The Australian chess player and Lichess streamer Christopher Skulte cheered on Twitter/X, “Flying over 24 hours across the world just to play your neighbor”

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Australia – New Zealand (live here)

The venue of the Seminar was the Phyllis Hore Room, Kew, in Melbourne, Australia.

The lecturer was IA Peter Tsai (AUS), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer was IA Kerry Stead (AUS). The lectures were in English language.

Ten (10) people from Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Philippines participated in the Seminar and in the examination test, held after the end of the lectures.

The following succeeded in the test and they will be awarded a norm or the FIDE Arbiter title, after the approval of the next FIDE Congress:

Tony Davis 3205550 Australia
Alanna Chew Lee 3215164 Australia
Kyle Gibson 3209008 Australia
Giles Lean 3222330 Australia
Hans Gao 4302460 New Zealand
M C Wijewardane 9900586 Sri Lanka

IA Takis Nikolopoulos
Chairman
FIDE Arbiters’ Commission

The event consisted of five tournaments:
– Premier Tournament, a 9-round Swiss for the players rated above FIDE 1900 or ACF 1800. Prize fund $14,550 (first place – $4,000).
– Major & Minor Tournaments, both 7-round Swiss
– U1200s Tournament over 6 rounds
– Lightning Tournament on 15th April with time control 5mins+0secs for the whole game.

Surya Sekhar Ganguly

In the Premier section Indian Grandmaster and former Asian champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly claimed the first place with the big score of 8,0/9 points. Half a point behind the winner was GM Michal Krasenkow (Poland) and further half a point below the local GM Zhao Zong-Yuan.

The Doeberl Cup is the longest running weekend chess event in Australia. Since 1963 it has been held every year in Canberra, Australia.

Final standings – Premier:

1 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2640 – 8
2 GM Krasenkow Michal POL 2620 – 7.5
3 GM Zhao Zong-Yuan AUS 2539 – 7
4 IM Ikeda Junta AUS 2394 – 6.5
5 GM Heberla Bartlomiej POL 2580 – 6.5
6 IM Sukandar Irine Kharisma INA 2419 – 6.5
7 GM Ly Moulthun AUS 2486 – 6
8 IM Lane Gary W AUS 2391 – 6
9 GM Johansen Darryl K AUS 2377 – 6
10 IM Morris James AUS 2459 – 5.5
11 Zulfic Fedja AUS 2118 – 5.5
12 FM Clarke Brandon G I ENG 2298 – 5.5
13 IM Brown Andrew AUS 2326 – 5.5
14 FM Chan Luis AUS 2169 – 5.5
15 IM Tao Trevor AUS 2381 – 5.5
16 Mcnamara Gary AUS 2131 – 5.5
17 IM Solomon Stephen J AUS 2374 – 5.5
18 IM Bjelobrk Igor AUS 2391 – 5.5
19 WIM Richards Heather S AUS 2214 – 5.5
20 IM Smirnov Anton AUS 2511 – 5
21 FM Choong Yita AUS 2232 – 5
22 WIM Krasenkova Ilena RUS 2092 – 5
23 FM Stojic Dusan AUS 2273 – 5
24 Zhao Longfei CHN 2040 – 5
25 Leyrer Thomas GER 1857 – 5
26 WIM Jule Alexandra AUS 1992 – 5
27 Cannon David AUS 2058 – 5
28 CM Peng Shunkai CHN 2206 – 4.5
29 Maguire Tom AUS 2042 – 4.5
30 Litchfield Frederick AUS 2037 – 4.5
31 Goh Sean Christian SGP 1916 – 4.5
32 FM Hu Jason AUS 2162 – 4.5
33 Wright Neil S AUS 2152 – 4.5
34 Asaka Samuel AUS 2080 – 4.5
35 Winkelman Albert AUS 2027 – 4.5
36 Kargosha Bahman IRI 2217 – 4
37 CM Cabilin Jeff AUS 1926 – 4
38 Chan Kris AUS 2112 – 4
39 Walker Joshua AUS 1939 – 4
40 FM Tsai Charles AUS 1997 – 4
41 CM Bhat Vishal AUS 1976 – 4
42 Otawa Yuto JPN 1920 – 4
43 Yang Ray AUS 2038 – 4
44 Zhong Tony AUS 1968 – 4
45 Parle Hughston AUS 1946 – 4
46 CM Dutta Rishi AUS 2018 – 4
47 Broekhuyse Paul AUS 2035 – 4
48 Ostapenko Michael AUS 1842 – 3.5
49 Safarian Alek AUS 2020 – 3.5
50 Lo Willis AUS 1988 – 3.5
51 CM Lam Ross AUS 1928 – 3.5
52 CM Ng Clive AUS 2009 – 3.5
53 CM Slater-Jones Tom AUS 2059 – 3.5
54 Holland Dennis AUS 1913 – 3.5
55 CM Hain Anthony AUS 1951 – 3.5
56 Rosmait Emily GER 1879 – 3.5
57 FM Mallari Donato AUS 2029 – 3
58 Grinyer Peter AUS 1934 – 2.5
59 CM Davis Tony J AUS 1859 – 2.5
60 CM Bennett Hilton NZL 1941 – 2
61 Saleh Akef INA 1908 – 2
62 FM Jones Brian AUS 2000 – 1.5
63 Bishop Joshua AUS 1922 – 1.5
64 Deen-Cowell Nicholas AUS 1900 – 0
65 Hathiramani Dillon AUS 1971 – 0

