Doeberl All Over Again

It's Doeberl Cup time again next week. As my friend Toby says, if you're not in Doeberl, you're not a real chess player. This year's edition has been dubbed the O2C Doeberl thanks to a $6K injection from O2C. It's just a bit disconcerting that smack in the centre, the first words I see on O2C's website are the words, "mental health training"; it makes you think they must train loonies or something. Nonetheless I suppose we should say thanks!

And another mention of the SIO. Over the last week or so entries to this tournament have suddenly surged hitting the 150 mark. New players include Pinoys FM Jesse Sales, Angelito Camer and Arianne Caoili. My initial plans to play in this event have been sadly derailed by work. I have to be OS, for work, the following week and that involves quite a lot more serious prep than chess! We'll see what happens.

For those who want to get in some rapid warm up, the City of Sydney Rapid is on tomorrow at the Parramatta RSL. See some of you there.

Open Day at Box Hill CC

The Box Hill Chess Club in Victoria held its Open Day last Sunday. Gladys Liu, the club's new boss, reports that it was a very big success - so big that they now have to "start a new coaching class in Sunday afternoons to meet the demand". You can read the report in Chess Victoria's latest news sheet here.



Thanks also to long-time club stalwart Trevor Stanning for these exclusive photos!

Wireless Chess Boards

This evening's show of "The New Inventors" on the ABC featured a high-school junior who invented wireless chess boards. It was a simple enough concept: 2 boards connected "wirelessly". I didn't get how it's exactly done, as I was on a conference call, but I'm guessing it's via RF. Basically, lights are activated on the board indicating the to and from movements of pieces. Very simple. I must say I had not seen anything like it and kind of makes you wonder the usual, "why didn't anyone else think of that before?".

They showed a demo of this young man playing chess with his dad while they were located in separate rooms. Honestly, it's hard to imagine a broad application for this kind of technology. But it could at least offer as a kind of compromise in matches between unfriendly nations.

UPDATE: I just noticed that there is actually a video of tonight's episode, including the Chess Mate here.

$10K Boost for SACA

The South Australian Chess Association have recently received sponsorship amounting to $10,000 from the Australian Field Services P/L for that state's Lidums Checkmate Weekender 2007 tournament. As a result, the weekend event has shot up from a class 3 to class 5 with incentives provided to GMs and IMs.

Well done to SACA. Let's hope they can do better with their $10K than the NSWCA who, last year, posted a massive $11K loss.

Torre in Meralco Simul

Our friend in RP, Raul Sol Cruz, sent me information about GM Eugene Torre's 25-board simul held a couple of weeks ago during the 104th anniversary of Meralco's founding. Meralco is an electricity utility in Manila, Mr Cruz current employer. The score was 24.5 to 0.5 for Torre with Engineer Darryl Mata securing the draw.

The event was organised by Mr Cruz himself, along with Darryl Mata, Manny Benitez and Romy Aguilar. Below is a photo of Torre in action during the simul against some of the employers'kids.

Picture From The Past

One of the most photographed spots in Sydney is no doubt the chess pit in Sydney's Hyde Park. I have a few of my own. It was quite interesting for me then to spot this photo by Australian street photographer Roger Scott taken way back in 1969. Does anybody know those two gentlemen on the photo especially that one with the glasses?

As you can see, the set up was different back then. In fact, actually, I'm not sure that they had a big chess board back in '69 but note the table that these guys are playing on. Today there are only two small ones with small boards less than the regular tournament size. Here is what it looks like today. Also I think the chess area was located in a different spot - somewhere near what is now called the Sandringham Gardens. Not too sure about that.

Where is Antonio?

The Sydney International Open has just suffered its first setback. Thanks to an elusive anonymous tipster, we've just found out that GM Rogelio Antonio Jr has been removed from the list of entries in what is set to be the biggest chess tournament ever in Sydney.

We checked in with organiser Brian Jones for some details: "He has not replied to my recent emails. He has not kept in touch since his original email, so I have removed him."

Both Antonio and GM Ian Rogers are slated to play in the Bangkok Open next week. Let hope that the Australian can talk some sense into the Filipino.

