Chess

Chinese Chess... on campus!
Arbiter’s report on the SUCCF Chinese Chess Teams Competition S1 2009

by Tony

There's always a first time for everything, and on this sunny beautiful afternoon on the last day of the semester, it was quite possibly the first time that a Chinese Chess Competition has been held by an University affiliated organization on-campus in Sydney University's lengthy 159-year history (though there's probably no possible method of verifying this). The tournament was off to an awkward start with Thursday Cell unable to field a team for the event, resulting in a last minute change in the tournament format from a three-round standard teams Round-Robin to a four-round Swiss tournament.

Seedings were provided by the team captains, and the first round came and went without much drama apart from the first upset of the tournament two minutes into the first round on the back of a win by Markus(FRI), taking advantage of a lapse of concentration by his opponent, Micaiah(TUE).

The second round lifted off with a quick double Cannon checkmate by Sang(FRI) against Christy(TUE), using only 15 seconds of his clock to achieve the feat. Tin(WED) pulled off a brilliant victory over Alex(FRI) in a game of seesawing fortunes, and Markus(FRI) fell victim to time trouble against Evan(WED). Micaiah(TUE) won comfortably against Kristy(WED), whilst Alan(WED) edged out Brian(TUE), and Kobe(WED) capitalized on a late-game blunder by Matthias(FRI) to take out the win on board one.

On the half-way mark of the tournament, Wednesday Cell led with a team score of 5, followed by Friday Team with 4, and Tuesday Cell trailing with 3. On the crosstable, Tin(WED), Evan(WED), and Kobe(TUE) shared the lead with victories in both their games. Round 3 however, was disastrous for Wednesday cell with all four team members losing their games. On the top board, Evan(WED) blundered a Rook early in his game against Kobe(TUE), but fought on bravely pushing his opponent right to the very end, with Kobe finally winning with only ten seconds remaining on his clock; the suspense of the game giving the spectators something to talk about for many hours to come. In other games, Matthias(FRI) checkmates Tin(WED) using double Rooks, Micaiah(TUE) beats Sang(FRI) with the brilliant use of the flying General, Alex(FRI) checkmates Alan(WED) with a Rook and Knight combination, and Christy(TUE) took advantage of an early game material advantage with a swift win against Kristy(WED). Controversy arose in the game between Markus(FRI) and Brian(TUE) when the arbiter decided to result the game as a draw on the basis that both players had no real winning chances with the material and position on the board.

The results of the third round saw Kobe(TUE) emerge on the crosstable as the sole undefeated leader with a score of three from three. As the final round approached, the team scores were tied with Tuesday Cell and Friday Team both on 6.5, and Wednesday Cell trailing with 5. The fourth round saw Friday Team excel, winning all four of their games to lay claim on being the first team to win a Chinese Chess Competition on-campus. On board 1, Kobe(TUE) continued his strong form, defeating Tin(WED) with a Knight, Rook, and Cannon checkmate combination. Markus(FRI) checkmates Christy(TUE) early with a strong set of double Cannons. Alex(FRI) pulled off a mate with a Rook and Cannon combination on the back rank and middle file respectively against Micaiah(TUE). In a strange case of déjà vu, Matthias(FRI) also won with an identical mating combination against Evan(WED) minutes afterwards. Sang(FRI) defeated Alan(WED) comfortably, stripping the latter bare of pieces before checkmate, and Kristy(WED) claimed her first victory of the tournament with some luck in the last round, edging out Brian(TUE) when he ran out of time despite being ahead with material.

At the conclusion of the tournament, the Friday Team ended in top place with an impressive score of 10.5 in the final Team Standings where the leaderboard changed at every round. Tuesday Cell finished with 7.5 whilst Wednesday Cell trailed home with 6. Kobe(TUE) finished the tournament in outright first position with a perfect 4/4 score, with Matthias(FRI) and Alex(FRI) both runners up with a score of 3/4. It had been a pleasure and a privilege of mine to be the arbiter for the event. Thanks must go to Micaiah, Tin, Alan, and Matthias for their effort in organizing the teams to make this event possible. We sure hope there will be many more exciting and fun-filled competitions such as this one in the near future!

June 2009

SUCCF Chinese Chess Teams Competition S1 2009 - Round 4

Team Standings

 Place
Name
Score 
 1
 Friiday
10.5 
 2
Tuesday 
 7.5
3
Wednesday
6

Standings