Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to cancel tomorrow’s Saturday afternoon session.

We are still going ahead on Sat 27th November, so hope to see you there!

Rod Hessing is the new leader after beating Rodel Sicat on Board 1; Sicat opted for a passive approach against the Scandinavian, and Hessing won a long endgame battle, putting him half a point ahead of a pack of four other players.

Toby Mew, playing Black on Board 2, claimed a deserved but messy victory over Mio Ristic; after finding a nice combination to win material in a Caro-Kann middlegame, Mew got careless and missed the only accurate continuation, finding himself in a drawn ending. However, after some shuffling, Ristic self-destructed with a miscalculated pawn sacrifice and quickly resigned.

Geoff Davis on Board 3 had a short and sweet game against Taran Singh after the latter made an early oversight and allowed a forced mating sequence; it was all over on move 20.

Alistair Anderson had a quick night on board 4 as his opponent Paul Brown dropped a piece early and resigned without playing on.

Jamie Parker, Black on board 5, took on young Harrison Coppock and took the full point after a short battle.

Sree Sabhapathi and Brian Coppock had a hard-fought battle on board 6, where the game was decided in a king and pawn ending; White had the better of it but made a critical error, allowing Black to turn the tables and collect the full point.

All games in round 5 ended decisively in Black’s favour; a most unusual turn of events!

Round 5 results:
Rodel Sicat vs Rod Hessing 0-1
Mio Ristic vs Toby Mew 0-1
Geoff Davis vs Taran Singh 0-1
Paul Brown vs Alistair Anderson 0-1
Harrison Coppock vs Jamie Parker 0-1
Brian Coppock vs Sree Sabhapathi 0-1

Round 6 pairings:
Geoff Davis (3.5) vs Rod Hessing (4)
Alistair Anderson (3.5) vs Mio Ristic (2.5)
Toby Mew (3.5) vs Taran Singh (2.5)
Brian Coppock (0.5) vs Rodel Sicat (3.5)
Jamie Parker (2) vs Sree Sabhapathi (2)
Paul Brown (2) vs Harrison Coppock (0.5)

Happy to announce that the Victorian Country Championship is being held again in Geelong this year on the 27th and 28th of November. This tournament is open to all players who live 50+ km from Melbourne CBD.

The venue will be St Mary’s Terrace and Community Hub, 192 Myers Street, Geelong.

The tournament will be ACF rated, and the rate of play will be 60 mins + 30 seconds increment. All moves must be recorded.

Schedule:
Saturday 27th November
Round 1 – 9:30 am
Round 2 – 1:00 pm
Round 3 – 4:00 pm
Sunday 28th November
Round 4 – 9:30 am
Round 5 – 1:00 pm
Players’ Meeting – 3:45 pm
Round 6 – 4:00 pm

Prizes: All entry fees will be distributed in prizes. 75% of the prize pool will go towards Championship prizes, and 25% will go towards Reserve prizes. (Players who are in the bottom half of the field based on rating will be eligible for Reserve prizes; the best scoring Reserve player will be declared Reserve Champion.)

COVID restrictions:
All players must be fully vaccinated, except those under 12, and those who are able to provide a written exemption from a GP. Proof of vaccination will be required upon entry. QR code check-in will also be required.

Currently, (15 November) the advice is that masks will not be required indoors during the tournament, in line with Phase D of the COVID roadmap. However, if the government advice changes between now and then, we will adjust to be in line with said advice.

Half-point Byes:
A single half-point bye is available for rounds 1 – 4. You must advise the arbiter of any Bye requests before the start of the previous round.

Entry enquiries:
Entry fees before 19 November are $60 Concession/$80 Adult. After 19 November, you will have to pay an additional $10.

