News

Club Champs Round 5 Report

Update: Results and Games now up on Results page. Charles’ Round 4 newsletter is here.

The game that dissolves differences: after 37 moves, the outcome of the game between Trilok and Nihal was 0:5:0:5.

The divisional leaders after Round 5 are: Dimitrios Gourlas, Tom England and Evgeny Glukhikh (Div 7; 4/5); Netra Raj Bhatt (Div 3; 5/5); James Yossef (Div 6; 5/5); Boris Paceskoski (Div 5; 4.5/4); Nick Kordahi (Div 2; 5/5); Arthur Huynh (Div 1; 4/5); Ramu Srinivasa and Tibor Lendvai (Div 4; 3.5/5).

Club Champs Round 4 Report

Update: Results and Games up to Round 4 now up on Results page. Charles’ newsletter for the first catch-up night: download it here!

South vs North India in Round 4. After 56 moves, Ramu Srinivasa had the stronger endgame position against Abhishek Anand.

The divisional leaders after Round 4 are: Evgeny Glukhikh (Div 7; 4/4); Netra Raj Bhatt (Div 3; 4/4); Nihal Scammell and James Yossef (Div 6; 4/4); Boris Paceskoski (Div 5; 4/4); Nick Kordahi (Div 2; 4/4); Arthur Huynh (Div 1; 4/4); Ramu Srinivasa and Pieter Stoltz (Div 4; 3/4). However, quite a few of the contenders in each division have an adjourned game up their sleeve.

As the main person inputting the games into the Chessbase tournament database (see Results page), I extend a big thanks to the many people who put in the extra effort to make their scoresheets more legible. It made the entry of games so much easier! If you can send me the move sequence, e.g. in PGN format, that would be even better. Please get it to me by the Thursday night, or at least inform me by then that you will be sending it soon : geoffjhyde@gmail.com

Club Championships Round 3 Report

Christian Lagarez and Andres Perez during their 49 move Round 3 contest

The Round 3 results, including those of previously unplayed games of Rds 1-3 completed during the first-catch-up night, can be viewed on the Results page. Charles’ Rd 3 Newsletter is also, as usual, a fascinating read! And you can play through 98 of the games from Rds 1-3 via our Chessbase tournament database.

Somewhat surprisingly each division currently has a clear leader, all of whom are undefeated: Evgeny Glukhikh (Div 7; 3/3); Netra Raj Bhatt (Div 3; 3/3); Nihal Scammell (Div 6; 3/3); Boris Paceskoski (Div 5; 3/3); Nick Kordahi (Div 2; 3/3); Arthur Huynh (Div 1; 3/3); Tibor Lendvai (Div 4; 2.5/3).

Early days yet of course! And don’t forget to check out the amazing new feature on chess.com – not that anyone at St George really needs it!

Club Champs Round 2

Round 2 outcomes, all pairings and playable versions of all the games are now on the Results page.

It was smooth sailing for the second week of the club champs, with a great turnout, and a rather earlier finish than the first night. Thanks to everyone who made copying the scoresheets a lot smoother this time! Charles has already put out his Round 1 Club Champs Newsletter and is busy on the second one. While we await his expert analysis of the Round 2 contests, I can mention two of the many games that caught my attention while converting the scoresheets to PGN format. John Karabatsos made his knight really dance in his game versus Ghassan Beydoun. And Graham Saint’s maintained a wily defence against Andres Perez’s formidable endgame position.

2025 St George Club Championships welcomes 70 players

An epic battle! It was 11.20pm, and 30 moves in, but there would be another 90 minutes, and 53 more moves, before a draw was agreed. Jeremy Plunkett and Ian Stalker on Board 2.

The 2025 Club Champs started last Tuesday, March 4, with seven divisions of ten players. A round-robin affair of nine rounds, each game provides the players with 90 minutes each, and 30 seconds increment per move. The results and all pairings can now be accessed on the Results page. Other tournament details can be found here.

As in most previous years, our Club Captain, Charles Zworestine, is writing up a newsletter for each round, with comments on each and every game! And we will also be publishing the details of each game, as we did for the first time in the 2023 Club Champs database. This requires us to take photos of both players’ scoresheets at the end of the game. Please do not leave without allowing myself (Geoff Hyde) or Charles to get these copies. If you routinely enter your moves into any chess engine after the game (highly recommended!), and can send Charles and myself a PGN version of your game, that would be much appreciated. When you enter your game using the Analysis option at Chess.com, for example, it automatically generates a PGN read-out of the game once you click on the Share button. At Lichess, a PGN read-out appears automatically under the Analysis Board as you enter your moves. Please advise us on the night if you can share the PGN with us, and get the PGN to us by the Friday night after the game. Email: charles@ozemail.com.au and geoffjhyde@gmail.com.

