477 from Hungary in the first round. Laurence has been training for the big tournament by playing 2 minute games on “Chess Kids On-Line” and blitz games on the ICC website against strong opponents and has kindly sent me one of his victories against “some Spanish IM”. (See Diagram). Clearly Laurence as Black is winning comfortably and could just play safely to ensure the win. Laurence however has other ideas and wants to win quickly even if he has to take risks. Can you help him to finish the game quickly?

2r2rk1/5pp1/3p3p/p2qpP1N/1p2n1P1/4QN2/PPP5/1KR5 w – - 0 1Black to play and win?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #120

Written by Robert Jamieson on 16th Mar, 2012

Bobby Cheng at the Interschool Tournament

I had a strange experience yesterday at the Bayside Interschool Tournament.

The tournament was very strong with Melbourne High, led by Bobby Cheng, scoring an impressive 27.5/28 to take first place. I was trying to record some of the games on my iPad so as to publish them in “Knight Times” and was entering the moves for one of Bobby’s games. It was quite interesting as Bobby had blown the exchange (for nothing) and was trying to fight back. His opponent I gather was the sort of chap who focused on what he could attack, without paying too much attention to his opponent’s possibilities. Bobby walked away from the board for a moment and his opponent quickly moved and pressed his clock. Perhaps it then dawned on him that his move may be a blunder, so he pressed the clock back again and retracted his move! Not a good idea, particularly when an arbiter is recording the game behind you on his iPad.

Needless to say I forced him to play the original move, and after 3 more moves Bobby had an easily won game. He gave mate 4 moves later, so the attempted cheater got his just desserts.

This week’s puzzle is to work out, from the evidence that I’ve given you, what were the next 3 moves played in the game. My friend “CheckNorris” often complains that my puzzles are too easy. So from him, I want the next 7 moves to finish the game!

1rbq1r1k/pp2p1bp/2p1Pp2/6p1/2BPN3/5N2/PPP1Q1PP/5RK1 b – - 1 15What were the next 3 moves?

Training Squad in Ballarat

Written by David Cordover on 15th Mar, 2012

A number of the Chess Kids Training Squad players visited Ballarat last weekend to take part in the annual Begonia Open. This is by far the biggest and best weekend chess tournament in Victoria and provides an excellent event for kids who are stepping up to start playing open competitions. It is not only a huge learning experience, but also an opportunity for a social weekend away. Results see Tornelo.

Chess Kids Easter Holiday Program

Written by David Cordover on 13th Mar, 2012

Our summer holiday program was fully booked, so make sure you book your Easter holiday place early because we only have 12 places each day!

Download Easter Holiday Program info (PDF) Read more…

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #117

Written by Robert Jamieson on 24th Feb, 2012

RJ Shield - Nicole v William

Last Sunday was the first RJ Shield tournament for the year and we had a good turn-up of 43 keen young chess players plus assorted parents. Nicole Chin (pictured left) scored a perfect 6/6 to win the Open Division whilst Alistair McCutcheon won the U10 division with 7/8.

I had planned to record some of the games on my iPad for my on-line coaching lessons but instead was co-opted to help Frank Meerbach run the tournament. I only had time for one quick sortie to have a look at the play when two of our training squad members, William Maligin and Gary Lin were paired against each other. Fortunately I arrived to look at the board (see diagram below) at a very interesting position which I spent a few seconds analysing but did not reach a final conclusion. Shortly thereafter the game finished and my enquiries revealed that only 3 more moves were played from the diagrammed position before it was all over. Black had chosen a different line to the one that I was looking at and when I went home and ran the position through my computer it came up with a totally different line that we had both missed.

So today we have a three part puzzle!

A) What were the 3 moves from the diagram to the end of the game?

B) What line did I look at where the losing player could have defended better?

C) What “killer” move did the computer find that totally reversed the result of the game?

1r4rk/5pp1/5b1p/4n3/p1p1P3/4BP1R/2K2P1P/6R1 w – - 0 1White to play - what is best play for both sides? Read more…

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #116

Written by Robert Jamieson on 16th Feb, 2012

Smirnov v Jordan

The game that perhaps attracted the most interest in the recent Australian Championships was the clash between the oldest player, 55 year-old FM Bill Jordan (who was once ranked in Australia’s top 10) and the youngest competitor, 10 year-old Anton Smirnov. Jordan held a healthy lead in rating points and experience on young Anton and so was expected to win comfortably.

Indeed, after the exchange of a few pieces they reached the following position with Jordan playing White. Black is threatening to win the c4 pawn but Bill has a nice space advantage and the better pawn structure so all is going well. Surely it should just be a matter of technique for White. Unfortunately, we older players sometimes tire a bit during a hard game and make mistakes, and Bill is certainly getting on so perhaps you could give him a bit of help. What should he play to keep his advantage?

3r4/pp2p1bk/1np3pp/4N3/2P3P1/2B4P/PPb2PB1/4R1K1 w KQkq – 0 1What should White play?

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