2011 Sydney International Open - Day 4

At the end of the 4th day of the 2011 Sydney International Open, FM Akshat Khamparia still holds on to the outright lead, with 6.5/8. However there is a large pack of players in hot pursuit, with GM Zong Yuan Zhao, GM David Arutinian, GM Andrei Deviatkin, IM Kevin Goh and IM Stephen Solomon all on 6 points. Tomorrows final round sees Khamparia have the black pieces with against Zhao, while Goh plays Arutinian and Deviatkin playes Solomon.

Today saw more upsets of the top seeds with GM Sune Berg Hansen losing his round 7 game to FM Greg Canfell. This win by Canfell, plus his round 8 draw against FM Junta Ikeda, means that Canfell can earn an IM norm tomorrow, if he beats New Zealand FM Michael Steadman. IM Stephen Solomon also pulled of an upset win over GM Dejan Bojkov in round 8, wining an ending a pawn down, in typical Solomon style.

In the Challengers event, the joint leaders are Harry Press and Tony Davis, on 6.5/8. Curiously they played each other in the first round of the tournament, with the game ending in a draw. In the final round Davis is paired against Richard Voon, while Press plays Patrick Behan.

The final round for both events starts tomorrow at 9:30 am at the Parramatta Town Hall. Live coverage of the top 8 games from the Open can be found at the Parramatta Chess Club website.

2011 Sydney International Open - Day 3

Indian FM Khamparia Akshat is the real surprise packet of the 2011 Sydney International Open, leading the event with 5.5/6 after day 3. Having beaten GM Darryl Johansen and IM Stephen Solomon yesterday, he defeated FM Chris Wallis and drew with GM Andrei Deviatkin in today's rounds. Akshat, who is looking to get his rating above 2400 to complete the requirements for an International Master title, currently is in line for a GM norm, although he needs to avoid playing too many Australian players (any more than 6 invalidates the norm)

Tied for second are GM Andrei Deviatking, GM David Arutinian and FM Chris Wallis. Wallis defeated IM Stephen Solomon on the afternoon round, and a strong finish may leave him with an IM norm. However he first has to overcome GM Deviatkin in tomorrow mornings round.

The other sensation of the tournament is the form of GM Sune Berg Hansen. Playing the gruelling Bangkok/Canberra/Sydney schedule is clearly taking its toll, as he lost to New Zealand FM Michael Steadman in under 25 moves today. Playing fast and loose with

the position. Hansen looked like he was playing for tricks but it all went terribly wrong.

In the Challengers tournament, top seed Maros Zajac leads by half a point from Ian Dickson and Harry Press. Press plays Zajac in the first round tomorrow, while Dickson is up against Tony Davis.

Full coverage of this event can be found at www.parrachessclub.org

Steadman,Michael - Hansen,Sune Berg [E20]

Sydney International Open Sydney (6), 29.04.2011

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 c5 5.d5 0-0 6.e4 Re8 7.Nge2 d6 8.Bd2 a6 9.Ng3 b5 10.dxe6 Bxe6 11.cxb5 d5 12.bxa6 c4 13.exd5 Bh3+ 14.Nce4 Nxd5 15.Bxb4 Nxb4 16.gxh3 Qa5 17.Kf2 N8c6 18.Bxc4 Ne5 19.Qb3 Nxc4 20.Qxc4 Rac8 21.Qb3 Rc2+ 22.Ne2 Rxb2 23.Qe3 Nc2 (D)

24.Nf6+ 1-0

2011 Sydney International Open - Day 2

The 2nd day of the 2011 Sydney International Open began with the surprise pairing of Hansen v Zhao on board 9. The top two seeds obviously had an eye on their tournament future, as the game was quickly drawn. However the top boards were a little more combative, with FM Chris Wallis beating FM Vladimir Smirnov, FM Ashkat Khamparia beating GM Darryl Johansen (for the second time in a week), and FM Greg Canfell surviving a strong attack against GM Dejan Bojkov to draw.

There were further upsets in the 4th round with FM's Khamparia and Wallis being the only players to reach 4/4. Half a point back are GM's Deviatkin and Bojkov as well as IM Kevin Goh.

In the Challengers event, Maros Zajac and Ian Dickson lead with 4/4, half a point ahead of Dennis Wan. With a large group of players on 3, it mat still take a couple of rounds before the likely winner of this event emerges.

