Monday, 8 January 2024

2024 Australian Championship - A two horse race?

 The 2024 Australian Championship appears to be a race between two players/ With 8 rounds completed IM Rishi Sardana leads on 7/8, having conceded a second draw in todays round. FM Fred Litchfield is in 2nd place with 6/8, while the remaining players are on 5/8 or below. Sardana has a potentially tricky matchup in round 9, playing IM Stephen Solomon, while Litchfield is up against one of the tournament surprise packets, CM Daniel Melamed. 

While Litchfield still has chances to earn an IM norm from this event, the pairings are not doing him any favours. While he has played the required number of IM's for a 9 game norm, he hasn't played the required number of titles players (only 4 at this stage, CM's not counting). if he goes for a 10 game norm he needs another IM, as well as hoping his average rating of opponents is above 2230. The other option is to drop a win (or wins)  against his lowest rated opponent and hope the remaining games are enough to give him a 9 game norm/

 

Frederick Litchfield (2176) - Aaron James Lee (2051) [D31]
Round 2: Frederick Litchfield - Aaron Ja https://lichess.org/study/bKXC, 02.01.2024

Start positionPrevious MoveNext MoveEnd positionPlay movesStop playing
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bf4 Bd6 6. Bxd6 Qxd6 7. e3 c6 8. Bd3 O-O 9. h3 Re8 10. Nf3 Nbd7 11. Qc2 Qe7 12. g4 Nf8 13. O-O-O b5 14. Kb1 Bb7 15. Rc1 a6 16. Ne2 N6d7 17. Ng3 Rac8 18. Nf5 Qe6 19. Qd2 c5 20. dxc5 Nxc5 21. N3d4 Qb6 22. Rhg1 Nfe6 23. g5 Kh8 24. h4 Ne4 25. Bxe4 dxe4 26. Nxe6 Qxe6 27. Rxc8 Qxc8 28. Nd6 Qd7 29. Qd4 Rf8 30. h5 Bc8 31. h6 Rg8 32. Rc1 Bb7 33. Nxb7 Qxb7 34. hxg7+ Rxg7 35. Qd8+ Rg8 36. Qf6+ 1-0

1 comment:

Kevin Bonham said...

On my calculations last night he can't get a 10-game norm and has to win against Melamed today, then win against Solomon, Zhang or Ryjanova and drop a win for a 9-game norm.