Australian Open Chess - A summary

So the 2015 Australian Open Chess tournament has been run & won ... and I thought I'd do a bit of a summary of both my own performance in the tournament, as well as the event overall.
Personally I was pretty disappointed with my tournament - 5.5/11 could be a good score, however given that I only played two players who were higher rated, it has to be considered a poor performance. To make matters worse, I rarely played good chess & gave my opponents far too many opportunities, whether they took them or not. I also felt uncomfortable facing 1. e4 & that is something that I need to work on in terms of my opening repertoire.
As you can see by the breakdown below, my middlegame & endgame play were particularly poor, with my openings being passable at best (and that's being generous). In total, there were really only two (possibly three) games I was happy with my play - my games against Robert Beeman & Michael Kethro, though in both cases my opponents' made it easier for me to finish the game off, as well as possibly my game against Richard Jones.

Openings
Poor opening - Round 1 black v Damien Van Den Hoff; Round 3 black v Paul Russell; Round 7 black v Kim Anderson;
Reasonable opening - Round 2 white v Richard Jones; Round 4 white v Sarwat Rewais; Round 5 black v Marcus Porter; Round 8 white v Matthew Yan; Round 9 black v Clive Ng;
Good opening - Round 6 white v Robert Beeman; Round 10 white v Michael Kethro; Round 11 black v Bernard Chau;
Middlegame
Opponent collapsed in middlegame - Round 6 white v Robert Beeman; Round 8 white v Matthew Yan;
I collapsed in middlegame - Round 4 white v Sarwat Rewais; Round 7 black v Kim Anderson; Round 9 black v Clive Ng; Round 11 black v Bernard Chau;
Endgame
Opponent collapsed in endgame - Round 1 black v Damien Van Den Hoff; Round 3 white v Paul Russell; Round 9 black v Clive Ng; Round 10 white v Michael Kethro;
I collapsed in endgame - Round 2 white v Richard Jones; Round 3 white v Paul Russell; Round 5 black v Marcus Porter;

As for the event itself, it promised so much before the event, but in actuality what was delivered was simply a reasonable tournament, far removed from the pre-tournament hype.
The organisers, Kevin Tan & Peter Yang, had a vision statement for the tournament: As organisers of the Australian Open we are very excited to be bringing this event to the Australian chess players and supporters. Our vision is clear and simple: to hold the best Australian Open tournament for the players with extended media coverage and an exciting festival events. We look forward to having you as part of this great event and we are ever thankful for your continued support of this great tradition.

When you look at the tournament in detail, it is easy to see how the organisers have failed to meet this somewhat optimistic vision for the event.
Prize Money - Yes, the event had the biggest prize pool (and first place) for an Australian Open (and perhaps any chess tournament in Australia), however the prize money was reduced from what was advertised ($25,000+ with $8,000 for first place), which is something that should not be done for an event like an Australian Open (unlike a weekender, when you might make a prize fund subject to a certain number of entries & adjust it by a few hundred dollars depending if you get more or less players than anticipated). I heard that a number of foreign players in particular were unhappy to learn about the reduced prize fund, however this was only second-hand speculation, so I can't confirm if this was the case or not.
Venue - Although the playing hall itself was nice, Castle Hill as a location was far from ideal - a long way from anywhere by car & only accessible by bus if using public transport - so there was a deterrent from entering the tournament to begin with, even for players from Sydney & it is important to have good numbers from the home state if a tournament is to be a success. The additional areas used for commentary & analysis were also far from ideal, as they were not separate rooms & it was possible to hear the commentary from parts of the playing hall, but particularly the area near the restrooms, so that it would be possible for players to go to the bathroom when they reached a critical position & then to hear GM Rogers discussing the position.
Scoresheets - This was one area where the organisers simply dropped the ball. For such a large & important tournament on the Australian chess calendar, it is considered standard to create scoresheets for the event - not only to look professional in general, but to give the players a memento of the event. Instead of doing this, the organisers simply used whatever NSWCA scoresheets they could get their hands on, which had a variety of headings, such as the Grand Prix, NSW Open, etc. Of course to make matters worse, after the rest day, these carbon-copy scoresheets ran out & the tournament finished with most players using standard NSWCA scoresheets, with the organisers doing a post-game photo of the scoresheet in an attempt to collect the games from the event.
Internet coverage - Although some aspects of this were excellent, such as using Chess24 to transmit live games, rather than the usual tired looking DGT interface, on the whole it did not live up to the pre-tournament hype. The online broadcast of GM Ian Rogers' live commentary from the venue had technical difficulties, not being broadcasting for a number of days, as well as having issues with sound & lighting.
Donation Box - In the final few days of the event, the organisers set up a few donation boxes at the venue, asking players & spectators to contribute money to go towards the prize pool. Although I suppose to some extent it is something that an embarrassed group of organisers might resort to if there was no other way of gaining income for the event, it is a very poor look for the tournament. Good tournament organisation should be able to get the necessary income, through sponsorship, entry fees, merchandise, etc, without having to resort to what is effectively begging for money, particularly so late in the event.

