Place Name                     Loc  Score

 1-2  Dowden, Tony             1963 5    
      Steward, Julian          1597 5    
 3-5  Bonham, Kevin            1927 4.5  
      Dyer, Alastair           1753 4.5  
      Bretag, Marcus                4.5  
  6   Frame, Nigel             1724 4    
 7-9  Rout, Ian C              1881 3.5  
      Chadwick, Charles        1789 3.5  
      Horton, Russell          1432 3.5  
10-14 Kuzmic, Carey            1347 3    
      Bretag, Lawrence         1370 3    
      Hendrey, Kevin           1337 3    
      Ivkovic, Milutin         1385 3    
      Fifield, Andrew          1290 3    
15-20 Richards, Graham         1287 2    
      Carter, Adam             1088 2    
      Sturges, Tony (Thelston) 1188 2    
      Carter, Mason            1430 2    
      Fitzallen, Ashton             2    
      Hunn, Nick               651  2    
 21   Wood, Daniel                  1    
                       

No  Name                     Loc   1    2    3    4    5    6  

1.  Dowden, Tony             1963 11:W  6:W  4:W  8:W  2:D  5:D
2.  Bonham, Kevin            1927 12:W  7:W  3:W  5:D  1:D 19:D
3.  Rout, Ian C              1881 13:W  8:W  2:L 17:W  5:D  7:L
4.  Chadwick, Charles        1789 14:W 21:W  1:L 19:L 10:W  8:D
5.  Dyer, Alastair           1753 15:W 10:W  6:W  2:D  3:D  1:D
6.  Frame, Nigel             1724 16:W  1:L  5:L 15:W 11:W 12:W
7.  Steward, Julian          1597 17:W  2:L 13:W 11:W 12:W  3:W
8.  Horton, Russell          1432 18:W  3:L 15:W  1:L 17:W  4:D
9.  Carter, Mason            1430 19:L 15:L 14:L 13:L   :W 21:W
10. Ivkovic, Milutin         1385 20:W  5:L 19:L 21:W  4:L 16:W
11. Bretag, Lawrence         1370  1:L 16:W 21:W  7:L  6:L 14:W
12. Kuzmic, Carey            1347  2:L 19:W 20:W 18:W  7:L  6:L
13. Hendrey, Kevin           1337  3:L 18:W  7:L  9:W 19:L 17:W
14. Fifield, Andrew          1290  4:L 17:L  9:W 20:W 15:W 11:L
15. Richards, Graham         1287  5:L  9:W  8:L  6:L 14:L   :W
16. Sturges, Tony (Thelston) 1188  6:L 11:L 17:L   :W 20:W 10:L
17. Carter, Adam             1088  7:L 14:W 16:W  3:L  8:L 13:L
18. Hunn, Nick               651   8:L 13:L   :W 12:L 21:W 20:L
19. Bretag, Marcus                 9:W 12:L 10:W  4:W 13:W  2:D
20. Fitzallen, Ashton             10:L   :W 12:L 14:L 16:L 18:W
21. Wood, Daniel                    :W  4:L 11:L 10:L 18:L  9:L

                       

Place Name                  Loc  Score Berg. Wins    Yet to have 
                                                     the Bye (0 points)
 1-2  Donnelly, Philip W    1577 8     21.00    7    *
      Dyer, Alastair        1584 8     18.00    7    *
 3-4  Horton, Russell       1143 6     15.00    4    *
      Radosavljevic, Dragan 1510 6     12.50    5
  5   Hendrey, Kevin        1329 5.5   16.00    4
  6   Kuzmic, Carey         1406 5      2.50    3    *
 7-8  Harvey, Reg           1762 4.5   15.00    3    *
      Horton, Vincent       1498 4.5    9.00    3
  9   Kuzmic, Dylan         1444 4      6.00    1
10-11 Hughes, David         1406 3.5   15.00    3    *
      Fifield, Andrew       1114 3.5    5.50    2
 12   Ledger, R Neville     1665 3      4.00    1
13-15 Smith, Charlie        916  2      2.00    1
      Jamieson, Victor      1661 2      1.00    1    *
      Woodwell, Gemma            2      0.50    1
16-17 Horton, Nina          852  1      1.00    1
      Reid, Mitchell             1      0.00    0    *
 18   Fitzallen, Ashton          0.5    1.50    0    *
 19   Duiker, Fred          1515 0      0.00    0

4 October 2008
Last week rounds 3 and 4 were marred by the absence of 3 competitors, Charlie, Nina and David which resulted in a total of 6 games being won on forfeit.
There was only 1 minor upset in round 3 when, after a long and even struggle, Russell dropped a piece and lost to Kevin.
Round 4 saw 3 closely matched ties that each finished in a draw; Neville v Andrew, Russell v Reg and Dylan v Vincent.
Alastair and Phil now share the lead on 4/4 follwed by Carey and Dragan on 3/4.

