Doc: Chess constituition day tourney |21 June 2016

 Chess: Constitution Day competition

Stratonowitsch in a class of his own

The newly formed Victoria Chess Club held its very first tournament last Saturday and it is Andre Stratonowitsch who won the Constitution Day competition.

Stratonowitsch claimed victory with the full seven points while the club’s chairman Robert Stravens took second place with five points. Five players occupied the next tier with four points each though Reygene Santillan was declared third place finisher through the tiebreak rules.

The tournament was a rapid play with seven rounds and time control of 30 minutes per game. The event, which was held on Saturday at Cable & Wireless’ Exiles Club, was open to all entrants.

Stratonowitsch showed just why he is the highest World Chess Federation (Fide) rated player in Seychelles. He was in a class of his own remaining undefeated in all seven rounds. He was however made to work hard for some of his wins, notably by Subash Singireddy and also by Reygene Santillan. His round 5 battle with Andrei Balabanov had a nail-biting finish as both players had only seconds left on their clocks though Stratonowitsch was in a clear winning position. Balabanov, seeing his chance to salvage half a point by drawing, devoured a pawn on the square f7 together with check by his rook and declared that his king was in stalemate.

Indeed it was, but unfortunately for Balabanov the tension had proved too much and the pawn on f7 was actually his own pawn and not his opponent’s! This illegal move therefore caused him to immediately forfeit the game under Fide official rapid play rules.

Club chairman and tournament organiser Robert Stravens suffered a loss against Keith Vital in round 1. Stravens had dominated the game having captured most of Vital’s army but he finally made one mis-step which allowed Vital to deliver checkmate by his lonely Queen and Bishop.

Another of Stravens’ games featured a blunder though this time by Subash Singireddy who gave away his rook freely, hence immediately converting his two-pawn-up winning position into a losing one. Despite being material down Singireddy mounted a skilful defence worthy of the Spartans featured in the 2006 movie 300. A tense finish resulted as both players had time trouble. Unlike the Spartans, glory did not come to Singireddy whose flag fell first with just 1 second left on Stravens’ clock!

The clock was again not Singireddy’s ally in his match against Samuel Nalletamby. Their pairing occurred immediately after the lunch break. With no sign of Nalletamby, his clock was started in his absence as per tournament rules. When he eventually appeared clutching his lunch, his clock had just 7 minutes 19 seconds left against Singireddy’s full 15 minutes. Nalletamby was evidently well fortified by the nutrition. Unflustered by the time handicap he announced checkmate to a stunned Singireddy within a few minutes.

Singireddy had to settle for sixth place behind Balabanov despite having a strong overall performance.

Ivan Eremeev emerged as best under 12-year-old based on a tie-break sharing the same number of points with Satya Moodely.

Stravens said “top players like Grand Master Nigel Short vouch that their chess development was due to playing many formal competitive games, up to 150 games every year”.

“This is why we plan on giving club members as much opportunity to play competitively as we can. We encourage parents to bring their children to tournaments and get in touch regarding chess training,” added Mr Stravens.

The Victoria Chess Club was registered only last month and chairman Stravens said their main priority is to organise as many tournaments as possible.

Club secretary Andre Butler-Payette has noted that they will be seeking affiliation to the Seychelles Chess Federation in due course as well.

The executive committee of the Victoria Chess Club includes Mr Stravens as chairman, Andre Butler-Payette as secretary and Andre Stratonowitsch as treasurer.

Stratonowitsch will also be guiding the junior chess players in training as well as tournaments and so parents are being urged to bring their children to the events to help promote chess locally. Those interested can contact Mr Stravens on the following email address: chairman@victoriachessclub.org.