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Forty-two people entered the Club Championship this year and, for the second year in a row, that meant five divisions. The first four are round robins of seven games each, the fifth is a Swiss.
 Nancy Lane |
Round 1: There were some interesting games in this round. Peter Cassettari, a piece up, ran into solid defence from Nancy Lane and a draw was agreed. Leo Tenorio had a quick win when Hans Muller sacrificed a rook for what looked like a winning attack, but overlooked Leo's defence. Here it is. Also in Division 1 Robert Ambalong showed that he's a bit of a Chess Genie himself. He allowed Joe Ymalay to build a pawn centre but quickly broke it down, winning Joe's queen along the way. You'll enjoy this.
In Division 2, Ben Harris's bishop proved too mobile for Stefan Jovanovic's knight which was tied to a6 to prevent the queenside pawns advancing.
Division 3's bottom-ranked player, Carrie Evans looked to have good chances in a long game against top seed Muhamed Buza but Muhamed's experience proved decisive and he queened first. Here's the game.
Division 4 boasted the longest game of the night between Vilko Salecich and Lloyd Fell. Vilko's bare king fought valiantly against Lloyd's queen, rook, knight and pawn but was soon overwhelmed.
Division 5, with ten players, is being run as a Swiss tournament and both Michael Jansen and Mario Maletic had good wins. Whoever wins this division is going to have to beat them.
 Go on! Be a devil! Sacrifice! |
Round 2: It's too early to make much of it yet but Divisions A-D have each established a clear leader after two rounds: Tony Bouchaaya, Ben Harris, Rick Carballo and Ken MacGillivray are all on two points. In Division E we have joint leaders in Greg Davis and Mario Maletic, also on two.
Only one game was available this week. Carrie Evans has been out of chess most of the year due to working afternoon shift, and I must admit she hasn't lost any courage along the way. I walked over to see her game (at move 21) and found she had sacrificed a rook, had two bishops hanging, and had just offered a knight exchange. A couple of moves later she could have taken the queen but, said later, "The King looked to be almost stalemated". It's an interesting game. See it HERE.
Round 3: An unfortunate work-related withdrawal has spoiled Division A where Tony Bouchaaya and Robert Ambalong share the lead on 2 points. Ben Harris leads Div. B from Doug Djukovic and Levi Descallar, while in Div. C Rick Carballo, in good form, has wone all his games. Div. D could well be decided next week when leader, Ken MacGillivray on 3 plays second-placed Bill Herreros on 2½. Next week's Div. E round also has an "OK Corral" feel to it as leader Greg Davis shoots it out with Mario Maletic. A good win this week to Edis Franca in has game against Michael Jansen, which you can see HERE.
Robert Ambalong must be a student of C.J.S.Purdy who once said that the easiest way to win chess games was to win a pawn, exchange off, then queen the pawn. Before that happened in his game against Nancy Lane, there was some interesting manoeuvring with the major pieces. Here's the game.
Norrie Tique must have been practising the art of legerdemain over the weekend because he waved his magic wand and, Poof!, Stefan Jovanovic's knight disappeared. Actually it wasn't magic at all, it was a sneaky little zwischenzug on move 15. Check this out.
Carrie Evans shared another game, albeit with a different outcome from last week.
After Carrie permitted what looked like a temporarily inconvenient pin on Move 20, Rick Carballo established a knight-and-queen see saw on f7, winning the queen ahead of a forced smothered mate with 26...Kg8, 27. Nxd8+ Kh8, 28. Nf7+, Kg8, 29. Nh6+ Kh8, 30. Qg8+ Rxg8, 31. Nf7#. See it here.
 Robert Ambalong Halloween Gambit |
Round 4: In what may be the major upset of the tournament Joe Ymalay toppled Tony Bouchaaya. Tony had two checks: Qe4+ which won or Qc3+ which lost. He played Qc3, allowing Joe to escape his zugzwang with d4 and the passed pawn won. This leaves Robert Ambalong sitting alone in first place after he played a Halloween Gambit (well, it frightened me!) against Hans Muller. Click here.
Only Norrie Tique won in Division B (three draws) when he beat Chris Rust with a pretty knight sacrifice in the end game Here's the game.
Munir Anjum's win leaves him on top of Division C on 3½ after Rick Carballo relaxed and fell for a swindle in a won position. See the game here. Had he played 47. dxe5 or 48. a3 I'd have resigned. He was unlucky.
Ken MacGillivray is steaming along under full power in Division D and made it four from four when he beat Bill Herreros. Ken and Greg Davis in Division E are the only two players who remain undefeated. Here's Greg's game against Ben Zalac.
