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. |
State Champion |
Yita Choong |
Runners Up |
Stephanus Kurniawan, Tim Hare & Akef Saleh
|
Reserves Champion (From WA Qualifying) |
Dennis Holland |
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. |
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 |