Late last year the Chess Club held its yearly Swiss event.

Contrary to what you might think, this tournament does not involve alp horns! Rather, Swiss refers to a playing format where each round of people on the same score play against each other.

After a few rounds the better players start to congregate around the top of the draw because they keep winning, and those whose game needs a little work head towards the bottom.

This tournament was won by Adrian Rose with a remarkable score of 9/9.

Adrian has been winning everything lately.

There was a large gap to second place, which was shared between Ronald Manila, Nikola Radev and Robert Kovacs on 6.5/9.

Robert’s result is noteworthy because his rating at the time was several hundred points below both Ronald and Nikola.

At the moment we are just about to finish the St George Summer Open.

With one round to go Adrian Rose is leading on 6/6.

The only person that can stop him is Nikola Radev who is in second place on 5/6.

It should be an exciting last round! The other important recent news is that four of our juniors competed in the World Youth Championships in Turkey in November.

Of particular note was Sean Gu’s performance.

In the Under 8 division he scored 7/11.

This placed him equal eighteenth in a field of over one hundred.

I am confident that Sean will be a very strong player for both the club and the country in the years to come.

Anton Smirnov also did very well in the same division scoring 6.5/11.

Anton’s father is Vladimir Smirnov, a very strong player, so we also expect great things from him.

Cedric Koh competed in the Under 10 division and scored 5/11, while his sister Clarise Koh competed in the Under 10 Girls’ tournament and also scored 5/11.

All of us at the Chess Club would like to thank the League’s Club for the support they have given our younger players.

The Chess Club meets on Tuesday nights at 7:30.

All are welcome!

Jamie Roberts,
Chess Club President