To enter, or for general enquiries, either contact one of the committee members:

Kevin Perrin (President) 0418 533 517
Nigel Barrow (Secretary) 0421 674 869
Jack Smith (Vice-President) 0406 199 457
or
Use the Trybooking link: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=822295&

Keep an eye on the chess chat page to stay abreast of current entries and other tournament updates! Current entries include strong FM Christopher Wallis and our very own 14-time Geelong Club Champion Alistair Anderson.
chesschat page: http://www.chesschat.org/showthread.php?18620-2021-Victorian-Country-Chess-Championship-(Nov-27-amp-28)

Club Championship Round 5 Pairings:

Rodel Sicat (3.5) vs Rod Hessing (3)
Mio Ristic (2.5) vs Toby Mew (2.5)
Taran Singh (2.5) vs Geoff Davis (2.5)
Paul Brown (2) vs Alistair Anderson (2.5)
Harrison Coppock (0.5) vs Jamie Parker (1)
Brian Coppock (0.5) vs Sree Sabhapathi (1)

First a reminder about our schedule:
Round 5 of the Club Championship will not be played this Thursday, 4th November; you are still welcome to attend the club, but it will be a night of casual chess. Round 5 will be played next Thursday 11th November, and round 5 pairings will be published next Tuesday 9th November. If you need a bye for next Thursday please let me know.

On to the round 4 report:

The battle for the top spot is heating up after an upset by Rod Hessing over Alistair Anderson on board 1! The game was played in Rod’s trusty Bird Opening (1.f4) and his experience was put to good use; Alistair elected to castle on the queenside to escape the menacing build-up of White’s pieces on the kingside, but this did not help, as Rod locked the centre and transferred his attack to the queenside; Black seemed to underestimate the speed of White’s attack and elected for a somewhat slower plan than was needed. Things looked increasingly grim for Alistair as he was caught on the back foot for a lot of the game; he kept his hand in, even going down a queen for two knights, but Rod remained unperturbed and converted his advantage correctly, forcing Alistair to eventually throw in the towel. A convincing victory by the 2017 Lightning Champion.

Board 2 saw a tough battle between Rodel Sicat and Paul Brown. Paul came out of the opening standing well; Rodel had doubled rooks on a semi-open h-file, but Paul had fine pressure against weak White pawns. However, Paul tried some overly ambitious manoeuvres which damaged his own pawn structure more than Rodel’s; Black’s position quickly disintegrated after White applied pressure to the newfound weaknesses.

On Board 3, Sree Sabhapathi gave a tough fight to Mio Ristic; in an unconventional French defence, where the players left theory on move 2 (1.e4 e6 2. Nc3 Bb4!?), Mio had the better of the opening, and all looked almost lost for Sree. However, Black got slightly complacent, and allowed Sree to sacrifice the exchange to get a great deal of activity; in fact, there were points where White had chances for advantage! However, Mio found some tricky resources and Sree eventually found his activity neutralised. Black promoted a pawn and White resigned shortly thereafter.

Harrison Coppock took on Geoff Davis on board 4; Geoff’s experience proved too much, as he collected a few pieces before launching a successful checkmating attack against White’s king.

On board 5, Jamie Parker and Brian Coppock had a wild battle; Brian came slightly better out of an exchange Caro-Kann before Jamie made a mistake allowing a devastating combination, which was surprisingly not executed. The game became incredibly complex and tactical, with both sides missing a few surprising moves. When the dust settled however, Brian had a rook and two pawns for knight and bishop, with the pawns being scarier than the two pieces. However, just as it seemed all was lost for White, a desperate trick was employed, which turned the tide as Black hung a full rook. A real battle!

