Report

2021 WA Junior State Chess Championships



The 2021 WA Junior State Chess Championships was held over four days from Tuesday, 13th July to Friday, 16th July at the Sadler Centre, Corpus Christi College. There was a total of 154 entrants for the five different tournaments.

The venue proved to be an excellent one with the different tournaments held in different rooms with a glass partition separating spectators from the players. The large number of Blitz players needed two rooms to accommodate all the players.


Under 8

The under 8s tournament had 22 entrants. Angus Chen was a convincing winner with a 100% score of 9. Second was newcomer Felix Watkins with 6.5 and third was Senudi De Vas with 6 points. Senudi was the Girls winner for this event a very good achievement considering some of the opposition. Second Girl was Jo Gao with 5 points and the Third Girl was Linda Hernandez Mendez with 4 points, (despite missing the first four rounds). Merit awards were given to Nathan To, Max Goldbloom and Datis Dadras all with 5.5 points.


Under 10

The under 10s tournament had 26 entrants. Eric Deng got off to a fast start winning his first five games but then faltered losing to Angus Chen and Eu Ming Khaw and finishing second with 7 points. Jaswanth Ram Sethuraman played well beating the eventual leader, Angus Chen. Jaswanth finished with 6.5 points and came third. The eventual winner was Angus Chen with 7.5 points and apart from losing to Jaswanth this was a very solid performance. Merit awards went to Eu Ming Khaw, Nithuli Liyanage (both with 6 points) and Eamon Harris and Marcus Van Den Berg (both with 5.5. points).

The Best Girl was Nithuli Liyanage (6 points) like Senudi (under 8s) this was a very good achievement against very strong opposition. Second Girl was Mia Cohen with 5 points and the third Girl was Annalise Taylor with 4.5 points.


Under 12

The under 12s tournament had 32 entrants. Anthony Nguyen started well with wins in the first four rounds but then faltered with losses to Issa Majidi and Eric Deng and had to settle for a Merit Award. Eric Deng lost his first-round game against Thomas He but after that he was unbeaten for the next eight rounds. Eric finished third on 7 points. Issa Majidi started somewhat slowly with 3.5 points from the first five rounds but then went on to win the last four rounds. Issa finished second with 7.5 points. Eu Jin Khaw had a very solid performance remaining unbeaten throughout the nine rounds; only drawing with Anthony Nguyen and Eric Deng. Eu Jin was the deserved winner with 8 points. Merit awards went to Anthony Nguyen, (6.5 points) and Yonal De Vas, Paula Gruber, Daniel Levin and Barath Harirajesh (all on 5.5 points).

The Best Girl was Paula Gruber with 5.5. points a very good achievement that included wins against Barath Harirajesh and Finian Jordan. The Second Girl was Kobe Wu with 4 .5 points and the Third Girl was Mia Cohen with 3.5 points.


Open Division

The Open division consisted of 24 players. They were vying for titles in the Under 18, Under 16 and the Under 14 age divisions.

Predictably the two strongest players Jamie Laubbacher and Yihe Fu (Rebo) both won their first three games. The fourth round saw Jamie beating Rebo with a queen against a rook and a bishop, a complex game. Jamie went onto to remain unbeaten for the rest of the tournament and finished first on 6 points from 7. Rebo also preceded well until the last day when he lost to Kundan Dharmapuri and was in an inferior position against Celine Ong but still managed to win.

Oscar Gao stated slowly with a lost to Celine but picked up after that and finished with draws against Rebo and Kundan on the last day.

Kundan Dharmapuri also had a good tournament beating Rebo and only losing to Nicholas Ng.

Alex Pimenov lost to Rebo in the second round but then played well, finishing with a draw against Jamie.

Celine Ong played well beating Oscar Gao and Iker Hernandez Mendez. Narrowly losing to Rebo. Her results were good enough to be the undisputed Girls Champion with 4.5 points.

There was a very good performance by one of the youngest players, Noah Taylor who beat Nicholas Ng and drew with Shannon Koh and Celine Ong.

From the results of this 7-round tournament two playoffs evolved. Firstly on 5 points each Yihe Fu (Rebo), Oscar Gao, Alex Pimenov and Kundan Dharmapuri all had five points. They were playing for the Under 16s and Under14s titles.

The second playoff was between Anoushka Gupta and Jiani Li. They were playing for the Under 16s and Under 14s girls titles.


In the first playoff, all four players had to play two Allegro games against each player. Rebo played well finishing with 5 points from 6 and secured the Under 16s title. Oscar and Alex tied for second place with three points. They then had an Armageddon game which Oscar won securing the Under 14s title.


Anoushka and Jiani also played two Allegro games which ended with a tie on 1 point each. They then had an Armageddon game which Anoushka won. This meant Anoushka secured the Under 16s Girls title and Jiani secured the Under 14s Girls title.


Blitz Championship

The Blitz Championships had 50 entrants ranging in age from 6 to 18. The winner was Yihe Fu (Rebo) with a perfect score of 11 from 11. Second with 10 points was Oscar Gao. There were strong performances from several lower rated players including, Timothy Kaempf, Anoushka Gupta, Ram Manav Soni, Angus Chen, and Jaswanth Ram Sethuraman amongst others. Timofey Klimenko won an upset prize for beating Shannon Koh in the first round.


