Coming up Classic Championship 2026 21 Jul 2026 Did you know Largest WCC tournament by field size: 2026 January Classic (39 entrants). Did you know Marathon night: 158 rated games were played in a single evening at the 2025 Blitz Ladder on 9 September 2025, the club's busiest night at the board. Winner 2026 Winter WonderBlitz Kumaresan, Aditya Did you know Biggest final-round flip: at the 2023 Top and Tail Rapid 2, Steve Ascic took a 1-point lead into the last round, lost to Vincent Qiang, and watched the title walk away. Did you know In Round 1 at WCC, the lower-rated player has won 13% of decisive games (87 of 649). Coming up Blitz Championship 2026 8 Sep 2026 Did you know Across all 6,654 rated games at WCC, White wins 48%, Black wins 46%, and 6% end in a draw. Did you know Most decisive WCC tournament: 2025 January Holiday Rapid, 1% of games drawn (1 of 84). Winner 2026 June Swiss Soutter, Jake Did you know Highest ACF rating ever recorded at a WCC tournament: Jordan Morris at 2204, first at the 2024 Wollongong Blitz Championship. Did you know Biggest tournament upset by seed: Edmund Esterbauer entered the 2022 Champs Warmup as the #10 seed and won outright. Coming up 960 Classic 2026 15 Sep 2026 Did you know Drawing-circle tournament: 2023 Summer Classic, 19% of games drawn (11 of 59). Did you know Longest WCC tournament by round count: 2023 Quick March (12 rounds). Winner Wollongong Rapid June Planiden, Chayne Did you know Prefers Black (≥50 games as each colour): Jye Giddings, 61% as Black vs 41% as White (19-point edge). Did you know WCC has hosted 6,654 rated tournament games on file. Coming up Classic Championship 2026 21 Jul 2026 Did you know Largest WCC tournament by field size: 2026 January Classic (39 entrants). Did you know Marathon night: 158 rated games were played in a single evening at the 2025 Blitz Ladder on 9 September 2025, the club's busiest night at the board. Winner 2026 Winter WonderBlitz Kumaresan, Aditya Did you know Biggest final-round flip: at the 2023 Top and Tail Rapid 2, Steve Ascic took a 1-point lead into the last round, lost to Vincent Qiang, and watched the title walk away. Did you know In Round 1 at WCC, the lower-rated player has won 13% of decisive games (87 of 649). Coming up Blitz Championship 2026 8 Sep 2026 Did you know Across all 6,654 rated games at WCC, White wins 48%, Black wins 46%, and 6% end in a draw. Did you know Most decisive WCC tournament: 2025 January Holiday Rapid, 1% of games drawn (1 of 84). Winner 2026 June Swiss Soutter, Jake Did you know Highest ACF rating ever recorded at a WCC tournament: Jordan Morris at 2204, first at the 2024 Wollongong Blitz Championship. Did you know Biggest tournament upset by seed: Edmund Esterbauer entered the 2022 Champs Warmup as the #10 seed and won outright. Coming up 960 Classic 2026 15 Sep 2026 Did you know Drawing-circle tournament: 2023 Summer Classic, 19% of games drawn (11 of 59). Did you know Longest WCC tournament by round count: 2023 Quick March (12 rounds). Winner Wollongong Rapid June Planiden, Chayne Did you know Prefers Black (≥50 games as each colour): Jye Giddings, 61% as Black vs 41% as White (19-point edge). Did you know WCC has hosted 6,654 rated tournament games on file.

← All newsletters

Deep Thinkers - Wollongong Chess Club News

13 September 2025 · Illawarra

Find out all about what the Wollongong Chess Club is up to.

Freestyle chess (also known as Chess 960) this Tuesday (16/9)! One night only.

It is called freestyle or 960 because the pieces behind the pawns are shuffled in such a way that allows for 960 different starting positions. The rules of the game are almost identical to normal chess and the slight changes will be explained before the first game begins.

Blitz Tournament 9th of September results

FIDE Grand Swiss

Gukesh Dommaraju is the current Classical World Chess Champion. In order to challenge him, a player must qualify for and win the Candidates Tournament. The FIDE Grand Swiss is one of only two tournaments, along with the FIDE World Cup, in which if you win the tournament you automatically qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The FIDE Grand Swiss has 11 rounds of classical chess and as of today 8 rounds have been played.

The position found below comes from round 4 in a game between Aditya Mittal vs Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş. Yağız is only 14 years old. White has just played d8=Q. Who could resist getting another queen? As you can see, it’s a double question mark blunder! Yağız had only 51 seconds on his clock to find a winning continuation. I don’t expect you to find it in 51 seconds, but can you see why it’s a blunder? The answer will be revealed in next weeks Deep Thinkers email.

If you want to learn more about the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, click this link https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-grand-swiss-2025--open/round-8/KaLeVROn to watch the games live at 8pm AEST each night.

Join us on Facebook!

We have a full calendar up on Facebook now. We have also listed it below.

Follow our Facebook Page for further information on calendars and upcoming events.

Join our Facebook Group if you have anything you’d want to discuss!

As we resume our DT newsletter we are looking for games or content you want included. If you have had an interesting position in a game, let us know. If there is something you would like to see at the club or in the newsletter, let us know.