The 1/2 hour format, with no requirement to record moves, is an excellent innovation which creates an exciting chess environment that is quite different to either the longer 1 hour plus format or the shorter Allegro/Blitz formats.
With 2 rounds played on the night there were quite a few nerve jangling guillotine finishes and some interesting results.

In closely matched ties between old foes in round 1 Andrew, Reg and Russell scored victories over Charlie, Dragan and Vincent respectively.
Neville finshed the evening a little worse for wear after being defeated by David before going on to concede a draw to Ashton, both of whom were very pleased with the efforts.

After 2 rounds Phil, Russell, Alastair and Carey lead with 2 points

.

21 September 2008
The Robert Isted completed
The tournament director has absconded so I don't have final standings and results from the last round games played on the 10th September however last week the medals were given out. Alastair, as reported earlier, won the event. Dylan defeated his Dad Carey to finish in second place and notch up his best tournament result to date. Dragan finished in 3rd place.

Neville has secured a nice little cup, (second hand), to used as a perpetual trophy for the Youth vs Wisdom, (sounds better than old!), team match which is intended to become a regular annual feature at the Club. The inaugural match was planned for last Wednesday (17th) however it was decided to defer it until later in the year as there were only 3 juniors present on the night.It was generally felt that 5/6 boards at least would be more representative of the the two groups.

Games: Alastair Dyer Vincent Horton 1-0 Russell Horton David Hughes 1-0

Please note!!! The Lindsay Atkinson kicks off this coming Wednesday and the Club committee has opted for a change in the format previously advertised.
There will now only be a single round robin (rather than 3 divisions) and to get through the lengthy playing schedule the time limit is 30 minutes per player with no increment. Players should expect to play two games per night and possibly even three on occasion if time permits.

The calendar of events for the remainder of the year is here...

Place Name                  Loc  Score

  1   Dyer, Alastair        1708 7.5  
  2   Kuzmic, Dylan         1321 7    
  3   Radosavljevic, Dragan 1530 6.5  
 4-5  Harvey, Reg           1561 5.5  
      Hendrey, Kevin        1353 5.5  
  6   Lewis, Nigel          1431 5    
 7-9  Kuzmic, Carey         1273 4.5  
      Horton, Russell       1449 4.5  
      Fitzallen, Ashton          4.5  
10-14 Hughes, David         1424 4    
      Horton, Vincent       1529 4    
      Ledger, R Neville     1445 4    
      Fifield, Andrew       1243 4    
      Donnelly, Philip W    1570 4    
15-16 Woodwell, Gemma            3.5  
      Horton, Nina          1025 3.5  
 17   Reid, Mitchell             3    
 18   Duiker, Fred               2.5  
19-20 Smith, Charlie        1279 2    
      Byrant, Jade               2    
 21   Filini, Guisseppe          1.5

Alastair wins the Robert Isted

11 September 2008
One and a half points clear of the field Alastair Dyer goes into next week's final round game against Kevin comfortable in the knowledge that it is something of a formality as he has now won the event.
As the key match between Dylan and Reg ended in a draw last week, Dylan hangs on to second place. He will be hoping for a win against his Dad this week to clinch the silver medal however Carey himself, also having a fine tournament, is in the running for the bronze so this should be a great game.

16th August2008
Phil played the French for the first time in this millenium purely to avoid Alastair's attacking Sicilian and was rewarded with a superior position for most of the game before throwing it all away with some silly blunders in time trouble.
Alastair Dyer Phil Donnelly 1-0

Reg threw everything at Nigel (including his last three Kingside pawns) but Nigel held his nerve and survived to draw the game.
Dragan looked to be in great shape against Dylan as he manouvered his pieces in a closed position but somehow or other the game finished in a shock upset win instead for Dylan.

