Apologies for not posting anything for the past 2 months ... I have been too busy with work of various sorts & have now got most of it out of the way, so feel I can get back to the blog & remain guilt-free in terms of procrastination.
Today was day 1 of the Australian Open Chess Championships, so the next post will be about that.
Other events & happenings I need to write about on the blog are (in no particular order):
Hjorth Open conclusion
Bob Brooking round robin
Chess Victoria AGM
Victorian Blitz Championship
Warrnambool Open
Box Hill Chess Club
As well as a few other bits & pieces that I'm sure I will come up with ...
Anyway, BACK TO THE BLOG!
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Friday, 2 January 2015
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Fantasy Olympiad Update
It looks like my Fantasy Olympiad team has hit the proverbial wall, and after a strong start, where I was in the top 10 after round 5, I have now slipped to =51st place and am now 21 points behind the leader. Since round 6, my highest score has been 20 (in last night's round 9) & this has seen the slide down the table occur. My main issues seem to be with my lower Open boards, with Grischuk, Volokytin & Stellwagen losing or sitting out a number of games in recent rounds. Batsiashvili's drawing or non-playing on my Women's board 5 also has not helped. There are a few other entries from Australia & it looks like I'm leading that group, but slipping from the top 10 overall is not exactly coming home with a wet sail!
As something of a consolation, I'm in the Best Team Name competition, with my entry FA Chance of Winning (yes, perhaps a poor chess pun, but I'm hoping to have my FA title approved during the Congress, so there is SOME logic - if you can call it that - to the name). The winner of the Best Name poll wins a fancy chess set, so feel free to go & vote & get my off the bottom end of the standings. My personal favourite out of the ten names, is e2, Brute ... but they don't get my vote on principle!
So what are you waiting for?? Go & VOTE!
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Olympiad Update ... Reality & Fantasy ...
So the chess Olympiad has finally started in Turkey.
Australia have had a reasonable start to the event, with the Open team performing slightly above their seeding, while the Women's team are slightly below their seeding.
The brief summary of their results so far is as follows:
Open
Round 1: 3-1 win against Namibia
Round 2: 2-2 draw with Norway
Round 3: 1.5-2.5 loss against Mongolia
Round 4: 2.5-1.5 win against Pakistan
Round 5: 2.5-1.5 win against Zambia
Although the matches have been close, the main score is the match score (ie: overall win or loss), with the game points only being used for countback purposes, so Australia are well positioned with a 3-1-1 record.
Individually, results are as follows:
David Smerdon 2.5/4
Moulthun Ly 2.5/4
Aleks Wohl 0.5/3
Stephen Solomon 2.5/4
Max Illingworth 3.5/5
Women
Round 1: 4-0 win against Malta
Round 2: 0.5-3.5 loss against India
Round 3: 1.5-2.5 loss against Macedonia (AKA: FYROM)
Round 4: 3.5-0.5 win against Nicaragua
Round 5: 0-4 loss against Romania
The matches have for the most part been far more one-sided, as Australia seems to be doing the Swiss yo-yo, although the loss to Macedonia would be a little disappointing.
Individually, results are as follows:
Arianne Caoili 2/4
Emma Guo 1.5/4
Sally Yu 1/4
Giang Nguyen 2/4
Biljana Dekic 3/4
After today's round there is a rest day, so hopefully the team can recuperate from the illnesses they are suffering, at least according to David Smerdon's blog, and finish off strongly!
The Fantasy Chess Olympiad, on the other hand, has started off fantastically for me! After round 4, I am sitting in =10th place (out of 235 entries) with 106 points (see my previous post for the explanation of the scoring).
Some things have turned out (somewhat fortuitously in a way) in my favour so far:
Alexander Grischuk is not only scoring well, but he's actually playing on board 2 of the Russian team (so I actually have two board 2 players, rather than a board 2 & 3);
Andrei Volokitin is also crushing his opponents (starting with 4/4) and is in fact playing board 3 for the Ukraine team, not the board 4 that I have him selected as;
Anish Giri (not in my team) has had some passport/visa related issues, so has only just arrived in Turkey for the Olympiad, playing his first game in round 5, which has meant that Daniel Stellwagen has played all four rounds (and even played round 5), in spite of some early poor form;
Yelena Dembo is another in my team who is not playing on the initially allocated board, playing board 1 for Greece, rather than the board 3 as selected;
Overall (up to the end of round 4), there have only been 3 DNPs in my team, as well as only 2 individual losses, which is fantastic for accumulating points (which is what the competition is about).
