2008 SCACU Annual Camp

The 2008 Scotch College Army Cadet Unit Annual Camp went underway from the 12-17th of September (the Advance Party went to Puckapunyal on the 10th). It was an enjoyable camp where there were lots of interesting activities. I arrived on the evening of the 13th as I had state chess finals that morning-afternoon.

The days were split up like this (for Alpha company):
12th - Arrival and setting up camp
13th - Abseiling
14th - Boating
15th - Ranged shooting
16th - NavEx and Confidence course
17th - Packup, renaturalisation and departure

Australian Chess News Launched!

The Australian Chess section of this blog has branched to become its own blog. At Australian Chess News, you will find updates on Australian chess, specifically regarding results.

Labels corrected

The labels on this blog have been corrected. I have labeled every post on this blog with one of these labels:

personal
cadets
chess (includes international chess)
Australian chess
websites

Previously, I did not know how labels worked. But now I have read about them, and I have made a few corrections. The vast majority of labels on this blog are useless and only lead to one or two posts, but it would take too long to remove them all. The labels above are the ones to use in order to distinguish posts about different subjects.

2008 Australian Junior Lightning Championship U18

I recently went to Sydney to see my dad. While there, I also competed in the 2008 Australian Junior Lightning Championship. I came 2nd overall and claimed the under 16 title.

Here are the results:

2008 Australian Junior Lightning Championship U18 - Round 11

Standings

Place Name                    Feder Loc  Score Progr. Buch.

1   Ikeda, Junta            ACT   2065 11      66.0  78.5
2   Lin, Zhigen Wilson      VIC   1635 9       51.0  75.0
3-5  Harris, Benjamin        NSW   1949 8       51.0  80.0
   Illingworth, Max        NSW   2247 8       49.0  82.0
   Schon, Eugene           VIC   1626 8       48.0  72.0
6   Cohn, Jason             NSW   1443 7.5     43.5  65.0
7-14  Antolis, Cedric         VIC   1491 7       50.0  77.5
   Yu, Derek               VIC   1718 7       48.0  77.0
   Dyer, Alastair          TAS   1661 7       46.5  73.0
   Wu, Edwin               NSW   1589 7       45.0  74.5
   Wallis, Christopher     VIC   1885 7       43.0  72.0
   Kong, Adrian            NSW   1554 7       43.0  65.5
   Yu, Sally               VIC   1422 7       41.0  66.5
   Guo, Emma               ACT   1510 7       38.0  63.0
15-19 Nakauchi, Gene          QLD   1506 6.5     48.5  78.5
   Choong, Yita            WA    1972 6.5     42.0  71.0
   Yuan, Yi                ACT   1697 6.5     39.0  66.5
   Ng, Deborah             NSW   1480 6.5     38.0  61.0
   Papantoniou, John       NSW   1535 6.5     38.0  60.0
20-29 Jule, Sebastian         QLD   997  6       41.5  68.0
   Yuen, Jonathan          NSW   1830 6       41.0  68.0
   Brown, Andrew           ACT   1690 6       39.0  61.0
   Gearing, Michael        QLD   1458 6       38.0  71.0
   Cameron, Alistair       SA    1145 6       36.0  68.5
   Wei, Robin              QLD        6       35.0  62.0
   Tan, Justin             VIC   1006 6       33.0  60.0
   Encel, Benjamin         NSW   1147 6       32.0  57.0
   Chibnall, Alana         ACT   1173 6       30.0  61.5
   Beilby, Kieton          QLD   941  6       30.0  53.0
30-36 Grigg, Sam              QLD   1435 5.5     40.0  70.0
   Shi, Dawen              NSW   1275 5.5     37.0  65.5
   Morris, Gill            NSW   1205 5.5     36.0  66.0
   Diemer, Tim             NSW   749  5.5     33.5  63.5
   Muller, Jonas           QLD   1422 5.5     32.5  61.0
   Briant, James           TAS   1169 5.5     31.5  60.0
   Coy, Rupert             NSW   799  5.5     25.5  50.0
37-45 Chau, Adrian            NSW   1379 5       35.5  64.0
   Gray, Daniel            NSW   1421 5       34.0  57.0
   Bonch-Osmolovskiy, Ilya NSW   982  5       29.0  59.0
   Searle, Zachary         SA    1368 5       29.0  57.0
   Deen-Cowell, Nicholas   NSW   1074 5       28.0  58.0
   Setiabudi, Allen        ACT   983  5       27.5  60.5
   Anderson, Kaidon        QLD   816  5       26.0  51.5
   Boni, Christopher       WA    1378 5       25.0  46.0
   Saroha, Chirag          WA    1081 5       22.0  48.0
46-51 Van Rys, Hayden         NSW        4.5     33.5  66.0
   Jack, Curtis            QLD   868  4.5     31.0  61.0
   Tan, Kevin              NSW   1073 4.5     29.0  58.5
   O'Flynn, Alexander      QLD   1178 4.5     27.5  57.0
   Hoey, Penelope          NSW   1062 4.5     27.0  51.5
   Hendrey, Kevin          TAS   1192 4.5     24.0  52.0
52-57 Tsang, Matthew          NSW   761  4       24.0  54.5
   McCrow, Callum          ACT   474  4       24.0  50.0
   Peck, Robbie            QLD   769  4       22.0  50.5
   Ang, Stephanie          VIC   762  4       22.0  50.5
   Leung, Stephanie        NSW   848  4       22.0  49.0
   Lakshman, Vinay         VIC   381  4       16.0  40.0
58-59 Webb-Liddle, Miranda    VIC   705  3.5     19.0  46.5
   Knapp, Katrina          SA    1005 3.5     19.0  41.0
60-61 Gilchrist, Marc         NSW   417  3       16.0  46.5
   Thornley, Max           VIC   138  3       15.0  43.0
62   Yum, Winnie             QLD   286  2       10.0  44.0
63   Atherton, John          QLD   712  1.5     11.0  42.5
64   Davis, Kieran           TAS   968  1        4.0  42.5