Latest CAWA Newsletter

Just moving on quietly along over on the other side of the country are our friends in CAWA. We don't seem to hear too much about them but from time to time I do pop in every now and then. I also encourage our readers to do the same. Speaking of newsletters, the CAWA family have always produced something special. To the guys in the NSWCA, this is how it's done.

There is a long report about the recent Australian Open in Canberra written by CAWA boss John Fedec. Top effort indeed!

Come Out! Come Out Mr Prez!

I meant to post something about the brand new ACF email newsletter but my real work overtook me. Now that I have some time, I should really say well done to the ACF. After some period of silence, I think the last one was in January, the email newsletter is back online. This latest version is a significant improvement over the newsletter's previous formats. I like the latest design - simple but more professional looking. And we can expect this going forward as the ACF now appear to have the right personnel with production and content editing now split between new guy Stephen Cannings and ACF veep Denis Jessop respectively. The old one-man operation was just too much.

But you know, something seemed to be missing. Or rather someone! Where in the world is Gary Wastell? Last January this Victorian chess supremo was elected president of the ACF. Yet todate, I have not seen this guy made an appearance online. He's not there on Chess Chat (where at least 3 ACF heavies are regulars) and there's nothing on the official site. You'd think Mr Wastell might appropriately welcome readers to the new ACF newsletter, but nope - that was left to the veep. Is this guy shy? Is he busy? What are his plans? Ideas? Anything?

I'm still thinking that our new president is really just being a bit of tease and any day now we're about to hear of a big surprise. If any of our Victorian readers does spot him in the mean time, say we said hi. Then hand him this link. I'm sure the inhabitants will be hospitable.

Happy Birthday Serge Rubanraut

Last Friday night a small group of chess players celebrated the 59th birthday of Serge Rubanraut at the Spanish Club. Serge, as our well-educated readers should know, was the '76 Australian Chess Champion. It was a good night out with plenty of drinks, many rounds of blitz games and a $5 cake that was quickly organised from the nearby Woolies. Seeing a bunch of half drunk chess players, with varying accents, singing Happy Birthday to some half-remembered lyrics, was about one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen. My friend Carey Cowling, himself a chess player, also organised a card. We passed that around for everyone to sign and I'm pretty sure that a couple of complete strangers also signed.

Conversations were the usual really, this and that. A bit of reminiscing but not really too much about chess - just life in general. The man even gave us all a quick lesson: mate, he said, so long as you enjoy what you're doing - that's the main thing.

Happy Birthday Serge!

Kasparov with Spiegel

Chessbase doesn't have this yet as at Friday morning Sydney time. So I'm posting this now. Garry Kasparov appears in an interview with German publication, Spiegel Online:

Pressure is counterproductive. The regime uses it to its advantage. The West should simply be objective. Russia is not a democracy. If you realize this, you should say so. No one refers to the Chinese leaders or the Belarusian dictator Aleksander Lukashenko as democrats. Don't close your eyes when Russia supports terrorists like Hezbollah and Hamas, or Iran.

More from "Russia Is not a Democracy". Also in the same site is another one of those now familiar articles about the former world champion's political struggles against the present Russian regime. Read more here.

A Rare Literary Gem

In Mr David Cordover's latest newsletter, we read this:

In a rare personal appearance, David Cordover will be sharing the Strategies of Chess he has used to turn Chess Kids into the multi-million dollar business it is toay (sic). In addition to improving your chess skills you will be entertained, inspired and learn how to transfer these skills to your children, students or friends.

Ooohh..aahh. Multi-million dollar business, did he say? And here I am, a web guy, thinking one day I'm going to be rich with my own web 2.0 windfall. I am so in the wrong business. Maybe I'll just attend one of these seminars. You know, maybe some of that champion talent will, sort of, like, unconsciously transfer to me.

A Beautiful Win by Smerdon

A few days ago the huge Cappelle la Grande open took place in France featuring well over 80 grandmasters. Also there were a couple of Australians - IM David Smerdon and FM Manuel Weeks. Both players scored 5 points each with Smerdon losing his last round game to IM Stephen Mannion while Weeks won over Remy Bessat.

In round 7, the Australian international master scored what must be one of the biggest wins of his life as he defeated Merab Gagunashvili who is rated 2611. Truly a beatiful game by Smerdon as he dances about the board with his two Knights. Bravo!