The venue of the Seminar will be the Phyllis Hore Room, Kew Library, Corner Cotham Road and Civic Drive, Kew VIC 3101, Australia

The Lecturer will be IA Peter Tsai (SIN), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer will be IA Kerry Stead (AUS).

The language of the Seminar will be English.

The Seminar will give FIDE Arbiter norms and titles, according to the Regulations for the titles of the Arbiters.

For more detailed information:

IA Peter Tsai, e-mail: chess@t-s-a-i.com
Tel.: +61 419324870

IA Takis Nikolopoulos
Chairman
FIDE Arbiters’ Commission

Centenary tournament of Melbourne Chess Club

The Melbourne Chess Club is the oldest chess club in the Southern Hemisphere which celebrated its 150th birthday on the 4th of August.

The Club celebrated with a small dinner of pizza’s and snacks before the lecture that was given by IM Guy West, a multiple club champion. He showed us games from three different times of the club starting with the 1880’s, then 1960’s and final with a game played most recently; all in that order.

FM Grant Szuveges Former President MCC, Thai Ly, Sylvester Urban and Slobodan Krstic

Afterwards was a panel discussion about the foundations of the club, the history before and after the World Wars, the 60’s with the Latvian community right up to today’s achievements.

Then afterwards there was the famous Skittles tournament, a strong tradition with the club, a friendly event that was unrated and the object is to keep winning your games. For every game that is lost, points come off your starting score which your score is based on your rating and how many points you start off with.

Simon Dale Vice President, Elizabeth Warren President, Thai Ly Secretary, Sylvester Urban Treasurer and Jamie Kenmure FIDE EB Member

The event had the current committee, members of the club, Chess Victoria President, IM Leonid Sandler, Australian Chess Federation President, Gary Wastell and FIDE EB Member, Jamie Kenmure.

The Melbourne Chess Club hosted the Australian Championships in celebration of the 150th Anniversary, the Victorian Open and many other traditional events the club regularly hosts.

Group photo

The Club has the following websites and pages which it helps promote the club:

http://www.melbournechessclub.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/MelbourneChessClub
https://www.facebook.com/groups/106125710341/

On behalf of all the chess community we wish you a Happy Birthday Melbourne Chess Club.