You can see a crosstable of the event by going to the NSWJCL website.
The main event is currently underway. You can see the pairings on the Draw and Results page of the official Australian Juniors website.

5th Elwood Bendigo Bank Chess Championship

The Elwood Bendigo Bank Chess Championship was held at the Council Chambers of City of Port Phillip (St Kilda town hall at the junction of Brighton Road and Carlisle Street) during the 3rd, 4th and 6th of November. I won this event last year with a rather impressive performance. You can see the results of last year's tournament at http://www.global1t.com/chess/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=44.

This year's event was won by GM Darryl Johansen with 6/7. GM Dejan Antic, IM Stephen Solomon, IM Leonid Sandler, FM Igor Bjelobrk and FM Jesse Sales were all =2nd with 5.5/7. The overall standings will soon be available at http://www.global1t.com/chess/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=55.

2007 Canterbury/Box Hill Open

The 2007 Canterbury/Box Hill Open was held between 21/09/07-02/11/07. The top seeds included Sam Chow (2327), IM Leonid Sandler (2319) and Chris Wallis (2202). The tournament ended in a 6-way tie for 1st place. I came =1st and became Canterbury/Box Hill Open Champion on countback (in all countback systems). Michael Chan {803(!)} won the B Division with an amazing 7/7 (B Division players are mixed with A Division players, which made it an even more important feat).

Here are the final standings of the tournament.

