PHOTO: Winners from the chess tournament: Bradley McKinnon, Emmanuel Vardakis, Jingming Chow (front); with Alexander Aich, Melissa McKinnon, Garry Mann, Jason McKinnon, Ramon Aich (back).
CHESS: The Dubbo Summer Junior Chess Tournament was held at Macquarie Anglican Grammar School last week with players from across the region and from far afield as Ardlethan and Blayney.
One of the young players was 9-year-old Emmanuel Vardakis, all the way from Sydney. Emmanuel was impressively enterprising by finding out about this tournament on the internet and then telling his parents he wanted to go to Dubbo to play chess.
The family combined it with a visit to the zoo.
The players ranged in age from seven to 17 years old and ability wise, included first-time competitors to experienced - such as 17-year-old Garry Mann from Blayney who recently came second out of 195 juniors at the Sydney Summer Junior Chess Tournament.
In Dubbo for the juniors, it was an all-day affair from 9.45am to 3.30pm, and everyone played 10 games with digital chess clocks used.
Players had 15 minutes each for the whole game and introducing this time element made the games very exciting.
The results have been sent to the NSW Junior Chess League for ratings.
Upsets started in the first round with Jingming Chow, aged seven, having a surprising win over higher-rated Jonathan Yeong.
In round two, Vardakis had a great draw against 14-year-old Jason McKinnon.
Then in round four second-seed Ramon Aich from Dubbo was fighting for his life against lower-rated David Rogerson from Blayney.
Unfortunately Rogerson, in time trouble, missed an easy draw in the end game allowing Aich to promote his solitary pawn to a queen.
In round five the top seeds, Aich and Mann, were paired to play each other. It was an exciting match and drew quite an audience as the other players finished their games.
Mann’s superior tactics gave him the advantage in the mid-game and he went on to record a well-deserved win.
A feature of round six was the performance of 10-year-old Elizabeth Mannix who won her first game of the tournament by beating her older brother Joshua.
In round eight Jason McKinnon from Ardlethan had a great win over higher-rated Knox Grammar student Benjamin So, and Angus Brander from Narromine had a confidence boosting win over higher-rated Chow.
At the end of round eight top-seed Garry Mann had an impressive eight wins and everyone expected him to go through the tournament undefeated.
There were only two strong players left to challenge him, Jason McKinnon and James McKay from Dubbo.
In round nine, Mann and McKinnon were paired to play each other and it was the last game to finish. It seemed that Mann was well and truly in control. He had an extra queen and three pawns.
However Mann unwittingly played his queen to the wrong square. After he finished his move Mann moaned, “Oh no, it’s stalemate”. Sure enough Mann had left McKinnon no legal moves.
In round 10 Mann defeated McKay and so Mann was the winner of the tournament on 9-1/2 out of a possible 10. It was fitting that Mann won this tournament as it was his last tournament as a junior . He turns 18 next month.
The place getters in the Under-18 Division were: 1 Garry Mann; 2 Ramon Aich; 3 Jason McKinnon.
Under-12 Division: 1 Bradley McKinnon; 2 Emmanuel Vardakis; 3 Jingming Chow.
The best performance from a girl was Melissa McKinnon who came 11th.
Garry Mann received an additional accolade and award for his support of junior chess in this region and being a great role model for the other junior chess players.
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