Gens Una Sumus,
Jamie Kenmure

Open:
1.GM David Smerdon
2.GM Zong-Yuan Zhao
3.IM Moulthun Ly
4.IM Anton Smirnov
5.GM Max Illingworth

Women:
1.WIM Heather Richards
2.WIM Giang Nguyen
3.WIM Emma Guo
4.WIM Biljana Dekic
5.WIM Alexandra Jule

Standings and statistics

The Reserves tournament is beginning to look like a race for second place, with Narelle Szuveges winning her third consecutive game. Although Narelle has not been in serious trouble yet this tournament, she has been pushed in many of her games. Round three also saw the players competing alongside one of the traditions of the Melbourne Chess Club – the Saturday Allegro! A large field of 45 players participated, including newly crowned Australian Champion Bobby Cheng, who finished tied for first with MCC regular Jack Puccini. I wonder what the visiting ladies thought of the afternoon’s events!

Round 3 Game summary: Xiaobing Gu played the Vienna Game against Krystina Novosadova & allowed an early bishop for knight trade. Novosadova found a pawn break in the centre & seemed to be generating play against Gu’s king, but was unable to break through. Novosadova sacrificed an exchange to put further pressure on Gu’s king, however when Gu was able to create some counterplay, Novosadova was forced to exchange pieces to survive. The ending that resulted was winning for Gu & she used good technique to convert the win. Irina Berezina played a quiet line against Maria Gosciniak’s Semi-Slav Defence, which saw all the knights exchanged off before move 20. After some manoeuvring, Gosciniak developed some pressure down the d-file, which Berezina neutralised, before turning her attention to the h-file. Although Gosciniak sacrificed a pawn, the lack of pawn breaks available made it difficult for either player to make progress & the game was drawn. Jilin Zhang & Julia Ryjanova played an unusual line of the Sicilian Defence, which meant that they were out of theory by move 10. Zhang sacrificed a pawn in the early middlegame for some pressure, but Ryjanova held her nerve, trading into a rook endgame. Although Ryjanova had an extra pawn, Zhang’s active rooks created many threats & Ryjanova decided to return the pawn & soon after the players agreed to a draw. Ticia Gara played the Tarrasch variation against Anita Stangl’s French Defence & held a slight advantage out of the opening due to her better placed pieces. Stangl decided to open up the kingside with the pawn break g5, however this backfired when Gara found a nice discovered attack at the end of a series of exchanges, to win a pawn. Gara maintained the initiative & pressured Stangl’s king, forcing Stangl to resign when faced with the prospect of losing more material to avoid checkmate. Hanna Leks played the Snyder variation against Deimante Daulyte’s Sicilian Defence & soon found herself in a difficult position, behind in development & facing strong threats in a queenless middlegame. Unfortunately for Leks, she was not able to avoid the minefield & Daulyte found a nice mating combination, which forced Leks to resign. In the Reserves, Narelle Szuveges won against Tanya Krstevska in a knight ending to take a commanding lead in the tournament, while youngsters Lillian Lu & Jody Middleton also won their games to move into a share of second place.

Round 3 Masters Results:
1 Xiaobing Gu 2286 1:0 Kristyna Novosadova 2231
2 Irina Berezina 2178 ½:½ Maria Gosciniak 2090
3 Jilin Zhang 2250 ½:½ Julia Ryjanova 2387
4 Ticia Gara 2347 1:0 Anita Stangl 2052
5 Hanna Leks 2192 0:1 Deimante Daulyte 2378

Round 3 Reserves Results:
1 Jody Middleton 1494 1:0 Niruruthi Ravichandren 1368
2 Tanya Krstevska 1584 0:1 Narelle Szuveges 1800
3 Eva Wang 1293 0:1 Lillian Lu 1521

Tournament leader WGM Xiaobing Gu

Undefeated IM Deimante Daulyte

When not playing chess, why not check out some other things Melbourne has to offer, including the Melbourne Zoo or the Australian Open tennis

GM Max Illingworth, the 2014 Australian Champion and top seed for the 2016 edition placed only 15th with 5.5 points. Other top seeds GM Darryl Johansen (2464) and GM Vasily Papin (2536) placed 10th and 8th respectively.

The Australian Chess Championship 2016 was held in the Fitzroy Town Hall, Melbourne, from the 2nd of January to the 12th of January. 34 players battled it out for a prize fund of $14000.

