Round 2: St George Club Teams Challenge Jun 11 – Aug 6
Not sleepy at all, the ZZZ’s put in a strong performance (4.5/5 on the night) to just edge past the round 1 leaders, Plant’s Pinned Parsnips. The Z’s lead the P’s by 8.5 to 8, and Curtis’ Castling Carrots sit in clear third on 6.5 .
Individual results for Round 1 are posted on the Results page, and those for Round 2 will be up there soon too.
In the pairings table, the team on the left plays: black on board 1, white on board 2, black on board 3, white on board 4, black on board 5.
2024 Big Boards versus Norths (first leg) 2024
Team Result (only top 40 boards are counted): St George 20.5: Norths 19.5
Our apologies for the delay in getting these results to you, especially since the overall result was a positive one for St George. Hosting our friendly foes from across the waters, Norths, we just squeaked a one-point win in the first leg of this longstanding tournament. Should we have won even more convincingly, in that we out-rated our opponents significantly on most boards? Perhaps, but the ratings within a playing pool whose members mostly only play against each other can end up being out of alignment with the general population; and even more misalignment can occur when the members of one ‘limited’ pool are pitted against players from another similarly ‘limited’ pool. All the more reason for either our members to leave the nest more often, or for St George to attract outside ‘talent’ to visit Carlton more frequently. (PS We are working on the latter!)
Round 1: St George Club Teams Challenge Jun 11 – Aug 6
Animal, vegetable or mineral? Last night the answer was emphatically: Vegetable! Ten fibre-filled teams tried to prove that their chess skills were a match to their nutritional worthiness. While no team ended up with a perfect score, Plant’s Pinned Parsnips came pretty close with a score of 4.5/5. But you can’t make a winter stew with just one veg, so next into the pot come Curtis’ Castling Carrots and Zworestine’s Zugzwanging Zucchinis (4/5). There’s a lot more slicing and dicing to come, so stay posted for future episodes!
This is a 9-round team round-robin chess tournament, with games played under a ‘classical’ time control (75 mins + 10 secs bonus per move). There will be ten teams with five players in each. The Club Captain (Charles Zworestine) places the players into teams such that each team has, ideally, an equal chance of winning the tournament. Within any one team, the players are sorted (by their ACF rating) to play at Board 1, or Board 2, or Board 3, and so on. On any given night, if you have been designated, for example, as a Board 3 player, you will play a single game against a Board 3 player from one of the other teams.
In the pairings table, the team on the left plays: black on board 1, white on board 2, black on board 3, white on board 4, black on board 5.
Khishigbataar Bayasgalan: Club Champion for 2024!
CM Khishigbataar Bayasgalan won her final Round 9 game, and with a score of 7.5/9, took the Club Championship in a very convincing manner: 7 wins, one draw and a single loss. Congrats to Khishigbataar, our first ever female Champion! Daniel Melamed drew his final game and came in second place, with 6 points. Jeremy Plunkett had a great tournament, with five wins, and was third with 5.5 points.
In all the other divisions, apart from Division 7, the round 8 leaders retained their first place position. In Division 7, Zachary Lee managed to edge ahead, and with 6.5 points, led three other players on 6 (Robert Roskowski, Oliver Ametson, Dimitrios Gourlas). The trophy winners are shown below. Note that trophies are only given for first and second place, and if more than one player shares first place, there is no second place trophy. Trophies will be given out on our club Presentation Night (Tuesday, Nov 12).
Improving the experience of lower-rated players
The Club is keen to find a way for new and lower-rated players (mainly adults but also some juniors) to improve their skills, and thus their enjoyment of the game.
We believe that a good club is one that has strength at both ends of the ability spectrum. The club does a great job of nurturing the talented, but is concerned with the large turn-over of potential competition chess players at the lower end. Many newcomers, trying to find their feet in chess, play maybe one or two tournaments only to disappear from competition after that. One reason for the turn-over is obvious: novices and lower-rated players lose much more often than better players, a fact that better players tend to forget. These two sub-groups really have to love the game, or develop a thick skin, to continue. Or they can get some assistance to see them through to the next level.
Accordingly, we would like to test the interest among lower-rated adult players in having some informal discussion about play at their level and receiving a little coaching.
We are pitching this project at novice and lower-rated adults first-up (with ratings from zero up to about 1200). The discussion/coaching forum would be conducted by people only a little higher up in the ratings than that. Why do we think novices and newcomers are more likely to benefit from a lower-rated coach? Basically, we believe it’s important to have leader who have personal experience of exactly what the group’s playing ability level is and who understands the specific difficulties such players face. Better players can always be brought in to assist if the idea has some success.
There are several reasons for focusing on adults. First, it’s generally within the (lower-rated) adult player-group that most losses occur. Second, a lot of our juniors already get some form of coaching. Finally, this being a pilot program for all concerned, a fairly age-homogeneous group will put fewer demands on the ‘coach’.
First Steps
With all this in mind, the Committee would like to use the coming Social night / Intra-team selection night of Tuesday 4 June to gauge the level of interest in these ideas, and maybe open up a few topics for general discussion. If anyone would like to discuss the matter beforehand, please contact Club Vice-President Peter at pswinton@bigpond.net.au or just turn up on the night to join in the chat, and talk to Peter personally.
To the parents of children who may also be interested, your child is welcome to attend but please be aware of these two points:
1. The project is not open to children who receive chess coaching of any sort already, anywhere – whether that is at school or with professional coaches. (There may be room for club coaching of such juniors soon, but this group is not it. This is solely for people who have no chess help.)
2. Secondly, the child’s language skills would need to be almost at adult level already. It takes a special sort of teacher to teach kids at earlier developmental levels, and that is more the province of a professional chess coach.
Round 8 of the 2024 Club Champs
Division One had a big shake-up last week, with Khishigbataar Bayasgalan having her first loss, to Terrence Tang. While she is still ahead by a full point, her final round sees her playing John-Stuart Plant. This means Daniel Melamed, playing Arthur Huynh, has a chance to catch her if he wins and she loses. John-Stuart is third-placed.
Division Two is also still wide open, with Michael Babic, on 6, only a half point ahead of Ted Power, with Jose Escribano a further half-point back. Division Three is not yet decided either, but Volkan Soker (6/8), is a full point ahead of Ramu Srinirasa and Christian Lagarez on 5. Ashton Li, on 7.8, is uncatchable in Division Four, leading Ralph Shaw by 2 points, and Robert Fenton-Lee by 2.5. Huey Teng had a zero-point bye in Round 8 of Division Five, but on 7/8 he cannot but win the group, leading Ralph Mitchell by two points, with Peter Swinton third on 4.5. The tussle between Stephen Manwarring and Ken Eldridge in Division 6 has an anticlimactic, but fitting conclusion: Stephen has a zero-point bye and thus he will be caught by Ken, who has a one-point forfeit, both players ending up with 7 points, without even having to turn up! Isaac Wang has done well, to score four points, and Ethan Currie and Samuel Slingo both sit on 3.5. In Division 7, Dimitrios Gourlas, on 6, leads Zachary Lee by a half-point, with Robert Roszkowski a further half-point back.
Round 7 of the 2024 Club Champs
With another win in Round 7, Khishigbataar Bayasgalan on 6.5 points may well have wrapped up the Championship, although there is still a chance that the final round clash between her and John-Stuart Plant (5) might be decisive. Daniel Melamed is currently third on 4 points, but he has one adjourned game up his sleeve.
Division Two is very tight, with Michael Babic and Ted Power now sharing the lead on 4.5/7, leading Graham Saint, Brian Allison and Jose Escribano, all on 4. Ramu Srinirasa still leads Division Three but is now tied together with Volkan Soker, both on 5/7. John Nichas and James Zaverdinos sit just behind on 4.5, with Christian Lagarez on 4. Ashton Li continues to lead in Division 4, his five points putting him one clear of Ralph Shaw, followed by Robert Fenton-Lee and Kevin Liu on 3.5. Huey Teng remains on a perfect score in Division 5, 7/7, three points clear of Ralph Mitchell and Peter Swinton, with Aaron Hu on 3.5. The deadlock between Stephen Manwarring and Ken Eldridge was resumed in Division 6, where, with 6/7, they sit well clear of Ethan Currie and Samuel Slingo on 3.5. Zach Lee has pulled ahead to take the sole lead in Division 7, on 5.5, just ahead of Dimitrios Gourlas (5) and Anujin Soo on 4.5.