Division A

Place Name Div Rtg Score

1-6 Lin, Zhigen A 2095 5.5
Sandler, Leonid A 2319 5.5
Wallis, Chris A 2202 5.5
Chow, Samuel A 2327 5.5
Bourmistrov, Denis A 2089 5.5
Kempen, Leon A 2051 5.5
7 Chmiel, Rad A 1667 5
8-11 Cheng, Bobby A 2019 4.5
Voon, Richard A 1852 4.5
Cook, Geoff L A 1794 4.5
Liston, Howard A 1771 4.5
12-16 Raine, Marcus A 1932 4
Mijatovic, Bosko A 1866 4
Lawson, Shane A 1689 4
Schulzer, Peter A 1672 4
Croft, Roger A 1645 4
17-21 Chung, Francisco A 1762 3.5
Vijayakumar, Rengan A 1689 3.5
Schneider, David A 1582 3.5
Matheson, Laurence A 1488 3.5
Tan, Justin A 1193 3.5
22-33 Schön, Eugene A 1888 3
Brooks, Chris A 1803 3
Sharman, Scot A 1762 3
Podvorac, Zeljko A 1721 3
Lin, Hong A 1701 3
Escribano, Jose A 1700 3
Flude, David A 1679 3
Tionko, Efrain A 1675 3
Hinton, Guy A 1601 3
Omeragic, Jusuf A 1486 3
Glenton, Alan A 1452 3
Neymanis, Eric A 1282 3
34-37 Elbrish, Sam A 1393 2.5
Dalton, Laurie A 1300 2.5
Ng, Isaac A 1206 2.5
Sannidhanam, Anurag A 1201 2.5
38-42 Tang, Jason A 1679 2
Umber, George A 1610 2
Renzies, Elliott A 1452 2
Fielder, Shaun A 1260 2
Feng, Thomas A 1250 2
43 Lundgren, Leif A 1651 0

Division B

Place Name Div Rtg Score

1 Chan, Michael B 803 7
2 Feng, Tim B 1185 5
3-4 Toper, David B 1030 4
Ang, Stephanie B 793 4
5 Lemmel, Oliver B 908 3.5
6-11 Cuxson, Stuart B 1149 3
Lyons, Linden B 1127 3
Kiripitige, Punala B 1084 3
Muthusamy, Jayan B 838 3
Yuan, Daniel B 686 3
Guo, Murphy B 525 3
12 Ng, Joshua B 788 2.5
13-15 Gurevich, Andrew B 1095 2
Chan, Raymond B 857 2
Gibson, Kyle B 539 2
16-19 Alfons, Bishoy B 815 1
Lim, Neilson B 801 1
Brown, Chris B 601 1
Yuan, David B 512 1
20-23 Tsai-Luong, Eric B 851 0
Kwok, Nigel B 601 0
Thiel, Anton B 501 0
Ju, William B 401 0

Coming Events

Coming events:

Event Place Class Start Finish Contact Bundaberg Weekender Bundaberg, QLD 2 25/8/07 26/8/07 atomic@isisol.com.au 1st Blayney Open Blayney, NSW 1 8/9/07 9/9/07 philwillb@bigpond.com Hobart Weekender Hobart, TAS 1 15/9/07 16/9/07 k_bonham@tassie.net.au Nell van de Graaf Classic Gold Coast, QLD 4 22/9/07 23/9/07 outreachchess@bigpond.com Ryde-Eastwood Open Sydney, NSW 4 29/9/07 1/10/07 tournaments@nswca.org.au Labour Day Weekender Adelaide, SA 1 29/9/07 1/10/07 alang@chariot.net.au

The two major events appear to be the Ryde-Eastwood Open in Sydney and the Nell van de Graaf Classic in the Gold Coast. These are both category 4 events.

New ACF ratings out

The new ACF ratings are out. To work out ACF compared to FIDE ratings, in general, FIDE rating = ACF rating + several hundred points. The difference gets a lot smaller when you become 2300+ ACF. I am ranked in the top under 20. Here are some samples.

