Dear All,<br>
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Yes, it's true: after much soul searching, I have decided to resurrect the weekly St. George email bulletins! I happen to have a bit of time at the moment (and a new kitten, but that's another story), so hopefully I will be able to keep it going throughout the grade matches. Of course, I will need lots of help from the team captains, especially when I am not there for their matches - can I ask you to please write brief (no need to be fancy) reports on each match if at all possible? Also, if there is anybody you think should be on the list that I may not have included (I know, you don't know who's on the list - but I have included all the club champs players who have emails, among others), please let me know. There are at least three reasons why I have decided to resurrect the bulletins:<br>
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1. People have been asking me! Some have even already written reports. It seems these bulletins are quite popular. You even seem to like my terrible writing style! Heavens knows why...<br>
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2. I enjoy writing them! It's part of the fun of the grade matches. It was a shame I did not have time for the club champs...<br>
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3. I like to keep you informed. As it happens, we have had a pretty good start to the grades, and are again trying to win all 4 grades. So why not keep you posted on the progress of all the other teams, not just your own?<br>
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Anyway, for the first bulletin, you get a bumper double edition! Having missed the first week, I now have Rounds 1 and 2 to report on. In some cases I may be a bit briefer than usual (thank heavens! I can hear you say); let's see what I can remember, anyway...<br>
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ROUND 1<br>
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Under 2100 Canterbury 1 St. George 3<br>
1.     Ernesto Puzon 1965        0.5-0.5       Quentin Reitmans 2010<br>
2.     Henk Jens 1867               0-1             James Watson 1923<br>
3.     Ahmed Faris 1813           0.5-0.5       Charles Zworestine 1941<br>
4.     David Lam 1702               0-1             Aina Musaeva 1915<br>
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We started on a Monday night by travelling to Canterbury, and inevitably it was James who gave us the most excitement... While Aina was waiting for her opponent who was late (I also got there a tiny bit late from work), James built up a very strong attacking position right out of the opening against Henk Jens (a player a lot of you should know - he has also been a St. George member and often plays the St. George Swiss). But then just when he seemed to have a crushing initiative (and an extra pawn), he overlooked a tactic and lost a piece for another pawn! Oh dear, I thought, as I was trying to grind out a win from my typically boring exchange Ruy - I had a positional advantage right out of the opening, but could I convert it? Quentin too was doing better in a fairly locked position (as I recollect), but way behind on time... Happily Aina was the first to finish, as she convincingly outplayed her opponent positionally and won neatly tactically in the end. Shortly after Quentin agreed a draw - he was too far behind on time, and it was too risky to try and play for a win. At the start of the night I had wanted a 3-1 win; so then all eyes (including mine) turned to James. Could he drum up counterplay from his lost position a piece down (queen and pawns vs queen, knight and pawns)? The answer should probably have been no; but his opponent, instead of attacking with his queen and knight and ignoring the pawns, tried to consolidate and simplify to a won ending. Allowing a perpetual check at any time, James (Black) got in some neat tricks to obtain a passed pawn; when I next looked, it was on c3 and very dangerous! Still eschewing a perpetual check, his opponent then mistakenly swapped off queens; James got another pawn, and he was now confident that the ending with four pawns against knight and pawn was won. He was right - we analysed it in some depth next morning, and James' outside passed pawns (rook pawns) were winning - but it should have been much harder than Henk made it! I was very relieved when James won... Too relieved, in fact - I forgot to win my own game! My opponent had played inaccurately and allowed me an outside passed pawn (with equal pawns) in a knight and pawn ending, which I instinctively felt should have been won; but I could not see the winning idea, so in the end I agreed to a draw. A shame - I was still winning in the final position! Fred Flatow pointed out the winning idea, a very logical one relocating my king - it would have been even more effective earlier on, but still worked in the final position. So I missed a chance - put it down to rust, and worrying more about the team than my own game... Still, I was happy with the final 3-1 result - a good start!<br>