Round 6 of the 2024 Club Champs
Khishigbataar Bayasgalan still retains a healthy lead in Division One, with 5.5/6. John-Stuart Plant and Daniel Melamed sit back on 4, and Jeremy Plunkett is on 3.5.
It’s veterans in the lead in Division Two, with club president Graham Saint on equal footing (4) with Brian Allison. Michael Babic, Jose Escribano and Ted Power are all a half-point behind. Division Three’s leader remains Ramu Srinirasa on 5, a full point ahead of Volkan Soker. John Nichas, James Zaverdinos and Beydoun Ghassan are all on 3.5. Ashton Li leads Division Four, on 4 points, from Ralph Shaw and Darren Curtis on 3, and then Robert Fenton-Lee, Sam Sharkawy and Kevin Liu on 2.5. In Division Five, Huey Teng is still the only player in the tourney on a perfect score of 6, and he leads Peter Swinton on 4 and then Ralph Mitchell and Aaron Hu on 3. The deadlock in Division Six has been finally broken, as Stephen Manwarring (5.5) now leads Ken Eldridge by a half-point. Ethan Currie is on 3. With 4.5 points, the Mighty Mites, Anujin Soo and Zachary Lee share the honours in Division Seven, with Robert Roszkowsi and Dimitrios Gourlas just behind on 4 and Olivar Ametson on 3.
The Joy of Chess
Geoff Hyde (photos by Samuel and Peter Slingo)
Chess has been experiencing a huge surge in popularity since the Queen’s Gambit series and the pandemic. One factor in this phenomenon has been the people, like Levy Rozman, Hikaru Nakamura and Daniel Naroditsky -to name just a few- who know how to make chess seem cool and fun. At St George (and the Sydney Academy of Chess, SAC) we have our own Pied Piper of the Royal Game, John-Stuart Plant. One of his many inspirational contributions has been the running of the annual Intergenerational Chess Tournament, in conjunction with the Georges River Council, the SAC, and our own club.
Last Saturday, April 20, saw the fourth iteration of the event, and despite a late change to an indoor venue to avoid the rain, it ran more enjoyably, and more crazily (in the best possible sense), than ever before. JSP was there to MC the fireworks, and to assail us all with a minimum of two truly terrible chess jokes between each of the six rounds. Chess luminaries such as past Oz Chess Champ, Fred Flatow, and GM Ian Rogers, either took part or simply savored the total absence of serenity and sanity. In the topsy-turviness of it all, not only did I end up with a higher score than our infinitely more talented club captain, Charles Zworestine, but so did our much loved Samuel Slingo. Just what voodoo spells did JSP cast?
Nevertheless, by some appalling accidents of fate, the podium places went to some truly gifted players, all from St George. JSP assures me this will never happen again.
St George Players at the InterGenerational Tournament
Khishigbaatat Bayasgalan. 1st. 6/6
Satwait Rewais 2nd 5.5/6
Anthony Karnaout equal 3rd. 5/6
Stevo Acevski. = 9th. 4.5/6
Arthur Huynh. = 9th. 4.5/6
Geoff Hyde = 9th. 4.5/6
Ashton Li = 16th. 4/6
Samuel Slingo = 16th. 4/6
Huey Teng = 16th. 4/6
Elijah Udovitch = 16th 4/6
John Parissis = 16th. 4/6
Sait Buzgan. = 16th. 4/6
Charles Zworestine. =. 32nd 3.5/6
Dimitrios Gourlas. = 36th. 3/6
Ralph Shaw. = 36th. 3/6
Sam Sharkawy. = 63rd. 2/4
Srijan Badam = 78th. 1/4
Sometimes Players
Changhao Yu. Eql 3rd. 5/6
Leo Xu. 5/6
Bruce Urdanegui 4.5/6. = 9th
Round 5 of the 2024 Club Champs
Khishigbataar Bayasgalan (4.5/5) has kept the lead in Division One, with a slender lead of a half-point from John-Stuart Plant. There are quite a few adjourned games in that division though, and the results of those matches could rock the boat when they are played.
