While the event did not have enough overseas players to qualify as a norm event, it did provide the opportunity for some players to pick up important rating points. Ly (who already has 3 IM norms) should move towards th 2400 mark he needs for the title, while Ikeda recovers some of the points he dropped at the Australian Junior Masters earlier this year.
The top two seeds (Zhao and Xie), might be dropping points, but at least they played what looks like the game of the tournament. The final round clash saw Xie choose an interesting idea in the French (10. ... g5) although the game was still theory up until move 15. Zhao then played a new move (16.Rf4 rather than 16.c3) and a few moves later sacrificed a piece for an attack on the king. Xie wasn't able to protect h7 and with mate beckoning, resigned.
Zhao,Zong-Yuan (2586) - Xie,George (2478)
2010 Gold Coast International Chess Tour Gold Coast (9), 29.12.2010
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 Bb7 10.Bd3 g5 11.fxg5 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Ncxe5 13.0-0 Bg7 14.Nce2 0-0 15.Ng3 Ng4 16.Rf4 Nde5 17.Raf1 Nxe3 18.Qxe3 Nxd3 (D)
19.Rf6 Nc5 20.Nh5 Bh8 21.Rh6 Ne4 22.Nf6+ Bxf6 23.gxf6 Qd6 24.Rh5 1-0
1 comment:
2010 Gold Coast Chess Festival Date 03/01/2011
Brilliancy Prize $150, the Winner is GM Zong Yuan Zhao(2586)
Brilliancy Judge: Super Grandmaster Alexei Shirov
Here is the Judge’s decision:
Dear Amir,
Sorry, with all this New year stuff I forgot about my arbiter duties! OK, here is the text:
“The winner is Zong Yuan Zhao for his game against George Xie. His attacking concept was indeed very creative and he showed a lot of imagination by finding 19.Rf6! after which the attack continues. I also appreciated his analysis of this truly exciting and very complicated game.
However I would have possibly given the prize to Andrew Brown for his crazy attack against Zhao, had he found the winning shot 34.Rxg6! instead of 34.h4? after which Black could get back into the game by playing 34...Qb8. Better luck next time!”
Alexei Shirov
See game at: http://goldcoastchessfestival.com/GM%20Zhao%20vs%20IM%20Xie.pgn
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