News Archives for 2010

 

 

For the following year's news archives click on 2011

For the previous year's news archives click on 2009



(19 Dec 2010):

NSW Country Junior Championships 2010

The NSW Country Junior Championship (Under 18) has been won by 11-year-old Edmund Yu of Newcastle. Edmund won the Under 12 Division in 2008 and 2009 and this year decided to play in the Under 18 Division – he was undefeated, drawing one game (against Penelope Drastik of Wollongong) and winning the rest. Penelope tied for second place with Ramon Aich of Dubbo.

The Under 12 Championship was close with three players tied going into the last round. However, James Aldrich of Newcastle was the only one of these three to win his final-round game. Stephen Smith of Mount Victoria came second.

For detailed results see "Results" at left.


(12 Dec 2010):

NSW Allegro Age Championships 2010

Joshua Behar wins Under 12 Tournament

The last of this year's three Allegro Age Championships – the Under 12 – has been won by Joshua Behar with a clean score. Second was Kashish Christian. For detailed results see "Results" at left.


(6 Dec 2010):

Australian Schools Teams Championships 2010

North Sydney Boys High wins Secondary Open

NSW schools scored a first, a second and two fourths in this year's Australian Schools Teams Championships, held in Perth on 4-5 December. Congratulations to North Sydney Boys High School for winning the Secondary Open Division. The team consisted of Jack Ruan, Kevin Tan, Oscar Wang, Peter Yang and Jerry Xu.

Sydney Grammar School St Ives Preparatory came second in the Primary Open Division and Hornsby Girls High School and Abbotsleigh finished fourth in the Secondary and Primary Girls Divisions.

Full details, including games, are available on the Chess Association of Western Australia website (click HERE). The NSWJCL expresses its thanks to Accor Asia Pacific for its assistance with accommodation for the NSW teams in Perth.


(28 Nov 2010):

Primary Schools One-Day Tournaments 2010

The Country Districts finals of the Primary Schools One-Day series (for three-player teams) has been won by Westport Public School (Port Macquarie), ahead of Sturt Public School (Wagga Wagga) followed by St Mary's Primary School (Armidale). These three teams were invited to participate in the next day's Metropolitan/State finals.

The Metropolitan finals, which with the addition of the top Country Districts finalists doubled as the State Finals, was contested by 60 teams from 59 schools (the 60th team being a "Barbarians" team). In a close result Sydney Grammar School St Ives Preparatory was victorious, finishing half a point ahead of Penshurst West Public School with Neutral Bay Public School another half point behind. Both the Country and the Metropolitan/State winning schools were the same as in the Primary Schools Competition (see below), except that the latter was Sydney Grammar's B team (which finished ahead of its A team in the qualifying tournament)

A total of 1073 teams from 266 schools took part in the 33 district tournaments in the Primary Schools One-Day series.

For detailed results click on "Schools" (at left) and then on "Results" under the heading "Primary Schools One-Day Tournaments".

(26 Nov 2010):

Primary Schools Competition 2010

The state-wide Primary Schools Competition (for teams of four players), which commenced in second term, has reached its conclusion. Over the last few months the 36 zone winners participated in region finals and the 10 region winners then took part in the inter-region finals to determine the country and metropolitan champions, which then played each other in the grand final. In the Country Districts final Westport Public School (from Port Macquarie) defeated Sturt Public School (from Wagga Wagga) in a close result (5-3) and then immediately faced the Metropolitan champions, Sydney Grammar School St Ives Preparatory  for the State title. In this match Sydney Grammar St Ives proved triumphant, winning 7.5-0.5, although the match was closer than this score would suggest. Congratulations to Sydney Grammar St Ives and the two country teams, Westport and Sturt, for doing so well in the finals – and to all the other finalists for their achievement in reaching the finals and the close battles which ensued. For full details click on "Schools" in the menu at left, then on the Primary Schools Competition "Draw & Results" and then on "Finals".

Sydney Grammar St Ives will now represent NSW in the Primary Open section of the Australian Schools Teams Championships to be held in Perth on 4-5 December.


(30 Oct 2010):

NSW Girls Championships 2010 – Under 18 Playoff

A two-game playoff match for the NSW Girls Under 18 title between the tournament winners, Penelope Drastik and Shirley Gu has been won by Shirley 1.5-0.5. Both games were hard fought and the match could have gone either way.


(24 Oct 2010):

NSW Allegro Age Championships 2010

Kerry Lin wins Under 10 Tournament

Seven-year-old Kerry Lin has followed up his win of the Allegro Under 8 Championship by winning the Under 10 Championship as well. He scored 8 out of 9 to finish a point ahead of Ben Matthews. For detailed results see "Results" at left.

The Under 12 Allegro Championship will be held on Sunday 12 December - see "Coming Events" at left for details.


(8 Oct 2010):

City of Sydney Championships 2010

Fourteen-year-old Pasan Perera has won the City of Sydney Junior Championship (Under 18) after a close battle with nine-year-old Anton Smirnov, who finished second.

The Under 15 Championship was won by Raymond Han with a handsome margin of 1.5 points; second was Erik Ostman.