At the end of a long evening we were just about to lock up when we discovered Russell and Andrew engrossed in their game in the other room.
Russell was very disspointed to concede a draw in this game as he thought he was winning in it.

Russell has asked me to mention that the ruling about ½ point byes was only up to round 2.  So there is an alteration to the placings from last week.

Yes indeed Reg v Alastair was a ripper. After only the first two moves,
1d4 Nf6 2.Nd2!? e5!? the gloves were off as the game moved into uncharted waters. Reg took the pawn and hung on to it for quite some time in a tactical melee.Reg castled long and threw his f,g,h pawns into the assault, gradually exposing the black king, but in the ensuing queen and rook ending Alastair had enough counterplay to hold the balance leading to an agreed draw on his offer.
Phil was able to get a strong positional advantage against Andrew with play against a backward d pawn eventually winning easily.
Other games appeared to be relatively straightforward wins for the highrer rated player.

4 August 2008
This week Dragan kept Alastair up until late but to no avail as it only delayed the inevitable.
Meanwhile Reg, (not looking so rusty anymore!), defeated Charlie to join Alastair at the head of the field on 3 points and in doing so he set up an encounter with the latter on the top board next week.
The family tie between Vincent and Russell went into an opposite castled Sicilian with both kings facing formidable attacks but after Vincent (white) secured a knight on f5 the writing was on the wall for Dad.
David seemed to be far better against Nigel early on however there is hardly anything more likely to make your hair turn gray than getting into a queen and rook ending with precious little time left on your clock against Nigel and he went down in a hail of checks.
Dylan lost a piece in his game with newcomer Gemma Woodwell and she was good enough to be able to hold a draw from there against her more experienced opponent.
Having left a knight en prise last week Phil was pleased when Kevin did precisely the same thing in their game and although Kevin won a pawn later the endgame was hopelessly lost for him.
And...Ashton won his first tournament chess game; Cogratulations!

Neville has given me permission to reproduce this delightful anecdote from last week's playing session: -
"It is 8/30 p.m. at the Burnie Chess Club. You could hear a pin drop. The concentration in the air is palpable. I walk past the game between Jade and Ashton.  They hold up their score sheets and whisper to me. I cannot hear. They whisper louder "How do we write this down?"  Ashton silently demonstrates that he has just promoted his pawn to a queen. I take their score sheets and drawing on untold years of experience  I neatly record the move   and return the score sheets to them.  Ashton says "it doesn't look right, it's check"  I silently amend what I had recorded and what I had overlooked.  Trivial yes.  Unique in my experience  also yes."

Next week we will welcome our newest member Fred Duiker to the club and hope he enjoys his first game there against Jade Bryant. Fred has some experience as a club chess player but he tells me it is many years since he last picked up a pawn in anger.

27 July 2008
The duel between the two former (many-time) club champions Reg and Neville proved to be the tough battle that we expected. The game went into an even B+R endgame with some superb tactical shots coming from both sides of the board before Reg ran out the eventual winner.
Phil's woes continued when he again blew a won game against a junior (Nina). Two pawns up in the endgame, time trouble was a factor when a knight was left en prise however the two extra connected passed pawns were enough to hold a lucky draw.

Russell put up terrific resistance against Alastair surviving into a very even endgame before going down fighting.
At 11 years and 8 months Ashton Fitzallen is the Club's youngest member and my personal pick for a future Tasmanian Champion if he maintains his interest in the game, (though it is highly likely that Vincent and/or Alastair will beat him to it!). This week, in only his second ever tournament game, he made the talented Andrew Fifield work very hard indeed for the full point.
Nigel (the Cadel Evans of the BCC?), who had been crushed earlier by Vincent in the Club Championship, was able to hold the youngster to a draw this time in the shorter time trial of the R.I. which better suits his playing style.

25 July 2008
This year's Robert Isted has kicked off with a huge bang as Charlie Smith pulled off a shock win against newly crowned Club co-champion Phil Donnelly.
Charlie hung in doggedly with a miserable position where he was forced to give up the exchange but his patience was rewarded in the last 5 minutes when Phil, aiming to simplify in to a won ending, simplified in to a lost one instead. Charlie Smith Phil Donnelly 1-0
Numbers for the event are excellent with 19 all up currently (and still not too late to enter), including 4 new junior members, Ashton Fitzallen, Jade Bryant, Gemma Woodwell and Mitchell Reid.
One of the new juniors is a girl so, with the welcome return of Nina Horton, the Club can boast two female entrants for the event.

