Australia's second Grandmaster
Darryl Johansen was until midway through the last decade one of only two Australian players to earn the Grandmaster title.
Having won the Australian Junior Championship in 1977, Johansen began his international career with team tournaments in Mexico and Singapore. In 1980, Johansen spent three months hitchhiking his way across the USA, sometimes sleeping rough, and competing in seven tournaments, later penning a memorable article ‘USA on a dollar a day’.
However, Johansen did not come to international attention until 1982, when he won the Lloyds Bank Masters in London (featuring players such as Viktor Korchnoi, Tony Miles and Vlastimil Hort) while rated only 2310. His final round game against US GM Sergey Kudrin featured a brilliant final attack [Replay this and other classic Johansen games in the game viewer below!].
Johansen won the first of his Australian Championship titles in 1984 and continued playing successfully in Europe until 1988, when anaemia, a result of inadequate vegetarian food in Eastern Europe, caused him to return to live in Australia permanently.
As his health improved, so did Johansen’s results, scoring a GM norm at the Novi Sad Olympiad (narrowly missing a medal) and then again at the Moscow Olympiad (despite being a victim to a cheating incident).
When his Grandmaster application was submitted it was discovered that Johansen had also scored a GM norm at the 1990/1 Lidums Australian Open in Adelaide, but Johansen, no longer having great chess ambitions, did not realise this.
In 1995, Johansen became Australia’s second Grandmaster, after Ian Rogers, in whose shadow Johansen lived for many years. Though Johansen played 14 Olympiads between 1980 and 2010, only one of them, Thessaloniki 1984, was on board one.

Johansen vs Petar Velikov at the 1982 Lucerne Olympiad

Johansen vs Kasimdzhanov at the 2004 Calvia Olympiad
In 1990 and 1991, Johansen played two exhibition matches in Sydney against Deep Thought, the forerunner of the Deep Blue computer which was to beat Kasparov in 1997. Johansen won the first match 1-0 but was held to a 1-1 draw in the second.
In 1998, Johansen (and almost half the Australian team) withdrew from the Elista Olympiad following the murder of prominent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov critic Larissa Yudina, who had featured on the Australian television programme Foreign Correspondent.
After retiring from the international circuit Johansen became a chess coach and soon took over the Melbourne coaching business Chess Ideas which has employed dozens of coaches.
Though Johansen’s rating has declined as he aged, he enjoyed an Indian summer in 2012, when he won his latest Australian Championship title — two more than Rogers and a legend such as Cecil Purdy — and followed up immediately with victory at the Queenstown Classic in New Zealand, defeating Gawain Jones in the final round.
Throughout his career, the affable and modest Johansen has won more than 150 tournaments, on four continents. His domestic successes include winning the Australian Championship six times (a record), the Victorian Championship 12 times (another record) and the traditional Ballarat Begonia Open 13 times (yet another record).