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Under 1800 St. George Saints 2 St. George Dragons 2<br>
1.     Robert Kovacs 1660      0-1       Sarwat Rewais 1768<br>
2.     Chris Waterman 1603    1-0       Peter Astorga 1643<br>
3.     Kole Murgoski 1618       1-0       Andres Tejada Unrated<br>
4.     Tom Tomas 1603           0-1       Mirsad Zekic 1687<br>
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A somewhat awkward start for both teams, for a couple of reasons... Without going into too much detail on this match (I did not see most of it), things began badly when not only was Dragons captain Nick Kordahi unable to make it for work reasons, but Dimitar Mojanovski also pulled out! Zekic replaced Kordahi, but Nick failed to tell me about Mojanovski... (To be fair, he did try to ring me - I was tutoring - but left no message...). Anyway, luckily, Peter Astorga was there to fill in; unluckily for the Dragons, he fell pretty convincingly to a resurgent Chris Waterman, who is back in pretty good form... And then the second problem began! Mick Zekic got the time control wrong, and incorrectly claimed a win on time. What followed was unfortunate, as apparently it took a substantial amount of time to convince him that he was wrong and so get him to continue playing. By the time I got to the club he was willing to do so, and two more games had already finished; Robert Kovacs lost a critical position against Sarwat (with both players short of time), possibly due to blundering in the chaos of the Zekic/Tomas distraction; and Andres Tejada was beating Kole Murgoski (he had been a pawn up since early on), but also blundered in the confusion and lost! This left Zekic and Tomas; but now Tom was too upset to continue playing! I warned both players; Zekic apologised; but still Tom refused to play. In the end I felt I had no choice but to announce he conceded the game. He was a piece down and lost anyway. All a pretty unfortunate business. Hopefully we will have no further incidents like this! Anyway, so it ended up 2 all; both teams still in contention...<br>
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Under 1600 St. George Saints 4 Ryde Eastwood 0<br>
1.     John Papantoniou 1629 1-0 Dennis Hale 1591<br>
2.     Jack Ruan 1557 1-0 James Hickey 1594<br>
3.     Harry Ruan 1459 1-0 Les Mikolajczyk 1473<br>
4.     Sean Gu 1361 1-0 Vince Chiara 1416<br>
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What a brilliant start for our first all junior team! Sadly I did not see this match at all, so can only say that the youngsters outplayed their much older opponents. They coped well with everything, including time pressure. John later told me he thought Jack (or was it Harry?) would draw in a pure opposite coloured bishop ending a pawn ahead. John was wrong - whichever Ruan it was, they must have found a way to win...<br>
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Under 1600 St. George Dragons had the bye<br>
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Under 1400 St George Dragons 2.5 - St George Saints 1.5<br>
Omar Taric 1361 0-1 Marco Lee 1388<br>
Thierry Ollivain 1342 0.5-0.5 Cedric Koh 1222<br>
Patrick Keuning 1358 1-0 Clarise Koh 0946<br>
Peter Johansson 1335 1-0 Shirley Gu 0842<br>
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Report by Peter Johansson (Dragons team captain) - thanks Peter!<br>
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I don't have much of a game report, but I'll give it a go anyway...<br>
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Omar's (Board 1) and Patrick's (Board 3) games finished before I had a chance to look at them. Omar told me afterwards that he resigned after he had blundered away a bishop to Marco. (Poor Marco scored 0/9 in his division of the club champs - so it was great to see this keen junior finally scoring the full point! - CZ). The only thing I saw of the Board 3 game was the final mating position, where Clarise's king on the first rank was mated by Patrick's queen supported by a knight and a rook. (I had looked earlier, and Patrick was always winning very easily tactically. He won a piece, but could have won more... - CZ).<br>
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In my game I took the risk of castling kingside even though Shirley had some open spaces for her black squared bishop and one of her knights to attack. I found myself in some trouble when she brought in her queen into the attack as well as starting to push her kingside pawns. Unfortunately (for her) she got a bit overoptimistic and forgot to look after her own king, which had not castled. She let both my knights as well as my queen in close to her king, and eventually got mated.<br>