To my mind, the easiest way to avoid such an issue in the future is to have the ACF run & organise its own event! The current 'outsourcing' method has little incentive for organisers, but significant risk & in the recent past, has almost always been organised fairly late (less than  year out from the event).
As part of the ACF (I'm currently the Secretary), I've got no issue with personally joining an ACF organising committee for future Australian Opens & Championships, however I know that I could not do something of this scale alone.
Let's see where things go in the future ... my Australian Open ideas & ideas for a Chess Festival have been 'out there' for a while now ... whether they are workable in Australia is another issue however ...

Australian Open - Day 9

Today saw the final round of the Australian Open & I was paired against Bernard Chau. He surprised me a little in the opening, playing 2. e4 (I was expecting 2. c4, however to be fair, the games I had on Bernard were a few years old). I played a Gurgenidze Caro Kann & was happy with the position I reached out of the opening - many of the ideal things for black were on the board - exchanged the white-squared bishop for a knight (and doubled white's f-pawns), pressure on the white centre, a good bishop - however I played some poor moves around move 20 & let my advantage slip. Two moves in particular were problematic for me - after capturing my knight on c6, I should have recaptured with the b-pawn, so as to play c5 & attack the white d-pawn soon afterwards. The second mistake was exchanging knights & undoubling white's f-pawns. All of this allowed white to get some pressure on the kingside, while my queenside & central play did not happen quick enough. Although I tried to make things difficult, white's winning plan was much quicker than my counterplay & I resigned shortly after Bernard promoted one of his pawns.



Some photos from today's round

In action against Bernard Chau

Round 11 against Bernard Chau

WIM Heather Richards on her way to the Australian Open Women's title - awarded for the first time since 2003!

Australian Open - Day 8

Today I was white against Canberra junior Michael Kethro & after my usual transpositional options, played the white side of a Modern Benoni. I used an idea from game 8 of the Anand-Gelfand world championship match & played the manoeuvre Ne2-c3, with the idea of keeping the queenside under control & preventing the thematic b5 pawn break. Kethro responded with the usual kingside play, though the move 11... f4, although thematic, seems a little premature with the white king still in the centre. Once I was able to play 18. a5 & 19. Nb6, I had a nice bind on the queenside, which made it difficult for black to develop their queenside & stifled any counterplay. Kethro exchanged pieces to go into a double rook & bishop endgame, however my space advantage meant that something would have to go seriously wrong for me to lose the position, in spite of having doubled b-pawns. Kethro's 35... g3 seemed to practically put an end to his kingside pressure & allowed me to continue doing what I wanted on the queenside. Although I had some pressure, I was not sure I would be able to win the game, however just as Kethro was about to reach the time control, he played the horrible move 40... a5. This gave him an additional weakness on the queenside to defend & I was able to improve the position of my pieces, before pushing my central passed pawns to gain a winning position, before Kethro dropped an exchange and resigned.



