2015 O2C Doeberl Cup - Zhou wins

Chinese GM Weiqi Zhou has won the 2015 O2C Doeberl Cup, despite a last round loss to Indian GM Suriya Ganguly. Zhou played an attacking game as black, but when the smoke cleared he had sacrificed too much material and was left with Q+R against 2R and 3 minors. Ganguly quickly scored a win, which moved him into a tie for 2nd place on 7/9, alongside GM Darryl Johansen.  Tied for 4th place were GM Loek Van Wely, GM Bartlomiej Heberla and IM Igor Bjelobrk.
Zhou was the only player to go through the event undefeated No player went through the event undefeated, which shows how combative the tournament was. For the first time in a number of years no title norms were achieved either, as a number of upsets by lower rated players sabotaged the runs of various high flyers.
The Major (Under 2000) tournament saw a tie for first between David Cannon and Sarwat Rewais. Both had slow starts to the events, before running over the top of the leaders in the final round. Cannon won the Saint Memorial Trophy on countback, while Mike Duffin took home the third place trophy.
The Minor (Under 1600) was won by Zoe Harrison, half a point ahead of Oscar Herrmann, Mark Stokes and Erik Jochimsen. Harrison also picked up the Pooja Cup for best female junior in the tournament, repeating her win from last year.
This years tournament attracted 238 players across the 4 tournaments. This was down from last year, but was expected by the organisers as it was a non 'Kasparov' year. The move to the new venue (University House) proved a success as the playing areas were larger and quieter than last year, and the general surroundings seemed to fit in well with the tournament.
Full tournament results are available from www.doeberlcup.com.au You can also download a PGN file of games from the Premier. At this stage it does not contain all games (just the top boards) but will include all games in the near future.

Zhou,Weiqi - Heberla,Bartlomiej [D25]
O2C Doeberl Cup 2015 Canberra, Australia (8.1), 05.04.2015

An interesting novelty from the Doeberl

If you haven't been able to follow the games from the 2015 O2C Doeberl Cup in real time you may have missed the following game between GM Loek Van Wely and GM Bartlomiej Heberla. At first glance the idea of holding onto the extra c pawn in the QGA with b5, c6 and a6 looks like the sort of thing you see in schools chess, but Heberla happily gave up the exchange and went onto the attack. The real turning point of the game came on move 14 when Van Wely allowed Bb4+, forcing the king to go walking. After that Heberla had a strong initiative, and while Van Wely might have had better defensive move, momentum carried Heberla to victory.


Van Wely,Loek - Heberla,Bartlomiej [D20]
O2C Doeberl Cup 2015 Canberra, Australia (7.3), 05.04.2015

2015 O2C Doeberl Cup Days 3&4

After 2 tough days of play, Chinese GM Weiqi Zhou has taken an unbeatable lead in the 2015 O2C Doeberl Cup. Finishing the 2nd day on 3.5/4, Zhou scored 4 wins on the 3rd and 4th days to go into the final round on 7.5/8 He had a particularly productive day 4, beating GM's Ramesh and Herbala in successive rounds.
Tied for second place are GM's Ganguly and Johansen. Gangulay is up against thee tournament winner, while Johansen plays IM Bobby Cheng. Cheng is one of 9 players tied on 5.5, and a win over Johansen may move him into a share of 2nd place.
In the Major, Mike Duffin holds a half point lead, with 5.5/6. Close behind are David Cannon, Peter Grinyer and Rewais Sarwat, all on 5. Cannon and Duffin play on the top board tomorrow, while Grinyer and Sarwat battle it out on board 2. The Minor is lead by Zoe Harrison on 5.5/ while Oscar Herrmann and Andrew McKechine hope results go their way to give them a chance of 1st place.
Tomorrows round begins at 9:30am, with the top 6 board from the Premier being broadcast live. You can find the games at the tournament website www.doeberlcup.com.au along with crosstables and a game file from the Premier.

2015 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 2

Day 2 of the 2015 O2C Doeberl Cup Premier saw far less upsets, but there were still some scares for the top seeds. The fact that no player has reached 4 from 4 shows how tough the tournament is, with every point and half point being fought over. After top seed GM Loek Van Wely lost to IM Gary Lane in the 2nd round, all eyes turned to GM Weiqi Zhou. However determined defence by GM Daryl Johansen in their 4th round game resulted in a draw game, and 7 players on 3.5/4
While most of the GM's made their way back to the top after earlier difficulties, GM Surya Ganguly had another hiccup, losing the Justin Tan. New Zealand FM Luke Li also had a good finish to the day, beating IM Junta Ikeda.
The day also saw 2 rounds of the Major and the Minor. Just like the Premier, both tournaments saw a significant number of upsets. In fact the top 2 boards of the major were drawn, while there were a few other results that went against rating further down.