2011 Sydney International Open - Day 1

An interesting set of results on the first day of the Sydney International Open sets up an exciting third round tomorrow morning. Top seed Sune Berg Hansen was beaten by Velimir Kresevic from Germany, while second seed Zhong Yuan Zhao drew with Andrew Brown. With one of them on 1.5 (Zhao) and the other the highest rated player on 1 (Hansen) , the draw sees them paired together way down on board 9. The top 3 boards now see some promising Australian FM's (Ly, Illingworth and Canfell) up against a trio of Grandmasters (Arutinian, Deviatkin, and Bojkov).

The Open section ended up with 68 entries. while the Challengers had 52 players. All the results, pairings and live games can be found at the Parramatta Chess Club page. Just click on the Sydney International Open link.

2011 Sydney International Open - Round 1 action

The 2011 Sydney International Open is up and running, with Round 1 of the Open and Challengers both still going as I type this. However a number of games have already finished, including this sparkling effort from Chris Wallis.

Wallis,Chris - Tan,Kevin [B61]

Sydney International Open Sydney (1), 27.04.2011

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 Bd7 7.Qd2 Rc8 8.f4 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 Qa5 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 e6 12.0-0-0 Bc6 13.Bb5 Bxb5 14.exf6 Bc6 15.h4 g6 16.Rhe1 Bc5 (D)

17.Rxe6+ Kf8 18.Rxc6 bxc6 19.Qd7 Ra8 20.Qxc6 Rb8 21.Bf4 Qb4 22.Bxb8 Be3+ 23.Kb1 Qxb8 24.Nd5 Bf2 25.Qc7 Qe8 26.Qd6+ Kg8 27.Ne7+ Kf8 28.Nf5+ Kg8 29.Nh6# 1-0

2011 Sydney International Open

The 2011 Sydney International Open starts tomorrow at the Parramatta Town Hall. There are 72 players in the Open and 47 in the Challengers. Top seeds in the Open are GM Sune Berg Hansen, GM Zong Yuan Zhao and GM David Arutinian. While the Sydney event is smaller than the recently finished Doeberl Cup (the restart of the school term being partly to blame) it is a little stronger at the top with Zhao, Smirnov and Bjelobrk joining the players backing up from Canberra.

As a warm up, the City of Sydney Blitz tournament was held at the tournament venue. GM Arutinian won the tournament, ahead of FM Junta Ikeda and IM Stephen Solomon. 38 players took part, with 12 players over 2000.

Details of the tournament (results,pairings, live games etc) can be found at the tournament website. Results and draws for both tournaments will also be posted at www.chess-results.com.

2011 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 5

"Sheer hard work" is probably the phrase that best sums up the 2011 O2C Doeberl Cup Premier. I'm not talking about the organisational aspects, but the effort the players themselves put in over the 9 rounds. There were a couple of standout games in this regard, with Solomon v Steadman (Rd 5) seeing Solomon recovering from the wrong side of Q+Ps v 2N+Ps to eventually mate with 2NvP, whole Johansen beat Ly in a R+B v R epic that lasted over 6 hours.

Even the final round games were tough with only 1 draw on the top 5 boards (resulting in three players picking up some extra money from the "Fighting Fund").

Russian GM Andrei Deviatkin proved to be the toughest of the tough, winning his final game and the tournament. He scored 7.5/9, drawing with the next 3 place getters (Bojkov, Hansen and Smerdon), and winning the rest of his games. He played 5 of the top 6 finishers, and had a performance rating of 2650. In second place were GM's Dejan Bojkov and Sune Berg Hansen. They were both undefeated, but conceded one more draw than Deviatkin.

From a local (Australian) point of view there were a couple of outstanding performances. Eugene Schon went into the final round playing for an IM norm, although having to play the top seed (GM Hansen) with black was just a step to far. His score of 6/9 was still good enough to win the Bedi Cup for the best Australian Junior, and the $1000 prize that went with it.

FM Max Illingworth continued his good form in the Thailand open with a win over FM Bobby Cheng in the final round to finish on 6.5/9. While this wasn't enough for an IM norm, he still picked up 18 ratings points.

Final results from the Premier can be found at the O2C Doeberl Cup website or from Chess-Results.