Dear All,

A pretty good week for the St. George grade match teams again this week, with one notable exception - my team had a disaster! But more on that later... Only one other St. George side lost (the Under 1800 Dragons), by the narrowest possible margin - and they are still equal leaders, thanks to some help from the other St. George side! Indeed all our teams are still very well placed except perhaps mine - and we are still in contention despite a 4-0 loss - but our two teams are first and second in the Under 1400, and the Under 1600 teams are listed as second and fourth but in fact both have a match in hand of their main rivals (having already had their bye while their main rivals have not). Thanks again to all the team captains for their reports this week. I was rather too busy struggling in my own game to notice much of what went on in the other matches, so there would have been no bulletin without the team captains' fantastic efforts. Keep up the good work guys and gals!


Under 2100 St. George 0-4 Parramatta Blue
1. Quentin Reitmans 2010 0-1 Edgardo Agulto 2100
2. James Watson 1923 0-1 Lachlan Benson 1891
3. Charles Zworestine 1942 0-1 Andrew Furst 1808
4. Aina Musaeva 1915 0-1 Vasil Tulevski 1777

I didn't think we played that badly, yet we still went down 4-0... All due credit I guess to the Parramatta Blue side, who really played very well - through time pressure and all the usual vicissitudes they remained calm, never panicked and slowly and gradually outplayed us. But from our perspective sadly we had a couple of accidents, especially in Aina's and James' games, which made things much worse... I should have seen the omens for a bad night when three things went wrong even before the match had started: 1. Due to poor communication from me, dinner arrangements before the match (something I like the team to be able to do if possible - adds to the friendly and fun atmosphere, and we are a very friendly and fun team!) did not go too well - so dinner was rushed - mea culpa... 2. Parramatta Blue pulled out Ed Agulto from nowhere - Ed is a strong player who does not seem to like to play chess that much (he has not played for two or three years), but clearly he suddenly regained interest as he travelled all the way from Parramatta to St. George to play... and 3. Poor Aina forgot her glasses - she brought her glasses case with her, but no glasses in there! Anyway, to the games: Aina has been playing really well, so we have to forgive her a little accident when from a very promising looking opening, with what looked like a good attacking position as White, she forgot that moving her queen to f3 cut off her knight's only retreat square! So the knight ended up trapped; she got two pawns for it, but one of them was weak and she had no real counterplay - Vasil is too good a player to give that much head start, and he made no mistake and slowly reeled in the full point. I struggled as usual in the opening, but thought I had generated counterplay when I sacrificed a pawn for piece activity - queens came off, but I thought I had real compensation for the pawn minus. Sadly I did not play most accurately in time pressure, my opponent did and the counterplay proved to be an illusion. I fought like a tiger, losing another pawn but activating my rooks in a double rook ending; but it was not enough, and Furst ground me down in the last game to finish. Quentin looked like he was doing well against Agulto - I did not see too much of the game - but behind on time as ever; and in the end he missed a key Agulto resource, and apparently he lost the exchange and also went down. So that left James, whose adventures went the reverse of what they normally do! This time his opening was poor, but he fought back hard and somehow generated counterplay from a position where it looked impossible! A pawn down, he got his pieces in, and successfully randomised the position; as he put it, all three results were still possible. Sad, then, that he did not play the rook move (Re8) he had originally intended, putting his rook behind the dangerous enemy passed pawn - this probably would have resulted in a draw. Instead he played a very tempting rook move (I would have fallen for this too), which looked like it threatened mate but it did not; and it moved a key rook away from the defence and lost a key pawn, allowing unavoidable and fatal discovered checks. So, sad, the worst possible result - a 4-0 loss. We are now equal third, 1 point behind Parramatta Blue in second, and 2.5 points behind the leaders Parramatta Yellow. Still a chance, but we will have to play better and have better luck than we had last Tuesday night! In any case, I can assure you we will not give up...


Under 1800 Manly 2.5-1.5 St. George Dragons
1. Steffen Bayani 1801 1-0 Jamie Roberts 1834
2. David Webster 1790 0.5-0.5 Andres Tejada Unrated
3. Tze Weng Foong 1621 0-1 Nick Kordahi 1777
4. Jack Mejzini 1607 1-0 Mirsad Zekic 1687

Report by Dragons Team Captain Nick Kordahi - thanks Nick!