In the final round I am black against Bernard Chau, which again is a winnable game if I play well.

More photos to finish today ...

Playing Michael Kethro in round 10

Playing Michael Kethro in round 10

The playing hall during round 10

Top boards in action

As for the main tournament, GM Ni Hua from China has locked up first place with a phenomenal 9.5/10 to be two points clear of his nearest rivals, IM Bobby Cheng, who he plays in the final round & GM Zong Yuan Zhao, who are both on 7.5/10, with six players a further half point behind them.
In the Minor, Queensland President Mark Stokes has also locked up first place in the event with 9/10 so far, to put him at least 1.5 points in front of second place (minor round 10 results are not yet online).

Australian Open - Day 7

Yesterday I played a topsy-turvy game against Clive Ng, which eventually finished in a draw. I felt like I got a reasonable position out of the opening, however I found it difficult to come up with a useful middlegame plan & found myself drifting a bit, while Clive improved his position. Clive managed to win a pawn & I found myself in a tough position, with an awkwardly placed bishop & Clive applying pressure with his queen, rook & central pawns. The critical move that Clive needed to play was f6, and if he had played 37. Qh4 or Qg5 to prepare 38. f6, I would have been in serious trouble! Clive allowed me to get out of trouble, however the resulting rook & opposite coloured bishop endgame was still potentially complicated. I thought that my attempt to exchange rooks off may have brought about disaster, however my engine seems to think I have enough play with my c-pawn to hold the position, although I was far from convinced at the time. Once Clive declined to swap rooks, I made sure to keep my pieces active, which is critical in such endgames. Clive finally offered me a draw when I was likely to regain one of my pawns, although the position still had plenty of life in it, however although I may have had some advantage in the centre, Clive's passed pawns were still concerning, so I agreed to a draw.



Today I play Canberra junior Michael Kethro, which is another tough game, but another that is winnable if I play well.

To finish, some more photos from the tournament

Playing Clive Ng in round 9

Round 9 against Clive Ng

The battle between good friends (and sometime coach-student) Heather Richards & Alana Chibnall ended with a fairly quick draw.

Australian Open - Day 6

Today I was white against Matthew Yan & he chose to play an unusual line against my Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. Surprisingly there are no games in MegaBase 2014 after 3... e5, yet this is the second time in just over a year that I have faced the same move, with Steve Hogan playing against me a little over a year ago! Thankfully for me the result was the same, with a win in 25 moves (the game against Steve in 2013 took 24 moves). The big decision came after Kd2, when Matthew chose not to repeat moves with Qf4+ & instead played dxe4. This allowed me to consolidate the extra piece & after finding a tactic that won another piece, Matthew resigned.

In action against Matthew Yan

Tomorrow I play black against Clive Ng, which should be a tough, but winnable game.

Australian Open - Day 5

Yesterday was the 'rest day' of the tournament, though in some senses, one of my busiest, with the ACF National Conference in the morning, followed by the Australian Open Blitz (this year I decided not to play, but managed to get a few videos of the action, which I hope to upload to YouTube over the coming days & weeks - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0zfek_UNX6M6G0DHOo3ttw/feed), followed by an ACF Council meeting to conclude ... a busy day with mostly laborious meetings & note taking ...
Today saw the 'home run' of the tournament begin, with all rounds from now until the end of the tournament being single-round days. I was black against South Australian Kim Anderson today & played a horrible game, losing without much of a fight at all. Prior to the game, I discovered that Kim played 1.e4 & 2. Nc3 against pretty much anything & I really didn't have any sort of plan in mind about how to deal with this. The problem is that I really didn't play the game with a consistent plan & seemed to come up with short term moves which didn't work together well. Of course after 5... Qh4+ (a rather committal move), I decided that I should try to keep the pawn & play it like some sort of King's Gambit variation. Once I realised I was in trouble after 11. Kg1 I decided to turn the game into a 'romantic' game & sacrificed my queen. Of course I had overlooked the counter-sacrifice 14. Bxf7+ when white's initiative & black's unsafe king are enough to the game.