Round 5: In the two most significant Div. A games Tony Bouchaaya defeated Robert Ambalong (here's the game) and Joe Ymalay beat Leo Tenorio. Tony and Robert now share the lead with 3/4 (the bye isn't being counted) with Joe half a point behind on 2½.
Ben Harris continues to carve up the field in Div. B. His win against Chris Rust leaves him on 4½/5. Levi Descallar is second with 3½ ahead of Doug Djukovic and Norrie Tique next on 2½
Munir Anjum had a Yogi Berra-style win against Allan Butler. Two pawns ahead but with the time very short, Allan played 37. ...Ng6 and the fat lady (who had been getting ready to sing) went back to her dressing room. Munir's bishop snaffled the knight which couldn't be recaptured without clearing the way for white's powerful h-pawn. See the game HERE. Munir leads Div. C on 4½ but has to face Muhamed Buza and Rick Carballo, in the next two weeks.
Ken MacGillivray's unbeaten run came unstuck at the hands of Lloyd Fell, so Ken leads Div. D with 4 points from Frank Kresinger and Shane Burgess both on 3½.
The only player in any division with an unblemished score is Greg Davis who leads Div. E on 5 points, ahead of Mario Maletic, running second on 3½. Greg only needs to win one of his last two games to win the tournament.
Round 6: There were some exciting games in the Open section this week with all games drawn. Nancy Lane held Tony Bouchaaya while Robert Ambalong, threatened with mate in two on move 19 by the wily Leo Tenorio (20. Qd7+ Kf8, 21. Qd8#), found a resource that saved the game but also gave him the attack. Click here to see how it finished up.
Ben Harris continues to dominate Div. B and with 5½ points leads Levi Descallar by a point.
Div. C will hang on next week's game between joint leaders Rick Carballo and Munir Anjum who are both on 4 points following Munir's draw with Muhamed Buza and Rick's classy win against Adam Saiti. Click here
With one game to play Shane Burgess and Frank Kresinger have emerged as joint leaders of Div. D on 4½ and both have excellent chances of winning.
Div. E leader, Greg Davis, went down in a good game against Peter Watts and now leads by a point from Yama Mahmoodi (his Round 7 opponent) and Mario Maletic. Greg only needs a draw to take first place but if Yama wins there could be a three-way dead heat.
 Ben Harris Pressure Player |
Ben Harris
Usually the games published here come in week-by-week but I received Ben's games all together at the start of round six and rather than re-write each week's report to fit them in I decided to feature them in one place.
With only one round to go, Ben is a point clear in B Division although he is the second-lowest rated player, and as I played through these games the word that kept coming to mind was "implacable". He has a gift for creating and maintaining pressure against strong players and it won't be any surprise if he moves into the top division next year.
In Round 1 he won a pawn from Stephan Jovanovic, swapped off till they had only one piece each, tied white's knight to h3 then went maurauding with his king while his bishop kept an eye on things from a distance. See it here.
Playing black against Danilo Esguerra he swapped a rook for two knights which leapt all over Danny's castle until, faced with the need to stop two connected passed pawns, the king and rook fell into a fork from one of the knights. Here it is.
Maybe Ben prefers playing with black because with the white pieces he found himself two pawns down against Levi Descallar but a zwischenzug on move 34 allowed him to get one back and the game was drawn by repetition. Click here to see it.
Round 5 saw Ben win against Chris Rust who doesn't usually suffer memory lapses but left a bishop en prise on move 22. Once again there had been lots of pressure and black was already looking comfortable. Click here.
 Tony Bouchaaya Club Champion 2005 |
Round 7: In a competition that see-sawed in a most unlikely manner Tony Bouchaaya is Rooty Hill Club Champion for the third time in the last four years. In an exciting final game he sacrificed a piece for a pawn forcing 2001 winner Hans Muller to try and stop three connected passed pawns with his overworked bishop. Robert Ambalong , who had a great tournament, finished half a point behind when he was unable to find a win against Peter Cassettari's Slav Defence. Here it is.
Div. B was a clear win to Ben Harris who conceded only a single draw during the whole tournament. Levi Descallar took second place.
Div. C proved a triumph for Munir Anjum who capped a very successful year by winning outright. He spent his final game pinching pawns from Rick Carballo who ran out of options. See it here. Muhamed Buza and I finished equal second, half a point behind. Adam Saiti allowed black the initiative in this 79 move marathon but looked certain to draw until an oversight late in the game cost him two pawns. Click here.
