2011 Sydney International Open

The 2011 Sydney International Open starts tomorrow at the Parramatta Town Hall. There are 72 players in the Open and 47 in the Challengers. Top seeds in the Open are GM Sune Berg Hansen, GM Zong Yuan Zhao and GM David Arutinian. While the Sydney event is smaller than the recently finished Doeberl Cup (the restart of the school term being partly to blame) it is a little stronger at the top with Zhao, Smirnov and Bjelobrk joining the players backing up from Canberra.

As a warm up, the City of Sydney Blitz tournament was held at the tournament venue. GM Arutinian won the tournament, ahead of FM Junta Ikeda and IM Stephen Solomon. 38 players took part, with 12 players over 2000.

Details of the tournament (results,pairings, live games etc) can be found at the tournament website. Results and draws for both tournaments will also be posted at www.chess-results.com.