2018 O2C Doeberl Cup - Gareyev and Morris tie for first

The 2018 O2C Doeberl Cup has been won by GM Timur Gareyev on countback over IM James Morris after they both finished on 7.5/9. Going into the final round both had 7/8, and were not only watching their own boards, but the board next to them. It turned out that there was an element of 'double bluff' involved in this strategy, with Morris offering a draw (which was accepted) after he saw Gareyev play into a drawish opening line. However, Garayev and GM Qun Ma then played on for another hour or two before they reached a drawn rook and pawn ending, at which point the game ended peacefully.
IM Igor Bjelobrk took outright third (and a share of the Fighting Fund) with a win over IM Irine Sukandar. On board 4 FM Brandon Clarke need to draw with GM Deep Sengupta to earn an IM norm, which he did after 32 moves. IM Junta Ikeda picked up the other half of the Fighting Fund prize with a nice win over GM Abhijit Kunte, which was also enough to give him a share of 4th place.
Matthew Clarke finished outright first in the Major with 6.5/7. He defeated Alex Mendes Da Costa in the last round to finish half a point ahead of Sterling Bayaca. In equal third place were Sankeerten Badrinarayan and David Lovejoy on 5.5/7.
Oliver Yang scored a brilliant win over Lachlan Lee to snatch first on tiebreak in the Minor. Lee had been leading on 6/6, but the win by Yang allowed him to reach 6 as well, and with a slightly better tie-break, Yang took the first place trophy.
The tournament itself was mostly incident free, although there was one strange happening in the final round. On one of the boards in the minor, water was spilled on the table before the start of the round. Although it was cleaned up, some of it seeped into the hard cardboard boards, causing it to curl up (on Black's side of the board). At first it wasn't an issue, but by the time the Black king looked like it was riding the lip of a wave, the players felt the need to request a replacement board.