2011 Sydney International Open - Final Day

Indian FM Akshat Khamparia is the outright winner of the 2011 Sydney International Open after a draw with second seed GM Zong Yuan Zhao was enough the take him to 7/9, a score that no other player reached. In fact draws on board 2 and 3, along with wins on the next few boards left a 7 way tie for second place. While Khamparia went home with a first prize of $4000, the second place getters, (Arutinian, Deviatkin, Goh, Wallis, Solomon, Zhao and Steadman), only earned a little over $900 each.

Khamparia also earned an IM norm, although as he has already earned 3 of them, it was superfluous. What he also earned however, was 43 rating points, which lifts his rating above 2400, which he needed to do to confirm his IM title. FM Greg Canfell need to beat FM Steadman in the final round for an IM norm, but Steadman picked up the point. FM Chris Wallis had a performance rating above the 2450 required for an IM norm, but played too many fellow Australians, meaning he missed out as well.

The Challengers tournament ended in a three way between Harry Press, Maros Zajac and Tony Davis. Press and Davis drew their final round games, allowing top seed Zajac to catch up with a win over Kashish Christian. Interestingly the final round pairing of Press v Beahan was between two players from the bottom half of the draw, and these players had met Davis and Zajac in the very first round!

Full results from these events can be found at www.chess-results.com or the Parramatta Chess Club website.

FM Chris Wallis - GM Darryl Johansen

Sydney International Open (9), 2011

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.Qd2 Nbd7 9.g4 Nb6 10.Qf2 Nfd7 11.a4 bxa4 12.Nxa4 Nxa4 13.Rxa4 Bb7 14.Be2 Nc5 15.Ra2 Be7 16.0-0 0-0 17.b4 Nd7 18.Rfa1 Qc8 19.c4 Ne5 20.c5 Nc6 21.cxd6 Bxd6 22.Rc1 Qd7 (D)

23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.Rd2 e5 25.Rcd1 1-0