Top players

  2605!!  21  NSW  Rogers, Ian [GM]
  2560!!   7  NSW  Zhao, Zong-Yuan [IM]
  2471!!  20  VIC  Smerdon, David C [IM]
  2447!!  26  QLD  Solomon, Stephen J [IM]
  2424!!   7  VIC  Johansen, Darryl K [GM]
  2423!!  23  NSW  Bjelobrk, Igor [FM]
  2406!!   7  NSW  Xie, George [IM]
  2405!!   7  NSW  Lane, Gary W [IM]
  2391!!  12  VIC  Goldenberg, Igor [FM]
  2375!    7   SA  Tao, Trevor
  2365!!  13  QLD  Froehlich, Peter [IM]
  2359!   13   SA  Chapman, Mark [IM]
  2328!!  20  VIC  West, Guy [IM]
  2327!!   7  VIC  Chow, Samuel
  2322!    0  NSW  Canfell, Gregory J [FM]
  2319!!  12  VIC  Sandler, Leonid [IM]
  2309!    0  VIC  Baron, Michael [FM]
  2288!    0  NSW  Feldman, Vladimir [IM]
  2281!    3  NSW  Tan, Justin
  2280!   13  QLD  Ly, Moulthun
  2279!!  14  NSW  Rej, Tomek
  2260!!   5  NSW  Smirnov, Vladimir
  2248!    9  VIC  Jordan, Bill [FM]
  2242!    0  VIC  Depasquale, Chris J [FM]
  2239!    8  NSW  Scott, Ronald
  2237!!   7  NSW  Ayvazyan, Armen
  2236!    4  QLD  Humphrey, Jonathan [FM]
  2235!    7   SA  Obst, James
  2232!    5  QLD  Sarfati, Jonathan [FM]
  2223!!   9   WA  Boyd, Tristan
  2216!!  16  VIC  Rujevic, Mirko [IM]
  2212!!  10  NSW  Yu, Ronald
  2202!!  35  VIC  Wallis, Christopher
  2199!!  23  NSW  Wright, Neil S
  2196!!  15   WA  Horstmann, Michael
  2183!    0  NSW  O'Chee, Kevin
  2181!    0  NSW  Bouchaaya, Tony
  2179!!   8  NSW  Flatow, A (Fred) [FM]
  2176!   17  NSW  Dilla, Edsil
  2176!!  14  ACT  Ikeda, Junta
  2172!    5  VIC  Sorokina, Anastasia [WIM]
  2172!    1  NSW  Suttor, Vincent
  2166!    0  NSW  Vojvodic, Branislev
  2163!    7   SA  Nguyen, Giang
  2158!!   7  ACT  Oliver, Gareth
  2158!    0  NSW  Halpin, Patrick
  2157!    7  QLD  Caoili, Arianne B [WFM]
  2156!!   9  VIC  Levi, Eddy L [FM]
  2154!!  20  VIC  Hamilton, Douglas G [FM]
  2154!    0  NSW  Berezina - Feldman, Irina [IM]
  2152!!   9  NSW  Morris, Michael
  2147!!  13  VIC  Jager, Jesse
  2147!!   5  NSW  Bird, Andrew
  2144!   13   WA  Kurniawan, Stephanus
  2142!!  40  VIC  Stojic, Dusan
  2139!!  42  VIC  Dragicevic, Domagoj
  2128!    3  QLD  Mastilovic, Rajko
  2124!    0  NSW  Malik, Hani
  2122!!   0  NSW  Broekhuyse, Paul
  2122!    0   WA  Barber, Haydn J [FM]

Top Under 20:

Top Under 20
  2327!!  19  VIC  Chow, Samuel
  2280!   15  QLD  Ly, Moulthun
  2235!   16   SA  Obst, James
  2212!!  18  NSW  Yu, Ronald
  2202!!  16  VIC  Wallis, Christopher
  2183!   19  NSW  O'Chee, Kevin
  2176!!  15  ACT  Ikeda, Junta
  2172!   18  NSW  Suttor, Vincent
  2158!!  18  ACT  Oliver, Gareth
  2152!!  18  NSW  Morris, Michael
  2147!!  18  VIC  Jager, Jesse
  2142!!  17  VIC  Stojic, Dusan
  2118!!  19  NSW  Hu, Jason
  2106!   17  ACT  Wei, Michael
  2097!!  14  NSW  Illingworth, Max
  2095!!  13  VIC  Lin, Zhigen Wilson
  2088!!  12  VIC  Morris, James
  2077!   19  NSW  Xie, Ken
  2058!   16  QLD  Lazarus, Benjamin
  2013!!  16   WA  Donaldson, Thomas

