Rain interrupts play

Starting with last years event, the ACTCA Rapidplay Championship has been held outdoors in the middle of Canberra's main shopping district. Of course in choosing such a venue, the effect of inclement weather has to be taken into account, and so it turned out for this year. Despite a forecast for clear skies (on Thursday) by this morning this had changed to 'isolated showers'. Still there was hope that the rain would hold off and allow the tournament to run smoothly.

In fact it held off for all of 2 minutes into the first round, when suddenly the downpour started. Fortunately we had a backup plan, which was to grab sets, boards, clocks and everything else, and sprint indoors to King O'Malley's. Resetting the tournament only took a further 10 minutes, and we were underway with only minimal delay.

After the initial excitement, the tournament became a procession for FM Junta Ikeda after the half way mark. By the end of 7 rounds he had scored 7/7, finishing 1.5 points ahead of second placed Yi Yuan. Back in third place were FM Endre Ambrus, Allen Setiabudi and Miles Patterson.

Ikeda,Junta - Ambrus,Endre [D37]

ACT Rapidplay Championship, 18.12.2010

1.Nf3 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.d4 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 b6 7.Rc1 Nh5 8.Be5 f6 9.Bg3 Nxg3 10.hxg3 c6 11.Bd3 g6 12.Qc2 Kg7 13.Rh2 Ba6 14.b3 c5 15.cxd5 exd5 16.dxc5 bxc5 17.Rd1 d4 18.exd4 cxd4 19.Bxa6 Nxa6 20.Nxd4 Qb6 21.Kf1 Rad8 22.Re1 Bb4 23.Ne6+ Kg8 24.Nxf8 Bxf8 25.Ne4 Bb4 26.Qc4+ Kg7 27.Rc1 Rd4 28.Qe2 Qe6 (D)

29.Rxh7+ Kg8 30.Rc8+ Bf8 31.Qe3 Rxe4 32.Rh8+ Kf7 33.Rcxf8+ 1-0