Replay all games with analysis

Final Standings

The 2016 Australian Chess Championships are presented by the Melbourne Chess Club – Celebrating 150 Years, and is proudly supported by the City of Yarra. The 11 round Swiss event features a $14 000 prize fund. Top players are IM Max Illingworth, GM Vasily Papin, GM David Smerdon, IM Kanan Izzat, IM Anton Smirnov, IM Bobby Cheng, GM Darryl Johansen, etc. Scroll down for the full list of participants.

Live games will be daily on Chessdom.com with the Top Chess Engine Championship computer analysis by Komodo, Stockfish, and Houdini.

Official website / Live games with analysis

Participants

IM Max Illingworth 2597
GM Vasily Papin 2536
GM David Smerdon 2533
IM Kanan Izzat 2521
IM Anton Smirnov 2482
IM Bobby Cheng 2465
GM Darryl Johansen 2463
IM Brodie McClymont 2462
IM James Morris 2461
IM Junta Ikeda 2430
IM Stephen Solomon 2417
IM Justin Tan 2415
IM Mark Chapman 2373
FM Christopher Wallis 2371
IM Guy West 2362
FM Zuhao (Luke) Li 2359
FM Greg Canfell 2356
IM Ari Dale 2354
IM Andrew Brown 2351
FM Sam Chow 2345
FM Karl Zelesco 2340
Yita Choong 2336
FM Gene Nakauchi 2313
FM Eugene Schon 2312
IM Mirko Rujevic 2271
FM Dusan Stojic 2261
FM Jack Puccini 2249
FM Eddy Levi 2247
FM Zachary Loh 2231
FM William Jordan 2226
FM Domagoj Dragicevic 2223
IM Leonid Sandler 2222
Carl Gorka 2202
CM Krishna Thapa 2186
John Nemeth 2170
CM Jason Hu 2162
Frank Lekkas 2111
Michael Kethro 2107
Malcolm Pyke 2102
Prabhu Kiran Pothula 2095
Dimitry Partsi 2091
CM Andreas Arnold Schmitz 2090
FM David Hacche 2082
Patrick Gong 2061
CM Clive Ng 2052
Tom Maguire 2045
Paul Broekhuyse 2043
FM Douglas Hamilton 2036
David Spuler 2036
CM Adam Kelly 2031
Dean Hogg 2014
Donato Mallari 2013
WIM Alexandra Jule 2009
Kim Hassall 2003
Luis Chan 1995
David Cannon 1987
Tharmaratnam Narenthran 1980
Samuel Dalton 1972
Axel Ahmer 1972
Francisco Plaza-Quinteros 1969
George Carolin-Unkovich 1948
CM Shunkai Peng 1938
Chris Kolak 1937
Thai Ly 1930
WFM Manuela Schmitz 1929
Kris Chan 1915
Mehmedalija Dizdarevic 1913
Justin Penrose 1910
Eamonn O’Molloy 1903
CM Peter Abbott 1901
CM Tony Davis 1897
Kevin Bonham 1895
Miodrag Milojevic 1894
Shaun Hose 1894
Tom Crossman 1889
Bill Jiang 1885
Paul Russell 1878
WFM Kristine Quek 1877
Kyle Gibson 1876
Scott Stewart 1870
Alistair Anderson 1842
Ege Girgin 1833
Bobby Yu 1829
Robin Shaw 1826
Md. Monir Hossain 1823
Russell Murray 1821
Charles Tsai 1821
Ray Yang 1821
Richard Lilly 1817
Cameron Yung 1809
Bausch Sian Kuan Koh 1804
Vishal Bhat 1794
Shum Ghumman 1788
Harry Hoholis 1778
Victor Braguine 1775
Junhao Zhong 1773
Rad Chmiel 1769
WFM Megan Setiabudi 1767
CM Tristan Krstevski 1767
Richard Voon 1765
Tom Kalisch 1764
Jared Louie 1752
Paul Glissan 1738
Geoff Cook 1720
David Lovejoy 1711
Jim Papadinis 1710
WCM Sarah Anton 1703
WCM Zhi Lin Guo 1701
Tony Weller 1701
Peter Fry 1692
Regan Crowley 1689
