I watched the live coverage of the top 4 boards this afternoon, with the Johansen v Deen-Cowell game being of particular interest. After 14 moves Queens and 2 sets of minor pieces had been exchanged, leading to a fairly typical Gruenfeld position, with White having space in the centre, but Black having the queenside pawn majority. I was keen to see how Johansen would play this position, but Black chose the wrong plan of f5 followed by a capture on e4, and his position quickly collapsed. So the lesson I witnessed was not one of positional expertise, but of a lower rated player blowing up his own position.
As an added bonus, the live coverage also has a chat box where people can comment on the games (and other topics). Today's discussions were particularly robust, although somewhat overshadowed by the tendency of posters to pass judgment on other posters. I'm not sure why this happens, especially as it rarely occurs in the live blogs I've run for events (eg Queenstown, Doeberl Cup). But then I have a tendency to let most things go, as I don't feel qualified to control the opinions of others, and maybe other posters pick up on this.
The tournament website has all the results and pairings, while the direct link to the live games is here, if you wish join in the online commentary.
Johansen,Darryl - Deen-Cowell,Nicholas [D85]
Australian Open Sydney, 02.01.2013
2 comments:
People died and bequeathed their estates so that a chess club can own it's club rooms....Then David Beaumont comes along, installs his mignons as a "committee", sets up a computer and abuses people online.
Embarrassing to be a chess enthusiast in Victoria.
Nice to see you were doing work while at work *cough cough*
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