It’s a Tie! Remarkably perfect symmetry in Big Boards 2024
Having won the Home leg of our annual Big Boards battle against Norths earlier in the year (20.5-19.5), it was Norths turn to win by exactly the same score in last night’s second (and final) match, the Away leg, held at Norths. St George Club Captain Charles Zworestine called it “A miraculous overall tie!!” and also was impressed that “Norths are going to do the noble thing. They’ll have the names of both clubs engraved on the trophy with a 40-40 result.”
George Club Presentation Night: 8pm Nov 12
The club takes great pride in honouring the top performers of the year with an impressive line-up of trophies. These are not just for winners in the top divisions, but are awarded to all players who have done well in their own rating group. And even if you are not up for a prize this time around, there will be finger food available, and social chess after the award-giving is over.
Note: the venue is not the usual club rooms! The event will be held in the Mahogany Room, which is two floors up above our usual rooms. The stairs and lift to the Mahogany Room are right next to the entrance to the chess rooms. The ceremony will start at 8pm.
Trophy winners will be advised in advance of any prizes they are due to receive.
Bayasgalan Khishigbaatar crushes the 2024 St George Swiss
WCM Bayasgalan Khishigbaatar maintained her perfect record in the final round of the 2024 St George Swiss to win the tournament by a clear two points. Based on our website records, this is the first time since 2008 (Charles Zworestine) and 2007 (Adrian Rose) that a player has gone undefeated throughout the Club Swiss. It also caps a fantastic year for Bayasgalan, who apart from winning our club championships, was equal first in both the NSW State Open and the NSW State Championships, and sole first in the City of Sydney Rapid Championships. Congratulations to Bayasgalan!
Congratulations also to John-Stuart Plant and CM Terrence Tang who tied for second/third place on 7 points. Results of all nine rounds are here and the final standings are here.
2024 St George Swiss Report: Round 7
Bayasgalan Khishigbaatar, with another win in round 7, has consolidated her lead. She has increased the gap to the three next players (Terrence Tang, Charles Zworestine and Vu Ky Anh Nguyen) to 1.5 points. It looks like yet another trophy is coming her way!
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: Nicolas Nunez (unrated; 43); Christian Lagarez (late entry; 35); Stephen Elliott (unrated; 28); Choijilsuren Khishigbaatar (unrated; 26); Paul Jovanoski (unrated; 23); Emmanuel Vardakis (19); Trilok Senoy (unrated; 17); Joel Blake (unrated; 14); Leo Xu (10); Draws: Jason Hakim (unrated; 28).
UNSW versus The World: Niemannites win!
“No matter the obstacles that we face, no matter how much you try to blacklist us, no matter what you do to try to ruin our career or slander our reputation—these difficult times have only invigorated us even more to reach the top of chess. There will be a day when the UNSW Chess Club will be the best chess club in the world.” – Hans Niemann (quote altered slightly).
This one-day, two-round tournament ended in a 20-15 victory to UNSW. Four St George players played for the World team (Jeremy Plunkett; Vu Ky Anh Nguyen; Ted Power; Rupert Coy) and scored 4 out of a possible 7 points in their games. The full results can be seen in this thread on ChessChat.
UNSW Niemannites plot World Domination! Starts Sunday, October 20
“No matter the obstacles that we face, no matter how much you try to blacklist us, no matter what you do to try to ruin our career or slander our reputation—these difficult times have only invigorated us even more to reach the top of chess. There will be a day when the UNSW Chess Club will be the best chess club in the world.” – Hans Niemann (quote altered slightly).
With these defiant words, the UNSW Chess Club has announced its mission: no less than the cold-hearted humiliation of every chess club on the planet! As fanatical disciples of Hans ‘He Man’ Niemann, their deluded ambitions know no bounds. Some say they dream of a world where no-one will be allowed to play chess unless they can boast a PhD in Endgame Theory!
But they must start – and one can only pray, be stopped – somewhere. And their first target is us: the simple, humble chess clubs of the Harbour City. They challenge us to send forth twenty of our best to take on twenty of theirs, on Sunday October 20. Such is their disdain for our chances that they will play their games while blindfolded and suspended upside-down in tanks of ice water (tournament conditions altered slightly)!
If you have an ACF rating of 1600+, the future of civilisation lies in your hands. Sign-up here. The current participants can be seen in this thread on ChessChat.
