Last Friday, yours truly had a front seat preview for tonight's salsa performance by Arianne Caoili and her partner Carmelo Pizzino in DWTS. A quick text to my cell said go to Hippo's (a salsa joint) - so I did. I'm not really the dancing type myself so I spent the whole time doing just about the only "Latin" thing I could do: downing my Coronas!
I must admit, I wasn't impressed with what I saw that night. Arianne seemed stiff. I'm thinking, Jesus woman, don't think - just move. Well, it looks like Carmelo must have been pulling some miracles over the weekend because tonight the two of them blew the competition away.
Thirty-seven points! That's right, 37 points - the highest scored by anyone in this current series and which also includes a perfect 10 from judge Mark Wilson. Sexy, sultry, oohlala!
Arianne is safe for another week. So we'll see her again next Tuesday.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Wohl - Salvador, 0-1
A reader did tip us to this game. It's in the last bulletin. Silly me. Here it is. After Wohl's 36. R1d2, there would follow 36...Nd4+.
Roland Salvador Wins Arco
While we've been covering the exploits of the Australians in The Netherlands (Essent) and the Filipinos in Spain (Calvia) as well as the juniors in Georgia, of course - there were actually another two of our beloved compatriots who were battling it out in another European country - Italy. Both FM Roland Salvador, from RP, and IM Alexander Wohl, from Australia, competed in the 28th Festival Scacchistico Internazionale Open held from 21 October to 29 October.
We're terribly sorry, indeed, that we are very tardy with this information. We just didn't know about it! Now, I must thank our good friend from the Philippines, Mr Michael Rabena, who pointed us to this very important news - especially, from the Pinoy point of view.
Roland Salvador came out on top of a field of 108 players in section A of this Italian tournament. The field included the likes of GM Milan Drasko, GM Dragisa Blagojevic and famous author IM Jacob Aagard. FM Salvador actually scored the same number of points as IM Aagard and Michael Shaeffer but was declared overall winner on tiebreak. IM Alex Wohl scored a total of 6 points. In the ninth and last round, Wohl and Salvador crossed swords. The Filipino won that game. We'd like nothing better than to present that encounter - however, it's not available on the official site.
Instead, we bring you this win by Salvador over IM Paolo Vezzosi. The Italian Vezzosi has had some prior match-ups with Pinoys this year. In the Lodi tournament last June, he lost to Yves Ranola and defeated Arianne Caoili.
Below are the round-by-round results of both Wohl and the eventual winner.
Roland Salvador (7 points out of 9)
1 bt di Lazzaro
2 bt la Manna
3 bt Schaeffer
4 1/2 Drasko
5 bt Vezzosi
6 1/2 Bronznik
7 1/2 Teske
8 1/2 Aagard
9 bt Wohl
Alexander Wohl (6 points out of 9)
1 bt Bondielli
2 bt Wagman
3 1/2 Happel
4 lost Vezzosi
5 bt Schrott
6 bt Diotallevi
7 1/2 Blagojevic
8 bt Isonzo
9 lost Salvador
We're terribly sorry, indeed, that we are very tardy with this information. We just didn't know about it! Now, I must thank our good friend from the Philippines, Mr Michael Rabena, who pointed us to this very important news - especially, from the Pinoy point of view.
Roland Salvador came out on top of a field of 108 players in section A of this Italian tournament. The field included the likes of GM Milan Drasko, GM Dragisa Blagojevic and famous author IM Jacob Aagard. FM Salvador actually scored the same number of points as IM Aagard and Michael Shaeffer but was declared overall winner on tiebreak. IM Alex Wohl scored a total of 6 points. In the ninth and last round, Wohl and Salvador crossed swords. The Filipino won that game. We'd like nothing better than to present that encounter - however, it's not available on the official site.
Instead, we bring you this win by Salvador over IM Paolo Vezzosi. The Italian Vezzosi has had some prior match-ups with Pinoys this year. In the Lodi tournament last June, he lost to Yves Ranola and defeated Arianne Caoili.
Below are the round-by-round results of both Wohl and the eventual winner.
