Australian Chess Championship 2005–6

The Xstrata Australian Championship, Australian Junior Championship and subsidiary tournaments will be held in Brisbane from December 28 to January 9. We will be covering the main event here.

To visit the official site CLICK HERE

The starting line-up includes five GMs, headed by Lubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia (2612), five IMs including Gary Lane, eight FMs and two WIMs. It's a star-studded affair which brings Australian chess the prestige it deserves, and may well provide opportunities for players to notch up an IM or even a GM norm.

      Player            State FIDE   ACF

 Ftacnik, Lubomir    GM  SVK  2612  2690
 Rogers, Ian         GM  NSW  2556  2631
 Schmaltz, Roland    GM  GER  2544  2530
 Chandler, Murray    GM  ENG  2537   249*
 Johansen, Darryl    GM  VIC  2462  2453
 Zhao, Zong-Yuan     IM  NSW  2461  2475
 Lane, Gary          IM  NSW  2445  2484
 Wohl, Alex          IM  QLD  2439  2538
 Smerdon, David      IM  QLD  2421  2405
 Solomon, Stephen    IM  QLD  2415  2391
 Bjelobrk, Igor      FM  NSW  2399  2408
 Canfell, Greg       FM  NSW  2354  2296
 Xie, George         FM  NSW  2340  2324
 Goldenberg, Igor    FM  VIC  2335  2315
 Humphrey, Jonathan  FM  QLD  2254  2189

            *249 BCF = 2592 ELO

      Player              State FIDE   ACF

 Guthrie, Aaron        FM  SA   2251  2120
 Levi, Eddy            FM  VIC  2241  2235
 Smirnov, Vladimir         NSW  2235  2237
 Dougherty, Michael    FM  CAN  2212  2228
 Caoili, Arianne      WIM  QLD  2207  2293
 Lakner, Jay               WA   2207  2145
 Booth, Stewart            VIC  2179  2184
 Ly, Moulthun              QLD  2162  2148
 Bird, Andrew              NSW  2146  2105
 Pyke, Malcolm             VIC  2126  2079
 Wallis, Christopher       VIC  2114  2055
 Moylan, Laura        WIM  NSW  2112  2093
 Song, Raymond             NSW  2051  2073
 Obst, James               SA   2012  2054
 Frame, Nigel              TAS        1849

Round 1: Some interesting results as the top players squared off against the bottom half of the field. Arianne Caoili was a pawn up against GM Darryl Johansen but, short of time, agreed to a draw. Raymond Song also drew. He was two pawns up against George Xie whose rook kept reinforcements at bay.
Moulthan Ly won in spite of conceding 400 rating points to IM Alex Wohl but the game is unavailable. So is the score for Gary Lane's win against Stewart Booth.
A piece down against GM Roland Schmaltz, of Germany, Vlad Smirnov (who has played at Rooty Hill) found himself on the wrong end of a double check.
Laura Moylan sacrificed a piece to defeat Greg Canfell, and top seed, Lubomir Ftacnik, a piece up, wouldn't let Aaron Guthrie's king come out to play. Aaron resigned.
Ian Rogers exchanged his queen for Eddie Levi's rook to clear the path for his passed pawn while Murray Chandler, a pawn up and with Michael Dougherty's queenside at his mercy, forced the exchange of rooks
Never was a zugzwang more complete than that created by Lee Jones's rook in his game against Dennis Holland. (Lee just missed the rating cut for the Championship and is playing in the Major.) Since he could only move his king to and fro and wait for the end, Dennis decided "resigns" was a better option.

Round 2: When Lubomir met The Smurf the game was drawn by repetition. An interesting game, which the Schmaltz-Solomon draw was not, and has been omitted.
Murray Chandler's a-pawn proved too powerful for Jonathan Humphrey who played 43...Kg7 then resigned. But Chandler may have missed an even quicker win with 38. Rxg6+ then 39. Bxf7 and 40. a7.
Igor Bjelobrk worked up a pretty good attack against Ian Rogers, who managed to go one better. Igor found himself a rook down, a queen exchange pending and a mate to defend. Daunting stuff!
Young Moulthan Ly couldn't take two IM scalps in a row and found himself two pawns in arrears after a pyrotechnic display by Zong-Yuan Zhao.
A queen on the board and another in the oven were too much for Laura Moylan's rook in her defeat by Gary Lane.
James Obst set Arianne Caoili a multiple choice question in this one. "Would you rather be mated on g2, h2 or g1?"
Darryl Johansen's 56...Rb7 put a stop to Raymond Song's defence in their tough encounter.
In his brevity with IM Alex Wohl there was no effective way for George Xie to stop d5, winning a piece.
In a finish worthy of a grand master, Jay Lakner sacrificed his queen to force mate against Greg Canfell after 36. Bxg3, Rg1+, 37. Kh2 hxg3#. Very pretty!
In the Major, Lee Jones's win was a little earlier than expected when Michael Cashman played 45...Kf8 and resigned, realising a knight check would win at least the exchange.