2024 St George Swiss Round 4 Report
The top of the leaderboard is tightening, with now only three players on a perfect score (4/4): Arthur Huynh, Bayasgalan Khishigbataar and Terrence Tang. Thirteen other players sit within one point of the lead.
In a round not lacking in drama, 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: Aidan Cash (unrated; 45); Andres Perez (unrated; 39); Nicolas Nunez (unrated; 27); Marshall Scott (unrated; 26) Stephen Elliott (unrated; 17); Zachary Lee (16); Lekha Paudel (unrated; 15); Sait Buzgan (13).
2024 St George Swiss Round 3 Report
After three rounds, there are only five players remaining on a perfect score: Jeremy Plunkett; Arthur Huynh; John-Stuart Plant; WCM Bayasgalan Khishigbataar and CM Terrence Tang. With four of those five pitted against each other in round 4, that situation must change soon, givibg Arthur Huynh the chance to take to sole first place.
The round saw quite a few upsets, although this is largely due to many players being unrated. 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: Andres Perez (unrated; 33); Trilok Shenoy (unrated; 28); Choijilsuren Khishigbataar (21); Nicolas Nunez (unrated; 15); Lekha Paudel (unrated; 11);
Draws: Stephen Elliott (unrated; 24); Ryan Mangini (21). The outcomes of all games can be found here and the final round 4 pairings here.
2024 St George Swiss Round 2 Report
Unlike the many surprises of round 1, unexpected results were few and far between in the second round of the Swiss. 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: Aidan Cash (unrated; 39); Tibor Lendvai (25); Abishek Anand (15). Draws: Sam Sharkawy (21). The outcomes of all games can be found here and the final round 3 pairings here.
2024 St George Swiss Round 1 Report..and new ratings!
Spring is in the air, and Swiss Spring at that, with nearly 70 players registering for the club’s 9-round annual favourite. Running from September 3 to October 29, the time control is 60 minutes plus 30 seconds increment.
In this tournament, the club will be starting games at 7.30pm, both to stay in line with what we advertise, and in the interests of players who would benefit from an earlier finish. The pre-game announcements will kick off at 7.25pm, with clocks started as soon as that is over.
As in a big tennis tournament, the first round of a Swiss pits low and high ranked players against each other. Many low-ranked players nevertheless managed to overcome massive ranking differences to achieve a win or draw. 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: Ryan Mangini (36); Tuvshintugs Khishigbataar (36); Aidan Cash (unrated; 31); Andres Perez (unrated; 31); Marshall Scott (unrated; 31); Draws: Joel Blake (unrated; 31); Trilok Shenoy (unrated; 30). The outcomes of all games can be found here and the highly provisional round 2 pairings here.
Ideally, the rankings would be based on the players’ rating, but many of the players do not yet have a rating; their ranking has been guesstimated. The ratings we use are from the latest ACF list, and the club actually times the start of each of its major classical tourneys to coincide with the 3-monthly revisions of the ACF list. Club Registrar Tibor Lendvai has also just compiled a table showing the change or otherwise of the each club member’s September rating compared to that of the June revision. In doing so, he has taken over a task that has for many years been done, most generously, by past club stalwart, Peter Johansson.
Club Allegro: Arthur Huynh is 2024 Allegro Champ with 5/5 on night 2
Untouchable in the last five rounds, Arthur Huynh is the club’s 2024 Allegro champion. He scored 8.5/9 across the two nights, the best club Allegro performance since 2019. In second and third places were Ted Power and John-Stuart Plant, on 8 and 7 points respectively. Forty four players registered for the tournament, and the full results are here.
Club Allegro: Ted Power leads after first four rounds
Despite a tough draw, including John-Stuart Plant and Fady Gerges, Ted Power remains unbeaten after four rounds of the 2024 edition of the St George Club Allegro. Three other players had a single draw to miss a perfect score, and with 3.5 points sit in equal second place: Charles Zworestine, Mario Falchoni and Arthur Huynh.
Forty three players registered for the tournament, which will conclude with a further five rounds on its second night, Feb 27. All the results are here and you can see the (highly provisional) round 5 pairings here.
The ZZZ’s triumph in 2024 Club Teams Challenge
Zworestine’s Zugswanging Zucchinis continued their dominant form in the 9th and final round of the club’s internal teams tourney, thus wrapping up an event where they led almost from start to finish. The team, consisting of Charles Z, Netra Raj Bhatt, Leo Xu, Nihal Scammell and William Liu (with one appearance by Chris Xu) ended up on 32 points out of a possible 45. Plant’s Pinned Parsnips had been in contention for much of the tournament, but ended up on 26.5, with Curtis’ Castling Carrots in third place on 24.5.
