Ballarat Chess Triathlon

After a 2 year hiatus due to Covid and other issues, the Ballarat Chess Club Triathlon was revived at fairly
short notice but nevertheless attracted a record entry of 32 players, although only 30 actually played. A
particularly pleasing aspect was that more than half the field were juniors who added to the fun and
festive atmosphere.
Round 1 was blitz and most games went as expected, except Patrick Cook was held to a draw by junior
Andrew Liu, and Peter Stickland was defeated by junior Rey Mukherjee.
Round 2 was rapid and again most games went as expected, except for lowly rated junior Jay Mutha
taking a draw from Peter Stickland.
Round 3 was classical, and once again juniors came to the fore, with James Rodwell being held to a draw
by Andrew Liu and Aiden Cai claiming the scalp of the hapless Peter Stickland.
Round 4 was blitz again, and the big guns began to meet. 2nd seed Paul Dao defeated top seed James
Watson, and the juniors continued to impress, with Andrew Liu defeating Jasan Barnett, while James
Rodwell fell to Patrick Frost.
Round 5 was rapid again, and Paul Dao continued on his merry way, defeating 3rd seed Scott Stewart,
while James Watson could only draw against the still undefeated Andrew Liu. Kanishk Mahasuar also
played well to defeat Ballarat chess legend Kevin Perrin.
Round 6, the final round, and it was back to classical chess. Jordan Furlong fell to rampaging Paul Dao,
who thus recorded yet another picket fence score and claim the gold medal, while Andrew Liu took down
Kanishk Mahasuar to remain undefeated and claim the silver medal.
Special thanks go to Anna Yates who ably directed the tournament, and Peter Stickland who assisted, as
well as the players who all contributed to a very pleasant Saturday of chess.

Congratulations to Paul Dao and Andrew Liu who won the gold and silver medals. Also to Patrick Frost and Shanaya Guha who won special prizes for best secondary and primary school students not winning another prize.