Saturday 5 April 2014

2014 Dubbo Open - Day 1

After last years excellent turn out of 46 players, a much smaller field of 27 fronted up for this years Dubbo Open. Bruce Murray was the top seed, with Don Keast, Leon Kempen and Alana Chibnall filling the next 3 slots.
The first round was a fairly predictable affair, with the exception of Jingming Chow drawing with John Pacoe. To prove this result was no fluke, Chow then drew his second round game with the higher rated  Neil Clark. The second round saw a couple of other upset results with Alexander Aich drawing with Leon Kempen, and Nikhil Rajesh drawing with Don Keast.
However the end of the third round saw the top seeds occupy the top placings, with Bruce Murray and Alana Chibnall leading the tournament on 3/3. Half a point behind are Don Keast, Leon Kempen, and tournament organiser Alexander Aich. Tomorrows 4th round will see Chibnall v Murray and Keast v Kempen.
Apart from the serious business of the Open tournament, the club also hosted a handicap blitz event in the evening. Despite giving her opponents a head start on the clock in every game, Alana Chibnall won the event with 5/5. In second place was junior player James Joseph, who was able to take advantage of his unrated status to start his games with more time than his opponents.

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