Roland Salvador (7 points out of 9)
1 bt di Lazzaro
2 bt la Manna
3 bt Schaeffer
4 1/2 Drasko
5 bt Vezzosi
6 1/2 Bronznik
7 1/2 Teske
8 1/2 Aagard
9 bt Wohl
Alexander Wohl (6 points out of 9)
1 bt Bondielli
2 bt Wagman
3 1/2 Happel
4 lost Vezzosi
5 bt Schrott
6 bt Diotallevi
7 1/2 Blagojevic
8 bt Isonzo
9 lost Salvador
Video of Moulthun Ly
It's very nice to wake up in the morning and to discover in your inbox a little news tip. Overnight, we received an email from Peter Doggers, from The Netherlands and blogger for Doggers Schaak blog. Peter was writing in to tell us about his latest post that includes extensive coverage of Australian Moulthun Ly who, of course, only recently secured his second IM norm at the Essent Open.
There's a couple of photos and a YouTube video. Well worth checking out here.
There's a couple of photos and a YouTube video. Well worth checking out here.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Pinoy Final Results in Calvia
The tournament actually ended a couple of days ago so this is late. Here are the final results for the five Filipino players.
Jayson Gonzales - 6 points
Gomez, Dimakiling, Laylo, So - 5.5 points
In the 9th and final round, John-Paul Gomez and Oliver Dimakiling lost to Francisco Vallejo Pons and Michele Godena respectively. 13-year old IM Wesley So drew his game against Holden Hernandez, but Jayson Gonzalez secured a good a finish by beating IM Thomas Rendle. Jayson Gonzales also ended his Spanish outing well with a win over Ali Ehsan for his last encounter.
Round nine games are not yet available on the official site. Instead, we bring you Wesley So's game against Swedish legend Pia Cramling. A draw.
The five Pinoys now haul themselves to Germany where they once again cross swords with some top talents - exactly what these guys need to achieve those highly sought after GM norms. We'll be keeping an eye on the boys in the Bad Wiessee event.
We thank Pinoy journo Marlon Bernardino and the Pinoy fans over at chessgames.com for the various bits of information contained in this post.
Jayson Gonzales - 6 points
Gomez, Dimakiling, Laylo, So - 5.5 points
In the 9th and final round, John-Paul Gomez and Oliver Dimakiling lost to Francisco Vallejo Pons and Michele Godena respectively. 13-year old IM Wesley So drew his game against Holden Hernandez, but Jayson Gonzalez secured a good a finish by beating IM Thomas Rendle. Jayson Gonzales also ended his Spanish outing well with a win over Ali Ehsan for his last encounter.
Round nine games are not yet available on the official site. Instead, we bring you Wesley So's game against Swedish legend Pia Cramling. A draw.
The five Pinoys now haul themselves to Germany where they once again cross swords with some top talents - exactly what these guys need to achieve those highly sought after GM norms. We'll be keeping an eye on the boys in the Bad Wiessee event.
We thank Pinoy journo Marlon Bernardino and the Pinoy fans over at chessgames.com for the various bits of information contained in this post.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Kirsan: There are no compromises
Journo Ed Vulliamy has a very long article on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for The Guardian's Oberver Sport Monthly. It's an interesting piece that recounts Kirsan's political beginnings and his business ventures. On these three of his interests - chess, politics and business - the Kalmyk leader says:
Read: The man who bought chess
As in chess, I have to think, in politics and in business, not only about the next move, but to be 10 moves ahead. A ruler and a businessman must be 10 moves ahead of his people or competitors. And as in chess, there are no compromises.
Read: The man who bought chess
Moulthun Bags IM Norm
The Essent Open ended last night and the Australians completed their ninth round missions on a positive with not a single loss to their scorecards. More importantly, Queenslander Moulthun Ly also secured his second IM norm.
Results were as follows:
Peng, Zhaoqin - Rogers, Ian 0-1
Smerdon, David - Vedder, Richard 1/2
Van Der Elburg, Freddie - Ly, Moulthun 0-1
Weeks, Manuel - Kulago, Alexander 1-0
And final scores for the Australians.
Rogers - 6
Smerdon - 5
Ly - 5
Weeks - 3.5
A very good tournament overall for the Australians especially for Moulthun. This young man looks set to one day join our Olympiad firepower and we can only hope that the national chess body, the Australian Chess Federation, does everything it can to provide much needed assistance. If there was a worthy policy aim of the ACF, then it must be surely be to identify talents like Moulthun and helping them get to the top.
Moulthun's tally of 5 points included wins or draws with experiened masters plus, of course, that very memorable victory over GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov in the first round.
