The TCA Southern Tasmanian Junior Championships were organised by Mellissa
Harvey, Nigel Frame and Ross George as representatives of the Hobart
International Junior Chess Club on Sunday 20th August. It was one of three
regional events leading up to the TCA State Junior
Championships in September.
32 players competed; in the divisions of Under 14 and below.
This closely contested event was dominated by three players, each of whom won
one and lost one against the other two while defeating all other
opponents. Max Rintoul beat Meg Briant in a wild game despite losing a piece
in the opening, Meg won the exchange with a fork against Owen Short
and held that advantage to win that game, but Owen forced Max to give up his
queen to prevent mate in the final round, thus creating a three-way tie.
Owen won the U14 title and the event outright on countback.
The standard of some games was encouragingly high, especially given the time
limit (15 mins + 10 secs/move). Jamie Briant, who narrowly lost this game,
could have been up with the winners but for missing two rounds playing for his
football Grandfinal on the same day!
Jamie Briant (821) - Max Rintoul (Unr)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4 Nxe4! Played immediately. I'm impressed when
under-12s know about this sort of stuff.
5.Nxe4 d5 6.Bxd5 Qxd5 7.Nc3
Qc4 8.d3 Qb4 9.Qe2 Bd6 10.0-0 0-0
11.Ng5 h6 12.Nf3 Bg4 13.Nd5 Qa5 14.Ne3 Nd4
15.Qd2 Qxd2 16.Nxd2 Be6 17.Ndc4 Rac8
18.Na5 b6 19.Nac4 b5 20.Nd2 Rfd8 21.Ne4
f5 22.Nxd6 cxd6 23.c3 Nc6 24.Rd1 f4 25.Nc2 f3
26.d4 exd4 27.Nxd4 Nxd4 28.Rxd4 Re8
29.Rxd6 Bh3! A sneaky trap - any g-pawn move results in back-rank mate!.
30.Bd2 fxg2 31.Re1 Rxe1+ 32.Bxe1 Re8 33.Bd2 Re2 34.Rd3 Bf5 35.Rd5 Be4 36.Rd8+
Kf7
37.Rd7+ Kf8 and after an exchange of bishops Black was able to win White's a
and b pawns for his g2 pawn.
0-1
While White got all the queenside pawns off the board, Black was able to get an excellent king position and eventually win White's h-pawn. Almost a draw but Black reached a won ending with king, rook and g-pawn vs king and rook, finally forcing mate with king and rook vs king.
Results:
U14 Champion Owen Short 6 Runner Up Girl Meg Briant 6
Runner Up Boy Rhys Kilpatrick 4 U12 Champion Max Rintoul 6 Runner Up Boy Zac Frame 5 Runner Up Girl Mikalha George 4 U10 Champion Erin Frame 5 Runner Up Boy Luke Bombadieri 5 Runner Up Girl Alina Krasnicki 4 U8 Champion Harry Briant 4 Runner Up Girl Julia Bombadieri 1.5 Runner Up Boy Sebastion Krasnicki 1
Report courtesy of Kevin Bonham (Secretary of the TCA), who kindly agreed to act as arbiter for this event.