Round 3:  After three rounds Murray Chandler (3) leads from Gary Lane, Ian Rogers, Lubomir Ftacnik and David Smerdon, all on 2½.
Gary Lane and Ian Rogers had a fighting draw on Board 1 leaving them both on 2½/3.
In spite of his two good wins against FM Igor Goldenberg and WFM Arianne Caoili, James Obst appeared bewildered by GM Murray Chandler's attack and lost quickly. We'll see a lot more of James before this event is over and, in case you don't know the name, he's only fourteen years old.
Almost as quick was Ljubomir Ftacnik's defeat of Zong-Yuan Zhao. After 30...Nxc4 Ftacnik was able to lift his rook with tempo allowing an attack down the f- and h-files, made even more difficult for Zhao by the potential to attack his undefended bishop on d6.
Schmurf Schmacks Schmaltz could be the headline for this one. Certainly Smerdon showed a talent for persuading Schmaltz to place his king on the wrong square in this rook-and-pawn ending.
Two pawns down and with rook and knight vs rook and bishop, Steven Solomon managed to draw this difficult position against Darryl Johansen.
Check out the neat tactical win by Alex Wohl over Eddy Levi. You'll enjoy it.
No less interesting was Igor Bjelobrk's win against Michael Dougherty. If 38...Kh7, 39 Qxf7 mates, and if 38...Kh5 39. Rxg5+ mates.
Jay Lakner's king looked comfortable on g2 so how did Igor Goldenberg persuade it to emigrate and abdicate?
Thirteen year-old Moulthan Ly, already the exchange ahead, found the gap in Aaron Guthrie's armour with 41. Rxe6+. After the exchange of rooks, Rb6 wins a piece.
Arianne Caoili resigned, a piece and a pawn in arrears after Malcolm Pyke's tactical strikes made it look almost easy.
In the Major, Lee Jones (black) drew with Svetozar Stojic but, unfortunately, the game is not available. Lee is half a point off the lead on 2½.

Round 4:  There has been a delay reporting this round since cyber-vandals hacked the official web site and rendered it inaccessible for most of the day.
Gary Lane and Murray Chandler played a quick draw (see game). Other quick draws included Rogers-Ftacnik and Zhao-Moylan. They have been omitted from the games shown here.
Almost as quick as the other two was David Smerdon's win against Darryl Johansen. Two pawns down and with his bishop about to be exchanged, Johansen decided on an early finish.
A double attack on move 31 allowed Alex Wohl to set up mate-in-two against James Obst.
Steven Solomon's queen indulged herself in an unseemly mating ritual with MoulthUn Ly's king. I don't know if the king was feeling tired, but Ly certainly has every right: he's playing in the Australian Junior Championship concurrently with this event. Oh, yeah, and he's sharing the lead in the Juniors with 3½/4!
Igor meets Igor: Goldenberg plays Bjelobrk – but when Igor the Black played Kg1 there was no way for Igor the White to stop the f-pawn. If 88.Kg3 then f2 still queens because 89. Rxf2 Rc3+, 90 Rf3 h4+, and after the rooks are exchanged the h-pawn queens.
Malcolm Pyke had no effective defence against GM Roland Schmaltz's threatened 33...Qh5+.
Eddy Levi could have played 38. Bxd1 but after Greg Canfell moved Re8 his king had all the time necessary to put his royal seal on the game. Eddy resigned.
Michael Dougherty was apparently concerned about George Xie's advancing g-pawn when he played 30 Rxe3 (instead of fxe3) but it left him open to an immediate back-rank mate in two.
Chris Wallis's king was looking decidedly uncomfortable when he resigned to Arianne Caoili after one of the longest games of the day.
Raymond Song made it look easy against Andrew Bird in this marathon. (Song + Bird? Maybe we should dub this the Magpie Attack!)
Lee Jones continues to play well in the Major with another win (against Neil Wright). Sorry, but once again the game is unavailable. Lee is half a point behind Kevin Sheldrik who leads after four straight wins.

Round 5:   A draw on the top board between Murray Chandler and David Smerdon has allowed Gary Lane, Lubomir Ftacnic and Ian Rogers to catch up for a share of the lead.
In the Major Kevin Sheldrick made it five from five and is a full point clear of Lee Jones, Gavin Marner and Malcolm Tredinnick.
In the Juniors Moulthun Ly has a half point lead from a big pack of nine ankle-biters snapping at his heels.
Ftacnik's passed pawn dominated Wohl's endgame. Alex had the opportunity to capture it on move 31 but would have faced mating threats after 32. Qg7.
A piece down (he fell for some sleight-of-hand on move 39) Solomon had no answer to Rogers' runaway d-pawn.
In a finish that resembled the Gunfight at the OK Corral Gary Lane and Igor Bjelobrk both had guns drawn and blazing, but Gary's draw was quicker.
About to win his third pawn and with the exchange of queens pending, Schmaltz had more than enough to defeat Zhao.
Laura Moylan's passed pawn had almost run the gauntlet to d8 when George Xie's rook and queen made it all academic.
Darryl Johansen found a deadly check (35. Nxg6+) because after 35...Kg8, 36. Ne7 double check, Igor Goldenberg loses a rook without even slowing white's attack.
With a knight fork threatening on f3 Vladimir Smirnov playing Jay Lakner found time for a check. Now if 48. Ke1 the pawn queens with check, and if 48. Kg1 Kg3 mates. White resigned.
Defence into attack!  Stewart Booth was threatening mate on the move and Arianne Caoili could have defended passively with 36...Qf8. Instead she played Qxf6 attacking white's rook which was tied to the back rank. She could now play Qf2 with multiple threats. White resigned.
Lee Jones sits just behind the lead in the Major. Below you can play through his draw with Gavin Marner.

Round 6:  Check out the Smurf! David Smerdon held GM Ian Rogers to a draw in an exciting game and has now played five consecutive grandmasters for two wins and three draws. The official bulletin says that no Australian, playing in Australia, has ever faced four, let alone five, grandmasters in a row and his rating performance has been estimated to be well above 2600.
Top seed Ftacnik lost to GM Chandler, Roland Schmaltz beat Gary Lane, Bjelobrk/Johansen and Canfell/Wohl were drawn, and Steven Solomon lost on time in an intriguing position with George Xie.
See the games below.
The competition has been spoiled by a bye in final rounds. Eddy Levi advised the organisers he was withdrawing after losing four of his first five games and may face a suspension.
In the Major Kevin Sheldrick dropped his first half point (to Gavin Marner) and Lee Jones slipped back a little, but is still in touch after a loss to Mehmedalija Dizdarevic.
Moulthun Ly who drew FM Igor Goldenberg had earlier defeated Junta Ikeda in the Junior Championship, where he leads by half a point from Vincent Suttor and Angela Song. In his spare time, Moulthun managed to win the Junior Rapid Championship with 6.5/7.

Round 7:   Following his excellent showing against the grandmasters, David Smerdon is now strutting his stuff with the IMs, unfortunately beginning with a neat exchange sacrifice against Gary Lane (45...Kxh6, 46. Qh8#). Ian Rogers beat Murray Chandler and he and the Smurf now share the lead on 5.5 ahead of Chandler/Schmaltz on 5. Ftacnik/Xie are close behind them on 4.5 followed by a pack of eight players all on 4 points.
Following Levi's withdrawal there will be only fourteen games contested in each round. Since half of these were draws we will give copies of only the seven decisive games – and of those seven five were won by black. In the Major, Kevin Sheldrick won again on Board 1, this time against Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. He's on 6.5 ahead of five players on 5.5. Lee Jones lost his second game, this time to Rukman Vijayakumar.
Moulthun Ly dropped another half point in the Juniors, this time to Angela Song. Moulthun (who finished the day by moving to 50% in the Championship with a win against Arianne Caoili) leads with 6 points ahead of Song, Oliver, Suttor, and Jager on 5.5.

Moulthun Ly

Round 8:   It's getting competitive at the front. Rogers, Smerdon, Chandler and Ftacnik won at the expense of Schmaltz, Xie, Zhao and Bjelobrk, while Vladimir Smirnov held Darryl Johansen to a draw. Gary Lane is back on the winning path with a win from Greg Canfell. David Smerdon and Ian Rogers now lead the field on 6.5 from Murray Chandler on 6 and Lubomir Ftacnic 5.5. Gary Lane is next with five points.
In the Major tournament Kevin Sheldrick finally lost one (to Neil Wright) and those two now share the lead with Ilia Zvedeniouk and Michael Cashman. Lee Jones drew with Barry Cox and is now probably out of contention.
Moulthun Ly's grip has loosened on the Junior tournament and he is now sharing 3rd spot, half a point behind Angela Song and Vincent Suttor. After drawing with Moulthun in yesterday's game, Angela wondered whether he was becoming tired. She said he missed some opportunities against her. In his game against Suttor he played very quickly, taking less than a minute a move, and paid the price. However, in his afternoon game in the Australian Championship he defeated James Obst and now sits on 4.5/8, level with such players as Johansen, Solomon, Xie, Smirnov and Goldenberg – and ahead of Bjelobrk, Zhao, Canfell and Song. Not bad, young Moulthun.

