2025 O2C Doeberl Cup Major

 One of the big surprises from this years Doeberl was the large number of players playing in the Major. The 100 player limit was reached about a month in advance of the tournament, and I was constantly dealing with requests to become the 101st player in the field. One of the reasons was that the cutoff for the premier was raised to 2000 ACF or FIDE (up from 1900 last year), which meant more players had to play the Major. The 1st prize of $1600 was also attractive, although only 1 player with an ACF rating above 2000 chose to play the Major.

The large field also left the top seeds with somewhat of a problem, in how to win the event. One loss was almost fatal to outright winning changes, while even a good score of 5.5 may leave them out of the prize list. 

As it turned out, this was how the tournament played out. DM Daniel Ding started with 5 wins, as did overseas visitor Balanandan Ayyappan. Their 6th round game was drawn, leaving them tied for 1st going into the last round. Wang defeated WFM Alaina Vincent to go to 6.5, while Ayyappan drew with Ethan Retnaraja to take a share of 2nd. He was joined by Vincent Qiang, whose only loss in the event was to the tournament winner.

With such big numbers, and a desire to make the tournament numbers a little more even, the rating limits for the Major (and Minor) are going to be squeezed, like for the Premier. The bottom floor will 1700 ACF or a FIDE rating to be decided later. So you have 12 months to get to work if you want to play this very popular event!

 

So ends a big 3 weeks of chess in Australia

 The Sydney International Open finished today, with a win for GM Mitrabha Guha. This follows on from his win in last weeks O2C Doeberl Cup. and an equal 2nd in the Melbourne International Open. He takes home almost $10,000 in prizes from the 3 events, which is a pretty handy return.

Of course he, and a lot of other players, had to work hard. Three 9 round events, over the course of 21 days is not easy, especially if you factor in the travel. Quite a few other players did the 3 tournament circuit, as did at least one arbiter. All 3 events were successful in terms of numbers, and hopefully the format will continue next year. 

Now that the 'circuit' has been established, the next challenge is to get more OS players to take part. One of the goals for each of the events is to provide title opportunities for local players, and increasing the number of visitors will help do that. At least for the Doeberl Cup, the feedback was very positive, and I expect that the other events were similarly well recieved.

So watch this space later in the year, and hopefully the 2026 Australian Circuit will have some exciting announcements.

Tragedy in the Endgame

 Each year (for the past 3 years), the Hobsons Bay Chess Club has organised a junior challenge match involving clubs across Australia and New Zealand. Played as a hybrid event (online play supervised by an arbiter at a local venue), the event consists of a RR of 6 teams across 6 boards. 

This years event was won by the ACT Junior Chess League team, finishing just ahead of a much improved Hobson Bay A team (who beat the ACT team 4-2 in their individual match). The quality of play has improved over the last 3 years, although one game saw a very tragic ending.

Around move 65 Black is completely winning. However White keeps playing, and Black misses 69 ... f6! which keeps the win in hand. After the exchange of pawns, the position is now drawn, as the White King is close enough to assist the pawn to the end of the board. However, Black thinks their might be one last trick in the position with 76 ... Kf6?? While the idea of threatening mate, or skewering the King and Queen might look tempting, White has a few moves to avoid this, and keep the Queen. Even then it is still a tough ending to win, until White forces the rook away from the king on move 115, when it is picked off by the Queen.

Annapureddy,Dhru (1543) - Nguyen,Kiet Anh (1516)
ANZAC Day Inter Club Hybrid Rapid 2025 Tornelo INT (4.3), 25.04.2025

2025 O2C Doeberl Cup - GM Mitrabha Guha wins

 The 2025 O2C Doeberl Cup has seen the top seed GM Mitrabha Guha finish in 1st place, with 7.5/9  He went through the tournament undefeated, and played the other 4 GM's in the field along the way. Interestingly, the top 5 places were all occupied by the 5 GM's in the tournament, with GM Das Sayantan in 2nd on 7/9, and GM's Zhao, Antonio and Stopa all tying for 3rd on 6.5.

The 59 player field was tougher than last year, with the the Premier being harder to qualify for. Despite this, Guha won when he needed to, and event though he only needed a draw in the final round, still pushed hard for a win (it was eventually drawn). His style suited the  shortened tournament format ( 9 rounds over 5 days), keeping his positions under control until his opponent made a mis-step. 

For winning this years event Guha collects $5000 first prize. Das picked up $3000 for 2nd, as well as a 33% share of the Fighting Fun, alongside Zhao and Stopa.

 Overall the tournament attracted 377 players across the 5 division, while the Saturday night blitz attracted 200 players across 2 sections. 

Reports on the other events to follow across the next few days

Mitrabha,Guha (2505) - Antonio,Rogelio Jr (2363) [E11]
2025 O2C Doeberl Cup Premier Canberra, Australia (4.2), 18.04.2025

Not sleeping, just busy

 The 2025 O2C Doeberl Cup has me swamped. Updates (including a lot about the tournament) will resume in the next few days.

2025 O2C Doeberl Cup

 The 2025 O2C Doeberl Cup begins tomorrow, at the Woden Southern Cross Club, Canberra. While not quite achieving the numbers of the last 2 years (367+-), the Premier is once again quite strong, with 5 GM's in this years field. With defending champion GM Hrant Melkumyan choosing to sit out this years event, Indian GM Mitrabha Guha is the top seed. The tournament is significantly stronger this year, with the median rating over 100 points higher than last year. Of course the raising of the tournament floor explains this, with the added effect of the Major and Minor events filling up quite quickly.

The first round of the Premier is at 1pm tomorrow, with round 2 at 7pm. The other events all begin at 1pm on Friday, with all running through to Monday (with the exception of the 2 day Under 1200 tournament) 

The tournament website www.doeberlcup.com.au has links to results, pairings, and live coverage from the premier.

MIO - FM Felix Xie wins

 New Zealand FM Felix Xie has won the 2025 Melbourne International Open, finishing with 7/9. Needing half a point toe secure a share of 1st, and an IM norm, Xie drew with FM Kai Jie Soo in 38 moves. Indian IM Arghyadip Das had a chance to join Xie in 1st place, but was held to a draw by CM Rheyansh Annapureddy on board 2. This allowed GM Sayantan Das and GM Guha Mitrabha to also take a share of 2nd on 6.5/7.

A number of leading participants in this event will have a few days break before heading for Canberra for the 2025 O2C Doeberl Cup. At this stage the Premier has 61 players, with 5 GM's, 1 WGM, 8 IM's and 2 WIM's entered. The Premier starts on Thursday (17th April), with the other sections starting on Friday (18th April)