McKinnonNEWS

SCHOOL NEWS: CHESS CLUB

MCK CHESS CLUB 

Championship Final decided by Armageddon

 

After six weeks of the most memorable McK Chess Championship series in living memory, the title match between Tim Nicolaides (Year 12) and Aaron Todes (Year 10) came down to just a few minutes of nerve-wracking speed chess in the format of Armageddon tiebreak. In the almost 90 minutes of total game time, Tim and Aaron traded wins in both the standard games, as well as the blitz games. With the match tied at 2-2, an Armageddon tiebreak was used to break the deadlock where White is given more time on the clock but Black can win the tie with just a draw. 

Tim
Aaron
Tim
Aaron

It was an extraordinarily emotional roller-coaster for the players and spectators. Just when one thought it was in the bag for one player, some rare, missed wins and blunders turned the match around at crucial moments. In the end, despite being a Rook up playing White, Tim ran out of time when he missed a sequence of moves that could force a quick checkmate. Aaron, on the other hand, defended a losing position very well with very little time left. And with that, Aaron Todes (Year 10) becomes the new McK Chess Champion, while Timothy Nicolaides (Year 12) takes the Silver in the second year running.

 

In the supporting 3rd place playoff match, young talent Nathan Wen (Year 8) was up against last year’s champion, Steve Le (Year 12), who was sensationally knocked out by the eventual winner, Aaron Todes, in the Semi-final in Armageddon tiebreak too. The first game was a long strategic battle where Steve opted for the King’s Indian Defence against Nathan’s d4 opening. In the complicated middlegame, the more experienced Steve managed to obtain a slight advantage with two pawns up, and eventually converted it into a 67 moves win.

 

The second game featured a rare b4 opening by Steve who quickly capitalized on Nathan’s unfamiliarity with the system. As a result, Nathan went down a piece early and was unable to recover. Steve’s subsequent solid play secured him 3rd place in this year’s championship.

Steve
Nathan
Steve
Nathan

Full results at https://sites.google.com/mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/mckchesschamp2024 

 

All top 4 players in the championship will receive their prizes in the Term 4 General Assembly.

 

McK Chess Rating & Player Titles (Sep 2024)

Congratulations to our new McK Chess Champion Aaron Todes (Year 10) who has been awarded the highest McK Chess Player title & badge: King Class Chess Player after reaching a McK rating of 1492. He becomes the fourth player after Steve Le, Tim Nicolaides and Jonathan Kui to earn this honor at McKinnon. Well done.

All students who have played in any tournament organized by the McK Chess Club in the past will be in the McK Chess Rating database. Rating is used for competition seeding, school team’s selection, as well as determining player’s titles. As of Monday 2 September 2024, the top 10 rated players at McKinnon are: 

  1. Steve Le 12I (1556)
  2. Timothy Nicolaides 12K (1548) 
  3. Aaron Todes 10P (1492) 
  4. Jonathan Kui 12H (1427)
  5. Howie Nguyen 11M (1358)
  6. Stanley Luo 10J (1344)
  7. Nathan Wen 8C (1316)
  8. Alex Do 10D (1310)
  9. Rohan Baker 11A (1194)
  10. Ben Green 12E (1180)

To see all the McK rated players: click here. 

Sandy Law

McK Chess Club