The competition organisers have also started a 'Week 2' competition, where you can select another fantasy team in the same way as the main competition, but you can select the team with some form on the board, and hopefully come up with a better team overall.
Australia have had a reasonable start to the event, with the Open team performing slightly above their seeding, while the Women's team are slightly below their seeding.
The brief summary of their results so far is as follows:
Open
Round 1: 3-1 win against Namibia
Round 2: 2-2 draw with Norway
Round 3: 1.5-2.5 loss against Mongolia
Round 4: 2.5-1.5 win against Pakistan
Round 5: 2.5-1.5 win against Zambia
Although the matches have been close, the main score is the match score (ie: overall win or loss), with the game points only being used for countback purposes, so Australia are well positioned with a 3-1-1 record.
Individually, results are as follows:
David Smerdon 2.5/4
Moulthun Ly 2.5/4
Aleks Wohl 0.5/3
Stephen Solomon 2.5/4
Max Illingworth 3.5/5
Women
Round 1: 4-0 win against Malta
Round 2: 0.5-3.5 loss against India
Round 3: 1.5-2.5 loss against Macedonia (AKA: FYROM)
Round 4: 3.5-0.5 win against Nicaragua
Round 5: 0-4 loss against Romania
The matches have for the most part been far more one-sided, as Australia seems to be doing the Swiss yo-yo, although the loss to Macedonia would be a little disappointing.
Individually, results are as follows:
Arianne Caoili 2/4
Emma Guo 1.5/4
Sally Yu 1/4
Giang Nguyen 2/4
Biljana Dekic 3/4
After today's round there is a rest day, so hopefully the team can recuperate from the illnesses they are suffering, at least according to David Smerdon's blog, and finish off strongly!
The Fantasy Chess Olympiad, on the other hand, has started off fantastically for me! After round 4, I am sitting in =10th place (out of 235 entries) with 106 points (see my previous post for the explanation of the scoring).
Some things have turned out (somewhat fortuitously in a way) in my favour so far:
Alexander Grischuk is not only scoring well, but he's actually playing on board 2 of the Russian team (so I actually have two board 2 players, rather than a board 2 & 3);
Andrei Volokitin is also crushing his opponents (starting with 4/4) and is in fact playing board 3 for the Ukraine team, not the board 4 that I have him selected as;
Anish Giri (not in my team) has had some passport/visa related issues, so has only just arrived in Turkey for the Olympiad, playing his first game in round 5, which has meant that Daniel Stellwagen has played all four rounds (and even played round 5), in spite of some early poor form;
Yelena Dembo is another in my team who is not playing on the initially allocated board, playing board 1 for Greece, rather than the board 3 as selected;
Overall (up to the end of round 4), there have only been 3 DNPs in my team, as well as only 2 individual losses, which is fantastic for accumulating points (which is what the competition is about).
The competition organisers have also started a 'Week 2' competition, where you can select another fantasy team in the same way as the main competition, but you can select the team with some form on the board, and hopefully come up with a better team overall.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Australian Reserves Day 5
Day 5 (and round 5) of the Australian Reserves saw me steal another draw from a poor position, this time against Alistair Anderson. This moves me to 3.5/5 in the tournament, which leaves me a little behind the leaders, but still in contention for a decent finish.
I was slightly worse out of the opening & compounded this problem by playing 15...c5, closing the centre rather than taking on d5 & attacking down the c-file. Thankfully for me, Alistair played 31.b4, rather than the more direct 31.g5 & I was able to create problems with my queen, which may not have been enough to draw, but at least scared Alistair into accepting my draw offer while he was short of time.
3.5/5 isn't too bad for the first part of the tournament, particularly considering how poorly I have actually played in some of the games. Hopefully I can turn this around in the second part of the tournament & get 2012 off to a great start!
