The 2014 O2C Doeberl Cup is charging along, so much so I have barely had any time to keep this blog up to date. The Premier is particulalry exciting, with the overseas GM's finding local players more than a match.
Going into round 8 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu holds a half point lead over the chasing pack. His play has been particulalry impressive, with very nice wins over FM Kanan Izzat and GM Zong-Yuan Zhao being the standouts. In the group on 5.5/7 GM's Hrant Melkumyan and Levente Vajda are joined by a trio of young Australian players in the form of IM James Morris, IM Andrew Brown, and FM Junta Ikeda. In the case of Brown and Ikeda, they both have a chance of being the first local players to win the event since Tony Wiedenhofer in 1973.
Other players doing well include Canberaa chess coah FM Endre Ambrus who defeated IM Gary Lane in round 7. Fred Litchfield and Willis Lo are carrying the flag for the local juniors, sitting mid field after 7 rounds.
Last not saw a very busy Lightning event with around 100 players taking part. IM Bobby Cheng led from start to finish, winning his first 8 games before dropping the last round to leave his winning margin at half a point. While I was too busy to check out much of the action, there were a number of exciting games and close finishes. One suprise entrant was FM Ignatius Leong who is in towwn as part of Gary Kasparov's visit to the tournament. He lameneted that Blitz is much more a young persons game these days, but enoyed the tournament nonetheless.
The last round of the event is tomorrow, starting at 9:30 am at the Woden Tradies Club. The tournament should finish around 1pm (or possibly later) and the prize giving, attended by former World Champion Gary Kasparov, will take place soon afterwards.
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