A link to Charles’ newsletter, and the games, will be posted at the top of this article as soon as they are out.

John-Stuart Plant’s Allegro win makes it two-in-a row!

Same photo – different victory! John-Stuart Plant wins the 2025 Club Allegro, after having won the Club Lightning.

Spurred on by a shock loss in Round 1, John-Stuart Plant won all his remaining 8 games to take out the 2025 Club Allegro tournament. This follows on from his win in our most recent tournament, the Club Lightning. Coming second were Mario Falchoni and Geoff Barker on 7, with Ted Power and Rick Lopis next on 6.5. Fifty four players took part in this nine-round Swiss, with a time control of 10 minutes per player and 5 seconds increment per move.

The following players had a performance rating at least 150 points above the actual rating. The performance ratings were calculated using the tool on this page, using the Iterate until Covergence option. The full list can be seen here. Ghassan Beydoun (392); Geoff Barker (381); Samuel Slingo (371); Ralph Shaw (364); William Liu (310); Emmanuel Vardakis (302); Ralph Mitchell (299); Ashton Li (295); Boris Paceskoski (222); Ted Power (195); Nikola Vujasin (164).

City of Sydney Rapid 2025: Feb 16, Burwood

CM Daniel Melamed (right) plays IM Igor Bjelobrk on Board 1 in the penultimate round.

With last years’s winner, our own Bayasgalan Khishigbaatar back in Mongolia to finish her schooling, joint victory in the 2025 edition of the City of Sydney Rapid went to CM Tri Kien Le and Heath Brown, both on 6/7. Heath Brown, rated 18o5, had scored a big upset win in the final round against IM Igor Bjelobrk scored. Five players finished on 5.5: IM Igor Bjelobrk; CM Reyaansh Chakrabarty; CM Hui Li; CM Jean Rusakov; and WFM Alaina Vincent.

A lot of players either from St George, or who regularly turn up at the club took part. These are their scores: FM Clive Ng (5); Rupert Coy (5); CM Daniel Melamed (4.5); Rick Lopis (4.5); Ted Power (4.5); Anand Munkhbat (4); Jeremy Plunkett (4); Arthur Huynh (3.5); Mario Falchoni (3); Isaac Wang (2.5); Tuvshintugs Khishigbaatar (2); Choijilsure Khishigbaatar (1.5); Darryl Ross (1).

St George also provided the arbiting team of Charles Zworestine and myself, Geoff Hyde. The full results are on the NSWCA site here.

The Cowboy is Back! John-Stuart Plant wins the 2025 Club Lightning Champs

With a near-flawless performance, John-Stuart Plant scored 8.5/9 to be the outright winner of the 2025 Club Lightning Championships, his first win at the club since the 2024 Summer Open Lightning. JSP’s only draw was against second-place winner, CM Daniel Melamed on 8. Stevo Acevski returned to St George to take third on 6.5. Trophies for the tournament, including those for the as-yet unannounced ratings divisions, will be presented at the end of the year.

Thirty eight players took part in the tourney, which gave each player three minutes for the game, with a two second increment per move. The performance ratings for the tournament can be viewed here. They have been calculated as per the system presented on this page, using the ‘Iterate until Convergence‘ option. The following players performed at least 150 points above their actual rating: John-Stuart Plant (381); William Liu (319); Geoff Barker (195); Samuel Slingo (194); Daniel Melamed (168); John Parissis (154); Lucas Zhai (150).

Jeffrey Xu undefeated in Summer Open Lightning triumph!

Our first ACF-rated lightning tournament in three weeks happened on January 28 (9 rounds; 3 mins per player for the game, plus 2s increment per move). New member Jeffrey Xu went undefeated, with only a single draw to finish on 8.5/9. John Stuart Plant was second on on 7, and third place went to Mario Falchoni on 6.5.

In the Under 1800 Division, first prize went to (6/9) with Ashton Li, Faaiz Malik, and Leo Xu sharing third on 5.5. In the Under 1550 Division Maan Beydoun, Ethan Currie and John Parissis shared first on 4/9. Full results are here.

St George Summer Open: Frank Tefanis claims first prize.

With a draw in his final game against Mario Falchoni, Frank Tefanis was able to maintain his lead in the Summer Open and take home the $350 first prize. Anand Munkhbat was second, with Mario and John Stuart Plant sharing third. The tournament’s final standings are here.

First place winners in the three minor divisions were Michael Babic (U1800); Sait Buzgan/Ramu Srinivasa/Leo Xu/Mirsad Zekic (shared U1600); and Scott Zhou (U1350). All the prize winners are listed here.

In round 7 itself, 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): Win: Michael Punzet (unrated; 15), Nick Dimitropoulos (unrated; 13); Draw: Scott Zhou (25).