Round 9:   The top seven boards were all drawn in this round, maintaining the status quo among the leaders. The games Wohl/Rogers, Solomon/Smerdon, Schmaltz/Chandler, Ftacnik/Lane, Xie/Goldenberg, Ly/Smirnov were all interesting and can be viewed by clicking the table below. The Johansen/Zhao draw was a quickie and has been omitted.
David Smerdon and Ian Rogers still share the lead on 7/9 from Murray Chandler 6.5, Lubomir Ftacnik 6, with Gary Lane and Roland Schmaltz on 5.5, just 1.5 points from the lead.
In the Major, Kevin Sheldrick has lost two in a row (to Wright and Sonter) and with 6.5/9 has slipped back to equal third behind Neil Wright 7.5 and Ilia Zvedeniouk 7.
Lee Jones defeated Brayden Soo (see game below) but still trails Wright by two points.
Moulthun Ly picked up a point in the Junior Championship when Ronald Yu called in sick but is still half a point off the lead. Angela Song defeated Michael Morris (see game below) to lead the event with two rounds to go. She has 7.5/9 ahead of Junta Ikeda and Moulthun Ly, both on 7.

Round 10:   Entering the final round Ian Rogers and David Smerdon are on 8, just half a point ahead of Murray Chandler. Roland Schmaltz is next on 6.5 from Lubomir Ftacnik, Gary Lane and 11 year-old Raymond Song all on 6.
Neil Wright leads the Major, half a point ahead of Ilia Zvedeniouk. Lee Jones had a draw in this round with the rapidly improving Alex Mendes da Costa.
In the Junior Championship Angela Song defeated Junta Ikeda—no mean feet, considering Junta himself beat GM Ian Rogers at last year's NSW Open. Angela now goes into the final a full point clear of Justin Huang and Ganesh Viswanath.

Round 11:   What a finish! The top two boards were bound to be decisive and so they were—but not in the way we expected. Both games were won with a full rook advantage but whereas GM Ian Rogers demolished little Raymond Song who resigned when his king was confined to the a-file in front of his remaining pawn, Igor Goldenberg won a rook from joint leader, IM David Smerdon, thus saving Rogers the need to play off for the title. Defending champion IM Gary Lane finished two points back in fifth position, tied with top seed, GM Lubomir Ftacnik. (Gary's game is not shown in the list below – there were apparently some problems transcribing the score sheet.)
Smerdon achieved his first grandmaster norm during the tournament.
MAJOR:   Despite a last-round loss, Neil Wright clung to his lead to win the Major with 8.5/11. Ilia Zvedenious, Malcolm Tredinnick and Ben Lazarus tied for second, just half a point further back.
The early leader, Kevin Sheldrick faltered over the last few rounds to finish fifth while Lee Jones finished only two points from the leader on 6.5. Lee's last game was a draw with former state champion Phil Viner. Click on the link in the games table below to see it.
JUNIOR:   Angela Song was a point clear entering the last round and the only player who could catch her was her opponent, Justin Huang. He did! It was Angela's first loss of the tournament and might have proved expensive but Caissa has decreed that after the dead-heat comes the play-off—a set of two rapid games.
The first game was drawn and when Angela won the second she punched both fists into the air and yelled, "Yeah!" to the applause of thirty or forty spectators.
Angela, the first girl ever to win the Australian Junior title, is reported to have expressed interest in joining the Olympiad team for Torino. I hope she makes it!
Remarkably, Moulthun Ly who had been favourite for the event, finished only half a point back in second spot. He would undoubtedly have won the title had he concentrated only on this event but his rapid play to conserve energy for the afternoon's game in the senior championship, was a liberty he could ill afford in a field as classy as this.
I noticed belatedly that Rooty Hill had a representative in the Junior Championship. Ben Harris may have been a little disappointed with a couple of his games after his excellent result in the club championship, but he still turned in a very respectable 6/11 to finish 2½ points behind Angela and Justin. He had four wins and four draws. He also scored 7½/11 in the Lightning. My apologies to Ben for not spotting him sooner.
Congratulations to all the winners.

Cross Tables:   If you would like to view the cross tables for the Championship, Major, Junior, Lightning or Junior Lightning, CLICK HERE

                              —Report:   David Evans