Saturday 20 June 2009

2009 Oceania Zonal - Day 1

The first 2 rounds of the 2009 Oceania Zonal, and while most games have gone according to script, there were some lucky escapes. David Smerdon was worse for a long time against Eddy Levi in round 2, until Levi missed a trick and dropped a rook. GM Zong Yuan Zhao on the other hand had an easy win against Max Illingworth, after Max swapped off the wrong pieces and was left with too many weak squares around the king.
Of the PNG players Joeslito Marcos had a draw in round one against Herman Rachmadi, before winning his second round game. FM Rupert Jones had a tough first round game against Igor Bjelobrk and suffered the effects of jet lag (he had flown in from England yesterday) in dropping his second game to Amir Karabasic.
In the Womens Zonal top seed Irina Berezina dropped half a point against Vaness Reid in round 2, which is good news for her closest rivals.
One of those players is former Australian Girls Champion Emma Guo, who scored the quickest win of round one in the following game.

Guo,E - Sukhu,G
2009 Oceania Zonal Gold Coast (1), 20.06.2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.c3 Nf6 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.0-0 Nxc3 9.bxc3 Bxc3 10.Ba3 d6 11.Rc1 Bb4 12.Bxb4 Nxb4 13.Qe1+ Be6 14.Qxb4 d5 15.Bb5+ c6 16.Rxc6 Bd7 17.Re1+ Be6 18.Rcxe6# 1-0

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