Australian Open Sensation

Fifteen year old Bobby Cheng caused a sensation a few days ago by winning the Australian Open Chess Championship and the lightening. Although he originally hails from Australia’s far eastern Islands,

locally known as New Zealand, his major success since moving to Melbourne was winning the World U12 championship.

I must admit that I have not been paying close attention to the games of Australia’s top young players, or anybody’s games for that matter, so this game came as quite a surprise to me.

The opening was quite common although Igor Khenkin embarked on an aggressive variation that does not have a great strike rate according to my database. Igor’s 12…e5 is a novelty but has a rather pungent aroma . The position had occurred twice before, one with 12…g5 and the other time 12…Qh6. The latter would be my choice.

It is one thing to feel that a move smells bad and quite another to show why. Bobby’s regrouping Bc2-b3 and Nf3-e1-d3 would have come to nothing if not for the brilliant 18.Be5!!  If white had nonchalantly played 18.Nd3 immediately black replies …Bc4 with a smile on his face. Enjoy.

We are moving soon to a bigger, brighter, more central venue in the middle of the city of Brisbane, Albert street to be exact. But before we move we will hold one more event at Milton, the Australia Day  Open Weekender! This will be a perfect time for Adults to play because most of the dangerous juniors will be playing in the Australian Junior Championships. If you have not been playing lately because you got tired of losing rating points to little monsters then this is the tournament for you! For info and entry form click here.

See you there 🙂