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The Australian Chess Championship this year was held from January 2nd – 11th at the Springvale Town Hall in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. But unlike the Open, the Championships were only for Australians, with the exception of four foreigners: GM Vasily Papin (Russia), GM Hoang Thong Tu (Vietnam), WGM Irene Sukandar (Indonesia) and FM Zuhao Luke Li (New Zealand). The time control was 40 moves in 90 minutes + 30 Minutes + 30secs/move from move one.
The Springvale Town Hall, the venue for this year’s Championships
The playing hall during before the start of round one...
... and during one of the later rounds (fifth day blitz)
But wasn’t all about the players in the Championships as there was two side events for those players who couldn’t play in Championships due to the rating requirement, and then there was the Challengers event for those who couldn’t battle it out for the eleven rounds and could only play nine.
Max Illingworth took the title with a score of 8/11, after defeating...
... 12-year-old FM Anton Smirnov in the final round
Here's some video of Anton playing GM Vasily Papin in the blitz tournament on day five
Second place was shared between GM Tu Hoang Thong, IM Moulthun Ly and Karl Zelesco, all on 7.5/11, after they defeated their final round opponents (IM Stephen Solomon, IM Igor Bjelobrk and GM Darryl Johansen respectively). A further five players tied for fifth place on 7/11.
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The Mayor of the City of Greater Dandenong,
Jim Memeti,
was at the closing ceremony to award prizes to the winners
Max Illingworth – and no, it's not what you think: he is wearing ear plugs against noise
FM Anton Smirnov is the world's highest rated 12-year-old
Top seed GM Vasily Papin gave other players a chance for a GM norm
Vasily Papin playing Dusan Stojic in round one (1-0 in 25 moves)
Australia’s second GM, Darryl Johansen
One of Australia’s IM originally coming
from England: Gary Lane,
who also has a few books published to his name
WGM Irene Sukandar who is well known to Australian
shores
and again lost rating points to our players from Down Under
Leiteisha Simmonds, who made the journey all the way down from Queensland
An uneven pair – you never see this in other forms of sport
With the multiple sections there are a wide range of participants
Possibly the youngest participant...
... or is it him?
Next year will be the Open so there can be many foreigners to participate in the event. Hope to see you all there.
Information provided by Jamie Kenmure, pictures courtesy of Mike Loh, Scott & Anoma Crowley
