Chess Candidates

 Will I be following the Candidates Tournaments? You bet!! The next 3 weeks will be full on. The Candidates events will dominate the chess scene until April 23rd and on the 25th April, a 9-round tournament starts in Hobart that I'd like to play. That runs through until 28th April, which means the whole month in pretty much worked out.

April is officially chess month!!

Although the Candidates will dominate the chess news, it is not the only event on, and as I know none of the Candidates personally, following events with people I know can be just as interesting. I'm of the opinion that the most important event for anyone should be the one they are personally involved in, either as a player, a helper, or a friend of a participant/helper. Currently, the Melbourne International Chess Open is being held at my old club, the Melbourne Chess Club. There are a lot of players that I know personally in this event, as there were in last week's annual Doeberl Cup in Canberra. In that event, there were a bunch of very talented primary school kids playing: Ashwath Kaushik of Singapore who became the youngest player in history to beat a Grand Master late last year; Reyaansh Chakrabarty, who also beat a Grand Master earlier this year at Victoria's annual Ballarat tournament in March; and Rheyansh Annapureddy, who I am glad to say I have beaten when he was probably 7 or 8 years old, and already a tough competitor. This is a scalp that I will have when he becomes a great player in the next few years.

Rheyansh put up an incredible fight in round 1 against top Australian IM James Morris. Both players had to play a difficult rook and bishop vs rook ending with very little time on their clocks. 

As Black, Rheyansh had made 41 of the 50 moves necessary for a draw when the position above was reached. It is a difficult defence, and the youngster had played heroically to last this long, but he finally committed an error that the experienced IM pounced on. 138..Ra7? allowed White to force a win with 139.Bb3+ Ka2 140.Rh1 [142.Rh2 was quicker, but let's not quibble] 140..Rc7+ 141.Bc4, and Black has to give up their rook to avoid immediate mate.

From the position, it was better for Black to keep their rook active, pinning White's bishop so 138..Rc8 was a drawing move, when White has to make their position worse. For example, 139.Rh1 Ka5 140.Rh6 Ra8

[Event "O2C Doeberl Cup 2024"] [Site "Canberra AUS"] [Date "2024.03.28"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Morris,J"] [Black "Annapureddy,Rheyansh Reddy"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2418"] [BlackElo "1977"] [EventDate "2024.03.28"] [ECO "B38"] [FEN "8/2r5/8/1R6/k1B5/2K5/8/8 w - - 83 138"] [SetUp "1"] [PlyCount "281"] [BlackFideId "3244806"] [EventType "swiss"] [Opening "Sicilian"] [Variation "accelerated fianchetto, Maroczy bind, 6.Be3"] [WhiteFideId "3205800"] [WhiteTitle "IM"] 138.Rh5 Ra7 $2 ( 138...Rc8 139.Rh1 Ka5 140.Rh6 Ra8 141.Rd6 Ra7 ) 139.Bb3+ Ka3 140.Rh1 ( 140.Rh2 Rc7+ 141.Bc4 Rxc4+ 142.Kxc4 Ka4 143.Ra2# ) 140...Rc7+ 141.Bc4 1-0

Not an April Fool!!

Starting blogging again has been on my mind recently. I used to really enjoy it when I was writing before, and I miss it. I did contemplate a personal written journal, and I might do that too. But for now, I intend to write here about the things that interest me:

Chess: This has been my hobby for 50 years, and I've been working as a chess coach for the past 20 years. I recently won the Tasmanian Championship for the second year in a row and after a big drop in my FIDE rating, I woke today that it had rebounded a little and sits at 2019. This is a long way short of the 2200 I was at my best, and I doubt I'll ever get back close to that again. At the moment, I'm just happy to be above 2000.

It's no coincidence that I am starting writing just before the Candidates tournament starts in Toronto. The tournament promises to be the highlight event of the year with an incredibly interesting field of experience and youth in both the Open and Women's events. I'll be taking an interest in both events.

But the main chess emphasis of this blog will be local chess, Tasmanian and Australian. And, of course, anything that interests me in the meantime.

Nature: I also hope to post some stuff about where I live, in particular the natural beauty of Tasmania. I live in the north of the island close to the second city of the state, Launceston. The biggest city, Hobart,  is near the south of the island, about 3 hours drive from me. I recently found out that Tasmania has over 40% of its land considered as forest. And the air is among the cleanest in the world. All in all, it is a great place to walk around with loads of tracks, some of which are accessible to people like a 58 year old like me!

This is a pencil pine that I saw at Cradle Mountain earlier this year. This particular species is endemic to Tasmania, and only grows in the central highlands. It is a slow growing plant that can live up to 1000 years. It is believed that this species is ancient, a remnant of the super continent Gondwanaland. It is believed to have originated in what we now know as South America and then migrated across Antarctica before it split from the rest of the continent, finally landing in Tasmania. I find this kind of thing amazing, and will try to find more of interest about this beautiful and interesting island situated off the south coast of mainland Australia.

Other Crap: Although chess and nature are the two things that mean the most to me at the moment, I am also interested in other things. I live with my wife, Caroline, and two cats Alice and Candy. They might find themselves included here at times. I read a lot and I might use this blog to mention some books I've read both fiction and chess. And I'm interested in social affairs so I might use this as a soapbox from time to time, especially if an issue is important to me.

I should mention that I'm writing this primarily for me. I also will be writing for my friends and family who I lost contact with as I left social media last year. I closed both my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and currently only have a Mastodon account where I know no one personally. If you do want to link up, my account is chestas and I'd be particularly interested in building a chess community on Mastodon if anyone wants to join.

Anyways....Happy April!!!