2009 Canterbury Rapid

The Canterbury Chess Club 2009 Rapid Play Championships began tonight with 22 players. It's a standard G30 with nine rounds over three Monday nights (9, 16 and 23 February). Ex-Australian Chess Champion (1970) Fred Flatow is the top seed. So far, Fred is on 3/3. His only likely challenger for this year's title will be Ernesto Puzon who is also on a perfect score. My own tally is 2/3.

Here's a position from round 1 between Ashfaqur Rahman and Richard Blake. Blake, handling the black pieces, finds a neat combo to finish off the game.




2009 Canterbury Rapid
Ashfaqur, Rahman
Blake, Richard

1... Qb6+ 2. Kh1? (2. Qf2 Qxf2+ 3. Kxf2 Bxc3 4. Bxc3 Nxe4+) 2... Ng4 3. Rf1 With his time fast disappearing, Ashfaqur finds only the quickly losing move. But really, the alternatives are barely better. (3. Na4 Rxd1+ 4. Rxd1 Qe3; 3. Re1 Nf2+ 4. Kg1 Nxe4+) 3... Bxf1 4. Rxf1 Ne3 5. Qb3 Nxf1 6. fxe5 0-1

The club meets on Monday nights, from 7.30PM. They're presently looking for a TD, preferably someone who knows their way around computers and can quickly learn how to use Swiss Perfect. If you're interested, or just looking for a bunch of friendly guys to play chess with on Monday evenings - then drop by at the Lakemba Services Memorial Club, Corner Quigg Street and The Boulevarde, Lakemba. Or email Henk Jens at hwj at zip dot com dot au.