Round 4 results:
Rod Hessing vs Alistair Anderson 1-0
Rodel Sicat vs Paul Brown 1-0
Sree Sabhapathi vs Mio Ristic 0-1
Harrison Coppock vs Geoff Davis 0-1
Jamie Parker vs Brian Coppock 1-0

Current Standings out of 4 rounds:
1. Rodel Sicat 3.5
2. Rod Hessing 3
3 – 7. Mio Ristic 2.5
Toby Mew 2.5
Alistair Anderson 2.5
Taran Singh 2.5
Geoff Davis 2.5
8. Paul Brown 2
9 – 10. Jamie Parker 1
Sree Sabhapathi 1
11 – 12. Brian Coppock 0.5
Harrison Coppock 0.5

Round 3 Results:
Alistair Anderson vs Rodel Sicat 0.5 – 0.5
Mio Ristic vs Rod Hessing 0-1
Geoff Davis vs Paul Brown 0-1
Sree Sabhapathi vs Toby Mew 0-1
Jamie Parker vs Taran Singh 0-1
Brian Coppock vs Harrison Coppock 0.5 – 0.5

Round 4 Pairings:
Rod Hessing (2) vs Alistair Anderson (2.5)
Rodel Sicat (2.5) vs Paul Brown (2)
Sree Sabhapathi(1) vs Mio Ristic (1.5)
Harrison Coppock (0.5) vs Geoff Davis (1.5)
Jamie Parker (0) vs Brian Coppock (0.5)
Toby Mew (2) 0.5 BYE
Taran Singh (2) 0.5 BYE

Standings:
1- 2. Alistair Anderson 2.5
Rodel Sicat 2.5
3 – 6. Paul Brown 2
Toby Mew 2
Rod Hessing 2
Taran Singh 2
7 – 8. Geoff Davis 1.5
Mio Ristic 1.5
9. Sree Sabhapathi 1
10 – 11. Brian Coppock 0.5
Harrison Coppock 0.5
12. Jamie Parker 0

Round 3 Pairings are out!

Round 2 results:
Alistair Anderson vs Paul Brown 1F-0F
Geoff Davis vs Mio Ristic 1/2 – 1/2
Toby Mew vs Rodel Sicat 0-1
Rod Hessing vs Jamie Parker 1-0
Taran Singh vs Brian Coppock 1-0
Harrison Coppock vs Sree Sabhapathi 0-1

Round 3 Pairings:
Alistair Anderson (2) vs Rodel Sicat (2)
Mio Ristic (1.5) vs Rod Hessing (1)
Geoff Davis (1.5) vs Paul Brown (1)
Sree Sabhapathi (1) vs Toby Mew (1)
Jamie Parker (0) vs Taran Singh (1)
Brian Coppock (0) vs Harrison Coppock (0)

Happy to announce that we will be starting the Club Championships this coming Thursday!

The event will be a 7 round swiss, with a time control of 90+30.

Normal fees apply, but non-members are required to pay an additional $35 entry.

It is advised to enter early, as no late/round 2 entries will be accepted. To enter early, contact us at the details provided below declaring your intention to enter. Alternatively, we will accept entries until 7:15, but this waiting until then is risky business!

This tournament will be submitted for ACF (Australian Chess Federation) rating. A great opportunity for locals to get/come closer to an over-the-board rating!

For more details, please look at the updated webpage here: https://geelongchess.com/2021…/t18-2021-club-championship/

Contact us:
Mobile – SMS preferred: 0406199457
email: geelongchessclub@gmail.com

We’ve decided to shorten the time control of the Fischer Random Rapid to 10 mins + 5 seconds increment, with the aim of having all 6 rounds on the one night. This will be happening tomorrow! (Thursday 30 September) from 7 pm at the Girl Guides Hall!

The week after, we will start the Club Championship!

Contact us:
Phone – 0406199457
Email – geelongchessclub@gmail.com

The calendar has been slightly adjusted to accommodate the extended period of lockdown.
New calendar is as follows:
16 September: 2021 Lightning Championship
23 & 30 September: Fischer Random Rapid (Chess960)
7 October through 25 November: 2021 Geelong Chess Club Championship
2 & 9 December: 2021 Rapid Play Championship

The Lightning Skittles tournament will be played if we find ourselves with a week to spare.

If you have any questions or wish to get in early, contact us
by phone: 0406199457 (Jack Smith)
or email: geelongchessclub@gmail.com