Harry Press has won the 2021 ACT Winter Open, finishing with 5.5/6. After beating FM Michael Kethro in round 5, he recovered from a losing position against Willis Lo to score the full point. In part he was aided by the need for Lo to win the game, as Lo avoided a repetition at one point, and in time trouble missed a saving move with his queen.
IM Junta Ikeda (5/6) finished in 2nd place after beating WFM Alana Chibnall in the final round, while Fred Litchfield took outright third on 4.5. With only twenty players in the top section, the competition was fierce throughout, with Press's 6 games all being against players who finished in the next 6 places.
Donghoon Shin won the Minor (Under 1600) section with a perfect 6/6. A win over Lee Forace cemented 1st place, and allowed young Canberra players Larry Cheng and Somon Vos to share 2nd place on 5/6.
The new format of 6 rounds with a time limit of 60m+30s proved popular with the players, and organisers. There was extra time between the rounds for most players, while the 30s increment (instead of the previous 10s) resulted in better quality finishes, especially in the Open. This format will certainly be repeated next year, and may even become the new standard for other ACT events such as the Vikings Weekender.
Full results from this tournament (plus a link to the live games fro the Open) can be found at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/actwinteropen2021/
2021 ACT Winter Open, 2021.07.25
3 comments:
Thanks for running a great event Shaun.
Hope that Vikings sticks with the 60+10s time control without the super late Friday night round - it's a bit silly to using the same format for all events.
I always prefer 30 second increments. You can keep score throughout which facilitates eg: triple repetition claims. I would have played this one if it wasn't for the Covid border closures.
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