2015 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 1

With the shift to the third new venue in 3 years, it would be interesting to see how the players reacted to the new, quieter surroundings of University House at the Australian National University. As it turned out the reaction was very positive, although it turned out that the venue gave a surprising home ground advantage to one group of players.
The 70 player Premier was headed my a group of Grandmasters, followed by some talented and ambitious IM's. But it was a group of local Canberra players who provided some of the real surprises in the early rounds. Dr Andrey Bliznyuk, who is a researcher at the ANU held third seed GM SS Ganguly to a draw. Then Fred Litchfield, a first year ANU student, upset IM Bobby Cheng. It wasn't just locals doing the damage though, with Jonas Muller from Queensland really upsetting the form guide by beating GM Zong Yaun Zhao on board 4. Indian GM RB Ramesh also had an interesting experience, being paired against his wife WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy in the first round, taking a draw in game where she was better for quite a while.
Upsets continued in the second round when the top seed, GM Loek Van Wely, was beaten by IM Gary Lane. Young Victorians Ari Dale and Jack Puccini drew with their GM opponents, Karl Zelesco beat IM Trevor Tao, and Fred Litchfield scored a second win, this time against 2395 rated Mu Ke in a tricky knight and pawns versus lots of pawns ending.
So while there are still 9 players on 2/2, only 2 of them (Zhou and Johansen) are GM's, Round 3 begins at 1pm thus afternoon, which will also see the Major (Under 2000), Minor (Under 1600) and Mini (Under 1200) start. Even if you are not playing, you can come alog and watch, as well as listen to GM Ian Roger's commentary which normally starts abut 90 minutes into each round.
Full results, games, live coverage etc can be found at www.doeberlcup.com.au


Litchfield,Fred - Cheng,Bobby [B24]
O2C Doeberl Cup Premier Canberra (1.8), 02.04.2015

O2C Doeberl Cup 2015 - Day 0

Tomorrow sees the start of the 2015 O2C Doeberl Cup. The Premier begins at 1pm, while the second round of the day starts at 7pm. Pairings for the first round of the Premier can be found at chess-results.com
At the close of entries there were 70 players in the Premier. There are 7 GM's, 9 IM's, 1 WGM and 4 WIM's. Although the tournament fell short of the 20 OS/ 10 GM/IM players required to waive the local federation rule, there are enough overseas players at the top of the event to make title norms a real possibility. Of course players need to perform at the 2500/2600 level, but if they are playing that well then their opponents are likely to come from the OS contingent.
For spectators in Canberra, fell free to drop in. As well as the Premier, there will be a book stall, and the new venue (University House, ANU) is well served by the downstairs bar and bistro. GM Ian Rogers will be doing coverage of the games at the venue as an added bonus. If you can't make it to Canberra, the check out the Doeberl Cup website for live broadcasts of the top boards from the Premier.

The Hatfields and the McCoys

Next month sees two important chess events, played quite close to each other, but at the some time, also in competition with each other. The 2015 World Team Championship is being held in Tsakhkazdor, Armenia, from the 18th to the 29th of April. This is round robin event comprising of representatives from each FIDE Continent, plus the top placed teams from the Olympiad. It is a tough event, as an all play all, and certainly a harder event than the Olympiad.
A short distance away, the Shamkir Chess Fectival, including the Gashmov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the 16th to the 26th of April. It is a 10 player round robin and has Carlsen, Kramnik, Anand, and Caruana as part of the field.
While clashes are inevitable on the chess calendar, the timing of these two events seem to be part of the ongoing friction between the Armenian and Azernaijani governments, using chess a a proxy battleground. In fact the Azerbaijani team had qualified for the World Teams event, but declined their invitation, while it is still not clear if Armenia will play in the 2016 Baku Olympiad. Despite the various conciliatory words I have heard from both Federations regarding such clashes, I suspect it may be a long time before genuine conciliation is achieved, and that if it is, it is under the umbrella of a broader political solution to the dispute between the two countries.