Sunday 17 March 2024

Roll your own openings

 Every time someone mentions the Jobava London to me, I feel compelled to point out that the true author of this opening was Canberra junior player, Gary Wilson. Indeed, Wilson was playing it before Jobava was born (Nov 1983), so credit where credit is due.

I'm now seeing a similar case, although to be fair, it isn't an exact copy. Anna Cramling has created her own opening, The Cow. Not so much an opening as a system, the basic moves are e3,d3,Ne2-Ng3,Nd2-b3,Be2,Bd2. White allows Black to opportunity to build the big centre, before trying to dismantle it.

If White played 1.d4 (instead of d3), it would be very similar to a system that Canberra player Erik Jochimsen has been playing for years. The early knight manoeuvre to g3 is a staple of the system, followed by the development of the white squared bishop. Now I'm not sure what Anti-Cow strategies have been developed, but once local players targeted the knight on g3 with a h pawn thrust, Jochimsen found the opening was not as effective as he had hoped it would be. But ever the optimist, Jochimsen has stuck with it, keeping faith with his invention.


Thursday 14 March 2024

Some important AGM's

 If you are a Canberra resident (or live close by) there are a couple of important Annual General Meetings coming up.

The ACT Junior Chess League AGM is on Sunday 17th March 1:30pm at Campbell High School (during the ACTJCL Autumn Allegro). It is open to the parents of members of the ACTJCL. The ACTJCL has been running without a full committee for the last few years and so there is a need for parents to step up and fill the executive roles.

The ACT Chess Association AGM is being held on Thursday 28th March 7:00pm at the Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden. This is during the Doeberl Cup, so members can drop in a spectate the Premier, before attending the AGM. Unlike the Junior Chess League, the ACTCA has been running with a full committee (who are re-standing this year), but that should not prevent interested members from attending.

  

Monday 11 March 2024

Burning bridges

 One advantage higher rated players often have, is that their lower rated opponents feel the need to do something dramatic, to try and avoid being ground down. I fell into this trap recently, blundering a piece to a faulty combination last week at my club, while the example below came from the final round of the Ballarat Begonia Open. While top seed GM Gawain Jones would be expected to win this final round clash, his opponents over optimistic attack made the task a lot simpler.


Jones,Gawain (2618) - Chan,Kris (2071) [E90]
Begonia Open 2024 Ballarat, Australia (7.1), 11.03.2024


Saturday 9 March 2024

Some blindfold practice

 Try and visualise the following position - White:Kf1, Rd6, Pa7,d7,g3,h3 Black: Kd8, Ra2, Pg5,g6,h7

How do you play as white?

(From the book Cognitive Chess by Konstantin Chernyshov)

Despite getting the position in my head quite quickly, it still took me around 5 minutes before I worked out the winning idea. See how well you can do.


Tuesday 5 March 2024

A proper GM event

 The headline is a little dramatic, in that there are lots of proper GM events. But the Shenzen Masters kind of feels like a pre-covid GM event, rather than the an event that is squeezed between the next online KO/Rapid/Troll-fest that seems to be prevalent today. Four local GM's and 4 foreign GM's in the 2600-2800 range has seen some entertaining games. 

The one game I picked from the tournament is a 30 mover, surprisingly won by Black using the Petroff. In the end the sneaky black pawn on b2 made all the difference.


Erigaisi,Arjun (2738) - Bu Xiangzhi (2671) [C43]
5th Shenzhen Longgang Shenzhen CHN (2), 01.03.2024


Sunday 3 March 2024

2024 Olympiad

 It might seem a long way off, but the wheels are already in motion for Federations planning to attend the 2024 Chess Olympiad. It will be held in Budapest in mid September, but Federations are already able to register their attendance. In fact the deadline for doing so is sometime next week, so the organisers are clearly trying to have a solid estimate of numbers well in advance.

Although the actual team registrations are not open as yet, I do note that the New Zealand Chess Federation is off to an early start, having already selected their squads. Normally the Australian teams are selected some time after Easter, while for other teams in the region selections are often complicated by availability of players (due to work/financial issues).


Friday 1 March 2024

Xmas day for chess players

 The 1st of March FIDE Rating List saw the proposed rating 'compression' come into effect. All rated players under 2000 were given a rating boost, based on the formula New rating = Old rating + (0.4 * (2000 - Old rating)). So for a player rated 1001 that would bee 400 points, while a player rated 1990, that would be 4 points. 

From a local point of view there ware 2 main effects. Firstly, lots of players qualify for higher categories in the upcoming Doeberl Cup. Secondly, there may well be a lot of 'farming' going on, as older players regain some of the points previously lost to younger players (ie rather than avoiding junior players, it may be an advantage in playing them as their ratings increased by a greater amount)