The tournament is to be a 9 round Swiss aiming to finish on the 10th September.
A late committee decision was made just prior to the start of the event that the time limit would be 60 minutes plus 30 seconds. Hence all games moves must be recorded.

	The unofficial motto of the Burnie Chess Club is "Nil Desperandum", (never give up). Dylan (right) ponders a tricky situation! Alastair is white and his pawns on c7, b7 and a7 are each 1 move from Queening.
	Oops did I say Queening? I meant promoting! Dylan resigns due to that boring old rule about checkmate which has interfered with many a good game.
	The final position with black in checkmate. Alastair's masterpiece is unfortunately flawed. The knight on a8 is doing nothing!

Donnelly and Dyer tie for the title.

Persistance has paid off for Phil Donnelly who has staked a claim on the BCC Championship on his 9th attempt at it since 2000. In this interval of 8 years he has previously finished 2nd twice and 3rd 4 times.
Alastair Dyer has joined him in 1st place to share the title that he won outright last year.
Neville Ledger has finished in 3rd place after drawing his last game with Dragan Radosavljevic.
It is almost certainly some sort of a record statistic in Tasmania for a player to score 9 draws in a Chess Tournament as Neville did.

Final crosstable

26 June 2008
Alastair Dyer defeated Russell Horton in his last game of the event and in doing so he has retained his title as Club Champion although there is every chance that he will have to share the honour this year as Phil Donnelly will join him on 13.5 points should he defeat Jackson Jolly in his last game.
Dragan Radosavljevic was already in trouble early in his game with Donnelly before a later tactical error, (overloaded Queen theme), sealed his fate.

Results of other games played last Wednesday were as follows: -
David 1 vs Jackson 0
Reg 1 vs Andrew 0
Carey 1 vs Nigel 0. This was an excellent game with attack counter attack and some solid defence by Carey in towards the end against an attack where one wrong move was curtains.  Even though the attack petered out Nigel still kept a few tricks up his sleeve with Carey low on time and having to avoid cunning stalemate traps.
Vincent 1 vs Charlie 0
The current crosstable for the event is given under.
(Mile Pavicic withdrew some time ago for health reasons. The games he has forfeited are shown in smaller font with strikethrough)

14 June 2008
As the Club Championships draws to a close two contenders for the title remain standing.
Alastair Dyer needs to win his last game against Russell Horton to make sure of at least a share of 1st place while Phil Donnelly must defeat both Dragan Radosavljevic and Jackson Jolly in his last two games to do the same.
The key games vs Horton and Radosavljevic resp. are scheduled for this week.
Other games this coming Wednesday are David vs Jackson, Reg vs Andrew and Tim vs Vincent.

Last week, in the only game was played, Phil Donnelly had an easy win over Tim Jolly . Jolly lost a piece for two pawns in the early stages of an open Ruy Lopez and, although he played well to make the task as difficult as possible, white eventually ground out a win.

16th May 2008

Defending champ Alastair Dyer tightened his grip on this year's club championship when he smashed Dragan Radosavljevic's favourite Nimzowitch defence in 20 moves. As early as move 13 Dragan's King was already off on a suicide mission to the centre of a board bristling with enemy pieces and, following a neat queen sacrifice by Alastair forcing mate in 1, he was obliged to resign.
Meanwhile Phil Donnelly, hung on to a glimmer of hope of snaring his first club championship when he ended Neville Ledger's long unbeaten run, (6 draws and 4 wins). In an English which became a King's Indian Phil picked on a backward pawn on the half open c file until something gave and Neville's position broke up.
Dylan Kuzmic managed to win the exchange off Nigel Lewis but, as is so often the case in such situations, Nigel got excellent compensation for the material and with two beautiful knights dominating the centre he posed too many practical problems for both Dylan and his clock. (I still have painful memories of a similar experience against Russell where I won the exchange before being quickly thrashed)
Charlie Smith and Carey Kuzmic worked up an incredibly complex encounter in which Charlie made the first mistake and that was all Carey needed.
Vincent Horton was just too good for Jackson Jolly
while Tim put up a good fight against Reg Harvey before succumbing.
You can play any variation of the Sicilian defence you care to against Kevin Hendrey. He gives them all pretty much the same treatment with his Closed Sicilian set up which aims to build up an unstoppable kingsider. This time Russell, (as black), went for the thematic queenside counterplay with a ...b5 break, but his break broke down when the white attack broke through.