I was slightly worse out of the opening & compounded this problem by playing 15...c5, closing the centre rather than taking on d5 & attacking down the c-file. Thankfully for me, Alistair played 31.b4, rather than the more direct 31.g5 & I was able to create problems with my queen, which may not have been enough to draw, but at least scared Alistair into accepting my draw offer while he was short of time.
3.5/5 isn't too bad for the first part of the tournament, particularly considering how poorly I have actually played in some of the games. Hopefully I can turn this around in the second part of the tournament & get 2012 off to a great start!
Friday, 23 December 2011
The Xmas Update
Its been a few weeks since my last post & quite a bit has happened.
I'm typing this update from Sydney, where I'm visiting family & friends for the Christmas period.
In terms of chess, I've run a few tournaments - The Victorian Lightning Championships & the MCC Xmas Swiss. The links are to the results on Chesschat.
I've also played in the Bob Brooking Round Robin & finished on 1.5/5 in the top division, which sounds OK in theory, but when you consider that I was beating both Dragicevic & Urban, I feel that I could have scored more points. Having said that, I played horribly against Morris (and lost quickly), was worse for most of the game against Penrose (and drew) & was pretty even in the game with Ari Dale until he gave me two pawns and a bishop for my rook.
I'm also playing in the Australian Chess Championships (Reserves Division) in Geelong, which starts on the 27th of December. At present, it looks like I'll be around the 10th seed in the division, which will likely have 70-80 players, so I would consider myself a chance to do well in the event, although putting things together consistently for 11 rounds in such an event is always difficult, particularly given my recent efforts to throw away winning positions!
I'll try to post updates from Geelong, but can't guarantee that I will have internet access while there.
In terms of poker, the Deuces Cracked 50k Challenge has stalled significantly. I've hardly played any online poker this month & have only played around 1000 hands (down around $20 at that!), so when added to the 5000-odd stud hands I played in November, its hardly the schedule to finish off 50000 anytime soon.
Much of the lack of online poker has been the result of playing much more live poker at Crown, where I am up just over $1000 since the start of November, playing $1/2NL. Although its not a huge amount, its reasonable for the stakes & I feel that most of the time I am playing well, although there are still some sessions where I find myself either struggling from the start due to the dynamics of the table (typically when there are multiple aggressive bigger stacks at the table), or midway through sessions, due to either a run of unplayable cards, or some unfortunate results.
I also final tabled the 7-game event at the November Joe Hachem Deepstack Series, placing 5th, although that was the only tournament I have played at Crown of late.
Since heading to Sydney for the holidays, I've managed to win two APL events, both at venues at Ashfield, which has made my recent APL record look much more impressive!
In terms of making videos, I'm midway through preparing the material for episode 2 of the Broken Arrow, which will be largely PowerPoint-based, in a similar format to Episode 1. I've had some positive feedback about the first episode and the PowerPoint format used, & I feel it works well for explaining the basic concepts & ideas of the opening much better than simply using Chessbase, although it does make the preparation of the episodes somewhat more labour-intensive. Having said that, when I get to covering games in detail in future episodes, this will mean that the presentation format will be largely Chessbase-based.
I'd also like to wish my brother Michael a speedy recovery! He broke his leg playing cricket last week & has only just got out of hospital, with multiple pins in his leg, a cast attached to it, as well as crutches & a wheelchair to help him get around! Its put am end to his 2011/12 cricket season, but hopefully he can recover & play even better in the 2012/12 season!
I'm typing this update from Sydney, where I'm visiting family & friends for the Christmas period.
In terms of chess, I've run a few tournaments - The Victorian Lightning Championships & the MCC Xmas Swiss. The links are to the results on Chesschat.
I've also played in the Bob Brooking Round Robin & finished on 1.5/5 in the top division, which sounds OK in theory, but when you consider that I was beating both Dragicevic & Urban, I feel that I could have scored more points. Having said that, I played horribly against Morris (and lost quickly), was worse for most of the game against Penrose (and drew) & was pretty even in the game with Ari Dale until he gave me two pawns and a bishop for my rook.
