Smerdon Auditions for Geek Show

GM-elect David Smerdon announced on Chess Chat that he was thinking of auditioning for the upcoming Aussie version of the TV series, "Beauty and the Geek". I thought he was only joking. Well, he was actually pretty serious!

David will attend the Adelaide audition on 22 July. Local chess fans should probably pop over to the Samford Plaza (150 North Terrace) and give our man some moral support. I only wish I could be there, for I reckon it will be an absolute hoot.

To those who are auditioning or thinking about it, this list of "100 Essential Skills for Geeks", courtesy of Wired magazine, might help.

IM Lane Goes Home

It's championships time again over in the United Kingdom. The Scots will hold their 116th championships, reputed to be "the oldest continuously running chess event in the world", from this weekend until the 19th of July. Three-time champion GM Jonathan Rowson tops the field.

And later this month, the British will begin from 26 July and end on 8 August. Of interest to Australian chess fans will be none other than international master Gary Lane. For Lane, it will be a particularly sweet experience since the event will be held in his hometown of Torquay! Good luck to Gary.

WA Closed Champs

The Western Australian Closed Championships will be held from 12th to 13th July September. It will be a 10-player round robin that will feature some familiar names such as Haydn Barber, Tristan Boyd, Yita Choong and Marc Vlietstra. It's an impressive lineup with half the players rated over 2000.

Also participating is one who should be well-known to some Sydney players, Akef Abdat. He must have moved west!

More info here on the Chess Association of WA website.

The Joselito Hustle

The PNG's Joselito Marcos dropped in and posted an analysis of the last few moments of his game against Marc Vlietstra from the Gold Coast Open. Here's the starting position.



The ex-Pinoy lost this one, but not before giving his Western Australian opposition a tough fight until the very end. Joselito takes over from here.

2009 Gold Coast Open
Vlietstra, Marc
Marcos, Joselito
C11

41. bxc3 Bh3!

(Black only has 23 seconds left on his clock at this juncture; White still has more than 3 minutes.)

42. Qe7+ Ka8 43. Qg5 Rb1+

(An alternative was 43... Rb2. During the postmortem Vlietstra tried 44. Rg1? Bxg2+ 45. Rxg2 Rb1+ 46. Nf1 Rxf1+ 47. Kh2 Qh7+ 48. Kg3 and now with a clear head, and possibly more time, Black could win with 48... Rf8!. Correct was 44.Qg8+.)

44. Rxb1 Qxb1+ 45. Nf1 Qxf1+ 46. Kh2 Bxg2 47. Qxg2 Qf4+ 48. Kh3 Qh6+ 49. Kg3 Qg5+?

(The check on the WRONG SQUARE. In his excitement Black missed 49... Qg6+!! 50. Kf2 Qc2+ 51. Kg1 Qb1+ 52. Kh2 Qh7+ 53. Qh3 Qc2+ 54. Kg1 Qb1+ 55. Kh2 Qc2+ 56. Kg1 Qb1+ 57. Kh2 Qc2+ is equal)

50. Kf2??

(White panicked as he was becoming short of time while Black was gaining his. 50. Kf3! -- a shame that White overlooked this excellent chance -- Qf5+ 51. Ke3 wins)

50... Qd2+ 51. Kg1 Qd1+??

(Again a check on the wrong squate. With this move Black loses his second and final opportunity to even things up. For Black not to lose all he has to do is keep on checking on the long diagonal b1-h7. Better was 51... Qe1+! or 51... Qc1+! Check this out with your silicon friends.)

52. Kh2 Qh5+ 53. Qh3 Qe2+ 54. Kg3 Qe3+ 55. Kg4 Qg1+ 56. Kf5 Qf2+ 57. Ke6 Qxa2

(The game dragged on with Black stripped off his d pawn and White his c and d pawns but was able to promote his e pawn to a queen. The succeeding desperate checks by the black queen was deptly evaded by White to score the win.)

58. Kxd5 Qb3 59. Qc8+ Ka7 60. Qc7+ Ka6 61. Qc6+ Ka7 62. Qd7+ Ka6 63. e6 Qxc3 64. e7 Qf3+ 65. Kd6 Qf4+ 66. Kc6 Qe4+ 67. Kd6 Qxd4+ 68. Kc7 Qb6+ 69. Kc8 Qc5+ 70. Qc7 Qf5+ 71. Kd8 c3 72. e8=Q Qd5+ 73. Qcd7 Qg5+ 74. Kc7 Qf4+ 75. Kc8 1-0

Kasparov v Karpov Redux

This just in. My Chessdom.com contacts have just emailed me this special news that the two K's, Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, will reprise their over-the-board rivalry with a 12-game match later this year. The event is set to take place in Valencia, Spain.

