2011 West Australian State Championship


The 2011 WA State Championship was held as a closed event and played on Sundays, from the 17th of July to the 18th of September at Moresby Street Centre in Kensington.


2011 State Chess Closed Championship

Yita Choong was the well deserved winner of this year’s WA Closed Chess Championship. He played solidly for most of the tournament, whereas all of his rivals were unable to consistently play anywhere near their best.

Of the three players who tied for second place (Stephanus Kurniawan, Tim Hare and Akef Saleh) probably only Akef will be pleased with the result. He was the only player to defeat the new Champion.

The two Juniors who played, Aston Taminsjah and Thomas Pinnock, performed quite creditably. Overall, they both had a very strong year, and we look forward to bigger and better performances in 2012.

One other issue that I should mention is the matter of qualifying places. When I first proposed the current system of qualifying places (3 from WA Open, WA Junior Champion and WA Qualifying Champion) it was in the context of a 12 player WA Closed. However, it was felt that 11 rounds were just too many, and the 5 qualifying places were applied to the 10 player format. This was not a problem in 2009 and 2010, but led to strong players being excluded in 2011, and it may be an issue we will have to re-visit.


2011 Qualifying/Reserves Championship

Dave Dempster and Dennis Holland dominated this event, finishing equal first on 8/9 - 2½ points ahead of the rest. Dave lost to Nedeljko Tomic and Dennis lost to Dave. Dennis becomes the 2011 WA Reserves Champion because Dave’s rating was above the 1850 cutoff. The place in the 2012 WA Closed Championship was awarded to Dave, due to his higher countback.

Nedeljko Tomic started very well, but faded to finish third. Evan Yeung played quite well and, with an ounce of luck, would have finished third. Gavin Adam was always thereabouts.

Evan Yeung & George Carolin-Unkovich shared the U/1800 prize.

I should mention the performance of Subramanya Pailoor. Subramanya only joined the tournament in round 3 and some work commitments made it difficult for him to play all of his games. He was also unfamiliar with the way we run our tournaments, which did not help. In the end, he had to forfeit 3 games, which should not be seen as a reflection on him. In the games that he played, he showed that he is a strong Chess player.

Reports by Haydn Barber.


Prize Winners

State Champion

Yita Choong

Runners Up

Stephanus Kurniawan, Tim Hare & Akef Saleh

Reserves Champion
(From WA Qualifying)

Dennis Holland




2011 WA Closed Chess Championship Cross Table

No Name ACF FIDE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Score Place
1 Stephanus Kurniawan 2252 2263   0 0 0 1 = 1 1 1 1 5.5 =2nd
2 Yita Choong 2237 2092 1   = 1 1 0 1 1 1 = 7.0 1st
3 Tim Hare 2119 2172 1 =   0 = 1 = 1 0 1 5.5 =2nd
4 Haydn Barber 2104 2167 1 0 1   = 0 1 0 = 1 5.0 5th
5 David Ellis 2008 2034 0 0 = =   = = 1 = 0 3.5 7th
6 Akef Saleh 1928 1929 = 1 0 1 =   1 = 0 1 5.5 =2nd
7 Aston Taminsjah 1878 1710 0 0 = 0 = 0   1 1 0 3.0 =8th
8 John Fedec 1852 1946 0 0 0 1 0 = 0   = 1 3.0 =8th
9 Gordon Dunlop 1840 1910 0 0 1 = = 1 0 =   = 4.0 6th
10 Thomas Pinnock unr unr 0 = 0 0 1 0 1 0 =   3.0 =8th



Also in conjunction with this years State Championship, a Qualifying/Reserves tournament was being run to determine the 2011 WA Reserves Champion and a place in next years closed championship.

2011 WA Qualifying/ReservesTournament Cross Table

No Name ACF 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Score Place
1 Dave Dempster 1895   1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8.0 =1st
2 Dennis Holland 1831 0   1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8.0 =1st
3 Nedeljko Tomic 1826 1 0   1 1 0 0 1 1 = 5.5 3rd
4 Gavin Adam 1804 0 0 0   1 = = 1 1 1f 5.0 4th
5 Fred Maris 1577 0 0 0 0   1 1 0 = 1f 3.5 =7th
6 Evan Yeung 1489 0 0 1 = 0   1 1 1 0 4.5 =5th
7 George Caroilin-Unkovich 1453 0 0 1 = 0 0   1 1 1f 4.5 =5th
8 Joseph Cheong 1416 0 0 0 0 1 0 0   0 0 1.0 10th
9 John McArthur 1114 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 1   0 1.5 9th
10 Subramanya Pailoor unr 0 0 = 0f 0f 1 0f 1 1   3.5 =7th