We ventured out to Manly this week. Manly was at full strength following their 3.5-0.5 win last week, and obviously had the smell of victory in their sights. On Board 1 Jamie got himself a nice position out of the opening again, and seemed like he was cruising to a solid positional victory. But the fast time control in this event got the better of Jamie, and he blundered in time trouble. On Board 2 Andres put in a solid performance, and halted his opponent’s attempt of creating small advantages from the opening. In the end his opponent’s extra pawn in a rook
ending wasn’t enough to win, and Andres with solid good moves secured the draw. On Board 3 Nick got a fantastic attack out the opening, netting himself a piece by move 10 and winning a further piece by move 14 while still pursuing his opponent's king. The mating attack that ensued was too much to bear for his opponent, and Nick eventually won a nice miniature. On Board 4 Mirsad got himself a nice position out of the opening, and entered an ending a pawn up. But sadly Mirsad mishandled the complications that ensued in the endgame, and so he eventually lost a tough fight.


Under 1800 St. George Saints 2.5-1.5 Ryde Eastwood
1. Robert Kovacs 1660 0.5-0.5 Steven Herrn Liu 1779
2. Chris Waterman 1603 1-0 Lorenzo Escalante 1742
3. Kole Murgoski 1618 0.5-0.5 Konrad Zielinski 1679
4. Tom Tomas 1603 0.5-0.5 Joshua Christensen 1651

Report by Saints Team Captain Robert Kovacs - thanks Robert!

Fortunately for myself and the Under 1800 Saints there was more chess and fewer problems (except one - see later) this week, and also our first match win, beating Ryde Eastwood 2.5-1.5 - despite the fact that we were heavily outrated as usual. Chris Waterman was the first to finish, winning his game against Lorenzo Escalante who apparently didn't know how to cope with his gambit and got in a cramped mess before losing his queen - and the game - to a trap while attempting to find counterplay in a difficult position. Next came a disputed win on time claim from myself against Steven Herrn Liu. In attempting to reach the time control both of us had to make the last six moves in less than five minutes so neither of us wrote down the moves - when my opponent's flag fell it seemed to me that he hadn't quite made the 30 moves and so I claimed the win asking for a reconstruction. Steven didn't want to do this and tried to pretend he had written down all the moves and reached move 30 but a closer look at his scoresheet showed he had left large gaps so that his bits of scribble looked like they had reached move 30. Next he wanted an arbiter - Charles - to make a ruling, but Charles was playing and didn't really want to deal with a major interruption (delegating to someone else present to help with a reconstruction might have been an idea!) and after saying we should play on, finally said we should contact Peter Cassettari (Peter is the grade match arbiter - Charles Z). I went and got a copy of the FIDE rules and fortunately Nick Kordahi who wasn't playing saw me doing this and came over and helped with a reconstruction which showed that Steven had just made the time control, and so we played on in the end. Very much thanks to Nick for helping out. I was a piece down in a bad position but sacrificed lots more material and through a fortunate combination was able to restore material equilibrium and take a perpetual. Kole Murgoski also exchanged down to a queen and pawn endgame, but down at least one pawn. Fortunately he was able to find a perpetual check as well, to draw against Konrad Zielinski. Tom Tomas again had a long game, which ended in a time scramble in which a draw was agreed with seconds remaining. Close but good!

Under 1600 Rooty Hill 1-3 St. George Saints
1. Vedran Tobarac Unrated 1-0 John Papantoniou 1629
2. Muhamed Buza 1569 0-1 Jack Ruan 1557
3. Henry Rara 1546 0-1 Harry Ruan 1459
4. Bill Herreros 1455 0-1 Sean Gu 1361

Report by Saints team captain Nellie Ruan, with help from all the Saints players - thanks Nellie and all the Saints team!

This week all four of our players had long and hard games, except for Board 1 which finished a little bit earlier. The other three took about three hours or more! Again, Jack Ruan finished last, about 23:10; so the kids got home about midnight and felt very tired, but quite happy with the result.

Board 1: John Papantoniou and Vedran Tobarac started the game roughly equal, then John made a little progress. He created two doubled pawns to Vedran, and then got two free pawns. But then John played a dubious move, letting Vedran check and grab a free piece and a pawn. John tried to make perpetual check with his queen, but he failed. So Vedran is the only player who has won all five rounds so far.