Select annotated games of GM Darryl Johansen
1.e4 | 1,174,618 | 54% | 2421 | --- |
1.d4 | 952,919 | 55% | 2434 | --- |
1.Nf3 | 283,849 | 56% | 2440 | --- |
1.c4 | 183,334 | 56% | 2442 | --- |
1.g3 | 19,804 | 56% | 2427 | --- |
1.b3 | 14,464 | 54% | 2427 | --- |
1.f4 | 5,926 | 48% | 2377 | --- |
1.Nc3 | 3,855 | 50% | 2384 | --- |
1.b4 | 1,775 | 48% | 2379 | --- |
1.a3 | 1,239 | 54% | 2405 | --- |
1.e3 | 1,075 | 49% | 2409 | --- |
1.d3 | 961 | 50% | 2378 | --- |
1.g4 | 669 | 46% | 2361 | --- |
1.h4 | 465 | 54% | 2381 | --- |
1.c3 | 436 | 51% | 2426 | --- |
1.h3 | 284 | 56% | 2419 | --- |
1.a4 | 117 | 59% | 2462 | --- |
1.f3 | 100 | 47% | 2427 | --- |
1.Nh3 | 92 | 67% | 2511 | --- |
1.Na3 | 43 | 60% | 2477 | --- |
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6 6.Nf3 6.c3 Bf5 7.Nf3 e6 8.g3! 6...h5?! 7.Bf4?! Bg4 7...Qb6!? 8.Be2 e6 9.Qd2 Bd6 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Qc7 12.Bxd6 Qxd6 13.h4 Nd7 14.0-0-0 0-0-0 15.Kb1?! Qc7?! 15...Ne5! 16.Qe2 Qa5 17.Rd3 Qb5 18.Rc1 Nb6 19.c4?! Qf5?! 19...Nxc4 20.Rdc3 Qf5+ 21.Be4 21.Ka1 Nd6 21...Qxe4+!-+ 20.Ka1 Qf4 21.Qd1 21.Rh1 21...e5?! 21...Qxh4! 22.d5 22.g3 Qf5 23.c5! Na8 24.d5! e4? 24...Nc7! 25.d6 25.Qe2!? 25...e4 26.g4! 25.dxc6! Rxd3 25...bxc6 26.Qa4 exf3 26...Rxd3 27.Qxc6+ Nc7 28.Bxe4 Qxf2 29.Bxd3 26...exd3 27.Qxc6+ Nc7 28.Qb7+ Kd7 29.Bc6+ Ke6 30.Re1+ Qe5 31.Rxe5+ fxe5 32.Ba4 27.Qa6+ 26.cxb7+ Kc7 26...Kxb7 27.Qxd3 Qxf3 28.c6+ Kb6 29.Qd4+ Kb5 30.Rc5++- 27.Qa4! Rb8 27...Qxf3 28.Qxa7 28.bxa8Q Rxa8 29.Bxe4 Qd7 1–0 - Start an analysis engine:
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Johansen,D | - | Jamieson,R | 2415 | 1–0 | 1980 | B16 | Adelaide AUS Ch. | 11 |
Sokolov,I | 2630 | Johansen,D | - | 0–1 | 1992 | E44 | Manila Olympiad | |
Johansen,D | - | Sokolov,A | 2525 | 1–0 | 1993 | A25 | Wijk aan Zee Sonnevanck | 6 |
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The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.
Other featured games of GM Darryl Johansen
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Be7 5.Bb3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.c3 Qe8 8.Re1 Kh8 9.h3 Ng8 10.d4 f6 11.Nbd2 g5 12.Nf1 Nd8 13.Ne3 Ne6 14.Nf5 Bd8 15.Nh2 Ne7 16.Nf1 Nf4 17.g3 Nxh3+ 18.Kg2 Nxf5 19.exf5 Bxf5 20.g4 Bd7 21.Kxh3 Qh5+ 22.Kg3 Qh4+ 23.Kg2 f5 24.Qf3 Qh6 25.Ng3 e4 26.Qd1 f4 27.Rh1 Qg6 28.Nf1 c6 29.d5 Bb6 30.f3 Rae8 31.Nh2 h5 32.Nf1 exf3+ 33.Qxf3 Bxg4 34.Qxg4 Qe4+ 35.Qf3 Qxf3+ 36.Kxf3 g4+ 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Kudrin,S | 2480 | Johansen,D | - | 0–1 | 1982 | C55 | London Lloyds Bank Open | 9 |
Johansen,D | - | Torre,E | 2550 | 1–0 | 1990 | A53 | Shah Alam Zonal | |
Johansen,D | - | Deep Thought | - | 1–0 | 1990 | A25 | Sydney Man v Machine | |
Johansen,D | - | Miezis,N | 2532 | 1–0 | 2001 | A30 | Jakarta Wotulo Memorial | 9 |
Reinderman,D | 2560 | Johansen,D | - | 0–1 | 2009 | A21 | Parramatta Sydney International Open | 6 |
Jones,G | 2653 | Johansen,D | 2403 | 0–1 | 2012 | | Queenstown op | 9 |
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The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.
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