The ZZZ’s had outstanding performances across the boards with Netra Raj Bhatt, Leo Xu and William Liu ending with the top score (or equal top) for their respective board positions. And this was despite none of the ZZZ’s being the highest nor even second-highest rated player for their grouping. Like Australia at the Olympics, they punched well above their weight!
But the biggest winner of the teams tournament was once again the club itself. The teams format encourages mixing across the skill levels in the club, and one can feel the sense of camaraderie building with each round.
All the details are on the Results page, and Charles has also submitted an exciting game between Darren Curtis and Pieter Stolz from the final round.
Rounds 7-8: St George Club Teams Challenge Jun 11 – Aug 6
With only one round to go, and a dominant performance by the ZZZ’s in Round 8, the two top places look to be sewn up, with the ZZZ’s on 28.5/40 and the PPP’s on 24.5.
A rare 5-0 win in Round 7 by Babic’s Boleslavsky Beans has put them on 21, a half-point clear of the now fourth-placed CCC’s.
For more detailed analysis, see the Results page.
Rounds 5-6: St George Club Teams Challenge Jun 11 – Aug 6
The last two weeks have seen the ZZZ’s and the PPPs firm up as favourites for the tournament, but crazier reversals of fortune have happened in Teams Tourneys of recent times! The ZZZ’s and PPP’s are on 21.5 and 20 points respectively, four points clear of the third placed team, Eccles’ Exchanging Eggplants.
Lots of details, and future team pairings are all up on the Results page.
Sydney Chess Champs 2024
With nearly 200 entrants across two divisions (Open and Classic), the inaugural edition of the Sydney Chess Championships was a great success. Held at the venerable, much-esteemed James Ruse Agricultural High School across five days (July 6-10), it was one of the best run, if not the best-run, tournaments I’ve attended. The brainchild of Rooty Hill Chess Club dynamo Winston Zhao Chen, the event was held in the school’s barn-like assembly hall, providing plenty of space for all the participants to move freely. Winston also had DGT boards set up for the top boards in both divisions, with games broadcast on Chess.com. International Arbiter Charles Zworestine from the club was the chief arbiter, ably assisted by IA Peter Tsai and Bevan Clouston.
The Open Division was won by FM Hugo de Melo Lux, who scored 7.5/9. Close behind was St George’s own CM Khishigbataar Bayasgalan on 7, a scored also matched by IM Gary Lane. Several other St George-affiliated players were also in the mix up until the last round: IM George Xie (6.5); CM Daniel Melamed (6.5); Brendan Anderson (6); FM Clive Ng (6); Vu Ky Anh Nguyen (5) and CM Terrence Tang (6).
The Classic Division was won by Shaheed Faizal, also on 7.5/9, followed by Vicky Qian, Daniil Yelkhovsky and Eric Menezes, all on 7/9. St George three participants were Isaac Wang (4/9); Geoff Hyde (3/9) and Samuel Slingo (2.5/9).
All the results can be found here.
Round 4: St George Club Teams Challenge Jun 11 – Aug 6
It was the ZZZ’s again leading the charge in Round 4, their four wins widening their lead over Plant’s Pinned Parsnips to three points. These two top teams sit on 17.5/20 and 14.5/20, with Curtis’ Castling Carrots (11/20) still holding onto to third place. The Z’s success has been anchored by their Boards 3 and 5: Leo Xu and William Liu remain the only players with perfect scores; but all of the other team members have also held their own, with not a single loss in any round.
Individual results for Rounds 1-4 are now available in two different formats (take your pick between the one generated by the Orion software or that by Vega), and as usual, can also be accessed via the Results page.
Round 3: St George Club Teams Challenge Jun 11 – Aug 6
Perfect scores are rare in the Teams Challenge, but the ZZZ’s have managed one, improving on their round 2 performance to blitz their round 3 rivals, and move to a commanding score of 13.5/15. Most heartening though was the result of Babic’s Boleslavsky Beans, who reversed their previous form and scored 4.5/5 for the round. That’s not enough as yet to get onto the podium, upon which we find Plant’s Pinned Parsnips (11.5/15) and Curtis’ Castling Carrots (8/15).
Individual results for Rounds 1-3 are now available in two different formats (take your pick between the one generated by the Orion software or that by Vega), and as usual, can also be accessed via the Results page.
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.
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://stgeorgechess.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.