2011 NSW Open Day 1

Once again the NSW Open attracted a bumper field, with 145 players entering (although a couple did not turn up). The Open section had 78 players while the Under 1600 had a field of 67. The spacious venue at the Parramatta RSL Club had no difficulty in accommodating the large field, and after a slightly delayed start, the tournament got underway.

Today saw the first two rounds, and while there were a couple of upsets (Kevin Tan beating IM Andrew Brown a notable one) the field has yet to sort itself out. With 3 rounds tomorrow (at 90m+30s per game) the player with the greatest stamina may be the ones leading the event. One player who seems to have the right tournament strategy in this regard is IM Gary Lane, who only spent 29 moves to reach 2/2. In both cases his opponents went wrong in the opening, and he wrapped the games up pretty quickly.

Live coverage of the top 3 boards can be found here, while results and draws (for the Open) are here.

Chibnall,Alana - Lane,Gary [C47]

NSW Open Sydney, 11.06.2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Nxe4 (D)

10.Qd4 Bxc3+ 11.bxc3 0-0 12.0-0-0 Qe7 13.Be5 Qa3+ 14.Kb1 Rb8+ 15.Ka1 Qb2# 0-1

Lane,Gary - Hall,Michael [B12]

NSW Open Sydney, 11.06.2011

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 h6 5.g4 Bh7 6.e6 Qb6 7.exf7+ Kxf7 8.Nf3 Nd7 9.Bh3 Ngf6 10.g5 hxg5 11.hxg5 Ne4 12.Bxd7 e6 13.Ne5+ Ke7 14.g6 1-0