Clint Therakam 1685
Andrew Fletcher 1680
Malachi O’Donoghue 1678
Felix Wyss 1676
Steven Hogan 1671
Anthony Harris 1667
Oleg Korenevski 1654
Savithri Narenthran 1648
Nicholas Johnson 1646
Hughston Parle 1640
James Watson 1633
Thomas Johnston 1629
Geoff Barber 1628
Nathanael Young 1626
Callum Wilson 1615
Gavin Haydn 1609
David Liu 1599
Eric Staak 1594
Calixto Dilag 1593
Ian Little 1591
Roland Brockman 1585
Milan Ilic 1582
Albert Winkelman 1580
Roger Beattie 1560
Samuel Asaka 1555
Kanishka Premathilaka 1554
Will Bakanursky 1553
Tony Tosevski 1549
Haran Salasan 1544
CM Bill Egan 1536
Mark C Stokes 1535
Clint Stewart 1531
Surjeet Singh 1527
Natalie Bartnik 1525
Rebecca Strickland 1522
Qiming Gong 1516
Cassandra Lim 1510
Pranas Silas 1503
Brendan Zou 1502
Stephen Jago 1502
Licia Yao 1501
Tomson Qin 1493
Franz Oswald 1492
Nicholas Ilic 1468
Milic Sucevic 1462
Kent Weber 1455
Jason Wang 1451
Fiona Shen 1451
Christopher Lim 1450
Kevin Shen 1441
Alexander Au 1439
John Beckman 1433
Zhi Xin Guo 1426
Joseph Daffy 1426
Andrej Starcevic 1421
Wei-wei Tsai 1418
Lillian Lu 1398
Graeme McQuilkin 1385
Elliott Renzies 1376
Judi Sugiharto 1374
Brandon Soetanto 1372
Carl Loucas 1368
John Landau 1361
Mitchel Bailey 1360
Ralph Shaw 1355
David Nnachi 1353
Lousanne Beeren 1309
Ruicheng Wang 1299
Nikolaos Verginis 1285
Isaac Zhao 1213
Philip Vels 1199
Edwin Zou 1196
Nicholas Husek 1190
Campbell Cunningham 1167
Alistair McCutcheon 1160
Simon Dale 1150
David Unger 1146
Niruruthi Ravichandren 1059
Andrew Davies 1054
Daniel Poberezovsky 1052
Jimmy Deng 921
Evan Choemuku-Huang 918
Oliver Li 865
Susanne Wells 811
Elizabeth Warren 800
Jim Rogers 795
Myiesha Maunders 754
Yifan Eva Wang 602
Lyanna Chan 568
Jay Landau 550
Timothy Hu 498
Jack Gunstone 320
Ellie Choemuku-Huang 171
Brian Devlin
Xiaolong Jiang
Dr. Gilbert C. Perez
Michael Gould
Thanh-Binh Nguyen
Prathap Chandran
Philip Moclair
Enoch Tam
Shraddha Tipirneni
Paul Green
Oliver McCarthy
Isaac Nissen
Goran Ilic
Robbie Green
Raymond Sirlyn
Stella Cameron
Karthik Roopalal
Samuel McRitchie

The event is a 11 round swiss tournament with a $14000 prize fund. The tournament presence will be 34 players – 2 GMs and 14 IMs will be part of the chess spectacle. 

Tournaments in addition to the main event are a Reserves Championship and a Blitz Tournament, which will be played alongside the main event.

The 2014 Australian Champion IM Max Illingworth (2553), GM Darryl Johansen (2464) and GM Vasily Papin (2536) are some of the top seeded players in the main event.

GM David Smerdon (2533) is currently the highest rated player in the blitz tournament, while Michael Kethro is the highest rated player in the Reserves tournament.

Live games will be daily on Chessdom.com with computer analysis by the Top Chess Engine Championship winners Komodo, Stockfish, and Houdini

List of players in the Australian Championship