World Universities Chess Championship

[Ljubica Lazarevic]

Dear All,

Here's a round up of events so far by Lorin D'Costa.

Live games can be viewed on http://www.wucc2010.ch/. Peter Poobalasingam is currently on one of the display boards (board 11).

Ljubica
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Official website: http://www.wucc2010.ch/

Round 1 (Sunday 5th Sept) 2pm

Peter P B V Vasily Papin 2534 IM Russia Draw
Vedantha K B V Ebraim Ahmadinia 2414 FM Iran Draw
Sarah H B V Andjelija Stojanovic 2337 WGM Serbia Loss
Hannah D V BYE Draw

A great start for Vedantha as a he drew comfortably with black against an opponent over 400 points higher. Despite informing me he plays quite solidly I was surprised to see him whip out a delayed Schliemann, which also appeared to confuse his opponent as he immediately fell under pressure. In fact it could have been more but accepted a draw offer in a better endgame. Peter also made a good start, drawing with black in a g3 Grunfeld against a highly rated Russian IM where it appeared he stood worse for a lot of the game before equalising in the late middlegame with a nice tactic, after which he was in no trouble. Sarah also had a Grunfeld, her Serbian opponent playing also positionally but this time able to grind her down in an endgame. Hannah had a bye.

Double round takes place on Monday.

Round 2 (Monday 6th Sept) 9.30am

Peter P W V Malkhaz Sulashvili 2500 IM Georgia Win
Vedantha K W V Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa 2460 Mongolia Loss
Sarah H W V Iin Dwijayanti Kadek 1889 WCM Indonesia Win
Hannah D B V Batchimeg Tuvshintugs 2333 WGM Mongolia Loss

Peter continued his run with an excellent win with white in this morning round. He played against an isolated pawn and somehow in mutual time trouble slowly pushed his opponent back, finishing by weaving a lovely mating net. Sarah had an attacking game against the Kan Sicilian where she eventually managed to crash through. Hannah lost an exchange in a Queens Indian where she didn’t get enough for it. Vedantha tried to continue in the same attacking vein as before, and stood well against his Mongolian IM opponent but at the key moment sacrificed unnecessarily when a developing move would have kept the game alive. Still, so far he is more than holding his own against far higher rated opposition.

Round 3 (Monday 6th Sept) 3.30pm

Peter P B V Anuar Ismagambetov 2492 GM Kazakhstan loss
Vedantha K W V Soozankar Amohammed 2299 Iran win
Sarah H B V Batkhuyug Mungutuul 2412 IM Mongolia loss
Hannah D W V Pauline Van Nies 2167 Netherlands draw


Vedantha just keeps on surprising us! Again running short of time he calmly diffused his opponents tricks and emerged with a huge amount of material after sacrificing his queen, culminating in mate with just minutes left on his clock. He described it as ‘the best win of my chess career’ he is playing bold and attacking chess, and being rewarded for it. Peter and Sarah both had tough games against Asian opposition but eventually fell short in the crucial moments. Hannah had an excellent draw where both players were down to a minute each (with 30 second increment) and agreed a draw which was a fair result.

Round 4 (Tuesday 7th Sept) 2pm

Peter P W V Jan Markos 2566 GM Slovakia loss
Vedantha K W V Milos Roganovic 2497 IM Serbia loss
Sarah H W V Hannah Dale 1779 GB win
Hannah D B V Sarah Hegarty 2084 WFM GB loss

Very disappointing that the two girls had to play against each other this round, especially as there were alternatives in the pairings, but at the technical meeting before the tournament they did say that countries would not be kept apart. Fair play that the girls didn’t agree a quick draw and a hard battle ensued, where eventually Sarah prevailed in the tactics from a French Winawer. Vedantha fell victim of some hard Serbian preparation, he thought his first round opening wasn’t in the tournament bulletin but forgot the games are all online so his opponent simply improved on Vedanthas first round game! Peter had a c5 bogo Indian and it appeared he was just better but fell for a cruel, however lovely tactic where his experienced opponent just saw further.

Double round is tomorrow.

Round 5 (Wednesday 8th Sept) 9.30am

Peter P B V Marijn Otte 2264 Netherlands win
Vedantha K W V Felix Hindermann 2323 FM Switzerland loss
Sarah H B V Irene Kharisma Sukandar 2372 WGM Indonesia loss
Hannah D W V L Liyanagedara 1844 WCM Sri Lanka win

Peter played a very nice game to get back on track from two straight losses (albeit to very high rated opposition). In a French Tarrasch he whipped out an extremely sharp piece sacrifice that he then played very well to emerge two pawns up in an endgame. Of course, chess is never that easy and his opponent managed to recover somewhat, but Peter eventually put him away. Vedanthas policy of ‘attack’ was brutally neutralised by his Swiss opponent, but still this has been a great tournament for Vedantha so far with a TPR far above his rating of 1983. Sarah played her line of the accelerated Dragon against the Maroczy setup and achieved a very nice position, however suddenly she found herself worse and her opponent was able to stamp her authority on the game. Hannah scored her first win of the tournament by grinding her opponent down with the two bishops from an English opening. This will naturally have boosted her confidence for the remaining games.

Round 6 (Wednesday 8th Sept) 3.30pm


Peter P W V Darini Pouria 2430 Iran win
Vedantha K W V Marijn Otte 2264 Netherlands draw
Sarah H W V Ashanti Rajapaksha Sri Lanka win
Hannah D W V Baiq vina Lestari 2177 Indonesia loss

Team Great Britains best day scorewise came in the last game before the rest day. Peters game involved great complications where both sides went from winning to losing around 3 times before Peter had the final say in time trouble. From a g3 Grunfeld Peter appeared to be easily winning but suddenly he allowed a tactic where he had to sacrifice his queen, only to then somehow outplay his opponent nicely. He described this game as ‘demonstrating the amazing possibilities that can occur in chess’ the computer had a field day with this game but it was a great advert for chess. Vedantha had the better of a draw from a Grand Prix attack and was never losing, even turning down draw offers but eventually this was the final result. Sarah won very nicely, checkmating her opponent from a French Winawer where the king was hunted down mercilessly. Hannah got rather short of time and a slightly dodgy position went from bad to worse due to a blunder from the time trouble.

All four players are either playing to their rating or above it so the tournament has been a success so far. For Vedantha and Hannah, who don’t play as much, this has been a great international experience and both are acquitting themselves very well. Fingers crossed for Peter who has a 2531 TPR and has a great chance to make his second IM norm. Sarah has been unlucky to get all the strong players with the black pieces but in all those games she has had decent positions so can take heart from the fact that shes not a million miles away from these top girls. Shes also been putting away the lower rated players with white quite comfortably.

Free day is on Thursday 9th September. Players were taken on an excursion to Luzern, a city around an hour away from Zurich and climbed the Rigi Mountain (with the help of a cable car!) which offered fantastic scenery. Along the way there was a boat trip along the verwaldstattersee (a huge lake among the mountains) where the players ate lunch.