WRITTEN 27 MARCH 08.
John Stapleton
THIRTEEN-year-old Dariusz Swiercz took four hours and 45 moves to beat a chess grandmaster at the Sydney International Chess Tournament this week.
The shy Polish chess champion took it all in his stride. He is typical of a new generation of players taking the chess world by storm. They have learnt to play at a very young age and have been toughened up by being able to hop onto the internet and engage the best players in the world at any time of the day or night.
Swiercz, who has been the Polish under 14 champion for several years, played his first game at the age of three. He is already an international master, the level below grandmaster. Commentators expect him to be a grandmaster within two years.
A polite, shy boy of few words, yesterday all he would say was: “Chess is everything, it is a fascinating game; and great. I like winning; and the combinations.”
On Wednesday night he defeated Serbian grandmaster Dejan Antic, who has been fighting to stay in Australia as an immigrant with the support of the chess world, who argue he would be a great asset to the Australian Olympic chess team. Despite being a grandmaster he lost a recent appeal to the Migration Review Tribunal to stay in Australia on the grounds he did not have a tertiary education. A greatly admired player, his defeat by a 13-year-old was a very rare lapse.
Yesterday young Swiercz also played, but did not defeat, another grandmaster, Georgian chammpion Merab Gegunashvili, 23. At Swiercz’s age he, too, was already his country’s champion young player. “It is a very beautiful game,” he said. “There is a lot more interest amongst young people, there is a lot of talent coming up.”
Australia’s highest ranking chess player for more than two decades Ian Rogers described young Swiercz’s grandmaster beating game as a “very mature, strategical game” without the normal tricks of a youthful player. “The internet allows Australian kids to play with people all around the world; and schools have changed their attitude. They have discovered if they put their most disruptive kids into chess classes they learn to think before they do something.”
Spokeswoman for the Sydney tournament Cathy Rogers said the internet was fundamental to the games new appeal amongst the young; with special five and even one minute speed games making it fun to play.
“Internet chess clubs with instant rankings also make it fun. Senior chess is a little stale in Australia, the real leaps forward are definitely in the junior ranks. There are now more than 30,000 kids playing in inter-school competitions,” she said.
“The internet has a lot to do with it, they can sit and play kids in Argentina or Latvia. They are amazingly good. Chess is a great equaliser, autistic kids benefit enormously from chess, the discipline, the concentration. But everyone is equal in chess, age, culture, gender, disability, they are not important. It is a level playing field for everyone.”
John Stapleton
THIRTEEN-year-old Dariusz Swiercz took four hours and 45 moves to beat a chess grandmaster at the Sydney International Chess Tournament this week.
The shy Polish chess champion took it all in his stride. He is typical of a new generation of players taking the chess world by storm. They have learnt to play at a very young age and have been toughened up by being able to hop onto the internet and engage the best players in the world at any time of the day or night.
Swiercz, who has been the Polish under 14 champion for several years, played his first game at the age of three. He is already an international master, the level below grandmaster. Commentators expect him to be a grandmaster within two years.
A polite, shy boy of few words, yesterday all he would say was: “Chess is everything, it is a fascinating game; and great. I like winning; and the combinations.”
On Wednesday night he defeated Serbian grandmaster Dejan Antic, who has been fighting to stay in Australia as an immigrant with the support of the chess world, who argue he would be a great asset to the Australian Olympic chess team. Despite being a grandmaster he lost a recent appeal to the Migration Review Tribunal to stay in Australia on the grounds he did not have a tertiary education. A greatly admired player, his defeat by a 13-year-old was a very rare lapse.
Yesterday young Swiercz also played, but did not defeat, another grandmaster, Georgian chammpion Merab Gegunashvili, 23. At Swiercz’s age he, too, was already his country’s champion young player. “It is a very beautiful game,” he said. “There is a lot more interest amongst young people, there is a lot of talent coming up.”
Australia’s highest ranking chess player for more than two decades Ian Rogers described young Swiercz’s grandmaster beating game as a “very mature, strategical game” without the normal tricks of a youthful player. “The internet allows Australian kids to play with people all around the world; and schools have changed their attitude. They have discovered if they put their most disruptive kids into chess classes they learn to think before they do something.”
Spokeswoman for the Sydney tournament Cathy Rogers said the internet was fundamental to the games new appeal amongst the young; with special five and even one minute speed games making it fun to play.
“Internet chess clubs with instant rankings also make it fun. Senior chess is a little stale in Australia, the real leaps forward are definitely in the junior ranks. There are now more than 30,000 kids playing in inter-school competitions,” she said.
“The internet has a lot to do with it, they can sit and play kids in Argentina or Latvia. They are amazingly good. Chess is a great equaliser, autistic kids benefit enormously from chess, the discipline, the concentration. But everyone is equal in chess, age, culture, gender, disability, they are not important. It is a level playing field for everyone.”