Division Two sees Michael Babic and Brian Allison sharing the lead on 3.5, with Graham Saint and Ted Power sitting back on 3. Beydoun Ghassan on 3.5 leads Volkan Soker on 3 in Division Three, with many players lurking on 2.5. It’s Ashton Li in the lead in Division Four, with 3 points, with Sam Sharkawy and Kevin Liu just behind on 2.5. Again, there’s a heap of players waiting to pounce on 2. In Division Five, Huey Teng retains his perfect record, 5/5, leading Peter Swinton on 3 and Aaron Hu on 3. The Division Six deadlock continues with Stephen Manwarring and Ken Eldridge both sitting on 4.5, leading Ethan Currie (3) and Samuel Slingo (2). Zach Lee also keeps his lead in Division Seven, on 4.5, with Anujin Soo on 3.5, and Robert Roszkowski and Dimitrios Gourlas on 3.
Round 4 of the 2024 Club Champs
Khishigbataar Bayasgalan, fresh from finishing as the top-scoring female in the Doeberl Cup, had her third win of the tournament, and maintains her Division One lead with 3.5/4. Close behind is John-Stuart Plant on 3, and Jeremy Plunkett has moved up to sole third on 2.5.
Division Two has three club veterans all in the lead on 3/4: Graham Saint, Michael Babic and Brian Allison. Ted Power still has chances, sitting half a point behind. In Division 3, Ramu Srinirasa now leads on 3/4, with Ghassan Beydoun on 2.5, and Volkan Soker a further half-point back. Division Four is the closest fought of all, with the leader, Sam Sharkawy only on 2.5, and then four players behind him on 2: Ashton Li, Robert Fenton-Lee, Kevin Liu and Darren Curtis. In contrast, Division 5 Five sees the biggest lead of all: Huey Teng, with the only perfect score of the tourney (4/4), leads Peter Swinton on 2.5, with Ralph Mitchell, Aaron Hu and Nihal Scammell all equal on 2. Stephen Manwarring and Ken Eldridge drew in Round 4, and thus became co-leaders of Division 6 (3.5/4), with Ethan Currie on 3 and Samuel Slingo on 2. It’s most youth in Division 7, with young Zach Lee leading the pack on 3.5; being him are Robert Roszkowski and Dimitrios Gourlas on 3 and Anujin Soo on 2.5.
Australia’s Biggest Ever Chess Tourney – Doeberl Cup 2024
Geoff Hyde (thanks to Charles for help and photos)
GM Hrant Melkumyan, far left, winner of the Premier Division. St George player, WCM Khishigbattar Bayasgalan, was the top scoring female. At far right is Rosemarie Doeberl, daughter of the original major sponsor of the tournament, Erich Doeberl.
Confirming the rising popularity of chess in Australia, the 2024 edition of the annual Doeberl Cup yet again broke the record for the greatest number of players in an Australian tournament – 413. Spread across five divisions, the Premier, Major, Minor Mini and U1200, the top division attracted four GMs, eight IMs and 26 other masters of various stripes. Armenian GM Hrant Melkumyan completed a hat-trick of wins to take out the Premier honours yet again, with a score of 8/9. IMs Peng Chen and Arghyadip Das were second and third, both on scores of 7. St George was remarkably well represented in the Premier with 5 of the players currently playing in our Club Championships Division One in attendance; Cedric Koh was also playing. Top scores went to WCM Khishigbattar Bayasgalan and Cedric on 5.5. Khishigbattar was the highest scoring female player in the tournament – many congrats! Jeremy Plunkett and CM Daniel Melamed both scored 4.5, and Terrence Tang ended up with 3.5. For full results of the Premier and other divisions, click here.
