| by Charles Zworestine |  
|
Well, I was going to write up two tournament reports for the Rooty Hill web page, on the 2003 Rooty Hill Open and the 2003 Rooty Hill Club Championships. But a couple of things decided me against this. After all, I had missed a couple of rounds of the Rooty Hill Open (due in one case to illness, and in another to playing chess in another state!); and I had only really followed one division (my own!) of the Rooty Hill Club Championships. Besides, I thought that conveying to visitors to this page my positive impressions of Rooty Hill Chess Club as a whole would be of more long term benefit to the club. And anyway, what was to stop me incorporating a report on the aforementioned two tournaments into this little article?
I first went to Rooty Hill (this year - I had played for them once before in the Western Suburbs Interclub, for similar reasons to what follows) because I was working at the relatively nearby Blacktown Campus of the University of Western Sydney, finishing at 5 pm on Monday evenings. Considering the Rooty Hill Open was on Monday nights at 7:30, it seemed a waste not to play in it. I quickly discovered what a good decision this was. Rooty Hill is a very friendly club, and I enjoyed the tournament atmosphere right from the start. The Open attracted a good field of 36 players, which may seem like a small tournament; but such numbers give an intimate feel to these events, and make them very pleasant ones to play in.
Top seeded Brian Jones started with a win , as did second seed Tony Bouchaaya; I was also lucky enough to win my first round game against George Smit, after my opponent played rather too passively as White out of the opening and gave me an aggressive position which I converted into a winning attack ( Zworestine - G.Smit ). Biggest Round 1 upset was young Ben Harris' win over Norrie Tique; although Allan Butler also scored an upset of sorts, drawing with Joe Ymalay. Fourth seed David Dick had to take a first round half point bye.
Rather more action in Round 2, as Brian Jones won fairly quickly against daughter Nancy Lane on Board 1; but Tony was held to a draw by Hans Muller, as was I by Vasil Tulevski. To be quite honest, Vasil always had a slight edge in our game; but I do not believe it was ever enough to win, and he ended up having to settle for a draw. No real upsets lower down, except perhaps Lloyd R Fell's win over Allan Laurente and Rebecca Harris' draw with Stevan Jovanovic, and George beats Vic.But Round 3 saw the real upsets start, as Brian Jones could not win his bishop ending against Robert Ambalong and had to settle for a draw on Board 1. (Click this to view the game) This was nothing compared to the results on Boards 2 and 4 (Tony beat Ashley Silson on Board 3): Frank Barisic won a very long struggle against Peter Cassettari on Board 2, and I lost to Joe Ymalay on Board 4. A particularly frustrating game for me, as I felt I was winning most of the way; but Joe deserves great credit for hanging in there, and in the end I moved my king to the wrong square in the ending, walked into a mating net and lost. Lloyd R Fell continued his good run with an upset win over Vic Kolodziejski, as did Ben Harris by beating Henry Rara.
My frustration continued in Round 4, when I had to forfeit to Ben Harris due to illness; oh well, I was obviously out of contention. Not so the 3 equal leaders after Round 4 on 3.5/4: Brian (beat Frank), Tony (beat Robert) and David Dick (beat Vasil). Peter and Joe drew, while Lloyd finally lost (to Nancy). This set up the big game in Round 5, where Tony bettered Brian to take the outright lead on 4.5/5 after David drew with Frank. But 3 players were close behind on 4/5: David, Nancy (beat Chris Rust) and Joe (finally ended the run of Ben Harris). Vasil beat Peter by forcing the win of his queen or mate, and Iliya Dzukic upset Robert; while I finally managed another win, grinding down Alex Mendes da Costa in a long ending.
Round 6 kept things interesting at the top, with time being the problem that stopped David Dick winning against Tony; in the end, he had to settle for a draw. This still left Tony equal first on 5/6 with Nancy (who beat Joe) going in to the last round, with David, Frank (who beat Iliya) and Vasil (upset winner over Brian) breathing down their neck on 4.5. Another ending for me, and another win (over Rebecca Harris). But I had to miss the last round, as I was in Caloundra playing for the St. George team in the Australian Club Team Championships (where we came in second by a point from the Universities team). By all reports, I missed an exciting finish. Tony beat Nancy to take it outright on 6/7, by half a point from Vasil (beat Frank) and David (beat Hans Muller). A fantastic tournament. The upsets continued right to the end: Peter drew his last round game with Brian, and Ben beat Chris
So there it is: one tournament report! Told you I could work it in. Of course, the Rooty Hill Club Championship was always going to be harder to report on, as I really only followed my own division. I had made a last minute decision to play in this one, as I knew my classes would have finished halfway through the tournament and I would have to commute a long way for at least 3 Monday nights. But in the end, I decided to play; based on the enjoyment I got out of playing in the Rooty Hill Open, I was sure I would enjoy this one too.