12th May 2008
Last weeks results:
Andrew Fifield defeated Jackson Jolly
Russell Horton defeated Vincent Horton. 
Vincent had the better of the opening Kings Indian Petrosian, however he missed the tactics in the centre.
Dragan Radosavljevic defeated David Hughes
Alastair Dyer defeated Phil Donnelly in an interesting variation of the Qf3 and g4 variation of the Najdorf.
Dylan Kuzmic drew with Carey Kuzmic in an interesting minor pieces and pawns vs. rook and pawns.
Reg Harvey looked to have some good pressure on the f file against Nigel Lewis but with stiff resistance Nigel shone through.
Tim Jolly put up a good fight before going into a lost endgame to Neville Ledger.

26th April 2008-
Charlie Smith played solidly and defeated Tim Jolly and his advanced e pawn threats.

Reg Harvey had a good positional advantage and broke through to defeat David Hughes.

The Kings Gambit theme tournament had 11 starters playing 10’+3”.  Alastair Dyer dominated with 5/5 followed by Russell Horton on 4/5 and Vincent Horton on 3.5/5.

Reg Harvey plays David Hughes.

The remainder of club players will be playing a theme tournament: 1. e4, e5. 2. f4…

Last week an hour glass tournament was held.  Ten players joined in including some new juniors.  Each round featured two games against the opponent with 1:30 secs on the hourglass.  Junior player Ashton scored 5 points to be the best of the new comers.  Nigel Lewis had a return to form with the quicker time controls suiting him.  He finished with an impressive 15 points from 16 games!  Juniors, Alastair Dyer and Vincent Horton, finished equal second with 14 points, with Russell close behind with 12.

14th April 2008
The highlight of the night was Neville Ledger’s draw against Mile Pavicic.  Neville had good control of the e file and forced a swap off of rooks and minor pieces.  Neville also weakened Mile's kingside pawns but with queens on the board there wasn’t much in it and a draw was agreed.
Kevin Hendrey ended up with too many pawns for Dylan Kuzmic.
Carey Kuzmic defeated Jackson Jolly.
Andrew Fifield played well against Alastair Dyer and at one stage was slightly better with the white pieces.  After a few swaps and centralizing the white king a forced checkmate eventuated which both players missed.  Alastair didn’t need a second chance and quickly mated Andrew to the amusement of onlookers.
Charlie Smith and Dragan Radosavljevic match had long chains of pawns blocking the board.  Charlie’s bishop was locked in but was able to come to life after a miscalculation by Dragan going for a win.  Charlie then had winning chances but ended with a hard fought draw against his much higher rated opponent.

21st March 2008
Last Wednesday evening...
Tim and Carey played an interesting Q and pawn vs Rook Pawn and bishop.  Both pawns were close to queering, play was tense, however in the end the players agreed to a draw with only minutes remaining.

Russell and Charlie played an interesting Dutch Defence, with Russell having open file control and Charlie Defending superbly.  An interesting ending developed with Rook and 4 isolated pawns vs rook and pawn.  Eventually a  hard fought win to white.

Neville had another draw and while slightly better accepted the draw and protected his undefeated record in this tournament

Next week promises a swag of games that could go either way.

22nd February 2008
The big news this week is Tim Jolly's amazing win over current Club Champion Alastair Dyer. Not many people would have been brave enough to pick Tim, outranked by 500+ ratings points, to win this one in a mere 20 moves but that is what happened. (Game below)
Carey (Q + piece ) had an inetresting game against Kevin (2 rooks + piece) until Kevin separated his rooks and a series of checks led to loss of rook.
Dylan and Vincent played a seesawing game. Dylan sacrificed a piece with a nice combo for two pawns but lacked any attack. Vincent regained a pawn and then fumbled about keeping the position blocked despite being a piece up.
Mile easily acocunted for Russell who didn't have much idea about the Budapest.
Phil Donnelly went into a better endgame against Nigel Lewis but didn't have to grind it out as Nigel went into self destruct mode with a run of bad errors.
Reg Harvey got on the board with a win over Charlie Smith.
Neville Ledger got a pawn up against Andrew Fifield but was unable to convert the advantage into a win.
(Notes: Russell, Phil)