Chinese player Wang Yue was the declared winner on tie-break. Complete tables and some photography are available on the official website.

Chess Star Elopes with Exotic Dancer

What is it about chess and dancing? Our readers don't need reminding of THAT incident in Turin. But London's The Times (the same paper that first brought the Turin Incident to the mainstream press) has now just reported of an affair between 15-year old IM Emilio Cordova and an exotic Brazilian dancer who is twice his age. And this dancer's name? Wait...wait...Adriane Oliveira. Fancy that!

When quizzed, young Emilio said:

I play chess, study chess but this doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself...I’m young and I want to do this. I have to live. To be locked up in my room all the time depresses me.

And live you may good man! There's only so much you can take of those Sicilians, Gruenfelds, KIDs. A little jiggy-jiggy here and there is about all we need sometimes. Speaking for myself, of course.

Read more in The Times Online.

New Website for Indians

Staying true to their aim of creating 100 grandmasters (I think by 2012), our friends in India have just launched a new website as reported by The Hindu. It's primarily an informational as well as chess coaching service. Check out www.cyberchess.co.in.

Also, news of the original birthplace of chess, which we posted last Saturday, has reached The Australian newspaper.

TCG in Australian Chess Mag

The current issue of the Australian Chess Magazine, features two pieces of work by yours truly. The cover, of course, as well as this interview with IM-elect George Xie. We are naturally very grateful to publisher Brian Jones for featuring our work!

Of interest also in this latest issue is this little piece of detail that's so far been overlooked. Organisation of the Sydney International Open is actually a 2-man effort. Other than the Brian, Sydney chess fans can also thank Dr Vasil Tulevski.

Chess Social Network

Here's something that might interest some of our readers. Try Ning! It's one of these so-called "web 2.0" services that is all about social networking. The key difference with Ning is that you can actually create your own social applications. I first found out about this thanks to Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch who has an extensive review here and a video demo here.

I first tried this yesterday and was, well, sort of impressed. You can post the usual stuff like blogs, videos and images. But, more interestingly, there is a forum section as well. I created a test site yesterday and this is the outcome. Not bad!

The only thing I hate about Ning are those stupid ads on the right side bar. I can't seem to get rid of them. They're nearly as bad as those ads that have suddenly plagued the Australian Chess Club Forum (which, by the way, is now pretty much dead).

And if anyone out there is a budding blogger, here's another service that I recently discovered. Vox. The layouts appear to be more extensive than the Blogger service (this one I'm using now) plus easier to manage.

Pavlodar Tops Asian Cities

The Kazakh team of Pavlodar routed their last round opposition, Calicut, 4 to nil to safely secure the Asian Cities title in Tehran, Iran. They amassed 30 game points in total, 4 points ahead of second placer Tagaytay City from the Philippines.

Tagaytay can console themselves with 2 silvers and a gold medal performance by IM Wesley So. FIDE yesterday reported that: "Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan approved the request of all team captains to institute a new award of medals for best performance rating on individual boards. The system takes into account the strength of the opposition unlike the traditional system of percentage score."



A good win by So against a strong GM. Let's hope he scores a few more of those.

Chess and Politics in the News

Former world champ Garry Kasparov is once again featured in the NYT. Steven Lee Myers writes:

He has not let up since. He rails against Mr. Putin’s foreign policy, accusing him of intimidating former Soviet republics that should be close allies, while fostering ties with Iran, North Korea and China. He accuses Mr. Putin of having neutered the news media, stifled political opponents and independent businesspeople, and undercut the essential institution of democracy: free and fair elections.

HIS biggest challenge may be being ignored. The state’s control of television ensures that his views never reach the public en masse. News reports of the St. Petersburg march on national channels described the protesters generally, not Mr. Kasparov specifically, as “all manner of radicals, from fascists to lefties.”

More in "Kasparov, Building Opposition to Putin". I've said it before but I just hope that Kaspy doesn't get himself killed. Putin himself appears very determined to leave his mark and I don't think he's about to let the likes of a former chess champion get in his way.

Across in Armenia, the 2006 Olympiad winning team, led by Levon Aronian, have expressed support for Serzh Sargsyan, the Defense Minister and Chess Federation President, as well as for Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan in the upcoming parliamentary elections. From Armenia Now.