Cedric Koh won the Under 12 with an even larger margin of 2 points above Eric Pan.

For full scores of the three tournaments see "Results" at left.


(7 Oct 2010):

Orange Spring Tournament 2010

Peter Dixon and Ramon Aich have won the Orange Spring Tournament at the head of a large field of 51 players. The tournament also serves as the Western Qualifier for the NSW Country Junior Championships. Peter and Ramon have therefore qualified for the Under 18 finals, while Jingming Chow and Stephen Smith have qualified for the Under 12 finals.

For full scores see "Results" at left.


(7 Oct 2010):

NSW Girls Championships 2010 – Under 12 Playoff

A two-game playoff match for the NSW Girls Under 12 title between the tournament winners, Kashish Christian and Grace Shan was tied 1-1, but a second match was won by Kashish 2-0. Congratulations to both players for their hard-fought matches.


(1 Oct 2010):

NSW Girls Championships 2010

The Under 18 and Under 12 divisions of this year's NSW Girls Championships have both produced ties, which require play-offs. In the Under 18, Penelope Drastik (aged 12) and Shirley Gu (aged 13) tied half a point ahead of defending champion Caroline Shan. In the Under 12 division, Kashish Christian and Grace Shan (sister of Caroline) tied half a point ahead of Theresa Gu (sister of Shirley).

For full scores see "Results" at left.


(1 Oct 2010):

Spring One- and Two-Day Days Tournament 2010

Tim Diemer has won the NSWJCL's Spring One-Day Tournament, repeating his success in the Autumn One-Day Tournament last April. Tim finished a point ahead of Erik Ostman.

The Spring Two-Day Tournament has been won by Eric Xu, a full point ahead of Morgan Chang –  their best results so far.

For full scores of both tournaments see "Results" at left.


(29 Aug 2010):

NSW Allegro Age Championships 2010

Kerry Lin wins Under 8 Tournament

Seven-year-old Kerry Lin has won this year's NSW Allegro Under 8 Championship with a clean score. For detailed results see "Results" at left.

The Under 10 and Under 12 Allegro Championships will be held in October and December - see "Coming Events" at left for details.


(16 Jul 2010):

NSW Junior Championships 2010

Bernard Chau wins the NSW Junior Title

Cedric Koh wins the NSW Under 12 Title

The 2010 NSW Junior Championship was contested by an exceptionally strong field and was won in a close finish by 14-year-old Bernard Chau. Half a point behind Bernard was City of Sydney Junior Champion John Papantoniou. Bernard's victory comes as no surprise after his excellent results in recent "seasonal" tournaments, including wins of the 2009 Summer One-Day, Two-Day (equal with his elder brother Adrian), Autumn One-Day, Autumn Two-Day (equal) and 2010 Summer Three-Day tournaments.

Cedric Koh achieved a convincing win in the Under 12 Championship, finishing two and a half points ahead of his nearest rivals, Eric Pan, Edmund Yu and Joshua Behar.

For full scores click on "Results" in the left-hand column.


(15 Jul 2010):

Winter Tournaments 2010

Jerome Harman has achieved his first major success by winning the Sydney Winter One-Day Tournament, finishing half a point ahead of Benjamin Encel and Aidan Nguyen.

Benjamin Encel, who won last spring's One-Day Tournament and tied for first in three previous seasonal tournaments, returned to form by winning the Sydney Winter Two-Day Tournament, half a point ahead of John Papantoniou.

The Newcastle Winter Tournament has been won by Edmund Yu and the Orange Winter Tournament by Ramon Aich.

For full scores click on "Results" in the left-hand column.


(27 Jun 2010):

Secondary Schools One-Day Tournament 2010

North Sydney Boys High wins the Terrey Shaw Shield

North Sydney Boys High School has convincingly won this year's Secondary Schools One-Day Tournament and with it the Terrey Shaw Shield. Second was Sydney Boys High followed by last year's winners Knox Grammar.

The Junior Division (for players in years 7 to 9) was won by Sydney Boys High just ahead of James Ruse High.

For full scores click on "Schools" in the menu in the left-hand column.


(26 Apr 2010):

Inter-schools Competitions

The draw for the Metropolitan Secondary Schools Competition is available – click on "Schools" in the menu at left.

The draw for most zones of the Primary Schools Competition is now available, except for some locally organised country zones – click on "Schools" in the menu at left.


(15 Apr 2010):

Autumn Tournaments 2010

Tim Diemer, aged 17, has won the Autumn One-Day Tournament, conceding only half a point in nine rounds. A full point behind were Austin Shen and the NSW Girls Champion Caroline Shan.

In the Autumn Two-Day Tournament Tim Diemer was again successful, but this time he shared first place with two 13-year-olds, Daniel Zhang and Leo Jiang.

For full scores of both tournaments click on "Results" in the left-hand column.


(21 Mar 2010):

City of Sydney 2009 Under 12 Playoff

The long-deferred playoff for the 2009 City of Sydney Under 12 title has been won by Andrew Pan, who defeated Vincent Chen 1.5-0.5.


