Fischer Random rounds 1 and 2

Rounds 1 and 2 played on 7-Apr-09
Round 1 position

Round 2 position
Fischer Random is not quite random. First of all the bishops have to be on opposite coloured squares. Secondly, the King must sit between the 2 Rooks so that he can castle on either side. Nic Croad wrote a program last year to generate positions which conform to these 2 rules.
Fischer Random is not to everyone's taste. It certainly takes you out of your comfort zone, and you cannot rattle off 20 moves of theory before you have to think. From that point of view, it is probably very good brain therapy for those of us worried about the onset of Alzheimer's disease!
People like me, who find it all a bit weird, attempt to get the position to look as normal as possible as quickly as possible. An additional difficulty is the rather fast 25/5 time limit.

Generally, though, the people who are good at standard chess are also good at the Fischer Random kind. After 2 rounds, the players on 100% scores were all very familiar - Anthony Ker, who won the inaugural event last year, Russell Dive, Nic Croad, Mark van der Hoorn and Brian Nijman. I did spectacularly badly in this event last year, and also started badly this year losing on time to Brian Nijman after enjoying a distinctly favourable position earlier on.

Full results:

Round 1
Ker 1 Jackson 0
Farrington 0 Croad 1
Dive 1 Brockway 0
Sellen 0 Nijman 1
Palmer 0 Drinkwater 1
Theodosiou 0 Hill 1
Aldridge 1 Grkow 0
Forster 1 Jhurani 0
Van der Hoorn 1 Nyberg 0

Round 2
Hill 0 Ker 1
Croad 1 Aldridge 0
Nijman 1 Forster 0
Drinkwater 0 Dive 1
Grkow 0 Sellen 1
Van der Hoorn 1 Jackson 0
Brockway 1 Palmer 0
Jhurani 1 Theodosiou 0
Nyberg 1 Farrington 0

The Future Face of New Zealand Chess?

The big story of the North Island Championships held over the Easter weekend was not the return to form of Russell Dive and his comfortable 7/8 victory (including an 8 move draw in the last round), or indeed the haphazard timekeeping skills of genial D.O.P. Mark van der Hoorn - rather it was the exploits of the boy who ended up sharing the C grade prize, Alan Ansell, pictured above. The 4.5/8 final tally belies the real drama of what took place. All his opponents except one were rated over 2000, and the average rating of his opponents was in the region of 2158. His own rating is a ludicrously unrealistic 1568. In comparison, his fellow C grade winner, Viv Smith, had opponents averaging 1822 in rating, and even had a 1 point bye in round 6 for being near the foot of the table.

His victories were scored over Daniel Baider (2188), Brian Nijman (2141), Chris Burns (2099) and Gavin Marner (2004). His greatest achievement may be his draw against Olympiad team member Stephen Lukey, graded 2270.

12-year-old Alan may look a bit like that cute child actor in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but over the board he is a totally ferocious attacking player, happiest in positions were he is marauding all over his opponent's King. I witnessed him ripping apart Gavin Marner's Queen side castled position, definitely an X-rated viewing experience!

One of the most astonishing things about Alan is his location. A search on New Plymouth players in the national rating lists reveals only two, and they are both surnamed Ansell. If, as Nigel Short undiplomatically opined, New Zealand is a chess backwater, New Plymouth must occupy a uniquely stagnant place in chess geography. Alan has no worthy human opponents to play locally, so at home he plays against the Rybka program on his computer.
If Alan had been born in a proper chess-playing nation, he would no doubt have already been whisked off to some hothouse chess academy to be converted into a grandmaster, but here in New Zealand we have to rely on more random processes. We just have to hope he doesn't get diverted on his way to mega chess stardom. All the best to you, Alan!

Ker is Summer Champion after Dive Loses Twice

When was the last time Russell Dive lost twice in a row at the chess club? Losing to Nic Croad is fair enough, but he will have lost a lot of rating points by losing to me!
Russell's round 7 loss meant he was caught by traditional rival Anthony Ker. Losing in the 8th and final round meant that Nic Croad overtook him to take 2nd place, and Mark van der Hoorn joined him in 3rd place. No doubt the invincibility will return, but let's make the most of it until it does!
Other noteworthy performances? My vote goes to young newcomer Henry Wylde who defeated Ross Jackson in round 1 ( a trifle cheekily) and Andrew Brockway in round 8 (final tally 4/8). Also Romeo Rabina who finished strongly, winning against Don Stracy in round 7 and drawing with Michael Nyberg in round 8 (final tally 4.5/8).

You can see 2 games from round 7 on the official website, Sellen vs Dive and Ker vs Hill. As you can see, Anthony was a bit lucky to win that game!

Final standings:

1. Anthony Ker 6.5 points
2. Nic Croad 6 points
3-4 Mark van der Hoorn, Russell Dive 5.5 points
5-8 Brian Nijman, Daniel Baider, Gavin Marner, Ian Sellen 5 points
9-13 Alan Aldridge, Martin Hill, Michael Nyberg, Romeo Rabina, Ross Jackson 4.5 points
14-19 Anil Jhurani, Bill Forster, Hamish Shierlaw, Henry Wylde, Jen Sun Hong, Michael Hewson 4 points
20-21 Blaise Drinkwater, Don Stracy 3.5 points
22-27 Andrew Grkow, Andrew Brockway, Jefferey Wu, Jen Nung Hong, Melvin Tung, Zak Sun 3 points
28-30 Andreas Theodosiou, Lingzhou Wu, Somesh Pattekar 2.5 points
31-32 John Marney, Paul Bowden 2 points
33 Luke Palmer 0.5 points

Results:

Round 7
Sellen 1 Dive 0
Ker 1 Hill 0
Croad 1 Forster 0
Nijman 1/2 Baider 1/2
Aldridge 0 Van der Hoorn 1
Jackson 0 Marner 1
Nyberg 1 Wylde 0
Shierlaw 1/2 Jhurani 1/2
Grkow 0 Hewson 1
Wu J 0 Drinkwater 1
Hong 1 Palmer 0
Theodosiou 0 Brockway 1
Rabina 1 Stracy 0
Hong 1 Wu L 0

Round 8
Dive 0 Croad 1
Ker 1 Sellen 0
Marner 1/2 Baider 1/2
Van der Hoorn 1 Hill 0
Nyberg 1/2 Rabina 1/2
Forster 0 Jackson 1
Drinkwater 0 Aldridge 1
Jhurani 1/2 Hewson 1/2
Brockway 0 Wylde 1
Shierlaw 1 Hong 0
Wu L 0 Hong 1
Pattekar 1/2 Wu J 1/2
Theodosiou 1 Palmer 0