One of the challenges of blogging a tournament is choosing what game to present. Rogers'win or Moulthun's? The Australian GM's full point from Dutch GM Peng was methodical and the end was nice. Still, I think it best to celebrate the future. Go Moulthun!
Official site
Results were as follows:
Peng, Zhaoqin - Rogers, Ian 0-1
Smerdon, David - Vedder, Richard 1/2
Van Der Elburg, Freddie - Ly, Moulthun 0-1
Weeks, Manuel - Kulago, Alexander 1-0
And final scores for the Australians.
Rogers - 6
Smerdon - 5
Ly - 5
Weeks - 3.5
A very good tournament overall for the Australians especially for Moulthun. This young man looks set to one day join our Olympiad firepower and we can only hope that the national chess body, the Australian Chess Federation, does everything it can to provide much needed assistance. If there was a worthy policy aim of the ACF, then it must be surely be to identify talents like Moulthun and helping them get to the top.
Moulthun's tally of 5 points included wins or draws with experiened masters plus, of course, that very memorable victory over GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov in the first round.
One of the challenges of blogging a tournament is choosing what game to present. Rogers'win or Moulthun's? The Australian GM's full point from Dutch GM Peng was methodical and the end was nice. Still, I think it best to celebrate the future. Go Moulthun!
Official site
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Rogers Drops Second Game
GM Ian Rogers dropped his second game in a row after last night going down to third seed Evgeny Postny. The Australian possibly misjudged the consequences after his 21. Qxd8+, forsaking the Queen for two of Black's pieces. Postny's Queen-side pawns were also just a tad too fast in their forward advance and Rogers simply lacked the resources to stop them.
IM David Smerdon was victorious over Dutch FM Menno Okkes and Moulthun Ly drew with the untitled 2378-rated Robin Swinkels. Manuel Weeks lost to Jan Van Der Veen.
Australian Scores after 8 rounds
Rogers - 5
Smerdon - 4.5
Ly - 4
Weeks - 2.5
The Doggers Schaak blog's coverage of this event has been very impressive. Peter Doggers, the blogger, happens to be also participating and presently has 3.5 points after 8 rounds. I love the YouTube videos, the first I've seen this used for a chess event - definitely somemething for a future Australian tournament.
Official site
IM David Smerdon was victorious over Dutch FM Menno Okkes and Moulthun Ly drew with the untitled 2378-rated Robin Swinkels. Manuel Weeks lost to Jan Van Der Veen.
Australian Scores after 8 rounds
Rogers - 5
Smerdon - 4.5
Ly - 4
Weeks - 2.5
The Doggers Schaak blog's coverage of this event has been very impressive. Peter Doggers, the blogger, happens to be also participating and presently has 3.5 points after 8 rounds. I love the YouTube videos, the first I've seen this used for a chess event - definitely somemething for a future Australian tournament.
Official site
Adventures in Georgia
Our deepest thanks to Jenni Oliver for sending us a copy of Michael Brown's updates from Georgia whose son, Andrew, is a participant in the World Youth Championships. For easier reading, we're not going to blockquote the text.
****************************
By Michael Brown
Yesterday as I said goodbye to Andrew and he went into the playing hall there was a beaut scene that I'll remember for a long time. As I watched Andrew go in, his 2nd Azerbaijani opponent - the one who had outplayed Andrew for most of the game a few rounds ago but had been stunned and left open-mounted by a sudden somewhat lucky checkmate - saw Andrew coming and raced across to Andrew with a great big smile and handshake and then they entered into one of those "gestures conversations" as they had no common language as they walked in together. Given that the Azerbaijani boy, who looked like about half Andrew's size, could be expected to have rued his missed opportunity against Andrew, I thought that was a beaut gesture - great to see.
The Australian team put in a shocker in yesterday's 9th round (2 wins, 4 draws, 10 losses for 25%) and Andrew put in an absolute shocker. Every one of the older players (U12, U14, U16 and U18) lost except for Angela Song,who drew. The good news is U8 Cedric Koh's form - he is on 5.5 from 9, having strung together 4.5 from his last 5 games. He now has 1/2 a point more than Raymond Song! Today's 10th round, now underway, is bound to be better! Andrew is on 4.5 from 9,and Megan Setiabudi is on 3 from 9. There is some mental fatigue around.