Board 3: Harry Ruan started slightly better; he controlled the centre and had a very good position. Then Henry Rara lost the exchange by a tactical blunder. Harry tried to attack from the kingside, but Henry locked up the position. So Harry tried to attack from the queenside, but still couldn't break in. So he kept trying, left and right; and finally Harry broke in. Because Rara pushed his pawns too far in order to defend against Harry's attack, his position crashed when Harry broke in. Later Rara resigned.

Board 4: Throughout most of the game it was equal. In the middlegame Sean Gu and Bill Herreros both had strong batteries on the same file, so they started swapping off most of the pieces. Then they were only left with one rook and five pawns each. But Sean's rook was in a better position. Sean then marched his king into Bill's barrier. Sean munched all Bill's pawns, and he had three pawns left. In the end Bill couldn't stop Sean's pawn promoting, and so he resigned.

Board 2: Jack Ruan and Buza Muhamed settled into a locked middlegame. Jack was striving to break into the queenside with mobile pawns, but after Buza blocked his passed pawn, Jack was in trouble. Buza locked up the queenside and prepared a fatal kingside blow. But with a good bishop, Jack held on to a powerful battery threatening mate. When Jack knew our Board 3 and Board 4 had both won their games, he wanted to offer a draw. But Buza wanted to continue the battle. So after about 40 more moves, Buza finally launched his attack, and soon forced Jack to defend passively. But Buza was not aware of a tactic from Jack, winning a pawn. Buza settled to strike Jack's king again, but his own king was unsafe. So Jack successfully broke in decisively, forcing Buza's king into the centre and snatching his queen. After this Buza resigned.


Under 1600 St. George Dragons 2.5-1.5 Ryde Eastwood
1. Peter Astorga 1643 0.5-0.5 James Hickey 1594
2. Brian Press 1542 0-1 Les Mikolajczyk 1473
3. Geoff Britton 1510 1-0 Vince Chiara 1389
4. Terence Wall 1506 1-0 Chee Tan Unrated

Report by Dragons Team Captain Terence Wall - thanks Terence!

A night of mixed fortunes, with the advantage of a strong position no guarantee of success on Boards 2, 3 and 4.

Peter on Board 1 was, as usual, the first to finish, and played a solid draw in an even position. Although he was a pawn up, opposite coloured bishops prevented any hope of a breakthrough.

I checked Brian's progress after about one hour to find he was up a piece for a pawn and looked quite comfortable. Later he had whittled things down to bishop, knight and 5 pawns vs bishop and 6 pawns; but somehow he managed to get involved in a bishop exchange, which surrendered a pawn and left his king facing two dangerous connected passed pawns on the 5th and 6th ranks backed up by the enemy king. Brian's knight just didn't seem to have enough room to prevent a pawn promotion, and so sadly he ended up losing.

Geoff's game looked fairly even in the middle period, although a pawn down. A little later his opponent was two pawns ahead, doubled and passed on the a file and with plenty of space in the middle of the board. I think at this stage things looked grim for Geoff; but the next time I looked Geoff had broken through on the queenside (must have been a "swindle") and queened a pawn! Those doubled a pawns hadn't moved! Well done Geoff...

I must admit my openings bank account is short on capital, and I may have been playing the white moves of a King's Indian in reply to my opponent's Nimzo-Indian! Whatever the case, the game had reached a point where both kings were lacking sufficient pawn protection, I was a pawn down and my opponent's queen was raving on my second rank backed up by two bishops and a knight. Thankfully he chose to get stuck into my queenside pawns instead, whilst setting a trap with his minor pieces in an attempt to win the exchange. My own queen, who had managed one move to c1 for the entire game, suddenly came to life on move 33, a check on b1, avoiding the trap; and a follow-up move to a menacing g6 forced mate in 3!

I contacted Leon Munk and Michael Lo regarding reserve duty for the last three rounds. I'll be playing in one more match on the 24th which is at St George, and should be able to tee one of them up for the trip to North Sydney on the 1 July.