Flintoff a Chess Player

From The Guardian paper, this little tidbit about former English cricket star Freddie Flintoff:

Born in Preston 31 years ago, Flintoff grew up in a cricket-mad family: his father played on Saturday afternoons, his brother Chris joined him, and his mother made the teas. "So from an early age I was being pushed around the boundary, playing at the side," he recalls. But he never rebelled against it, save for a brief flirtation with chess. "I played for Lancashire, which is bizarre really. I had a teacher at primary school, and it was almost like something out of a film where you had this school on an estate and you had these kids coming to play chess on their lunchtime." Flintoff's brother even played chess for England. "I was more of a maverick player, no real forward planning, just moved the pieces," he smiles. "I've not played for years ... I think the last time I played was against Mike Atherton."

Read more in The G2 Interview.

Bullish View on Aussie Chess

GM Ian Rogers' column in the Sun Herald today has an optimistic take on the future of Australian chess. Commenting on the just released July FIDE ratings:

Overall, Australia is ranked 58th on the world list; a position that is unlikely to improve more than incrementally until the new wave of young players begin to displace seven players aged 39 or more in positions 3 to 10 on the Australian list.

On the positive side, three of Australia's top four - Grandmasters Zhao Zhong Yuan, GM David Smerdon and aspiring GM George Xie - are all in their early twenties and, non-chess careers permitting, look likely to set standards on the Australian scene for years to come.

Here's the Australian list.

As we can see, there's a whole bunch of young guys there and some have had outstanding recent results. But, realistically, how many of them will step up to master level? Or even one day gun for a seat on the Olympiad team?

Plus what about the girls? Where are these lot?

Anyway, before we get ahead of ourselves with these young talents, who may yet turn out to be nothing more than highly competent hobbyists, let's not forget some "veterans". My favourite players - Lane, Johansen, Goldenberg and my good mate Canfell - all still have plenty of fight!

(By the way my beloved Philippines is ranked way, way above Australia right up in number 34. The positive news for them is that they have a good mix of vets and young guns).

Gopal Unbanned

Earlier this year I posted about the case of Indian grandmaster G.N. Gopal who was banned by his federation for not playing. Now just few months later, the All India Chess Federation has decided to take the just step of revoking that ban.

From Latest Chess: "All India Chess Federation took an important decision to revoke a one year ban on Grand Master G.N. Gopal. The decision was taken at the Central Council and Annul General Meeting in Chennai. Grand Master G.N. Gopal finally got the justice!"

Beauty & the Chess Geek

The Sydney Academy of Chess's FM Brett Tindall was contacted by a TV production house recently apparently because they were looking for potential candidates for an upcoming local version of Beauty and the Geek. First launched in the US and co-produced by Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), the show, at its core, is basically your standard challenge and elimination reality TV.

More about the US show here.

I've seen a couple of episodes and, let me tell you, it's just downright ridiculous! The geeks are unrealistically socially inept and the chicas are, well, just dumb. For the chicas, I hope they'll get the world famous Chk Chk Boom, Claire Werbeloff.

If you're interested, you must complete a questionnaire. Here are just five of the many questions that you'll need to answer:

• What are your intellectual strengths?
• Have you now, or have you ever seen a therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist?
• When it comes to women, what do you need the most help with?
• What are your insecurities?
• Who is your ideal life partner (male or female)? Is there anyone that you would consider is “out of your league” and vice versa?

It looks like Brett might be the point-man on this one, at least in the chess scene. So contact him via his website or on sydneyacademy at gmail dot com.

War Down Under: Smerdon vs Wang

Last week's penultimate round skirmish in the Zonal tournament between Australia's two young talents, Zong Yuan Zhao and eventual winner David Smerdon had us all on the edge of our seats. Well now there is even more reason to be excited. In just over a month, Aussie GM-elect David Smerdon will be taking on New Zealand's hottest talent, IM Puchen Wang!

A chess retailer across the Tasman, Chess Enterprises NZ, is organising a so-called "Australasian Chess Match of the Decade". It will be reminiscent of Chandler v Rogers back in the 80's and that battle between Purdy and Sarapu of the 1950's.

The info I have so far courtesy of CENZ co-founder Joanne Spiller is that the contest will consist of 6 games and take place from 1 to 6 August. It will then be followed by the Waikato Open, in Hamilton, from 7 to 9 August in which both players are also scheduled to compete.

This is very exciting, indeed! Hopefully, we'll get to see the action live. Keep an eye out on the blog for future updates.