On a slightly different note, Bulgarian news service SNA is reporting that Spanish police searched Veselin Topalov's car for bombs and drugs! Nothing was found.

Birthplace of Chess Found

As far back as HJR Murray's "A History of Chess" (1913) it is has always been thought that the game originated in India. But where in India? German India specialists claim that they are near to finally concluding this debate. They have nominated the town of Kannauj as the actual birthplace.

From The Times of India.

IM Zhao Blacklisted!

In his March 6 column for the Byron Shire Echo, GM Ian Rogers recounts an interesting tidbit about Nakamura and his run-in with Aussie star IM Zong Yuan-Zhao:

Nakamura's (sic) owes his 'bad boy' reputation as well as his support to his participation in internet chess, especially bullet chess where each player gets one minute thinking time per game. Internet chess has fostered Nakamura's will to win and aggression but has also led him to overstep the mark on occassion. He reacted to a series of internet losses to Australia's young IM Zhao Zong Yuan by black-listing Zhao, claiming that Zhao was only pretending to be an Australian player when he was actually a strong European grandmaster. (Nakamura felt obliged to apologise when he saw Zhao playing for Australia at the Turin Olympiad.)

Well, what can we say to this Naka fellow? Sucked in mate! Our thanks to Peter Hanna for this tip via his posts on Australia's most popular chess bulletin board, Chess Chat.

Kazakhs Lead Asian Cities

The Kazakhstan team of Pavlodar continues to lead from RP team Tagaytay City in the ongoing Asian Cities Championships in Iran. Tagaytay actually beat their Kazakh opposition in round 4 with a 2.5-1.5 margin thanks to IM Wesley So's victory over GM Petr Kostenko (2522).

Tagaytay's cause hasn't been helped by a number of accidents. As early as round 2, the GM duo of Paragua and Antonio could pull off only draws against their FM opponents of the local Rahahan team. And in round 6 Paragua dropped an important point to IM Imad Hakki. Most unexpectedly, however, was Wesley So's loss to the 2265-rated M.B. Muralidharan from Calicut.

At the seventh round mark, Pavlodar has amassed 22 game points, Tagaytay has 19.5, Saipa (Iran) is on 18 points. Complete tables are available here.

Rudd - Wallace, 1-0

IM John-Paul Wallace is currently playing on board 4 for Guildford-ADC (Division 1) in England's 4NCL competition. He lost this nice game to Bristol 1's Jack Rudd (2359) last week.

Press Release by Game Fixers

Chess columnist Bobby Ang sent me a copy of a press release by the so-called "game fixers". Very disturbing! Today, the identities of accusers as well as details of their allegations have remained unknown to the accused. Is this justice?

Can we be heard before we are condemned of game fixing? This is the key question that IM Ronald Dableo, IM Chito Garma, IM Darwin Laylo and NM Oliver Barbosa have recently asked the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). They are four (4) of the six (6) players who were recently found to be involved in what is dubbed as "game fixing contoversy". In their letter through their counsel, Atty. Cris Aspiras Jr., who is also a former National Junior Chess Champion, they implored the chess organisation to afford them their right to due process before they are meted the suspension. They decried the failure on the part of the Chess body to even furnish them copies of the sworn statements or supposedly witnesses or complainants, thus their accusers remain incognito and faceless. They have likened themselves to playing the black pieces in a chess game ready with their defence, but the White player does not want to reveal its first move.

All these titled players have questioned the manner they were suspended. Their query is timely, considering the revelation of former Governor of Benguet Raul Molintas that he resigned as Co-Chair of the Internal Affairs Committee of the NCFP because he was not part of the report that recommended the suspension of IM Ronald Dableo, IM Chito Garma, IM Darwin Laylo, NM Oliver Barbosa, NM Mervin Roque, and MWM Enerose Magno. They lamented that had they been given the chance, they can refute the allegations against them and clear their names. In their letter, they also implored the NCFP to conduct a reinvestigation of the game fixing controversy and requested that their suspension be deferred in the meantime for humane reasons and in view of the tenets of justice and fair play.

The group's lawyer, Cris Aspiras Jr. has not ruled out a challenge through the RP courts, according to this report by the Manila Bulletin.