Tomorrow I'm white against Matthew Yan, who I really know very little about, other than that he is from NSW. Hopefully I can return to 50% & try to finish the tournament on a positive note.

To finish off, photos from the tournament taken by my girlfriend Greer:

Top boards in the playing hall

Estonian WFM Margit Brokko, whose birthday was today

Contemplating my second move against Kim Anderson ... I eventually decided on 2... c6

Another view of the playing hall

Australian Open - Day 4

Yesterday was another double round day, though it is the final one for the tournament.
In round 5 I was paired against Marcus Porter & decided to bring out an 'old favourite', the Elephant Gambit, figuring it could do no worse than my previous attempts to find a decent opening against 1. e4 so far this tournament. I was happy with the position I got out of the opening & managed to recover my pawn sacrificed in the opening, plus with the bishop pair I thought I would hold a slight advantage. Of course as with most of my other games this tournament, I managed to go astray at some point & rather than trying to maintain control of the position, I headed for an endgame where I could win a piece ... but the problem was that the resulting position with rook, bishop & pawn against rook & three pawns was in fact better for the rook & pawns because of a better king & my own passive pieces. I managed to survive a potentially dangerous situation & then found myself with some sort of advantage in the endgame, being a piece for a pawn ahead, but with only a single pawn left on the board, it was still difficult to convert to a win. Ultimately my opponent managed to gain a passed pawn, which I had to sacrifice my rook to stop, but in the meantime I had lost all of my pawns, so with king & bishop against king, we were left with no choice but to agree to a draw.



The second game of the day saw me playing white against Robert Beeman from Sydney. Knowing Robert's aggressive style, I tried to stifle his play before it got going & this game me the advantage out of the opening. Unsurprisingly, Robert decided to sacrifice material to try to find a way to attack my king, but I was able to exchange queens & remove the danger from the position. I then consolidated my advantage & faced with a significant material disadvantage, Robert resigned.



This leaves me on 3/6 with a 'rest' day ahead. The term rest usually implies some form of relaxation or break, but tomorrow I have the ACF National Conference in the morning, with an ACF Council meeting in the evening. The Australian Blitz is also held in between these two events, but I doubt I'll play in the event this year.

Australian Open - Day 3

Yesterday in round 4 I was paired against a former club mate, Sarwat Rewais, who is now the President of St George Chess Club, where I used to play when I lived in Sydney.
I decided to play my 'pet' opening, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit & achieved the type of attacking position typical of the opening, however just when the position reached a critical point, I went for the wrong attacking plan & went astray rather quickly. The important point in the position is to keep pressure on black's king & not allow it to get out of the centre easily. With that in mind, my plan of playing 12. h4, 13. h5 & 14. Bxf6 was misguided. My engine prefers the sacrifice 12. Bxe6, with the aim of keeping the black king in the centre, with my engine preferring black after castling queenside & simply returning the material. The alternative plan was to play 12. Nce4, which I played later in the game anyway, however with the dark squared bishop off the board & a white pawn on h5, many of the attacking options were removed.



Today I play black against Marcus Porter in the morning round. Hopefully I can start to play a bit better & get my tournament back on track. I suppose a consolation is that I have been playing horribly & am still on 1.5/4 ... suppose the only way is up from here!

Australian Open - Day 2

Yesterday was the first double round day at the Australian Open Chess Championships at Castle Hill RSL. In the first game of the day I was paired against Welsh IM Richard Jones & played a long game, where Richard grabbed a pawn early in a Slav Defence & I tried to round it up. However I could never quite capture the pawn, but still retained good drawing chances, but in the critical position I blundered, playing defensive moves 47. Bc6 & 48. Rh2, rather than the more active 47. Rf2, which would have created more opportunities for me & allowed me to exploit the weakened black king, rather than being so focused on the passed d-pawn.