(26 Jan 2010):

Australian Junior Championships 2010

Andrew Pan wins Open Under 12 Title

Kashish Christian wins Girls Under 10 Title

Victorian 12-year-old Bobby Cheng, who won the World Under 12 Championship in November, is the new Australian Junior (Under 18) Champion. The highlights for NSW were Andrew Pan's win of the Under 12 title (with a magnificent score of 11/11) and Kashish Christian's win of the Girls Under 10 title. Joshua Behar finished second behind Andrew in the Under 12. Noah Gong just missed out on the Under 8 title after a marathon play-off.

NSW players also picked up nine of the titles in the subsidiary events – Lightning, Rapidplay and Problem Solving. The most consistent was Kashish Christian, who won the Girls Under 10 title in all three (as well as in the main event)!

For full results including games see the AJC website, which you can find by clicking on the link at the top of the right-hand column.


(22 Jan 2010):

Summer Holiday Tournaments 2010

Bernard Chau wins Summer Three-Day Tournament

Joshua Lau wins Summer One-Day Tournament

Clive Ng wins Summer Two-Day Tournament

Peter Dixon and Ramon Aich tie in Orange Summer Tournament

Thirteen-year-old Bernard Chau has added to his list of tournament victories by winning the 2010 Summer Three-Day Tournament. Bernard, who won last summer's One- and Two-Day Tournaments, made sure of this summer's Three-Day Tournament by obtaining a clean score, 9 out of 9.

Another thirteen-year-old, Joshua Lau, who finished second in the Three-Day Tournament, won the One-Day Tournament with a score of 8 out of 9.

Clive Ng has achieved his first major success by winning the Two-Day Tournament, his last junior tournament as he turns 18 in a couple of weeks. He conceded two draws to finish with 11 out of 12.

In the Orange Summer Tournament Peter Dixon tied with Ramon Aich, winner of the previous three holiday tournaments in Orange and Dubbo.

For full scores of all four tournaments see "Results" at left.


(13 Jan 2010):

NSWJCL Ratings Officer Allan Wright awarded the Koshnitsky Medal

The Australian Chess Federation today announced that the 2010 winner of the Koshnitsky Medal for services to Chess Administration is the NSWJCL Ratings Officer Allan Wright. The medal, named after the famous Australian chess player and administrator, the late Gary Koshnitsky, has been awarded annually since 1982.

The citation for the award is as follows:

Allan Wright has been Ratings Officer for the NSW Junior Chess League since he was elected to its council in 1990. He has developed a rating system suited to the particular characteristics of junior competitions (one challenge being to meaningfully rate the many players who play only a few games). The current ratings list contains over 7000 junior players, of which nearly 3000 are included in the list published in the NSWJCL’s quarterly magazine. Allan processes all the ratings himself and has to cope with thousands of inter-school match result cards, many of which are incomplete, inconsistent or have players’ names misspelt, and require considerable detective work to decipher.

Allan’s other main role for the NSWJCL is running the league’s inter-schools competitions in the Hunter Region. He and his wife Dorothy have built up the main Primary Schools Competition in this region to over 100 teams from nearly 50 schools. The league’s Primary Schools One-Day tournaments have also been growing in popularity – the two Hunter Region tournaments in this series now attract about 70 teams.

In addition Allan runs the Newcastle Junior Chess Club, which meets weekly. In the 1990s he used to travel to Sydney to help arbit at the NSWJCL’s school holiday tournaments, but now concentrates on running holiday tournaments in Newcastle and helping with tournaments on the Central Coast.

Allan is the fourth NSWJCL office-bearer to be awarded the medal, after Margaret Cuckson (1995), Richard Gastineau-Hills (2001) and Charles Zworestine (2009).


(13 Jan 2010):

Australian Championships 2010

Former NSWJCL members GM Zong-Yuan Zhao and IM George Xie came first and second in the Australian Championship which concluded today. Zong-Yuan scored a superlative 10 out of 11 (no losses, two draws) and George was not far behind with 9 out of 11 (losses to Zong-Yuan and previous Australian Champion Steven Solomon), which was 1.5 points ahead of English GM Gawain Jones in third place. George's result secured his second GM norm – he needs only one more for the GM title. Junior Max Illingworth also achieved an excellent result, finishing equal fifth (out of 28 players) with 6.5 points.

A large number of NSW juniors played in the supporting tournaments with many notable results.

Australian Major (96 players): =12th (7/11) Oscar Wang; =16th (6.5/11) Anton Smirnov, Andrew Pan, Dawen Shi, Peng Yu Chen, Benjamin Encel, Alexander Papp; =31st (6/11) John Papantoniou, Jack Ruan; =45th (5.5/11) Pasan Perera, Dylan Siow-Lee; =57th (5/11) Adrian Kong, Jonathan Ren, Kinto Wan; =67th (4.5/11) Vincent Chen.

Australian Minor (42 players): =8th 6.5/11 Daniel Zhang; =15th (6/11) Leo Jiang; =20th (5.5/11) Victor Dai, Aran Sandrasegaran; =37th (4/11) Jasper Hong.

Norths Classic (21 players): 2nd (5/7) Peter Yang.

For full details (including a  commentary by GM Ian Rogers which is well worth reading), see www.australianchesschampionship.com.