In the Major Division, St George had two contrasting players: big tournament debutant Ted Power and veteran Mal O’Donoghue. Ted did very creditably, winning his last three games and scoring 4.5/7; Mal maintained his trademark sense of humour to go with his 3 points.
Kevin Liu and another big tourney novice, Ashton Li, both scored 3.5/7 in the Minor Division, just leading James Bullen on 3. While we had no representatives in the Mini Division, Samuel Slingo played in the U1200s, scoring 2.5/6. His real star turn however was in the Open Blitz Tournament, which is held on the Saturday night. Up against all the top players, Samuel scored 3 points! The Blitz was won by Australian GM Anton Smirnov.
St George was also well represented in the Arbiters, providing three of the nine in the team: IA Charles Zworestine, FA Nick Kordahi, and myself (NA). Despite the many thousands of games played, there were surprisingly few dramas, partly a result of the excellent work done by Tournament Director IA (and FM) Shaun Press and Chief Arbiter IA Alana Chibnall.
I was involved in what turned out to be quite an amusing adjudication. The White player complained that his opponent had initially agreed to a draw (by allegedly nodding his head) but had not sealed the deal, as it were, by then shaking his outstretched hand. The opponent denied nodding any sign of acceptance, and also pointed out that the White player had not added the = symbol to his score sheet, one of the required steps in making a draw offer. When I pointed out to the white player that it would be a bit strange for any opponent to change their mind so quickly, his response was that his opponent was trying to ‘mess with my head’. At this point I called over IA Peter Tsai who came to the same conclusions as me, and said the game should continue. But it was the conversations I later had with Peter about the accused Black player that really added spice to the story. Peter knows the player well, because the Black player is himself an International Arbiter. And not only that, he is one of the four Councillors on the Rules Commission of FIDE! And if you are wondering, the game ended in a draw anyway.
Round 3 of the 2024 Club Champs
The big clash of Rd 3, WCM Bayagalan Khisigbataar versus CM Daniel Melamed, was a nearly 5 hour battle, and took all of 160 moves! It ended in a draw as per the 50 move rule, leaving Bayasgalan still on top of the table with 2.5 points. Sitting close behind are Andriy Peykov and John-Stuart Plant, both on 2.
In Division 2, Michael Babic maintained his perfect record (3/3), but Ted Power is poised just a half-point behind, with Graham Saint and Brian Allison both on 2. Christian Lagarez on 2/3, has taken the lead in Division 3, with four players on 1.5 (Srijan Badam, John Nichas, James Zaverdinos and Ghassan Beydoun). Sam Sharkawy (2.5/3) has a clear point lead over Eli Udovitch, with five players behind Eli on a single point. Huey Teng shook up the Division 5 table with his win, and with 3 points leads Peter Swinton and Aaron Hu on 2. Steve Manwarring has stormed to the top of the Division 6 table, and on 3/3 leads Ethan Currie, Samuel Slingo and Ken Eldridge on 2. Division 7 sees Robert Roskowski on 2 leading Anujin Soo on 1.5 with Soo Tsogbadrakh, Oliver Ametson and Dimitrios Gourlas on 1.
Round 2 of the 2024 Club Champs
In division 1, WCM Bayasgalan Khishigbataar had another convincing win and now sits atop the table by a half point from Andriy Peykov and John-Stuart Plant. Next week she plays black against 2023 club champ CM Daniel Melamed. Could this be the pivotal match-up of the tournament? Division 2 sees Michael Babic on 2/2, leading by a half-point from Jose Escribano and Ted Power. Srijan Badam and John Nichas share the lead on 1.5 in division 3. Likewise for Sam Sharkawy and Eli Udovitch in Division 4. Peter ‘No Sweat’ Swinton is reaping the benefits of his coaching at the Sydney Chess Academy, and with Huey Teng has retained a perfect score in Division 5. Division 5 likewise sees two players on 2/2: Stephen Manwarring and Ken Eldridge. The most evenly-spread results table is that of division 7, with 5 players on 1/2: Robert Roszkowski, Soo Tsogbadrakh, Oliver Ametson, Anujin Soo and Dimitrios Gourlas.
