2009/2010 Australian Junior Chess Championships

The 2009/2010 Australian Junior Chess Championships was played from January 14th-25th, 2010 at The Hutchins School, Sandy Bay, Hobart. The turnout was reasonably strong, with 47 players playing in the U14-U18 tournament. The top seed was IM-elect James Morris (2196).

Here are the final results:

1st FM-elect Bobby Cheng (2193) with 10/11
2nd Andrew Brown (1991) with 9/11
3rd-5th Yi Yuan (2128), IM-elect James Morris and Yilun Ding (1934) with 7.5/11

Click here for the final standings and crosstable to the 2009/2010 Australian Junior Chess Championships.

The Australian Junior Girls Chess Championships was won by Abbie Kanagarajah (1221, higher countback) and Leteisha Simmonds (1323) with 8/11.

Tournament results can be found at the 2009/2010 Australian Junior Chess Championships website.

The champions list after playoffs:

U18 FM-elect Bobby Cheng
U16 IM-elect James Morris
U14 Alex Stahnke
U12 Andrew Pan
U10 Peter Wallmueller
U8 Ethan Lim
GU18 Leteisha Simmonds
GU16 Abbie Kanagarajah
GU14 Megan Setiabudi
GU12 Savithri Narenthran
GU10 Kashish Christian
GU8 Yuvini Perera

2009/2010 Australian Junior Lightining Chess Championships

The 2009/2010 Australian Junior Lightning Chess Championships was played on the 22nd of January, 2010. This was quite a strong tournament with top seed being IM-elect James Morris (2196).

Here are the final results:
1st-3rd FM-elect Bobby Cheng (2193), Eugene Schön (2107), Yi Yuan (2128) on 8/11

In a play-off for the title, Eugene Schön beat FM-elect Bobby Cheng 1.5-0.5, making him the new Australian Junior Lightning Chess Champion.

The U12 division was won by Anton Smirnov (1713).

The adult division was won by GM Zong-Yuan Zhao (2568).

Click here for the final standings to the 2009/2010 Australian Junior Lightining Chess Championships.

2009 Lidums Australian Junior Chess Championships Midway Report

After 6 rounds in the 2009 Lidums Australian Junior Chess Championships, Cedric Antolis (1889) from Victoria is leading the tournament outright with 5.5/6. He is trailed by the 1st and 3rd seeds (whom he both beat), Yi Yuan (2058) and Gene Nakauchi (2039), both on 5/6. There are 5 rounds to go and since Cedric has played most of the top seeds, he is in a good position to take the tournament. However, this is very difficult to say as any draw or loss would allow other players to catch up.

In the Australian Juniors Under 18 Girls, Sally Yu (1645) is leading outright with 4/4, a full point ahead of the closest players. Again, a loss (but not a draw) would allow other players to catch up.

2009 Lidums Australian Junior Chess Championships Begin

The 2009 Lidums Australian Junior Chess Championships will be held at Saint Ignatius' College in Athelstone, Adelaide. The competition goes from the 2nd-13th of January and the Under 18 Open Division will be FIDE rated (for some reason). According to the list of entries, the top seeds are Yi Yuan and Yita Choong, both rated 2058, although it will be clearer when the 1st round is completed (if a higher-rated player turns up at the last moment).

This tournament also encompasses the Australian Juniors Rapid tournament, the Australian Juniors Lightning Championship (which I won U16 last year!) and a Problem Solving competition.

I may report halfway through this tournament and will have a full report at the end of the tournament.

Australian Schools Teams Championships 2008

The Australian Schools Teams Championships 2008 was held on the 6th-7th of December, 2008 at Rostrevor College, Woodforde, Adelaide, SA. This year's field was very strong, however Scotch College managed to pull off the feat of winning every game except one draw.

We stayed in the boarding house of Rostrevor College, which was exceedingly clean and well organised, although I could not find internet access at the venue. There was also opportunity to play table tennis and squash. The food was also quite good, especially the sausage sizzle on the first night. The playing hall was spacious, allowing lots of room to move around. The organisers did a very professional job, especially considering the sudden withdrawal of the NT team.

On the last day, we also went off to the beach and with the help of a four-man team, we dug a lake called "Lake Eugene". It was implied that Nicholas Liu (1464) went to KFC, after mentioning that he really wanted to go there multiple times.

The Scotch Team (VIC) consisted of:
1. Zhigen Lin (2104)
2. Eugene Schön (1931)
3. Derek Yu (1810)
4. Nicholas Liu (1464)
5. Richard Owen (unr)

I won't mention who drew the game which prevented a full score.

Here are the standings:

Secondary Open
1st Scotch College, VIC
2nd Sydney Grammar, NSW
3rd Hawker College, ACT

Secondary Girls
1st Somerset College, QLD
2nd North Sydney Girls High School, NSW
3rd-4th Presbyterian Ladies College, VIC (3rd on countback) and Daramalan College, ACT

Primary Open
1st Penshurst West Public, NSW
2nd Somerset College, QLD
3rd Greythorn Primary, VIC

Primary Girls
1st Somerville House, QLD
2nd-3rd Summer Hill Primary, NSW (2nd on countback) and Curtin Primary, ACT

Team standings and individual results can be found on the Australian Schools Teams Championships website.

2008 Australian Junior Chess Championships

The 2008 Australian Junior Chess Championships was held between the 13th to the 25th of January, 2008. The venue was Cranbrook School in Sydney's Bellevue Hill. Junta Ikeda (ACT) became 2008 Australian Junior Chess Champion.

You can see the standings to the four separate tournaments at http://www.nswjcl.org.au/AustralianJunior/2008/standings.htm.

Games can be viewed (without the need for a PGN viewer) at http://www.nswjcl.org.au/AustralianJunior/2008/livegames.htm.