Thursday, January 15, 2009

Aussie Juniors Rise to Challenge

The first round began today in the Queenstown Chess Classic with yet another big representation from the Australians. More particularly, it was a delight to see two fine performances from Aussie juniors.

On board 10, Canberra's Andrew Brown continued his upset-scoring ways in 2006 by this evening defeating GM Daryl Johansen. I dont't have the game score for that yet, but we'll have that up ASAP when I get it. What I do have is the PGN to what is perhaps a more modest upset but no less worthy of our congratulations. Again, another Canberra junior, this time the seasoned weekend warrior, Sherab Guo-Yuthok, downed his opponent - Moldovan visitor, WGM Karolina Smokina. By the endgame phase, it was the Aussie who looked to be smokin'; his play was excellent.

Witness:

2009 Queenstown Chess Classic
Smokina, Karolina
Guo-Yuthok, Sherab
A84

1. d4 b6 2. Nf3 Bb7 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 f5 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. O-O O-O 8. Qb3 c5 9. dxc5 Bxc5 10. Bf4 Qe7 11. Rad1 d6 12. Na4 e5 13. Nxc5 bxc5 14. Bc1 Nc6 15. e3 Rad8 16. Nd2 Rd7 17. Nb1 e4 18. f4 exf3 19. Bxf3 Ne4 20. Nc3 Ne5 21. Nd5 Qe8 22. Qc2 Qg6 23. b3 Rdf7 24. Bb2 Nxf3+ 25. Rxf3 Ng5 26. Rff1 h5 27. Qg2 Re8 28. Bc1 Re4 29. Rf4 h4 30. Rxe4 fxe4 31. Nf4 Qh6 32. gxh4 Nf3+ 33. Kh1 Nxh4 34. Qg3 Rf5 35. Ng2 Qh5 36. Rg1 Nxg2 37. Qxg2 Qf3 38. h4 Rh5 39. Qxf3 exf3 40. Kh2 Rxh4+ 41. Kg3 Rh5 42. Bd2 Kf7 43. Bc3 g6 44. a3 a6 45. b4 Ke6 46. bxc5 Rxc5 47. Bb4 Rh5 48. Rd1 Rg5+ 49. Kf2 Rg2+ 50. Kf1 d5 51. cxd5+ Bxd5 52. Rd4 Re2 53. Bc5 Rc2 54. Bb4 Bc6 55. Rd2 Rc4 56. Kf2 Bd5 57. Rd4 Rc2+ 58. Rd2 Rc1 59. e4 Bxe4 60. Rd6+ Kf5 61. Rxa6 Rc2+ 62. Kg3 Rg2+ 63. Kh3 f2 64. Ra7 Ke6 65. Re7+ Kd5 66. Rd7+ Kc4 67. Rf7 g5 68. Bd6 Bd5 69. Rc7+ Kd3 0-1

9 comments:

siow, weng nian said...

ClosetGM, thanks for the live Blog. Readers, check out http://australian-junior-youth-chess.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-queenstown-chess-classic.html where game is replayable ......

Garvin said...

Smokina, Karolina 0-1 Guo-Yuthok, Sherab is not as big an upset as it might appear at first glance.

Sherab was 'only' swimming 300 fide points upstream, which we know from previous experience, can not mean much at all.

Anonymous said...

What would you know about chess Garvin? Werent u a rook up in an endgame against Solomon and lost?!

Anonymous said...

Really sad to see the comments in the Southland newspaper that longtime professional protestor John Minto is calling for the top seed to withdraw as he has an Israeli passport. I hope the player is not impacted by such rubbish, and the organisers and other participants provide full support to him. Mixing international politics into an individual chess event is wrong.

Kevin Bonham said...

Totally agree with Michael F. The call for Mikhalevski to withdraw is rubbish (and it coming so late in the piece suggests disorganisation or at least a relatively low level of interest in chess from the hacktivists responsible.) If Minto is serious he could find plenty of grounds to call for boycotts of Americans, and could have called for boycotts of Australians while our previous gung-ho-for-Dubya PM was in office. But Israeli sporting figures are always an easy target for this sort of pointless exercise in conspicuous compassion and media-stuntery.

Anonymous, how about you have the guts to put your name to your cheap shot? As if Garvin's OTB results have any bearing on his understanding of the impact of ratings on results anyway.

Anonymous said...

It is entirely reasonable to call for a sporting boycott of all Israeli players - sporting boycotts have helped achieve political ends in the past and chess would be perhaps one area where a sporting boycott might really affect Israel.
Whether or not the Queenstown tournament organisers wish to observe the boycott call is up to their conscience, unless and until international sporting sanctions are agreed.

Anonymous said...

Chess isn't a sport..let the Israeli GM play.

Anonymous said...

Anon, it's not the reasonableness of the call that is in question; it is the hypocrisy of the caller.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter if Chess is sport or not - when I see the Israelis picnicking on hills overlooking Gaza and cheering as their child-killing bombs and missiles are sent onto Gaza I thus even more strongly support a boycott of the QT Classic and then to ban Israelis from Chess and anything else in NZ.

I would say that Bob Wade who was Communist, and played last time in 2006, would have supported that stand.

I back Minto - I have a huge amount of respect for him.

This inclusion of the Russian Israeli was a bit of sleight of hand.