Yu and Swiercz Win COS

I don't really feel like writing this post you know. I'm having another one of those post tourney mornings when I wake up and wonder what the hell was all that about. Four days of weekend chess and for what? Two damn points! To top it all off - one of my opponents in the blitz event claimed an illegal move on my part for apparently capturing my own pawn. In fact, I just happened to ever so slightly nudged my pawn when I moved my Queen to e6. I asked what he was on about and he said I was moving so fast that it seemed like I captured my pawn. Well hello! Pay attention, why don't you?

But the most disturbing end came in the normal tournament. The horror of horrors befell me in the seventh round. In a winning position, the exchange up and poised to mop up Sebastian Hermann's pawns, I was suddenly checkmated. Just a few moments before that, I was thinking to myself: OK, so I hide in this little corner right here; I should be safe, after all, he's got the wrong coloured Bishop. But out of no more than 3 possible moves I played the most disastrous choice. Bang! Bishop a5-to-e1: checkmate! I'm sure Kotov has a lesson for it. And Rowson probably has a sin for it too. It's all well and good to remember general principles but never forget the details - like the placement of your pawns. In that particular context yesterday I somehow overlooked that my own army actually entrapped my own King.

It was just awful to be honest. After my lousy King move, Hermann (a mathematics PhD student at the University of Sydney) responded with a conviction full of happiness and relief. You know what I mean, we've all done it. You're hoping against all hope, a final rally, waiting to see what happens, then there it is - the poor bastard just blundered. Except in this instance, the poor stupid bastard was me. Even the sympathetic pat on the back from Hamish Selnes wasn't quite enough. There's only one word for it really. FUCK!

Ronald Yu, playing white, was joint winner of COS '07

The previous day, the Saturday, I arrived on time but there were no boards, no sets, no clocks. It seems that all these were still locked away. Norm Greenwood, the NSWCA man was running late and only he, apparently, knew how to operate one of those combination locks. Several people tried but none of them, would you believe, couldn't open the thing despite having the right combo of numbers. It was hilarious watching ourselves trying to unlock what must be a century old piece of technology. Enter: The Closet Grandmaster! After a couple of tries, yours truly did it.Easy peasy. It's just the Pinoy in me, you know, dear readers. We're good at this sort of thing. (Almost immediately, the post headline formed in my head: TCG Saves NSWCA Event!)

Actually, I must admit I didn't even know what these types of locks were called. When I asked a group of players what you call them, one replied: "They're called bastards!" You can understand, he was getting more than a tad frustrated.

So we all proceeded to our fifth game some a half-hour late. First up was my fellow GM, Jason Chan. He's a funny guy. For his first move, on the black side, he spent some 3-4 minutes, I think, in reply to my usual 1.d4. I never understand why people do that. Just a bit of psychology you think? I just get on with it myself. Even when faced with some esoteric shots like 1. a4 (Bolens tried this out against Zirdum), I'll just quickly bang out a move myself. "Let's see what you got" is my attitude. Anyway, it was a tough game that I was lucky to draw. Jason seemed unhappy about that - which is understandable since he outrates me by a couple of hundred points. Still I did one better in our blitz game, for the CoS Blitz Championships. I beat him.

For the sixth game, I faced Norwegian visitor Emil-Lion Normat. This guy's 1461 rating is a bit misleading. He's actually a competent player and way better than his rating would suggest. After another one of my careless moves, he found a brilliant reply - just a subtle repositioning of his Knight. And with that, I could have just resigned but grovelled on anyway to a painful choking. Luckily Normat is quite a nice fellow himself and we got along fine quickly. In some ways, I felt a little sorry for him. He's here ostensibly for a holiday but spends 5 days a week in the library to study for his Masters degree back in Norway! It's only on weekends that he can relax playing chess. Poor guy. I guess he hasn't really seen much of Sydney's bright sunny weather. That's a real bummer since, normally, he lives within the Arctic Circle back home where the nights can be very, very long! I hear he's making a quick trip down to the Melbourne CC for their Anzac Weekender. I'm sure our friends down there will show him the appropriate hospitality. He'll also be playing in the Doeberl.

