2012 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 2

Once again Friday night was one for the night owls, with a trio of Premier games finishing around 12:30 am. Special mention has to go to GM Adam Horvath who was at the board from 1:15 in the afternoon until 12:30 the following morning, with only a 15 minute break between games. In round 3 he looked to be winning against FM Junta Ikeda as the game reached an ending, but Ikeda displayed his well known defensive skills and dug in. Eventually the position got down to an unusual K+QvK+RNN, with Ikeda trying to mate with the Rook and Knights. Normally a good judge of his clock, Ikeda overstepped the time limit after 6 hours of play, while still trying for the win. Hovarth then played another marathon, against Indian IM Rathnakaran, with this game ending in a draw half an hour past midnight. With these results, and a few others, there are 8 players sharing the lead after 4 rounds of the tournament. In what is probably an historical rarity, there are no Australian players in this group. However there are a few lurking half a point back, including IM Gary Lane, who spent day 2 drawing with GM's Czebe and Szabo. Day 2 also saw the supporting tournaments get under way as well. When the final entries rolled in, the total field was around 250, which may or may not be a record (and a total I thought would not be reached!). There was an especially large entry in the Under 1200 event, with 48 players on the books. While most of an arbiters best work is often done after midnight, sleep is sometimes a requirement. However most of the result pages for the tournaments are up (with the exception of the Major which will be done today), so if you go to the tournament website, you can find out all the results and standings, as well as download the games from the top 20 boards of the Premier (first 3 rounds).