January is always a busy month on the Australian chess calendar and this year, the Australian Junior Championships, as well as biennial tournaments like the Australian Open and the Oceania Zonal Championships, guaranteed an action-packed month. Se...
Australia's Open and Women's teams concluded their Open and Women's campaigns on Sunday after 11 grueling rounds and I'd like to take this opportunity to showcase some of the key takeaways from the event... starting with an extraordinary individua...
It's been a few days since my last Olympiad blog and there are several for that, namely: 1. The rising flood levels in Budapest threaten to submerge the unfortunately situated island our hotel is on. 2. The infamous Bermuda party. 3. Poor he...
Round five of the 2024 FIDE Olympiad saw another close shave between Australia and a titan of the chess world, England. It's been 20 years since Australia played England in an Olympiad and last time the score was 2-2. Amazingly, two players from e...
Australia scooted up the standings at the 2024 Olympiad on Saturday after defeating our "little brother" across the ditch, New Zealand, by a margin of 2.5-1.5 and we will now play our Commonwealth cousins England in round five. Interestingly, a fe...
Two years on from our tight match against Ukraine at the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai, Team Australia, who are proudly sponsored by Integral Diagnostics (IDX) and DGT, once again paired with the chess powerhouses. This time, Team Ukraine featured four...
The second round of the 2024 FIDE Olympiad pitted dangerous teams against top seeds and there were several drawn matches among these clashes. Norway-Canada was one such match where Norway, the higher seeds were left ruing their decision to rest th...
Team Australia, proudly sponsored by Integral Diagnostics (IDX) and DGT, kicked off the 2024 FIDE Olympiad in style by posting round 1 wins over Saudi Arabia and Brunei Darussalam. All three debutants, IM Rishi Sardana, Zhiyuan Shen, and Alaina Vi...
The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad has arrived and Budapest will play host to the event which has drawn in 197 countries (more than the Paris Olympics), 381 teams, and over 2,000 of the world's best chess players. Many are first-timers and some, such as...
A 9.5/11 score in the recently concluded Australian Chess Championships has seen IM Rishi Sardana claim the title of Australian champion and a $3,000 first prize after 11 rounds of play at Glenunga International High School in Adelaide. ...
Despite having won a number of classical chess tournaments in my career, "picket fence" scores (where a player wins all their games) have escaped me. My unorthodox playing style often leaves me in what I call "coin flip" positions and a tendency t...
Mikhail Tal, the most brilliant tactician of his generation and widely considered one of the best attacking players in chess history, was renowned for his brute force, uncompromising style, and powerful, creative play. For Tal, the initiative trum...
Two years after netting his debut national title at the Australian Chess Championships, GM Temur Kuybokarov once again proved his mettle amongst the best in the country after winning the 2023 Australian Chess Open with a 9.5/11 score in Scarboroug...
Over the last decade, interest in chess across Asia has been steadily growing and some Asian countries, namely India, China, Uzbekistan, and Iran, have been responsible for the development of numerous prodigies. American GM Abimanyu Mishra stole g...
This report has come in a little late due to travel home over the last few days but the Olympiad came to a close several days ago and it featured a nail-biting finish where a talented Uzbekistani team (who remarkably had an average age of only 20)...
Another two rounds have passed at the 44th FIDE Olympiad and Australia has continued to put in strong performances in Chennai. In the seventh round, we faced the mighty Iranian team (seeded 13) who have risen to become a global chess superstar due...
If you believe you can, you might. If you know you can, you will - Steve Maraboli In the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, there is one team that everyone both wants to play and simultaneously doesn't, Norway. I was at dinner with GM Anton ...
Today we have a double report from the Aussie camp after internet troubles prevented a blog from being uploaded yesterday! In round four Australia came up against our first South American opponent, Ecuador who we trounced 4-0. In the fifth round, ...
Another round of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad has passed and the Australian team fell just short of overcoming their biggest challenge yet. Playing against Poland on board five, the strength of this Australian outfit was brought to the fore and th...
Round two of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad saw the Australian Open team take on the dangerous Moroccans in a match that the Australians won 3.5-0.5, meanwhile, the Australian Women's team won their match 3-1 against our geographical neighbors, New ...
Welcome to my latest blog where I'll be reporting live from Chennai, India where I'll be covering the escapades of Australia's Open team at the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad. It must be set first and foremost that the utmost thanks should be given to I...
Today I share the next part of my 'games against streamers' series and due to popular demand I simply had to show some of my games against the most followed chess Youtuber in the world, Levy Rozman aka GothamChess. I first encountered Levy in...
After six months of limited activity over the board, I had the pleasure of playing in the March Open classical tournament held in the coastal suburb of Rothwell in Brisbane, Australia. The event was a 6-round Swiss weekender with a $2,500AUD ...
We have all been there before. We have played an outstanding opening, traded some pieces, and capitalized on our opponent blundering a pawn somewhere in the middle game. If we continue to play accurately then we'll still be up a pawn wi...
Today I am excited to share the next part of my series where I highlight my key encounters with a player I have encountered many times over the last 10 years... Hikaru Nakamura. This blog will include a draw from yesterday, live on Hikaru's stream...
