Saturday 14 December 2019

2019 Lidums Australian Young Masters - GM Bobby Cheng wins with a picket fence score

It is very rare that a chess tournament is won with a perfect score. It is even rarer in a field that contains a couple of GM's, an IM, and a few FM's. So GM Bobby Cheng's 9/9 at the 2019 Lidums Australian Young Masters, is a result for the record books.
He finished 2 points clear of FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS), and a whopping 3.5 points ahead of IM Erlend Mikalsen (NOR) and GM Frode Urkedal (NOR) in third place. His winning run almost came to an end in his final game against Kyle Leaver, but Leaver went wrong in the ending, giving Cheng his 9th win.
Lim's 7 points was good enough for an IM norm, the third he has achieved. He now needs to get his rating about 2400 to be awarded the title.
Of the other players, Tom Maguire and Kyle Leaver both had good performances. Maguire was very 'all or nothing' with 4 wins, 5 losses and no draws, while Leaver was a little more solid with 4 draws do go along with his 2 wins. Albert Winkelman started strongly with 3/4, but a disastrous run of 4 straight losses left him well down the standings. FM Michael Kethro picked up some rating points with his 3.5/9, but time trouble was a constant issue.
Sterling Bayaca won the Open with 8/9. After a loss in the early rounds he strung together 7 straight wins to finish a point and a half ahead of Chathula Kiripitige

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