2013 Sydney International Chess Festival - Day 2

The 2013 Sydney International Open seems to be following a similar path the the just completed 2013 Doeberl Cup Premier. Once again Indian GM SP Sethuraman has taken the lead starting the tournament with 4 wins from 4 games. He is being closely followed by GM's Zhao, Vajda, Chao and Stocek, all on 3.5.
Unlike the Doeberl there is no bonus prizes for 'fighting chess', so a couple of the GM's took the opportunity to have some extra rest by agreeing to quick draws. However this only occurred in a few games, with the rest of the games being full blooded affairs.
Of the Australian players IM Gary Lane, IM Stephen Solomon, FM Igor Bjelobrk and FM Bobby Cheng are all on 3 points, while 12 year old Anton Smirnov continued his recent run of good firm, drawing with GM's Herbala and Horvath in successive rounds. Lane was unlucky in his game against Sethuraman, losing on time while in a better position.
In the Challengers tournament Joseph Nguyen leads with 4/4, followed by Mat-Arif Zulkifli and Rewais Sarwat on 3.5.


Lane,Gary - Sethuraman,SP [B08]
Sydney International Open (3), 04.04.2013

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 c6 5. Qd2 b5 6. Bd3 Nd7 7. Nf3 Ngf6 8. Bh6 O-O 9. h4 e5 10. h5 Bxh6 11. Qxh6 Ng4 12. Qd2 Qf6 13. Ne2 exd4 14. Nexd4 Bb7 15. O-O-O Nde5 16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. Be2 Rae8 18. f3 a6 19. Nb3 d5 20. Nc5 Ba8 21. f4 Qe7 22. fxe5 Qxc5 23. Qh6 Qa7 24. exd5 Rxe5 25. d6 Rxe2 26. d7 Rd8 27. hxg6 Qe3+ 28. Qxe3 Rxe3 29. Rxh7 Re7 0-1