Andrew and I enjoyed some tennis yesterday afternoon. The courts we've been using are tournament-standard courts - which doesn't stop us hitting the ball over the wall from time to time!
I am enjoying many things here that strangely remind me of my childhood in Korea in the 1960s and early 1970s. Figs, chestnuts, persimmons, little muscatel grapes. Given that Korea was then a 3rd-world country, other things here that remind me of Korea of 34-46 years ago are the tiny little street stalls that make you wonder how on earth people eke out a living, and the state of the roads and buildings.
...
Overnight it rained. More furniture rearrangement in our room so that the steady drip from the ceiling hit the edge of my bed rather than the middle.
The thought occurred to me that maybe this hotel isn't real. Maybe it's one of those Hollywood facades, put up temporarily. Maybe as soon as we leave this weekend the cardboard will all be folded up and there'll be a vacant lot once again.
Yesterday I saw the Gregorian (Armenian) church; a gallery; the aquarium; and a museum. The museum was certainly worth a visit. Once again there was a 5 staff to 1 visitor (ie me) ratio.
That's all my news for the moment.
****************************
After 10 rounds, Cedric Koh, playing in the U8 boys section, is the highest scorer amongst the Aussies on 6.5 points. The last 4 rounds were all wins for Cediric. Raymond Song is on 6 points, a run that included a string of 3 straight losses from the 7th to the 9th rounds. The rest of the Australian tally is available here.
****************************
By Michael Brown
Yesterday as I said goodbye to Andrew and he went into the playing hall there was a beaut scene that I'll remember for a long time. As I watched Andrew go in, his 2nd Azerbaijani opponent - the one who had outplayed Andrew for most of the game a few rounds ago but had been stunned and left open-mounted by a sudden somewhat lucky checkmate - saw Andrew coming and raced across to Andrew with a great big smile and handshake and then they entered into one of those "gestures conversations" as they had no common language as they walked in together. Given that the Azerbaijani boy, who looked like about half Andrew's size, could be expected to have rued his missed opportunity against Andrew, I thought that was a beaut gesture - great to see.
The Australian team put in a shocker in yesterday's 9th round (2 wins, 4 draws, 10 losses for 25%) and Andrew put in an absolute shocker. Every one of the older players (U12, U14, U16 and U18) lost except for Angela Song,who drew. The good news is U8 Cedric Koh's form - he is on 5.5 from 9, having strung together 4.5 from his last 5 games. He now has 1/2 a point more than Raymond Song! Today's 10th round, now underway, is bound to be better! Andrew is on 4.5 from 9,and Megan Setiabudi is on 3 from 9. There is some mental fatigue around.
Andrew and I enjoyed some tennis yesterday afternoon. The courts we've been using are tournament-standard courts - which doesn't stop us hitting the ball over the wall from time to time!
I am enjoying many things here that strangely remind me of my childhood in Korea in the 1960s and early 1970s. Figs, chestnuts, persimmons, little muscatel grapes. Given that Korea was then a 3rd-world country, other things here that remind me of Korea of 34-46 years ago are the tiny little street stalls that make you wonder how on earth people eke out a living, and the state of the roads and buildings.
...
Overnight it rained. More furniture rearrangement in our room so that the steady drip from the ceiling hit the edge of my bed rather than the middle.
The thought occurred to me that maybe this hotel isn't real. Maybe it's one of those Hollywood facades, put up temporarily. Maybe as soon as we leave this weekend the cardboard will all be folded up and there'll be a vacant lot once again.
Yesterday I saw the Gregorian (Armenian) church; a gallery; the aquarium; and a museum. The museum was certainly worth a visit. Once again there was a 5 staff to 1 visitor (ie me) ratio.
That's all my news for the moment.
****************************
After 10 rounds, Cedric Koh, playing in the U8 boys section, is the highest scorer amongst the Aussies on 6.5 points. The last 4 rounds were all wins for Cediric. Raymond Song is on 6 points, a run that included a string of 3 straight losses from the 7th to the 9th rounds. The rest of the Australian tally is available here.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Open Thread
We havent' had one of these for a while. But just to get things moving a little, take a look what Matthew Sweeney, Australia's loudest critic of the country's official chess bodies, is saying on his bulletin board: "Several agents from several states are now actively planning to usurp the ACF".
Does he know something?
Does he know something?
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