And here's a bit of side news about our good friend Jose Escribano. Our friends in Mexico (that's the state of Victoria for our foreign readers) will be happy to know, I hope, that this former world title challenger has got himself a job down there. He withdrew from the CoS last weekend and should be there by now. We'll miss Jose in New South Wales.

After such a poor finish as I had, one needs some time to reflect. All the better if we can do this over some fine beer. In my case, it's a glass of Duvel. It just so happens that just a short walk from the venue is the Belgian Beer Cafe - a kind of specialty joint where they serve all things Belgian. God I miss Duvel. One of the best. The 8.5% alcohol was what I badly needed. Last time I had it was in that chess cafe, The Greenwich, in Brussels. But who should disturb my few moments of self-reflection over a drink but none other than Johny Bolens. The guy was on a roll and when he gets going, there's no stopping him. He was telling me all about the important things in life. Like how to pick up women, for example. But one must be careful, he said, during ones attempt at wooing the opposite sex. Once he had apparently approached some poor unsuspecting woman not realising that her male companions were just nearby. Before he knew it, Bolens says, he was roughed up pinned against some wall or something rather. I couldn't make out the rest of what he was saying. Sometimes it's hard to understand his accent. And that got me thinking: where do you come from Bolens, I asked him.

"I'm a united nations", he answered.

I'm not satisfied. I've always been curious. "But where were you born?"

He says he was born here. In Australia! What? I couldn't believe it. He added, "Life is complicated". Sure is.

Ronald Yu and Polish visitor Dariusz Swiercz jointly won the event with 5.5 points apiece. In their individual match-up, however, Ronald (currently a university student) defefated the 12-year old using his pet Bird's Opening (1.f4) - the same system he used to wreak havoc in the 2003 UNSW Australian Young Masters tournament.



The blitz side event was won by Jason Hu on 10/11 - an absolutely domineering performance by him. Mendes da Costa threatened to also hit top honours when he steamrolled the opposition for a 6-game streak after dropping the first two rounds. But that was that him and he fell to settle for just 6 points.

Move your butt, somebody

That week was quick! Tomorrow is the continuation of the City of Sydney, so I kinda couldn't wait for the weekend. The tournament will finish on Sunday and to be followed immediately after by the City of Sydney Lightning. We can expect to see some big names for that faster time event. I'd love to see the likes of Smirnov, Flatow, Ghenzer, Agulto turn up.

Anyway our post from two weeks ago is still hotting up. Scroll down the bottom of the comments section and you'll see a long entry by none other than Peter Parr. I'm not sure he did himself any favours with that one: walked straight into Dr Bonham's "comedy gold"! And now even ACF veep Denis Jessop has seen it safer to come out and take pot shots at Mr Parr after a long, long silence.

I suspect now a lot of our readers are just getting all frustrated. Would somebody please just move their ass, they must be thinking. Post of the week must belong to IM Javier Gil:

Regardless of what some of us might consider red tape or not red tape, the fact remains that if Peter did fill out some of those forms, which really do not take very long, a lot of people who currently have doubts about his project (which, I must say, would be fantastic) would probably end up supporting him if he still got no answer from the NSWCA. So, please Peter, fill out those forms and see if we can pull out this event, you have the support of many of us!

I wonder what many of you are thinking. Who should move their gluteus maximus and make this championships in Sydney happen? Let's have some fun.



Have a nice weekend dear readers. Sydney folks can catch up with me for some practice blitz tonight in the Spanish Club. I'm sure the sangria will flow freely, as always. For those in the COS - all the best and hope to see you there.

IM Dableo Suspended

International master Ronald Dableo, who holds 2 GM norms, has been suspended by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines for a period of 1 year. He had allegedly fixed a game in the Malaysian Open.

Five others were slapped with 6-month bans and these were international masters Chito Garma and Darwin Laylo, Oliver Barbosa, Merben Roque and Enerose Magno.

For the time being it's difficult to understand how the NCFP established game fixing by these players. From the scoresheets? From testimony of other players? If the latter, then let's name names. Let Dableo and co. face their accusers! Understandably IM Dableo has so far denied involvement. It's worth quoting again what he said to Kiko, of the Philippine Chess blog: "I never sold a game, I don't need to, chess is my profession. I have a coaching job in one of the universities in Manila, I have a PSC monthly allowance and of course am from the Philippine Air Force."