St George Club Champs kicks off with 7 divisions!
For the first time in my time at St George, the Club Championships is running seven divisions. With 66 players registered, divisions 1-3 each have ten players, and 4-7 each have nine. As usual, it’s a single round-robin tournament, so participants in any one division get to play every other player once. In any division with an odd number of players, each player will also have one week where they don’t play, i.e. a bye, for which they will not score any points. Board One featured an exciting 17-year old prodigy from Ulaanbaatur, the capital of Mongolia: WCM Bayasgalan Khishigbaatar. A decisive win over Jeremy Plunkett suggested she will be a force to be reckoned with in the Club Champs, and showed why she has a Blitz rating of 2453 on chess.com.
Results of 2024 St George Quickplay
Our apologies for the delay, but the final crosstable for the recent 9-round Quickplay Tournament is now accessible here. Congratulations to the outright winner, Arthur Huynh who scored 8.5/9! CM Daniel Melamed was a point behind, and club stalwart Sarwat Rewais was third with 7 points. Round by round results are accessible on the results page. There will be divisional awards as well; these will be announced at the annual presentation night towards the end of the year.
March 5: Round 1 of 2024 Club Champs postponed by one week
Due to some very sad news (the death of the mother of our Club Captain, Charles Zworestine), we are postponing Round 1 of the Club Championships until next Tuesday, March 12. Tonight, March 5, there will only be social chess, from 7.30 as usual. We have tried to alert everyone to this late change by email, text or phone.
Charles has asked me to say that if you want to play in the club champs, and you have only expressed interest by sending him an email, text or phone call, then you now need to either: (1) register via the website (link below) or (2) advise me (Geoff Hyde) separately. Any previous expression of interest, apart from registering on the website is now null and void. Charles is basically not checking any past or future personal messages between now and next Tuesday, and he has not compiled a list of names of the people who contacted him personally.
Also: to reduce the stress on Charles next Tuesday night, and to help get the games off to as early a start as possible, please do not wait until next Tuesday to register. Do it now, either on the website, or by advising me personally. Organising people into their ratings division is not an easy task, and if Charles has everyone’s names well before Tuesday, his job is made much less stressful.
I will be there tonight, as will our treasurer, Mark Boan, so if, for example, you do not find it an easy thing to register on the web, you can see us personally then, and pay the annual fees, if necessary.
Club Champs Registration Link
https://stgeorgechessclub.org/
For anyone wishing to attend the funeral service, all the information is on the Sydney Chevra Kadisha website: https://www.sck.org.au/ – just scroll down. The service will be at their chapel, 172 Oxford Street (corner Wallis Street) Woollahra NSW 2025, at 1:30pm on Wednesday March 6, and will last likely under half an hour. Please advise Charles if attending.
Geoff Hyde
geoffjhyde@gmail.com
0466 904 941
2024 St George QuickPlay Rounds 4-6. Daniel takes the lead.
It was an intense, mano-a-mano finish at board 1 on Tuesday, with CM Daniel Melamed finally prevailing against John-Stuart Plant. They finished long after all the other games had finished. Daniel, now on six points, retained his perfect record and has a slender half-point lead over Arthur Huynh. Anthony Karnaout sits on third with 5 points. Daniel and Arthur square off on board 1 in Round 7 next week. See the crosstable after Round 6 here.
Compared to the first three rounds, upsets were aplenty. The following players had victories against players at least 10 positions above them on the initial ranking list or a draw against a player 20 positions or more above (the number in parentheses shows the difference): Wins: Alex Freitas (R4:30; R6:23). Jing Jia (R6:23; R4:14; R5:12); Ralph Shaw (R4:22; R6:19); Christian Lagarez (R5:19; R6:13); Joel Shreshta (R4:18); Emmanuel Vardakis (R4:17; R6:14); Stephen Elliott (R5:17); Ralph Mitchell (R6:17); Isaac Wang (R4:14); Chris Morkos (R4:13); Ramu Srinirasa (R5:13); Ben Hepworth (R6:12); James Bullen (R5:10). Draw: Nihal Scammell (R5:21).
