Report -- 14 December 2014
Queensland Teams Championships 2014
Venue: St Joseph's Primary School, Bracken Ridge
The six players representing The Gap (with the trophies!)
The Gap fielded a team for the first time since 2005 and performed with credit to finish seventh from a field of nine teams.
Credit also goes to the Chess Association of Queensland for the decision to require teams to field six players.
The table below shows the wisdom of this decision, with a record field of nine teams participating.
|
Year |
Entries |
Players per team |
Format |
|
2002 |
7 |
8 |
Round-robin |
|
2003 |
5 |
8 |
Round-robin |
|
2004 |
3 |
8 |
Double round-robin |
|
2005 |
7 |
8 |
Round-robin |
|
2006 |
5 |
8 |
Round-robin |
|
2007 |
6 |
8 |
Round-robin |
|
2008 |
4 |
8 |
Double round-robin |
|
2009 |
4 |
8 |
Double round-robin |
|
2010 |
3 |
6 |
Double round-robin |
|
2011 |
4 |
8 |
Double round-robin |
|
2012 |
5 |
8 |
Round-robin |
|
2013 |
4 |
8 |
Double round-robin |
|
2014 |
9 |
6 |
Round-robin |
The Gap were not mismatched to the extent of our previous adventures in this tournament, winning two fixtures, achieving equality in another, and losing to the five teams with a higher average rating.
The Gap's final score was 24.5 from 54 (including a 6 point bye in Round 2).
Going into the tournament, the club's two main objectives (modest as they were) were achieved: (1) To avoid a 6-0 team loss; (2) For each player to avoid losing all eight games.
Time Controls: 10 minutes plus 5 second increment
|
Opponent |
Games Played |
Match Result |
||
|
W |
D |
L |
||
|
Park Road |
0 |
1 |
5 |
Lost |
|
BYE |
6 |
0 |
0 |
Massive win! |
|
The Super Zhongs |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Drew |
|
Logan |
4 |
1 |
1 |
Won |
|
The Double Kays |
4 |
2 |
0 |
Won |
|
Gene's Gold Coasters |
1 |
0 |
5 |
Lost |
|
Bullwinkle |
0 |
2 |
4 |
Lost |
|
Redcliffe |
1 |
1 |
4 |
Lost |
|
Excessive Epicness |
2 |
0 |
4 |
Lost |
|
TOTAL |
21 |
7 |
26 |
7th from 9 teams |
|
Board |
Name |
Dec Rating |
Won |
Drawn |
Lost |
Average rating of opponents |
|
1 |
Andrew Mather |
1808 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
1797.3 |
|
2 |
Andrew Robinson |
1675 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
1682.6 |
|
3 |
Marcus Porter |
1633 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1582.8 |
|
4 |
Tony Morris |
1314 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
1479.6 |
|
5 |
Joshua Morris |
1298 |
2 |
0 |
6 |
1235.7 |
|
6 |
Shane Mather |
Unrated |
2 |
0 |
6 |
1391.0 |
|
|
Bye |
|
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
TOTAL |
|
21 |
7 |
26 |
|
Round 1
After this opening fixture it seemed The Gap was in for a long day, achieving just a half point in a disappointing showing where opportunities were missed.
The Gap's only glimmer was on board two where a draw was recovered from a lost game, after two pawns were lost in the opening.
However ex-Gap player Stuart Holt found it hard to put away his opponent in time trouble, and with queens and pawns left and a draw on repetition looming, Andrew checking Stuart's king, and Stuart down to five seconds, Stuart agreed to a draw
Round 2
An undoubted highlight for The Gap. A clean 6-0 sweep!
Round 3
The Gap achieved wins on the top three boards, but were again disappointing on the bottom three boards where advantages were gained, but not capitalised on with errors in the endgames and in time trouble.
Round 4
The Gap did well against Logan losing just one game and drawing another for a 4.5-1.5 result.
Considering The Gap lost 8-0 to Logan in the 2005 edition of this event, this was a massive improvement for The Gap.
The Gap edged Logan 4.5-3.5 in the 2002 edition, and when all the results are taken into account it could be said the relative strengths of the two clubs is quite even when averaged out over the past decade.
Round 5
With a large rating advantage, The Gap was able to remain undefeated in this round.
Andrew Robinson seemed to have a lost game, however his opponent was in time trouble and blundered his queen to concede the game.
Marcus Porter perhaps could have found an easy route to win his game, however he could not pass up the opportunity to win with three pieces against a queen.
This proved to be an error of judgement for Marcus when he dropped a piece, and then had to hold on for a draw with his remaining two pieces and pawn well connected.
Round 6
The Gap was outclassed against Gold Coast, and it was only Marcus who shone with a win against Oleg Korenevski on Board 3.
Round 7
Against our regular interclub opponents Bullwinkle, it was again our top boards who rescued us from oblivion, with Andrew Mather and Marcus Porter achieving meritorious draws.
Round 8
The Gap's previous encounters with Redcliffe in 2002 and 2005 had both finished in 1-7 losses, so a win and a draw was considered an improvement against an always strong opponent.
