Arthur Teters Memorial - 2022

Tournament-Conclusion

This year’s Teters Tournament was convincingly won by Scott Stewart, our current Club Champion. Seeded 2nd, he completely overpowered the field by scoring a picked-fence of 6/6 wins against the numbers 13,6,5,3,1,4, respectively. Most unusual, his victory was already secured after he won an impressive game in round 6 against Bas. As a consequence, he chose to skip the last round, staying 0.5 point ahead of Paul Dao, despite Pauls’ (nice) win against Patrick C in the last round.
Such domination has not been seen at the club since Simon Rutherford’s reign, about 20 years ago. Meanwhile, Paul fully deserved his 2nd place, following his excellent 2nd placing in the preceding Ballarat Club Championship. He played a very solid tournament, only losing to Scott.
Jamie was the surprise package of the tournament, finishing 3rd outright on 5/7. Being a typical (and strong) blitz player, Jamie usually makes his mistakes in the opening phase of classical games, in his haste to beat the clock instead of the player. Once he realises that he is in trouble, he will take his time, organises his defence, and patiently waits for a chance to turn the tables. His game in the last round against fast improving Michael L was a classic example. Michael, with black, played very well in the opening and had a commanding, occasionally winning position, until move 50. Jamie had survived by the skin of his teeth into a “jungle position’ with only rooks, queens and most of the pawns on the board. Jamie, still very alert and waiting, the last game still going and very late in the evening. Disaster struck when Michael overlooked a nasty combination. Jamie jumped into action, and changed the position from. -1.6 to +3.3 in a flash, ie.2 moves. That was all Jamie had been waiting for (hours), and needed to finish third on the final standing.   
Apart from Michael, the good performance of Xavier Demmert, the winner of the Reserves, should be mentioned. He won 3 of the 4 games he played, and also Vipin who finished equal 4th after a win against Patrick and a last round draw against yours truly, where he missed a chance to win via a nice combination, at the very end of a well-played game.
Finally, it should be mentioned that Patrick, the club’s self-acclaimed drawmeister, appears to have lost (one of?) his stripes. Instead of aiming for draw-records (no-matter-what), he managed not even a single draw in this tournament. Four wins and three losses. Still>50% and respectable, and perhaps a personal record of a different kind?     
BvR

Interim Report

The 2022 Teters tournament has quietly/silently progressed to round 5, with only 2 more rounds left to decide the winners of the top and bottom (the Reserves) halves of the field, respectively, based on ratings. Before the start of round 5, we saw Scott Stewart, the number 2 seed, leading with a 100% score of 4 points, a full point ahead of a bunch of 5 players on 3 points, ie. Gus Blenkiron, Scott’s opponent in round 5; and the pairs Kevin Perrin vs Bas van Riel and Jamie Brotheridge vs Vipin Jyani. Then, at 2.5 points each, followed by Paul Dao and Peter Stickland. For the pairings and results of the lower boards, I like to refer to the result’s page of the Club’s website. Meanwhile, I will briefly comment on the top 4 boards only. These games are recorded on the Club’s website, and can be re-played online in the games tab above.

The topboard between the two highest rated players of the club, was a very entertaining and creative game. The opening appeared to be homegrown, unusual and potentially fun to watch. Unfortunately, Scott was too efficient and ruthless to allow an extended fight. Gus white vs Scott black.

The diagram shows the position after a mere 12 moves, 3 of which were used to move black’s h-pawn all the way to h3, meanwhile completing his development. On the other hand, white’s development was pure creative chaos, eg his complete queenside was still on homebase, and his kingside was already torn apart. If that was not enough, with his next move (13.Ne5, number 13!?) white did ask for serious trouble. After 13..Nxe5; 14.Bxb7, Kxb7; 15.fxe5, Bc5+;16.e3? (overlooking black’s next move), Qc6; 17.Qc2, Bxe3+ and 18..Qxc2, it was all over for Gus, being a rook and 4 pawns down.

Board 2 featured the 2 most senior members of the club. After a Caro-Kann opening, Bas (playing black) developed pressure on Kevin’s queenside, which white tried to counteract by a piece sacrifice, opening black’s king side.When white’s attack petered out, black took over and finally checkmated white in 33 moves.  

On board 3, another interesting Caro-Kann was played between Jamie(wh) and Vipin. After some manoeuvring, Vipin suddenly blundered, which did cost him 2 important centre-pawns, and soon after the game.

Finally, on Board 4, Peter (with black), after an interesting balanced opening, did not see that his remaining bishop stood unprotected. Paul was unrelenting, and did not miss a beat to win.

 In conclusion, at the end of this round 5, Scott is still unbeaten at 5 points, with Jamie and Bas on 4 points each, followed by Paul Dao on 3.5 points.

                                                                        report by BvR