The 2012 ANU Open was a very hard fought tournament, and the tournament winners were not decided until the very last round. FM Max Illingworth took a half point lead into the final round, but was up against top seed GM Zong Yuan Zhao. On board 2, IM George Xie was playing FM Gene Nakauchi, who had beaten IM Moluthun Ly in the previous round. Xie was the first to give himself a chance of victory, with a fiarly straightforward win over Nakauchi, while the battle raged on the top board. The position looked quite complicated, and one wit remarked that 'both sides look worse'. However Illingworth missed a tactical shot (spotted by GM Lev Aronian who was spectating), and Zhao held the clear advantage. Despite attempts to complicate the position in time trouble, Illingworth was not able to hold his position together, and Zhao scored the win needed to take him to equal first. When the final results were in IM Geroge Xie was just ahead on countback, so he was the winner of the Ian Chubb Trophy for 2012.
Despite his loss, Illingworth finished in third place, along with Anton Smirnov, who defeated Giang Nguyen on Board 3. In a big group behind them were Denis Ovcina, as well as four local players, IM Andrew Brown, WIM Arianne Caoili, FM Junta Ikeda and Roger Farrell.
The Under 1600 event finished in a 3 way tie for first, after tournament leader Simon Ong drew with Harry Johnson. This enabled both Geoff Barber and Brandon Lee to catch him, after they won their final round games.
Overall it was a successful event, and the organisers were pleased with both the numbers and the strength in the Open. Both winners played a number of opponents who finished in the top 10, and there were tough pairings across the top boards for most of the rounds.
A full crosstable for both events can be found here. I will also try and put up a (small) file of games in the next day or two.
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