Of course, I was therefore not too thrilled to be playing top seed Tony Bouchaaya in the first round; I would have preferred an easier first round game, but I knew this one would be tough. And it was: I stuffed up in the opening, choosing a bad move over a good one(!), and wound up just a pawn down in a dead lost ending. But then a surprising thing happened - I found out Tony is not invincible! He did not play with maximum accuracy, and allowed me to get counterplay in a rook and pawn ending. I still lost in the end, but not without having had my chances; at least I had made him fight. In other Round 1 games Brian beat Robert , Hans beat Nancy and Peter drew with David Harvey.
Round 2 saw me stuff up the opening again as White against David Harvey. I did not like my position when my opponent offered me an early draw - so I took it! I guess I was happy to get off the mark, and David was happy to draw with a higher rated player. Nancy got off the mark by beating Robert, while Brian ground down Peter in a rare loss. Tony had to wait to play his game against Hans (it was postponed); when they did eventually play, Tony won.
Finally, a win for me in Round 3 - but only due to my opponent's generosity! I had blundered a pawn and was dead lost against Hans when he miscalculated a tactic: he thought he was winning an exchange by a knight fork based on a pin, but instead lost a piece (he overlooked the fact that my rook was twice protected). Tony beat David, while this time Nancy was able to draw with her father Brian! Peter against Robert was a tragicomedy that ended in a draw. From a drawn king and pawn ending, Peter stuffed up often enough to end up in a losing position, queen against rook pawn on the sixth rank; but then Robert quite unnecessarily let the pawn advance one more square, and it was drawn!
Decisive results in Round 4 were David over Robert, and Brian over Hans. Nancy drew with her second top seed in a row (Tony), while I drew with Peter after the latter offered me a draw when he had a positional advantage, and I did not feel like being squeezed to death for two more hours (so I accepted)! I was then back under 50% (2/5) after losing to Brian in Round 5: I played OK for the first 25 moves or so as Black, then let my position collapse and Brian crushed me mercilessly (after trapping a rook). Nancy beat David, and Robert beat Hans . Drawing master Peter deliberately steered for a slightly inferior rook and pawn ending against Tony; despite having a minute advantage, there was no way for Tony to get through, and he had to accede to a draw.
Yet another draw for Peter in Round 6 (against Hans); but I wanted to get to 50%, and was not content to draw with Nancy. I had a positional advantage (she had a bad bishop from quite early on), but it was always going to be hard to win. However, I persisted: I should not have succeeded, but ended up winning with lots of help from the clock. Brian and Tony set up an exciting finish by both winning (Brian over David, Tony over Robert), leaving Brian on 5.5 and Tony on 5 going in to the last round And Tony once more pipped Brian at the post, winning their last round game to secure the title. Peter drew with Nancy (another draw for Peter!), and David with Hans; while I beat Robert to snatch third place on 4/7.
The other divisions were also really exciting - typically for this great club! Division 2 saw a thrilling three-way tie for first on 5.5/7 between Levi Descallar, Joe Ymalay and Danilo Esguerra, after the latter two drew their last round game; but Levi could not take full advantage, and also only drew (with Vic Kolodziejski). Division 3 was even more exciting, with Chris Rust losing his last round game to Iliya Dzukic to give Frank Kresinger a chance to win the tournament outright! However, Frank could only draw his last round game with Ashley Silson; so Frank and Chris ended up equal first (on 5/7). Division 4 was much more of a whitewash, with Adam Saiti winning with a picket fence 7/7 score.
So there you have it: my impressions of Rooty Hill Chess Club, wrapped up in 2 tournament reports! It's a wonderful club. I really enjoyed both tournaments. Judging by the members who keep coming back, they did too. I may even come back myself.