Redcliffe's team was a mix of youth and experience, with their top board Tony Truscott a long time on the Queensland chess scene as evidenced by the December 1970 ACF ratings list.
Round 9
The final round was significant for Tony's win over Nathaniel Anderson, his first win of the day (although he also achieved two draws).
Two wins from six was about par against a group of players who out-rated us on every board except the top board.
|
|
The Gap Chess Club |
Round 1: Park Road |
Round 3: Super Zhongs |
Round 4: Logan |
Round 5: Double Kays |
|||||||||
|
Board |
|
Rating |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
Mather, Andrew |
1808!! |
Pardoen, Alain |
1820! |
L |
Zhong, Tony |
1689!! |
W |
Warta, George |
1553!! |
W |
Kay, James |
1473!! |
W |
|
2 |
Robinson, Andrew |
1671! |
Holt, Stuart |
1627!! |
D |
Ostapenko, Michael |
1414!! |
W |
Bennet, Phil |
1468? |
D |
Turner, Justin |
1431! |
W |
|
3 |
Porter, Marcus |
1633!! |
Esmaili, Ali |
1615! |
L |
Lee, Leon |
1410!! |
W |
Flynn, Chris |
1345!! |
W |
Sands, Gary |
1173! |
D |
|
4 |
Morris, Tony |
1314 |
Keller, Magnus |
3g |
L |
Wang, Jason |
1401!! |
L |
Wycha, Joe |
1223?? |
L |
Laczko, Anastasia |
972! |
D |
|
5 |
Morris, Joshua |
1298! |
Jones, Philip |
unrated |
L |
Parle, Hughston |
1356!! |
L |
Young, Philip |
1081x |
W |
Kay, Stephanie |
292! |
W |
|
6 |
Mather, Shane |
New |
Gray, David |
1324!! |
L |
Au, Alex |
1090!! |
L |
Alp, Matthew |
unrated |
W |
Harrower, Dianne |
1223x |
W |
|
|
Average Rating |
1544.8 |
|
1596.5 |
|
|
1393.3 |
|
|
1334.0 |
|
|
1094.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Gap Chess Club |
Round 6: Gene's Gold Coasters |
Round 7: Bullwinkle |
Round 8: Redcliffe |
Round 9: Excessive Epicness |
|||||||||
|
Board |
|
Rating |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
Opponent |
Rating |
Result |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
Mather, Andrew |
1808!! |
Nakauchi, Gene |
2207!! |
L |
Edwards, Jacob |
2015! |
D |
Truscott, Tony |
1850 |
L |
Lam, Ross |
1771!! |
W |
|
2 |
Robinson, Andrew |
1671! |
Muller, Jonas |
2092! |
L |
Van Pelt, Michael |
1895 |
L |
Maguire, Tom |
1768!! |
L |
Walker, Tyson |
1766!! |
L |
|
3 |
Porter, Marcus |
1633!! |
Korenevski, Oleg |
1780! |
W |
Casey, Kevin |
1874 |
D |
Weller, Tony |
1739!! |
W |
Tsai, Charles |
1726!! |
L |
|
4 |
Morris, Tony |
1314 |
Kitikov, Oleg |
1721 |
L |
Slater-Jones, Tom |
1828!! |
L |
Kershaw, Max |
1677? |
D |
Anderson, Nathaniel |
1535x |
W |
|
5 |
Morris, Joshua |
1298! |
Song, Kevin |
1548! |
L |
Chan, Jason |
1258! |
L |
Long, Sam |
1632! |
L |
Gilpin, Matthew |
1483! |
L |
|
6 |
Mather, Shane |
New |
Ford, Daniel |
1523! |
L |
D'Arcy, Michael |
1784! |
L |
Stokes, Mark |
1458!! |
L |
Therakam, Clint |
1335? |
L |
|
|
Average Rating |
1544.8 |
|
1811.8 |
|
|
1775.7 |
|
|
1687.3 |
|
|
1602.7 |
|
Results:
Courtesy of the CAQ website:
The Gap Chess Club's previous participation in this tournament:
Queensland Lightning Championships 2014
Three players from The Gap competed in the Queensland Lightning Championships which followed the Teams Championships.
All performed well, with Andrew Mather doing the best and achieving outright fifth place with 6 points (W5 D2 L2).
Marcus Porter scored 4.5 while Joshua Morris scored 2.5 points from nine games.
The talking point of the tournament was Round 7 clash between Tyson Walker and Charles Tsai.
Charles had a massive material advantage and over two minutes left against a lone king, then made an illegal move which lost him the game when Tyson claimed a win.
As the final standings show, this game was pivotal in deciding the final outcome of tournament, with a three-way tie for first eventuating; the winners: Gene Nakauchi, Chares Tsai and Tyson Walker (all on 7 points).
It should be noted that while our club has not been able to locate a complete list of Queensland Lightning Champions, it is known from club records that Joe Tarnawski (who came to our club last week) won this tournament in the following years: 1958, 1971, 1972, 1973 (and possibly many more) - also second in 1970 and 1976.