2013 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 5

The cream rose to the top in the 2013 O2C Doeberl Cup Premier, with the top 8 seeds occupying the top 4 boards in the 9th round. GM Zong Yuan Zhao's game got off to a less than perfect start when the car bringing him to the venue ran out of petrol, and he (plus 3 other players) had to walk/run/jog the last 2 kilometres to the venue. He made it 25 minutes after the start of the round (and 5 minutes before the default time). Choosing the 4.Bf4 line against the Gruenfeld did not did not give him any opening advantage, and top seed Li Chao slowly ground him down to finish the game shortly before move 40. GM SP Sethuraman had led the tournament from the start, but lost to a determined Loek Van Wely on board 2. This win elevated Van Wely into a tie for second, and dropped the Indian GM back to 4th. Czech GM Jiri Stocek beat GM Vajda Levente to take a share of second, while GM Adam Horvath won the all Hungarian match up with a win over GM Atilla Czebe.
IM Moulthun Ly was the top scoring Australia player with 6.5/9, while New Zealand Junior Luke Li scored his first IM norm with a win over IM Somak Palit. Mongolian WFM Sengeravden Otgonjargal scored a WGM norm, after drawing with GM Darryl Johansen in the final round. Unfortunately the last minute loss of a number of overseas players meant that the tournament fell short of the required number of foreign players needed to remove federation restrictions, cruelling the norm chances of  Anton Smirnov and Tingjie Lei.
Andrew Saint proved a popular winner of the Major (Under 2000) tournament, defeating Dimitry Partsi in the final round. Jeremey Reading finished second, while Alana Chibnall took outright third. A win by Kashish Christian on the top board of the Minor (Under 1600) allowed her to overtake Aelfric Gardiner-Garden, while David Cannon also won his final round game to tie for first place.
Full result from all the tournaments can be found on the tournament website, while chess-results.com also has the standings for the Premier and the Major.


Zong Yuan,Zhao - Li,Chao [D82]
2013 O2C Doeberl Cup Canberra, 01.04.2013

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. Rc1 Nh5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 c5 8. e3 cxd4 9. exd4 dxc4 10. Nf3 O-O 11. Bxc4 Bg4 12. O-O Nc6 13. Re1 g5 14. h3 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 Qxd4 16. Re4 Qd2 17. Rd1 Qxb2 18. Na4 Qf6 19. Qxh5 gxh4 20. Nc5 Qg5 21. Rxh4 Ne5 22. Bb3 Rac8 23. Nd7 Qxh5 24. Rxh5 Rfd8 25. Nxe5 Rxd1+ 26. Bxd1 Rc1 27. Ng4 Rxd1+ 28. Kh2 Rd2 29. a4 Ra2 30. Nxh6+ Kf8 31. Ng4 Rxa4 32. Rc5 Bd4 33. Rc8+ Kg7 34. Rc7 f5 35. Rxe7+ Kf8 36. Rxb7 fxg4 37. hxg4 Bxf2 0-1