I'm also playing in the Australian Chess Championships (Reserves Division) in Geelong, which starts on the 27th of December. At present, it looks like I'll be around the 10th seed in the division, which will likely have 70-80 players, so I would consider myself a chance to do well in the event, although putting things together consistently for 11 rounds in such an event is always difficult, particularly given my recent efforts to throw away winning positions!
I'll try to post updates from Geelong, but can't guarantee that I will have internet access while there.
In terms of poker, the Deuces Cracked 50k Challenge has stalled significantly. I've hardly played any online poker this month & have only played around 1000 hands (down around $20 at that!), so when added to the 5000-odd stud hands I played in November, its hardly the schedule to finish off 50000 anytime soon.
Much of the lack of online poker has been the result of playing much more live poker at Crown, where I am up just over $1000 since the start of November, playing $1/2NL. Although its not a huge amount, its reasonable for the stakes & I feel that most of the time I am playing well, although there are still some sessions where I find myself either struggling from the start due to the dynamics of the table (typically when there are multiple aggressive bigger stacks at the table), or midway through sessions, due to either a run of unplayable cards, or some unfortunate results.
I also final tabled the 7-game event at the November Joe Hachem Deepstack Series, placing 5th, although that was the only tournament I have played at Crown of late.
Since heading to Sydney for the holidays, I've managed to win two APL events, both at venues at Ashfield, which has made my recent APL record look much more impressive!
In terms of making videos, I'm midway through preparing the material for episode 2 of the Broken Arrow, which will be largely PowerPoint-based, in a similar format to Episode 1. I've had some positive feedback about the first episode and the PowerPoint format used, & I feel it works well for explaining the basic concepts & ideas of the opening much better than simply using Chessbase, although it does make the preparation of the episodes somewhat more labour-intensive. Having said that, when I get to covering games in detail in future episodes, this will mean that the presentation format will be largely Chessbase-based.
I'd also like to wish my brother Michael a speedy recovery! He broke his leg playing cricket last week & has only just got out of hospital, with multiple pins in his leg, a cast attached to it, as well as crutches & a wheelchair to help him get around! Its put am end to his 2011/12 cricket season, but hopefully he can recover & play even better in the 2012/12 season!
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
A video introduction ...
In the absence of any other ideas, I have decided to put together a short-ish video introduction, that I plan to use at the start of future videos I will be posting here. Let me know what you think of it!
I've also added a few minor updates to the blog, with some information about me & coaching, which you can find in the tabs at the top of the page.
As for the lack of updates, I've been busy teaching & running some chess tournaments ... but with school holidays starting shortly, expect to see more video content in the coming weeks.
I've also added a few minor updates to the blog, with some information about me & coaching, which you can find in the tabs at the top of the page.
As for the lack of updates, I've been busy teaching & running some chess tournaments ... but with school holidays starting shortly, expect to see more video content in the coming weeks.
Saturday, 3 September 2011
About a week ...
That's how long the planned video schedule stayed in place! Although I still plan to continue with the schedule posted a few weeks ago, I suspect it will become a little more 'flexible' than first envisaged, with the plan being to stick roughly to the order of the schedule rather than the exact day that each video is scheduled to be released.
On the other side of things, I've had some positive feedback about the Amateur Game of the Week video (or videos), which is good to hear. Hopefully the future videos will also maintain or improve on this early standard. There are also some videos that I am more partial to than others, so this may also effect the order that the videos are released, or at least may rely on some other factors (such as attending the MCC Opening/Endgame group to have theoretical material for the Openings & Endgames videos) in terms of particular videos being released.
As such, I'm not sure when I'll be releasing my next video, but hopefully it won't be too far away!
On the other side of things, I've had some positive feedback about the Amateur Game of the Week video (or videos), which is good to hear. Hopefully the future videos will also maintain or improve on this early standard. There are also some videos that I am more partial to than others, so this may also effect the order that the videos are released, or at least may rely on some other factors (such as attending the MCC Opening/Endgame group to have theoretical material for the Openings & Endgames videos) in terms of particular videos being released.
As such, I'm not sure when I'll be releasing my next video, but hopefully it won't be too far away!
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