In the second game of the day I was black against Newcastle junior Paul Russell & played a Modern Defence that soon transposed to a position from the Scandinavian Defence. I found myself in a passive position, but was able to strike out against the centre when Paul launched an attack on my king. I did not defend the best & Paul was able to win two pawns & I had to hope for something of a miracle & looked to play vaguely threatening moves in the hope of having my opponent blunder. Thankfully for me, Paul did exactly that & allowed my rook & knight to get very active & rather than pushing his passed a-pawn, Paul tried to defend, which helped my position enormously, to the point where he gave up a piece to try to slow my initiative. Of course that is the time when I should maintain my concentration (I had been rather tired earlier in the game & may have even dozed off briefly for short periods), but I got lazy & played a very poor move, thinking that my opponent had to play a particular move when he clearly didn't. The critical mistake was 43... dxc3, when 43... d3 was simply winning. I had seen both moves & although d3 was winning, it appeared to be a bit tricky if the a-pawn was pushed. I quickly calculated that after 43... dxc3 44. Rxc3 Nd5 that the rook on c3 would have to move & I could capture the b-pawn & hold everything on the queenside, but had completely overlooked that 45. a6 was possible! After that, I was struggling to hold a draw, but with the extra piece, I was able to defend & get into the Philidor position to hold the draw.



I have managed to upload a few short videos that my girlfriend Greer recorded on day 1 of GM Ian Rogers' commentary. There are a few others that are longer, but they take considerably more time to upload, so I might be able to upload these later in the event.

 

After some technical difficulties, the organisers have managed to get something of a live feed of Ian Rogers' commentary, although they are still working on finding the best angle to show the commentary. The channel to view the commentary is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZOxPwzhSC7CT14SLu0nJw

Australian Open - Day 1

Today saw the start of the 2015 Australian Open Chess Championships, which I am playing in. I am the 42nd seed out of just over 100 players (I think the actual number of players is 105, though that will hopefully be confirmed by tomorrow).
Today I played a fellow Victorian in round 1 - Damien Van Den Hoff - and I played a horrible opening (better not repeat it later in the tournament), though luckily for me, Damien missed 7. Bxf7+, which would have had me in serious trouble! In fact I was worse for much of the game & it was only after 31. Qd4 that my engine started to like my position. Again luckily for me, Damien did not play the best defence & soon found himself in a tough position - a pawn down, with the choice of trading into a pawn ending 2 pawns down, or staying in a very bad rook ending & ending up 2, if not 3 pawns down. Damien chose option 3 & decided to resign the game.
In round 2 (tomorrow is a double-round day), I play Welsh IM Richard Jones, so should find myself in for a tough game, as well as having far fewer opportunities if I manage to stuff things up as I did today.



As for the tournament itself, it got underway around half an hour late, with things seemingly a little disorganised before the round started.
The opening ceremony was brief, but covered the necessary formalities, including the sad (now tradition it seems) mentioning of those in the chess community who died in the previous year, with the passing of Alex Saint & Evelyn Koshnitsky being the two most significant in 2014.
Once the games were underway, things settled down. My girlfriend Greer was with me on the day & took a number of photos, which I have included below.
There was also a reporter for SBS & there was a short 2 minute item on the daily news that was shown covering the tournament. http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/379122243540/worlds-greatest-chess-players-in-sydney-for-australian-chess-open

Opening Ceremony, with ACF President Gary Wastell talking fondly about Evelyn Koshnitsky

WIM Heather Richards, playing one of her first tournaments since officially becoming Australian!

The playing hall before round 1, with myself & Damien Van Den Hoff in the foreground

Alana Chibnall before her first round game - looking to get in some chess before she takes on the task of organising the Australian Juniors in Canberra.

Before my round 1 clash with Damien Van Den Hoff

The front of Castle Hill RSL

Another view of the playing hall

GM Ian Rogers does a brief interview with top seed GM Ni Hua following his round 1 win

Another view of the playing hall

I also have a few short videos of GM Ian Rogers' commentary (again taken by my girlfriend Greer) which I hope to add later.