2024 St George QuickPlay rounds 1-3
Fifty-three players, including many new faces, turned up for the start of our three-week, Swiss-format QuickPlay tournament. A warm welcome to all our new – and returning – members!
In the tournament, players each have 25 minutes for their game and get a 10 second bonus after each move. In a rather cool example of the general reliability of both the ratings and pairing systems, all of the players rated above 2000, and only those players, scored three out of three: Mario Falchoni, Arthur Huynh, John-Stuart Plant, Sarwat Rewais and CM Daniel Melamed. See the crosstable after Round 3 here.
There were surprisingly few upsets across the night. The following players had victories against players at least 10 positions above them on the initial ranking list or a draw against a player 20 positions or more above (the number in parentheses shows the difference): Wins: Ralph Shaw (R1: 26; R2: 25); Nihal Scammell (R1:26); Emmanuel Vardakis (R3: 16); Christian Lagarez (R2: 15); Alex Freitas (R2: 14). Draws: Stephen Elliott (R1: 26); Alex Freitas (R3: 23).
2024 St George Summer Lightning: JSP and the Perfect Score
Reprising his shared 2023 victory, but this time with an even better result, John-Stuart Plant scored a win in each of the 9 games of the 2024 Summer Lightning tournament. Second on 7.5 points was Mario Falchoni, and third place was shared between Sarwat Rewais and Changhao Yu. Thirty-one players took part.
The U1700 and U1500 divisions saw great winning performances by two continuing improvers: Sait Buzgan (5/9) and Samuel Slingo (4/9). Samuel shared the first prize in his division with one of his his practise partners, Ralph Shaw, twice winner of the NSW State Junior Blitz Championships, back in the ’60s.
Final Crosstable
| 2023-24 Summer Lightning Prizes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Open | U1700 | U1500 |
| 1st $80: John-Stuart Plant (9/9) | 1st $45 Sait Buzgan (5.5/9) | Eq 1st $37.50 each Ralph Shaw; Samuel Slingo (4.5/9) |
| 2nd $50 Mario Falchoni(7.5/9) | Eq 2nd $6 each: Srijan Badam; Ghassan Beydoun; Christian Lagarez; Ashton Li; Kevin Liu. (5/9) | |
| Eq 3rd $15 each: Sarwat Rewais; Changhao Yu (6.5/9) | ||
2023-24 St George Summer Open: The Results!
Congratulations to Changhao Yu and John-Stuart Plant, the co-winners of the tournament’s Open division! Third place went to the previously unrated Dominic Ou – his performance rating for the tournament was over 1950. The full list of place-getters in the four divisions are shown below:
| 2023-24 Summer Open Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Open | U1700 | U1500 | U1300 |
| Eq 1st $300 each: Changhao Yu; John-Stuart Plant (6/7) | 1st $360: Nikola Vujasin (5/7) | Eq 1st $300 each: Eric Shen; Ralph Shaw (4/7) | Eq 1st $300 each: Emmanuel Vardakis; Scott Zhou (4/7) |
| 2nd $240: Anthony Karnaout (4.5/7) | |||
| 3rd $150: Dominic Ou (5.5/7) | Eq 3rd $50 each: Sait Buzgan; Srijan Badam; Andrew He (4/7) | Eq 3rd $37.50 each: Marcel Lima; Alex Vardakis; James Bullen; Ludwig Wolf (3.5/7) | Eq 3rd $75 each: Ashton Li; Geoff Hyde (3.5/7) |
Prizes will also be announced at the club next Tuesday night (Jan 30). If we don’t have your bank account details already, please send them to boanmark@bigpond.net.au
The following players had victories against players at least 10 positions above them on the initial ranking list or a draw against a player 20 positions or more above (the number in parentheses shows the difference): Wins: Dominic Ou (unrated; 46); Stephen Elliott (unrated; 43); Jason Koh (21); Angela He (10); Draws: Ralph Shaw (23); Peter Swinton (21).