Frank Kresinger was lurking just behind the leaders (of Div. D) until he grabbed the lead in Round 6. He finished it off in good style with a win against Lloyd Fell. Shane Burgess had been equal first coming in to the final round but lost to Bill Herreros.
Div. E. belonged to Greg Davis but Mario Maletic and Yama Mahmoodi were finishing well. Yama beat Greg tonight while Mario drew with Michael Jansen. Final scores: Greg and Yama 5, Mario and Peter Watts 4½.
Don't forget to let me have copies of your games so we can display them on the web page.
— Report: David Evans
| Players  |
Rnd 1 Oct 10 |
Rnd 2 Oct 17 |
Rnd 3 Oct 24 |
Rnd 4 Oct 31 |
Rnd 5 Nov 7 |
Rnd 6 Nov 14 |
Rnd 7 Nov 26 |
Score | |||||||||
| Division A | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Tony Bouchaaya | 2149 | W8 | – | W2 | 1 | B3 | 1 | W4 | 0 | B5 | 1 | W6 | ½ | B7 | 1 | 4½ | |
| 2 Leonardo Tenorio | 1856 | W7 | 1 | B1 | 0 | W8 | – | W3 | ½ | B4 | 0 | W5 | ½ | B6 | ½ | 2½ | |
| 3 Peter Cassettari | 1838 | W6 | ½ | B7 | 1 | W1 | 0 | B2 | ½ | Bye | – | W4 | ½ | B5 | ½ | 3 | |
| 4 Joe Ymalay | 1805 | W5 | 0 | B6 | 0 | W7 | ½ | B1 | 1 | W2 | 1 | B3 | ½ | Bye | – | 3 | |
| 5 Robert Ambalong | 1801 | B4 | 1 | B8 | – | W6 | 1 | B7 | 1 | W1 | 0 | B2 | ½ | W3 | ½ | 4 | |
| 6 Nancy Lane | 1800 | B3 | ½ | W4 | 1 | B5 | 0 | Bye | – | W7 | ½ | B1 | ½ | W2 | ½ | 3 | |
| 7 Hans Muller | 1796 | B2 | 0 | W3 | 0 | B4 | ½ | W5 | 0 | B6 | ½ | Bye | – | W1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 Mark Simpkin | 1750 | B1 | – | W5 | – | B2 | – | WD | – | WD | – | WD | – | WD | – | WD | |
| PLEASE NOTE: Mark Simpkin's two games have been discounted and no points will be awarded for the byes. | |||||||||||||||||
| Division B | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Dragan Djukovic | 1749 | W8 | 1 | W2 | ½ | B3 | ½ | W4 | ½ | B5 | 0 | W6 | 0 | B7 | - | 2½ | |
| 2 Stefan Jovanovic | 1720 | W7 | 0 | B1 | ½ | W8 | 0 | W3 | ½ | B4 | 1 | W5 | 0 | B6 | 1 | 3 | |
| 3 David Harvey | 1716 | W6 | ½ | B7 | 0 | W1 | ½ | B2 | ½ | W8 | ½ | W4 | 1 | B5 | ½ | 3½ | |
| 4 Danilo Esguerra | 1676 | W5 | ½ | B6 | ½ | W7 | 0 | B1 | ½ | W2 | 0 | B3 | 0 | W8 | 1 | 2½ | |
| 5 Levi Descallar | 1662 | B4 | ½ | B8 | 1 | W6 | ½ | B7 | ½ | W1 | 1 | B2 | 1 | W3 | ½ | 5 | |
| 6 Chris Rust | 1655 | B3 | ½ | W4 | ½ | B5 | ½ | B8 | 0 | W7 | 0 | B1 | 1 | W2 | 0 | 2½ | |
| 7 Ben Harris | 1650 | B2 | 1 | W3 | 1 | B4 | 1 | W5 | ½ | B6 | 1 | B8 | 1 | W1 | + | 6½ | |
| 8 Norrie Tique | 1636 | B1 | 0 | W5 | 0 | B2 | 1 | W6 | 1 | B3 | ½ | W7 | 0 | B4 | 0 | 2½ | |
| Division C | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Muhamed Buza | 1610 | W8 | 1 | W2 | 0 | B3 | 1 | W4 | – | B5 | 1 | W6 | ½ | B7 | 1 | 4½ | |
