2016 ACT Championship - Day 1

There were no surprises on the first day of the 2016 ACT Championship, with wins by the higher rated players. Nonetheless there were a few lucky escapes, with the blunder quotient unusually high for a tournament first round.
Probably the player with the greatest sense of relief was defending champion Adrian de Noskowski. He was down a pawn in an ending against junior Yizhen Diao, but after digging in in the position, was rewarded when Diao lost the pawn, then a piece before walking into a mate in 1. Benjamin Gianquitto put up a long hard fight against Victor Braguine, taking the game into the 5th hour, before Braguine eventually found a winning plan.
On the other hand the top seeds had less trouble against there opponents. Junta Ikeda had a straightforward win over Cam Cunningham, while Andrew Brown played the game of the round with his win over Oskar Hellmann.
Tournament results are available at chess.results.com and games from the first round will be upload tomorrow.


Hellmann,Oskar - Brown,Andrew (2181) [D04]
2016 ACT Championship Canberra (1.2), 12.02.2016