FM Mike Klein – Fun Master Mike from chesskid.com lecture at AJCC – 2020

With just a few rounds remaining of the 2020 Australian Junior Championships, the respective tournaments are shaping up to be indeed quite fiercely contested. Cameron McGowan leads the Under-18 Open division by a half point, followed by Anthony Fikh on 5/7 and a flurry of players on 4.5. However, with many of the top seeds still due to play Cameron, winning the tournament will not be easy.

In the Under-16 Open, Daniel Melamed and Ryder Testolin lead on 5.5/7. Although Daniel had a rocky start to his tournament, he managed to clean up Ryder in just 12 moves in round 7. These co-leaders are trailed by Jonathan Lo, Ruicheng Wang, Jack Keating and James Spencer on 5/7. Thus, this could be any man’s tournament.

Likewise, the Under-14 division is not free of competition. Although the leader, Alexavier Ly-Liu sits a half-point ahead of the field on 5.5/6, both Eason Wang and Yihe Fu are nearby on 5/6, with again, a flurry of eager players on 4.5/6, all awaiting their chance to take points off the leaders. In round 7, Alexavier is matched up against his fellow Queenslander, Eason Wang, for one of his most important games of the tournament.

On the other hand, Jayden Ooi remains on full points without breaking a sweat thus far. Despite his narrow win in the Under-10 Open, Jayden has managed to regain focus and clear up his competition with ease. Notwithstanding this, with three rounds to go, anything could happen. Although Jayden has indeed defeated his close competition, a few wild cards continue to plague the top boards with upset win after upset win. In turn, Jayden’s pairing against fellow Queenslander, Noah Rose may appear to be harder than he might imagine.

The Australian Junior Girl Championships is lead by Emily Lin (seed 3), and Athena Hathiramani (seed 4). These two have an intense matchup in round 7 this morning that could very easily determine the title holder. Nonetheless, with three players on 4.5/6, the tournament could be anyone’s for the taking.

Although it is still very early days in the Under-10 and Under-8 girls, Emily Zhang and Danline Augustine lead the former tournament on full points. Likewise, Mayata Sindhi and Vidy Qian lead the Under-8 girls, also on full points. However, with five rounds remaining and many eager girls, the title is still very much so, anybody’s for the taking.

Check out the games at: livechess.aunz.net

All results are available at: ajccgoldcoast.com.au

ACF Junior Chess Co-Ordinator Hughston Parle