Special thanks to the following: -

Paul Harris, for all the work on data entry, pairings and providing a very colourful display to the contestants. He was ably assisted by his daughter Georgina Harris.

John Pimenov being the Arbiter of various tournaments and most importantly providing a display via DGT boards of various ongoing games.

Faith Tee, Jeng Kong, Kuruhuru (Devi) Sailaja, Kimberly Goh and Joli Mendez, all hard-working volunteers that made this a smooth-running event with very few organisational problems.

Andrew Hardegen for being the Chief Arbiter on the first day of the tournament and providing advice on arbitration matters during the course of the event.

Dennis Holland, Total Chess for providing chess clocks for this Championships.

GM Temur Kuybokarov for presenting the trophies.

Most importantly of all Corpus Christi College for providing such an excellent venue for our Championships. Suzy Lazarov as the Corpus Christi College representative deserves special mention acting as a liaison officer with the CAWA team of volunteers including helping us set up the equipment on the preceding Friday of the Championships and her support throughout the Championships.



The results for the Under 8’s Division


1st place with 9.0 points: Angus Chen

2nd place with 6.5 points: Felix Watkins

3rd place AND 1st place Girls, with 6.0 points: Senudi De Vas

2nd place Girls with 5.0 points: Jo Gao

3rd place Girls with 4.0 points: Linda Hernandez Mendez

Merit Awards with 5.5 points to the following players:


  • Datis Dadras

  • Max Goldbloom

  • Nathan To


The results for the Under 10’s Division


1st place with 7.5 points: Angus Chen

2nd place with 7.0 points: Eric Deng

3rd place with 6.5 points: Jaswanth Ram Sethuraman

1st place Girls with 6.0 points: Nithuli Liyanage

2nd place Girls with 5.0 points: Mia Cohen

3rd place Girls with 4.5 points: Annalise Taylor


Merit Awards with 6.0 points to the following players:

  • Eu Ming Khaw

  • Nithuli Liyanage

Merit Awards with 5.5 points to the following players:

  • Eamon Harris

  • Marcus Van Den Berg


The results for the Under 12’s Division


1st place with 8.0 points: Eu Jin Khaw

2nd place with 7.5 points: Issa Majidi

3rd place with 7.0 points: Eric Deng

1st place Girls with 5.5 points: Paula Gruber

2nd place Girls with 4.5 points: Kobe Wu

3rd place Girls with 3.5 points: Mia Cohen

Merit Awards with 6.5 points to the following player:

  • Anthony Nguyen

Merit Awards with 5.5 points to the following players:

  • Yonal De Vas

  • Paula Gruber

  • Daniel Levin

  • Barath Harirajesh


The results for the Under 14/16/18’s Division


For the 1st place Under 16 trophy, there were 4 players with 5.0 points.

A play-off was held on Friday which went all the way to an Armageddon round. The final standing was:

1. Yihe Fu (Rebo)

2. Oscar Gao

3. Alex Pimenov

4. Kundan Dharmapuri


For the 2nd place Girls trophy, there were 2 players with 3.5 points.

A play-off was held on Friday, with the final standings as:

1. Anoushka Gupta

2. Jiani Li



Under 18


1st place with 6.0 points: Jamie Laubbacher

2nd place with 5.0 points: Alex Pimenov

3rd place with 4.5 points: Celine Ong

1st place Girls with 4.5 points: Celine Ong



Under 16


1st place with 5.0 points: Yihe Fu (Rebo)

2nd place with 5.0 points: Kundan Dharmapuri

3rd place with 4.0 points: Noah Taylor

1st place Girls with 3.5 points: Anoushka Gupta



Under 14


1st place with 5.0 points: Oscar Gao

2nd place with 4.5 points: Shannon Koh

3rd place with 4.0 points: Iker Hernandez Mendez

1st place Girls with 3.5 points: Jiani Li




The results for the Blitz Division


Tied positions were decided by Buchholz Cut-1 Tiebreak.


Under 18


1st place with 11.0 points: Yihe Fu (Rebo)

2nd place with 8.5 points: Jamie Laubbacher

1st place Girls with 7.0 points: Anoushka Gupta


Under 16


1st place with 10.0 points: Oscar Gao

2nd place with 7.0 points: Kundan Dharmapuri

1st place Girls with 6.0 points: Celine Ong



Under 14


1st place with 7.0 points: Aarnav Gupta

2nd place with 7.0 points: Yonal De Vas

1st place Girls with 6.0 points: Jiani Li


Under 12


1st place with 7.0 points: Barath Harirajesh

2nd place with 7.0 points: Timothy Kaempf

1st place Girls with 5.0 points: Paula Gruber


Under 10


1st place with 6.5 points: Angus Chen

2nd place with 6.0 points: Eric Deng

1st place Girls with 4.0 points: Senudi De Vas


Under 8


1st place with 5.0 points: Datis Dadras

2nd place with 4.5 points: Kaviru Perera

1st place Girls with 1.5 points: Jo Gao



Biggest upset win award:

Timofey Klimenko