2015 Australasian Masters begins with a bang

The 2015 Australasian Masters began today and the first round provided enough action to keep all the spectators happy. Four of the 5 games produced a winner, and there were a number of upsets as well.
The stand out game of the first round was IM James Morris win over GM Vasily Papin. Morris's exchange sacrifice on move 13 might not have been completely sound, but Papin missed the strongest defence and Morris was able to sacrifice more material to expose Papin's king and leave him facing mate in 1 by move 28.
IM Max Illingworth beat GM Daryl Johansen in the longest game of the round, where Johansen's knight could not hold back Illingworth's pawns. FM Luke Li defended well to draw with GM Arturs Neiksans, and IM Bobby Cheng sacrificed two exchanges to force a pawn promotion against IM Ari Dale. IM Kanan Izzat also started with a win, beating IM Anton Smirnov, in a game we held an edge for quite a long period.
Coverage of the event is at http://www.chessvictoria.org.au/site/victorianchess/2015-australasian-masters and contains links to live broadcasts of the games.


Morris,James - Papin,Vasily [B30]
2015 Australasian Masters, 12.12.2015