2016 ACT Championship - Day 1

There were no surprises on the first day of the 2016 ACT Championship, with wins by the higher rated players. Nonetheless there were a few lucky escapes, with the blunder quotient unusually high for a tournament first round.
Probably the player with the greatest sense of relief was defending champion Adrian de Noskowski. He was down a pawn in an ending against junior Yizhen Diao, but after digging in in the position, was rewarded when Diao lost the pawn, then a piece before walking into a mate in 1. Benjamin Gianquitto put up a long hard fight against Victor Braguine, taking the game into the 5th hour, before Braguine eventually found a winning plan.
On the other hand the top seeds had less trouble against there opponents. Junta Ikeda had a straightforward win over Cam Cunningham, while Andrew Brown played the game of the round with his win over Oskar Hellmann.
Tournament results are available at chess.results.com and games from the first round will be upload tomorrow.


Hellmann,Oskar - Brown,Andrew (2181) [D04]
2016 ACT Championship Canberra (1.2), 12.02.2016

1. d4 Nf6 2. e3 c5 3. Nf3 g6 4. Bd3 Bg7 5. O-O O-O 6. Nbd2 d5 7. c3 Nc6 8. Re1 Nd7 9. Bb5 Qb6 10. Bxc6 bxc6 11. Nf1 f5 12. Ng3 e5 13. dxe5 Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Bxe5 15. Ne2 a5 16. Qc2 a4 17. Rb1 f4 18. Qd2 f3 19. Nf4 fxg2 20. Nxg2 Rf3 21. b4 Bf5 22. Nh4 Bxh2+ 23. Kg2 Be4 24. Nxf3 Rf8 25. Kxh2 Qc7+ 26. Kg1 Rxf3 27. c4 Qd7 28. bxc5 Qg4+ 29. Kf1 Rh3 30. Rb8+ Kg7 31. Qd4+ Kh6 32. Qxe4 dxe4 0-1