Saturday 4 January 2020

2020 Australian Chess Championship - Day 3

The third day of the 2020 Australian Chess Championship was both long, and hot. With the last game finishing after 6 hours of play, spectators (and players) certainly got their money's worth.
Board 1 saw GM Temur Kuybakrov outplay IM Brodie McClymont to score his third win in succession. On board 2 IM Junta Ikeda defeated IM Brandon Clarke to move into outright second on 2.5.
The longest game of the day (and the tournament so far), saw FM Jack Puccini hold off a determined IM Stephen Solomon, defending both RB v 2R (and no pawns) for 30 odd moves, and after a pair of rooks came off, B v R for a further 40 moves.
A number of other games saw some dramatic reversals of fortune, with Gene Nakachi going from losing to winning in the space of 1 move against Arthur Huynh, while John-Stuart Plant, overestimated his winning chances in a drawn ending, instead losing to WGM Jillin Zhang.
Tomorrow Kuybokarov meets Ikeda on board 1 in a game which may simply decide first place. A win for Kuybokarov would make him odds on favourite to win the tournament, while a win for Ikeda gives him (and a few others) a shot at the title.

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