2014 Lidums Australian Young Masters

The Lidums Young Masters is now in its 4th year as one of the premier junior events in Australia. Interestingly, as the tournament gets older so do the participants, with the age limit pushed up to Under 25 years for this years event. And while the top section remains a closed round robin, the other events have been expanded into swiss tournaments, with the Junior Masters being split into an open and an under 1600 section.
Having the top section as a round robin makes sense, as there are very few round robin events held in Australia, junior or otherwise. The downside of this (although I personally don't think it is much of one) is that some players might miss out on either qualifying through strength, or not get invited, due to tournament considerations. If I remember correctly there was a bit of a blow up a couple of years back, when one prominent player did not get invited, resulting in vigorous discussion on various Australian chess forums.
The tournament began today, and results are available from the tournament website. You can watch the games from the top section live, although I have yet to find games from the other tournaments. However I was able to get a copy of the round 1 clash between the top 2 seeds, which I can show you here.


Izzat,Kanan - Morris,James [C68]
Australian Young Masters, 08.12.2014