Under 1400 St. George Saints 3-1 Ryde Eastwood
1. Cedric Koh 1222 0-1 Alan Marton 1366
2. Peng Yu Chen 1130 1-0 Simon Parker 1300 (please correct the website - Number 49 is the same player as Number 9)!
3. Clarise Koh 0946 1-0 Greg Edwards Unrated
4. Shirley Gu 0842 1-0 Doug Eyres 1222

Report by Saints team captain Jason Koh - thanks Jason!

Another good result for Under 1400 St George Saints, especially to our two girls again. Shirley had an exciting opening game, as all her pieces were so active and she attacked from both sides. From Move 20 onwards, her opponent's pieces dropped like flies, starting from knight, rook, bishop and queen. (And mate too, as she was attacking the enemy king - Charles Z). The final result was clear, as she won in 26 moves and was the first to finish.

Then along came another success for the night - another strong performance from Clarise. After her rooks were on g4 and g6 (as Black) in the middle game, she saw a mate in 2, which her opponent missed; so she delivered mate, starting with a queen sacrifice and ending up with a mating net with her two rooks.

Cedric was next to finish. From another fairly even opening, he reluctantly had to sacrifice his knight in order to avoid a mating threat. And although he fought very hard from there, he missed mate in one and lost in the end.

The final celebration for the night concluded as Peng Yu chased his opponent's king around the board with his queen, bishop and knight; and finally as his opponent's king ran out of squares to move, he ended the game with a convincing win.

Under 1400 Manly 0-4 St. George Dragons
1. Martin Van Elmpt 1448 0-1 Omar Taric 1361
2. David Cook 1336 0-1 Thierry Ollivain 1342
3. Bob Moxom 1282 0-1 Peter Johansson 1335
4. Arno Vogelman 1215 0-1 Adolfo Garrido Unrated

Report by Dragons Team Captain Peter Johansson - thanks Peter!

I (Peter Johansson) was the first one to finish my game. Bob Moxom allowed me to come out with a pawn up after a pawns and piece swap in the middle of the board very early in the game. A few moves later I got another pawn via tactics, and then another one in conjunction with a queen swap. With three extra pawns, two of them being passed connected central pawns, and the queens off the board, it was quite simple for me to win the game. Bob resigned when there was no way for him to prevent pawn promotions without sacrificing both a knight and a rook.

Adolfo was the next one to finish. I had noted that he was a bit behind in development in the early stage of the game, and that his opponent (Arno Vogelman) had sacrificed his black squared bishop for Adolfo's h6 pawn to open for a queen and knight attack on the now exposed king. It looked like Adolfo was in some serious trouble for a while; but he defended himself carefully, and was eventually able to capture Arno's other bishop which had joined in the attack. From then on Adolfo gradually took over the game, swapping pieces off until his opponent had nothing left to play on with!

By this stage Omar on Board 1 was well into an endgame were both players had one rook and one bishop, but where the Manly player (Martin van Elmpt) was one pawn up. Omar had more than an hour left of his time, whilst Martin was down to 20 minutes. On Board 2 Thierry Ollivain and David Cook were pretty equal on time and still had most pieces on the board when the Manly player blundered away one of his rooks for a bishop. So I started to hope that Thierry would give the team our third win for the night, and that Omar possibly could get a draw. Indeed it would get even better than that, as Omar's opponent in a moment of lack of concentration moved his bishop to g5. This blocked the only retreat square that his King, which was placed on h4, had to get away from a rook check on h2 (Omar's king covered g3 and g4). Omar did not miss the chance to capitalise on that free opportunity to mate the unlucky Manly player!

In the meantime Thierry was still looking for a breakthrough on Board 2 in a pretty locked position. David had made it difficult for Thierry to gain any real benefits from his exchange advantage. Both players took their time on each move, David more so then Thierry; so he started to get into time trouble. At this stage David saw no other option than to make some adventurous moves that could have turned the game around if it wasn't for the fact that Thierry had enough time left to think carefully and not fall into any of David's traps. Instead Thierry was able to further increase his material advantage until David eventually resigned. At this stage David only had around 20 seconds left on the clock and Thierry was down to less than three minutes, so they had all but used up the maximum 3 and half hours of game time! It was past 11:00 pm before that game ended. But the nice 4-0 win for the Dragons was worth the late night!


Regards,
Charles Zworestine.
Club Captain,
St. George Leagues Club Chess Club.