Noble Park Chess Club Allegro

I justed played in the Noble Park Chess Club Allegro. 24 players ended up playing in the event. Considering, few of the regular players weren't able to play today, it's a good turnout.

Here is a crosstable of the event. I came =1st.

Standings

Place Name                    Feder Rtg Loc  Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

1-2  Dragicevic, Domagoj               2087 5.5      21.0  30.0   23.0
   Lin, Zhigen                       2097 5.5      21.0  29.5   21.5
3   Rashid, Abdulwahab                1918 5        22.5  31.5   21.0
4-9  Hacche, David                     2035 4.5      21.5  29.0   19.5
   Gorka, Carl                       2071 4.5      20.0  26.0   22.5
   Pecak, Mariusz                    2055 4.5      19.5  27.0   18.5
   Cheng, Bobby                      1562 4.5      18.0  25.0   15.0
   Morris, James                     2035 4.5      17.0  25.0   19.0
   Highem, Luke                           4.5      16.5  23.5   14.5
10-11 Voon, Richard                     1903 4        22.0  29.0   16.5
   Rujevic, Mirko                    2254 4        18.0  24.5   15.0
12-13 Pyke, Malcolm                     2137 3.5      23.0  31.5   20.0
   Dizdarevic, Mehmedalija           1956 3.5      18.5  24.5   16.0
14-18 Lee, Kam                          1635 3        19.0  26.5   11.0
   Mijatovic, Bosko                  1866 3        17.0  23.5   12.0
   Jago, Stephen                     1670 3        16.5  24.0   11.0
   Premaka, Sujendra                 1866 3        16.5  23.0   13.0
   Ghayoori, Pezhman                 1396 3        15.0  21.5   10.0
19   Toro, Eduardo                     1506 2.5      11.5  16.5    6.5
20-22 Ivanov, Nikola                    1538 2        16.0  21.0    7.0
   Anton, Sarah                      1228 2        14.5  19.5    8.0
   Spiric, Bob                       1500 2        14.5  19.5    6.0
23   Huynh, Phong                           1.5      12.5  17.5    2.5
24   Krysiak, Jerzy                         1        13.5  19.5    7.0
25-26 Sucevic, Milic                    1695 0         0.5   0.5    0.0
   Sabolcki, Daniel                  1421 0         0.5   0.5    0.0

I had a shaky start to the tournament - in game 1, I castled queenside, moved my king back to e1, and forgot I did that at all and castled kingside. In the end, I still managed to win. In game 2, I was simply outplayed in the opening and middlegame, losing two pawns. I managed to return with 4 wins in a row. In game 5, I defeated Domagoj for the first time ever in a game with any sort of seriousness (I have only ever defeated him on one other occasion, but that was a simul by him). In game 6, my opponent snatched a pawn early in the opening. I got some compensation, but I misplayed the position. I was about to lose when my opponent blundered into a position where it was mate quite quickly. In game 7, I was a solid pawn up in the endgame, but I lost my queen. Fortunately, I managed to hold the 'queen vs. rook + a few pawns' endgame and draw.

Singapore World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad

I have just returned from a 6.5-hour flight from Singapore. We were there to play in the Singapore World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad, a teams event.

Australia did reasonably well and came 5th, which we got medals for. Our 2nd board, Junta Ikeda, won a silver medal on 'percentage' for board 2.

The results of the tournament as available at http://www.chess-results.com/tnr7443.aspx?lan=1.