2013 Sydney International Open - Day 5

GM Loek Van Wely defeated GM SP Sethuraman in the final round of the 2013 Sydney International Open, to take first place by half a point. Van Wely was able to convert a seemingly drawn double rook ending into a tournament winning position, after marching his king to the centre of the board. The win kept him half a point ahead of top seed Li Chao, after Chao beat Australia's newest IM Bobby Cheng. A draw between GM's Jiri Stocek and Adam Horvath was enough for a share of third place for both players, while the larger group of players tied for 5th included 12 year old Anton Smirnov, who had secured his first IM norm the previous day.
In the Challengers event Arif Hassani was a somewhat surprising winner after previous leader Joseph Nguyen lost his second game in a row. Apparently Nguyen had turned down a draw offer from Hassani in their round 8 game, which if accepted, would have secured outright first with a round to spare. Hassani then won that game, and finished half a point in front after Nguyen lost his last round game to veteran Dick Voon.
The Challengers event had a somewhat amusing finish with the two players in the last game of the tournament playing 83 moves after the last pawn move or capture. Eventually one player decided a pawn move was ok, resetting the 50 move count. After another long series of moves, more material was exchanged, before a loss of a pawn by one player encouraged an eventual resignation. After the game both players admitted that they were unaware of the '50 move' rule.


Sethuraman,S.P (2541) - Van Wely,Loek (2684) [E32]
2013 Sydney International Open (9.1), 07.04.2013

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. Nf3 d6 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. Nd2 c5 8. dxc5 Nxc5 9. a3 Qa5 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. Rc1 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Qxc3 13. Rxc3 a5 14. b3 Bd7 15. e3 Rfb8 16. a4 Bc6 17. Be2 Rd8 18. O-O Rac8 19. Rd1 Kf8 20. Kf1 Ke7 21. Nf3 Bxf3 22. Bxf3 Ra8 23. Rd4 h6 24. Rh4 Rh8 25. e4 Rag8 26. Bd1 e5 27. Re3 Rg5 28. Bg4 Rhg8 29. Bh3 h5 30. Ke2 Ne6 31. Bxe6 fxe6 32. Reh3 Rxg2 33. Rxh5 Kd7 34. Rh7+ R8g7 35. Rh8 f5 36. exf5 exf5 37. Ra8 b6 38. Rhh8 Kc6 39. h4 Kc5 40. Rhc8+ Kd4 41. Rc6 Ke4 42. Rxd6 f4 0-1