Perth Voice Interactive

A 16-YEAR-OLD chess whizz from Bayswater was the only player to beat grandmaster Nigel Short in an exhibition match last Sunday.

Patrick Gong, who attends Chisholm College, was among 31 WA chess experts simultaneously playing Short at the Rhein-Donnau Club.

It was the first time a grandmaster had played in Perth in 30 years and Gong says Short looked “a little bit shocked” when he realised he was beat.

“I knew I was winning three hours into the game, but it took me an additional two hours to break through Short’s defence,” says Gong.

“I was going to play Benoni Defence, but he chose an off-beat set up.

“I played some positional moves to improve my position, and I stopped him from having any counterplay.”

“Short shook my hand and remained silent, then turned to the next player — I felt he was a little bit shocked.”

Gong, who has a FIDE ranking of 2145, has won umpteen national and state tournaments. He represented Australia at the world youth chess Olympiad last year.

Chess prowess runs in the family and mum Shirley manages the under-16 national chess team.

She says Patrick got into chess when the family moved to Bayswater and he enrolled at the local primary school.

“Patrick not only has great passion in chess, also he is trying to promoting chess in the local community,” says Shirley.

“With the permission of Chisholm College, he set up a chess club early this year, which runs Wednesday after classes.

“He hopes more students enjoy the benefits that learning chess can bring. His goal is to become an Australian grand master and world champion.”

Short, now 50, was also a chess wunderkind: he rose to prominence when he challenged Garry Kasparov for the world championship in 1993, raising the profile of the game in a series of televised matches.

Last year Short caused controversy when he claimed women’s brains were not “hard-wired” for chess: in January he gobbled down some humble pie when he lost to female Chinese grandmaster, Wenjun Ju, at the New Zealand Chess Championship.

Short drew five matches and won the remaining 25 during his simultaneous bout in Perth.

The English grandmaster was visiting WA as part of an antipodean tour.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK