2012 Ryde-Eastwood Open Day 1

The big news from the first day of the 2012 Ryde Eastwood Open was the upset win by Ari Dale over IM George Xie. The two met on board 1 in the third round of the 66 player tournament, with the game drawing a large crowd of spectators when it became clear that the top seed was in trouble. Down 2 rooks and a piece, Xie desperately tried to find a perpetual check to save a half point, but Dale was able to navigate his king to safety, and collect the important point.
The other top seeds made it to the end of the day with less difficulty, and currently 6 players remain on 3/3. They are Max Illingworth, Junta Ikeda, Andrew Brown, Ari Dale, Igor Bjelobrk and Armen Ayvazayan. Further down there were a number ofupsets, with Vince Chiara picking up two points against higher rated opponents, while Harry Press and Fady Gerges did well to finish the day on 2.5/3.
Tomorrow sees the leading players come together, and the likely tournament winners should sort themselves by the end of the 5th round.

Press,Harry - Pouchon,Mickael [A38]
2012 Ryde-Eastwood, 29.09.2012