| 2 Rick Carballo | 1607 | W7 | 1 | B1 | 1 | W8 | 1 | W3 | 0 | B4 | – | W5 | 1 | B6 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 David Evans | 1590 | W6 | ½ | B7 | 1 | W1 | 0 | B2 | 1 | W8 | 1 | W4 | – | 1 | 4½ | ||
| 4 Ernesto Alberici | 1596 | W5 | – | B6 | – | W7 | – | B1 | – | W2 | – | B3 | – | – | WD | ||
| 5 Adam Saiti | 1502 | B4 | – | B8 | 0 | W6 | 0 | B7 | 1 | W1 | 0 | B2 | 0 | W3 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 Munir Anjum | 1501 | B3 | ½ | W4 | – | B5 | 1 | B8 | 1 | W7 | 1 | B1 | ½ | W2 | 1 | 5 | |
| 7 Allan Butler | 1485 | B2 | 0 | W3 | 0 | B4 | – | W5 | 0 | B6 | 0 | B8 | 1 | W1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 Carrie Evans | 1451 | B1 | 0 | W5 | 1 | B2 | 0 | W6 | 0 | B3 | 0 | W7 | 0 | Bye | – | 1 | |
| PLEASE NOTE: Ernesto Alberici's only game haS been discounted and no points will be awarded for the byes. | |||||||||||||||||
| Division D | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Vilko Salecich | 1440 | W8 | 0 | W2 | 0 | B3 | 0 | W4 | 0 | B5 | 1 | W6 | - | B7 | - | 1 | |
| 2 Bill Herreros | 1428 | W7 | ½ | B1 | 1 | W8 | 1 | W3 | 0 | B4 | ½ | W5 | 0 | B6 | 1 | 4 | |
| 3 Ken MacGillivray | 1402 | W6 | 1 | B7 | 1 | W1 | 1 | B2 | 1 | W8 | 0 | W4 | 0 | B5 | ½ | 4½ | |
| 4 Frank Kresinger | 1402 | W5 | 1 | B6 | 0 | W7 | 1 | B1 | 1 | W2 | ½ | B3 | 1 | W8 | 1 | 5½ | |
| 5 Rolando Gonzales | 1395 | B4 | 0 | B8 | 1 | W6 | 0 | B7 | 0 | W1 | 0 | B2 | 1 | W3 | ½ | 2½ | |
| 6 Shane Burgess | 1316 | B3 | 0 | W4 | 1 | B5 | 1 | B8 | 1 | W7 | ½ | B1 | 1 | W2 | 0 | 4½ | |
| 7 Eddie Quesada | 1304 | B2 | ½ | W3 | 0 | B4 | 0 | W5 | 1 | B6 | ½ | B8 | 1 | W1 | + | 4 | |
| 8 Lloyd Fell | 1270 | B1 | 1 | W5 | 0 | B2 | 0 | W6 | 0 | B3 | 1 | W7 | 0 | B4 | 0 | 2 | |
| Division E | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Peter Watts | 1260 | B7 | 0 | B3 | 0 | W6 | + | W10 | ½ | B5 | 1 | W2 | 1 | W4 | 1 | 4½ | |
| 2 Greg Davis | 1145 | W6 | 1 | B7 | 1 | W10 | 1 | B3 | 1 | W4 | 1 | B1 | 0 | W9 | 0 | 5 | |
| 3 Ben Zalac | 975 | B9 | ½ | W1 | 1 | B4 | ½ | W2 | 0 | B10 | 0 | W5 | 0 | Bye | 1 | 3 | |
| 4 Vince Zalac | 901 | W8 | 1 | B10 | 0 | W3 | ½ | B7 | ½ | B2 | 0 | W6 | 1 | B1 | 0 | 3 | |
| 5 Edis Franca | 469 | B10 | 0 | W8 | + | W7 | 1 | B9 | 0 | W1 | 0 | B3 | 1 | W6 | 1 | 4 | |
| 6 Adrian Jansen | unr. | B2 | 0 | W8 | 0 | B1 | – | B8 | + | W7 | ½ | B4 | 0 | B5 | 0 | 1½ | |
| 7 Michael Jansen | unr. | W1 | 1 | W2 | 0 | B5 | 0 | W4 | ½ | B6 | ½ | Bye | 1 | W10 | ½ | 3½ | |
| 8 Rahman Mahmoodi | unr. | B4 | 0 | B6 | – | B9 | 0 | W6 | – | Bye | – | WD | – | WD | – | 0 | |
| 9 Yama Mahmoodi | unr. | W3 | ½ | B5 | 1 | W8 | 1 | W5 | 1 | Bye | – | B10 | ½ | B2 | 1 | 5 | |
| 10 Mario Maletic | unr. | W5 | 1 | W4 | 1 | B2 | 0 | B1 | ½ | W3 | 1 | W9 | ½ | B7 | ½ | 4½ | |
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