2023-24 St George Summer Open: Round 6 Report
Round 7 Pairings (provisional) Updated Jan 22, 3.57 pm
Update: To help people determine their strategy for the final round, there will be four prize categories: Open; U1700; U1500; and U1300. Unrated players will be sorted to one of these categories based on their performance rating (as determined after round 7), and will then be eligible for a prize in that category. Three prizes will be awarded in each category: 1st: $360; 2nd:$240; 3rd: $150.
It was the calm before the storm last night, with double the number of draws (8) of any previous round. In terms of the leaderboard, a Board 1 draw between John-Stuart Plant and Changhao Yu meant that Arthur Huynh and Pertti Sirkka joined them, on 5/6, in a four-way tie for the top spot. It makes for an especially exciting final round, with another three players on 4.5 (Dominic Ou, Ted Power, and Sarwat Rewais) also in contention to come in equal first.
The following players had victories against players at least 10 positions above them on the initial ranking list or a draw against a player 20 positions or more above (the number in parentheses shows the difference): Wins: Dominic Ou (unrated; 56); Scott Zhou (22); Ralph Shaw (11); Draws: Ashton Li (46); Marcel Lima (29); Ethan Currie (23); Geoff Hyde (22); Christian Lagarez (22).
NB: The organiser for the final round is not Charles, but Geoff Hyde. Contact me, not Charles, for all matters:
geoffjhyde@gmail.com
Ph: 0466 904 941
I will also be one of the arbiters alongside Anthony Karnaout.
Daniel Melamed does well at 2024 Australian Chess Championships
The Australian Open Championships has now finished, and Club Champion Daniel Melamed (FIDE 1988) ended in equal seventh place, on 6.5/11. He scored the surprise win of round 7, beating WGM Julia Ryjanova, rated nearly 300 points higher. GM Ian Rogers covered the exciting parts of Daniel’s game in his round-up of the Round 7 games on YouTube. In Round 8, Daniel scored a solid draw against Samuel Asaka (2125) but lost to Frederick Litchfield (2346), in round 9. In his 10th round match versus WGM Jiling Zhang (2170), he had another strong win.
His final game was the toughest yet, on board 1 as black against tournament winner, IM Rishi Sardana (2470; 9.5/11) from the ACT. The game can be followed here on Lichess, and is partly analysed by GM Ian Rogers on Youtube. Ian points out an interesting but difficult-to-spot resource by which Daniel could have saved the game. Second and third place in the main division went to equal-scoring Yi Liu and Samuel Asaka. In the Australian Blitz Championship, held during the main tourney, Daniel scored 6.5/11. That tourney was won by Tri Kien Le, with Hong Anh Nguyen second. St George was not represented in the other divisions of the Championships, although former club regular Brendan Anderson played in the Australian Reserves division, scoring 6.5/11.
Geoff Hyde
2023-24 St George Summer Open: Round 5 Report
Round 6 Pairings (provisional) Updated Jan 16, 3.05 pm
Round 5 saw two players edge ahead, Chaghao Yu and John-Stuart Plant lead with 4.5/5. But fibe others sit just a half-point behind: Nikola Vujasin, Pertti Sirkka, Gordon Yang (now withdrawn from the tournament), Arthur Huynh and Sait Buzgan
There were fewer upsets on the night. The following players had victories against players at least 10 positions above them on the initial ranking list or a draw against a player 20 positions or more above: (the number in parentheses shows the difference): Wins: Dominic Ou (unrated; 35); Scott Zhou (31); Boris Paceskoski (30); Eric Shen (25). Draws: Ashton Li (39).
NB: For the remainder of the tournament, the organiser will not be Charles, but Geoff Hyde. Contact me, not Charles, for all matters:
geoffjhyde@gmail.com
Ph: 0466 904 941
I will also be one of the arbiters for the rest of the tournament, alongside Anthony Karnaout.
For news from 2023: click here.