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Thierry and Cedric on Board 2 were the last to finish. They were equal in material when they went into an interesting endgame: Thierry with 7 pawns, one bishop and one knight, Cedric with 7 pawns and two bishops. Cedric let Thierry's knight capture one of his pawns to get the knight a bit &quot;offside&quot; on the edge of the board so he could start to advance his pawns on the other side of the board. He eventually got a lonely passed pawn on the a-file advanced to the 7th rank. At that stage Thierry's knight and one of Cedric's bishops was gone. Thierry's bishop and king managed to prevent Cedric's pawn from promoting. Cedric's remaining bishop could not join in to support, as it was tied up on the other side of the board where Thierry had 4 pawns against Cedric's 2, and so a draw was agreed.<br>
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ROUND 2<br>
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Under 2100 St. George 2.5 Parramatta Yellow 1.5<br>
1. Quentin Reitmans 2010 0-1 Jason Hu 2132<br>
2. James Watson 1923 0.5-0.5 Nick Chernih 2072<br>
3. Charles Zworestine 1942 1-0 Blair Mandla 1942<br>
4. Aina Musaeva 1915 1-0 Arthur Huynh 1837<br>
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Since we feel that Parramatta Yellow (who outrated us) are our main rivals, I was thrilled with this result! This time James was the boring one, letting slip a slight opening advantage and agreeing a draw after just 18 moves with his higher rated opponent (who was the one who offered the draw). Still, a good result for the team... What followed was even better! Arthur, who you all know from the top division of our club champs but who betrayed us to play for Parra (The traitor! Just kidding...) pushed too hard to beat Aina, who simplified into a very tough ending a pawn ahead but with very weak pawns. Trying to exploit these pawns, Arthur committed a terrible inaccuracy which not only cost him another pawn, but also undoubled Aina's pawns and left her in a dead won ending! Her technique is more than good enough to cash in on such a won endgame two pawns ahead, which she duly did... I was content to return the ball the whole game as Black against my rapidly improving young opponent, who I knew to be very dangerous and confident against me! He surprised me by playing a quiet opening, so I was able to keep the balance for the whole game as minor pieces gradually got swapped off. When we were down to two rooks, queen and opposite coloured bishops each, I started to like my position; but it was objectively still pretty equal until he made a horrendous tactical blunder allowing a bishop fork winning his queen! I never actually took his queen; he resigned when he was about to lose the house... Quentin could apparently have made it an even more brilliant night for us, as I was told he had two choices in a complicated opening/early middlegame position, the right one of which would have left him with a clear advantage... Unfortunately he chose the wrong one, and was outplayed from there; when I looked he was pawns down in a minor piece ending, which he eventually lost. So, 2.5-1.5 to us against a bogey side who used to beat us 2.5-1.5; we are now leading the competition by a point...<br>
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Under 1800 St. George Dragons 4-0 North Sydney<br>
1. Jamie Roberts 1834 1-0 Anthony Pickering 1774<br>
2. Sarwat Rewais 1768 1-0 Stephen Javor 1740<br>
3. Nick Kordahi 1777 1-0 Fred Apcar 1734<br>
4. Anthony Keuning 1630 1-0 Paul Glissan 1718<br>
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Another terrific result for St. George! Jamie apparently smashed his opponent brilliantly in 18 moves to maintain his excellent record against him... Nick's game was also over quickly in our favour. Anthony atypically took longer, but won material and when I looked was a pawn ahead with three connected kingside passed pawns; this proved to be enough to win in a longish game. Sarwat's opponent incorrectly tried to claim a win on time; but fortunately there was no repeat of the Tomas/Zekic problems, as Javor accepted his error (he thought the time control was at move 40 not move 30) and continued playing. So Sarwat was able to grind him down in the last game to finish to complete a 4-0 win to the Dragons; again, they are now leading the competition early...<br>
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Under 1800 St. George Saints had the bye<br>
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Under 1600 St. George Saints 2.5-1.5 St. George Dragons<br>
1. John Papantoniou 1629 0-1 Peter Astorga 1642<br>
2. Jack Ruan 1557 0.5-0.5 Brian Press 1542<br>
3. Harry Ruan 1459 1-0 Geoff Britton 1510<br>
4. Sean Gu 1361 1-0 Terence Wall 1506<br>
