2008 Ergas Australian Elite Junior Training Squad

Ergas squad members were treated to some outstanding coaching over 7 days of training in Melbourne. The squad was welcomed to the Box Hill Chess club by local political and chess dignitaries. Robert Jamieson IM provided an interesting introduction to the training camp with advice about how to become a chess nut with plenty entertaining commentary about his own competitive chess life. This includes snippets on psychology, training methods and some Australian chess history.

Squad members were then divided into 5 small groups for targeted training and advice from GMs Rogers, Antic, Johansen, Zhao, and IM Toth. They were provided with plenty of material on endgames, tactics and openings in each of the 3 and ½ hr sessions. Each group received slightly different material and the variety in presentation styles and content kept the enthusiasm high even for the young and restless (a demanding feat with ages from 8 years).

Ian Rogers presented background on the Ruy Lopez and its unveiling as the Spanish Torture along with how to meet the boring Petroff. Yuan Zong Zhao unravelled the Sicilian Dragon and showed solutions to even the most outrageous novelty moves suggested by the juniors. Dejan Antic challenged the players with end game technique until all well and truly knew how to play knight and bishop, and rook and bishop. His puzzles were intriguing and enjoyed for their aesthetics by Andrew Brown especially. Darryl Johansen used a selection of his own games to work on the greatest common weakness of juniors - positional play. He completed his session with amusing anecdotes about ethics. Andras Toth had many cool things to show each of the groups ranging from game analysis to tricky puzzles. Many of the impulsive suggestions and tricky solutions offered were outdone by Andras’ insistence to find wins by force.

During the rest day some squad members, coaches and parents visited the Andersen collection at the State Library (not to be missed for chess gurus and wannabes), followed by a Yum Cha. This time the adults were noisier than the juniors relishing in the variety and suggestions by Yuan and parents Danny and KK.

On Friday the squad began a 7 round competition with the inclusion of local adult talents to keep the juniors honest. At the end of day 1 the invited guests were out scoring the juniors!

Squad members mixed it with Melbournians on Friday night at the MCG. The cultural differences across Australia were highlighted by the explanations and commentary from Derek Yu for Ben Lazarus. Despite the vocal urging from the squad St Kilda played all over Carlton.

The juniors struck back on Day 2 of competition and at the end of the day Ben Lazarus defeated Bill Jordan (local) on board 1. The tournament finished on Sunday with close competition cross for group prizes.

Thank you the Box Hill Chess Club for their hospitality and to Kerry Lyall for her expertise in keeping the week flowing, her communication with parents and players, and general organisation. Even the Melbourne trains weren’t too bad.
 

First day of the Ergas chess tournament.

On Friday, 27 excited children arrived to play in the 2008 Ergas chess tournament. The results and pairings are now online.

The group was lucky to be joined by the following players from 4 Victorian Clubs: -

IM Bill Jordan - Melbourne Chess Club
Domagoj Dragicevic - Noble Park Chess Club
David Hacche - Canterbury Junior
Marcus Raine - Box Hill Chess Club
David Flude - Box Hill Chess Club

This will give the juniors an opportunity to try out their new skills gained from the extensive training over the last few days against some of Melbourne's adult chess players.
 

Visit to the State Library of Victoria - Ergas Excursion

On Thursday, a group of 12 children and 10 parents and Grand Master Yuan Zong Zhao visited the State Library of Victoria.

First stop was to see the wonderful dome and the octagonal room of the reading room. Then we looked at Ned Kelly's armour that he wore during the shootout against the police at Glenrowan. You could see the bullet holes in his armour. Only one of Ned's boots was there - the marks where is had been cut off his foot were still visible. In addition, we looked at Ned's death
mask. His face looked much smaller than in the photos - because his bushy hair and beard were not visible.