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Sadly, again I did not see much of this match... John Papantoniou seems to always struggle with Peter Astorga, and eventually lost a long game to be the only one in his team to lose. Jack Ruan's position was apparently too locked for either side to make progress, so Jack and Brian agreed to a draw. But Harry beat Geoff (I did not see how), and Terence said the youngsters were getting too good for him as Sean defeated him to complete another win for our dangerous all junior team; not wanting to jinx them, but it looks like they may be able to go all the way as they too are leading the competition early...<br>
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Under 1400 St. George Saints 2.5 Rooty Hill 1.5<br>
1. Cedric Koh 1222 0.5-0.5 Ken Macgillivray 1421<br>
2. Peng Yu Chen 1130 0.5-0.5 George Smit 1398<br>
3. Clarise Koh 946 1-0 David McDonald 1342<br>
4. Shirley Gu 842 0.5-0.5 David Van Look 1204<br>
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Report by Jason Koh (Saints team captain) - thanks Jason!<br>
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Excellent week for the St. George Saints (our second all junior team - CZ).. We were massively underrated against Rooty Hill, but we won 2.5 -1.5. I only managed to see all the middle games, with Boards 1 and 2 relatively equal in position. Board 1 ended up drawn, and Board 2 was somewhat uninteresting, as they both agreed to an early draw with all the major pieces still on the board. Board 3 was an exciting game as the position was so unbalanced, hence Clarise managed to sacrificed a rook for a chance for promotion and finally wrapped up the game (she somehow ended up the exchange ahead and won the ending - CZ). Board 4 was a very lucky game, as Shirley was about to lose the game; but a slight blunder in the opponent's endgame (a king and pawn ending - CZ) gave Shirley a chance for a draw.<br>
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Under 1400 St. George Dragons 3-1 Ryde Eastwood<br>
1. Omar Taric 1361 1-0 Chee Tan Unrated<br>
2. Rick Keuning 1358 0-1 Simon Parker 1300<br>
3. Thierry Ollivain 1342 1-0 Greig Edwards Unrated<br>
4. Peter Johansson 1335 1-0 Douglas Eyres 1222<br>
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Report by Peter Johansson (Dragons team captain) - thanks Peter!<br>
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Unfortunately my game was the last to finish and I did not pay much attention to the other games, so the following is the best I can do.<br>
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The first game to finish was Rick's on Board 2. It went on for just around half an hour and I heard Rick mutter that this had not been much of a game. He made some kind of blunder early (I'm not sure what), and resigned shortly after.<br>
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The rest of the team had better luck. Omar, on Board 1, seemed to take command early and was never under any threat. The only hiccough was an illegal move by Omar, which gave his opponent 2 extra minutes on the clock; but that was at a stage when Omar already was way ahead both on the board and on time.<br>
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On Board 3, Thierry and his opponent Greig Edwards were equal in material all through the game. But Thierry told me later that he felt that the Ryde Eastwood player had a better position most of the game, and that he was lucky to win. What happened was that his opponent failed to see a discovered check, where Thierry by moving a knight to attack the enemy queen at the same time opened up for one of his rooks to put Grieg's king in check, and the game was over.<br>
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I (Peter J) was even more lucky on Board 4. My opponent, Douglas Eyres, made a few awkward moves in the opening and I slipped into the mind-set that I would have an easy win and started to relax a bit. (I know that I should be experienced enough to not do this, but that was what happened). All of a sudden I lost a pawn and shortly after found myself in all kinds of trouble! On a few occasions I saw moves that would have killed me off, but Douglas failed to capitalise on them. Instead he gradually let me back into the game and was eventually forced to sacrifice one of his rooks for a pawn that I just had converted to queen. After this it was an easy win for me, even though I was short of time.<br>
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On a couple of occasions, before I promoted my pawn, Douglas had opportunities to get my passed pawn + one of my rooks for his rook, rather than just the pawn for his rook. So in summary this was a win that I'm not especially proud of, but it contributed to a nice 3-1 win for the team.<br>
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Regards,<br>
Charles Zworestine.<br>
Club Captain,<br>
St. George Leagues Club Chess Club.