Then we went to the rare books collection where a number of rare books were placed on white pillows. First, there was a front piece from a 1483 chess book printed by Caxton. The oldest complete book was from 1528. Then there was a 1561 book written in Latin which had no pictures or diagrams by Ruy Lopez. In addtion, we saw a 1656 book entitled the Game of chess play. The
earliest chess book in English was edited by Philador. One book was published in the year 10 - or so the front cover stated. This was because books printed in France after the French Revolution used this event to date their books. The earliest color book was from 1802. This was a wonderful opportunity to see these rare books and the group was very grateful for the State Library for organising this for us.

We then visited the Anderson Collection. We saw a replica of a chess set that had been made from a chess set that was discovered in the sand on a beach in Scotland. Of course, there were the many thousands of chess books and magazines - that make up the third largest chess collection in the world.

Then we walked to the Shark Fin Inn for dim sum. We were joined by Ian and Cathy Rogers. We had wonderful food - one parent gamely tried chicken feet.

It was a lovely excursion and enjoyed by all.
 

Ergas Elite Training Squad - Melbourne Day 3

It was a 9 degree foggy morning in Melbourne this morning. 27 bright and chirpy Ergas participants arrived to undertake the problem solving competition.

Especial thanks to the Problem Solving Association who prepared the puzzles for me.

Thanks to the parents and children who helped me set up the hall this morning for the problem solving.

Grand Master Ian Rogers will be marking the papers tomorrow and the results will be announced at the prize giving at the closing ceremony on Sunday.

The children have now broken back into their rating groups for further coaching.

I have an excellent feedback from participants on how much they are learning and how much they are enjoying themselves.

This afternoon is the last rotation of rating groups with the coaches.

Tomorrow is the rest day - and optional visit to the Anderson Collection. The Ergas tournament starts on Friday morning. Results will be posted on the Ergas webpage on the Box Hill Chess Club website.

Day 2 Ergas Junior Elite Chess Camp

It is another cold, wintry Melbourne morning and 27 bright and eager children arrived for another day of intensive chess coaching.

The atmosphere is of quite discussion over interesting positions and the occasional excited voice when a puzzle has been worked out.

Most children worked through morning tea or took just a minute drink/toilet break - they are so engrossed in their lessons.

Arrangements have been made for the visit to the Anderson Collection on Thursday. The children will be inducted into the Anderson Collection and then have a tour of the Library incorporating the 'Changing Face of Victoria' exhibition. This will be followed by lunch at the Shark Fin Inn in
Little Bourke Street.

On a cold wintry Melbourne morning, 27 of Australia’s junior elite chess players gathered for the Opening Ceremony of the Ergas Junior Elite Chess Training Squad.

Gladys Liu, President of the Box Hill Chess Club welcomed all the guests – Mr Robert Clarke, Member for Box Hill, Councillor Carol Ross - Mayor for the City of Boroondara, Mr Gary Wastell, President of the Australian Chess Federation, Mr Leonid Sandler, Vice President Chess Victoria, Trevor Stanning, Treasurer Chess Victoria and Treasurer of the Box Hill Chess Club and Mr Desmond Cheung Honorary Advisor of AFL Multicultural Unit, the parents and children of the Ergas Junior Elite Chess Training Squad for 2008.

Mr Cheung has very kindly donated tickets to the AFL on Friday night. Could all people wishing to attend please contact Trevor Stanning or Gladys Liu? Mr Cheung’s gift is very much appreciated.

Mrs Julie Matheson has kindly been taking photographs of the Opening Ceremony and of the children during this morning and this afternoon’s lectures.

Prior to IM Robert Jamieson beginning his lecture – the group sang “Happy Birthday” to Robert, while he blew on the candles on his birthday cake. I was unaware that it was Peter Wallmueller’s birthday – so “Happy Birthday” to Peter as well.

All the children enjoyed Robert’s lecture – especially Eugene Schon who won a book prize for answering a trivia question correctly. (It was identifying the name from a photo of a famous Australian Chess player.)

After lunch the squad broke into five groups for specialised coaching and training. The groups seemed to be enjoying themselves, while working very hard. Rating Group 1 were so engrossed in their work that they were still going at 5.15 pm – well after the 5.00 pm finish time!

Coaching groups defined

Website setup. More details to follow soon.