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)

Maybe I'm amazed

 There are a couple of big European Opens either running or coming up, including the Reykjavik Open, which is up to round 4. Local Canberra player Tim Pearce is taking part, and may well be the first Australian player to face someone from Greenland in an international event. He is currently on 2/4, but hasn't reached a board high enough to have his games broadcast. 

So instead I found a top board clash which seems to revolve around a somewhat bizarre opening line. 10.h4 is a common reaction to Ng6 type moves, but then it gets a little strange. Pieces get offered and declined, but in the end the an equal middlegame is reached. This lasts a few moves and then White simply collapses. I'm guessing it was time trouble, as White only had 2 minutes on the clock,  but I would not rule out avoiding a draw as the other culprit.

Gunnarsson,Jon Viktor (2439) - Safarli,Eltaj (2617) [B33]
Reykjavik Open 2025 Reykjavik, Iceland (4.5), 11.04.2025

An experiment

 I'm not sure I have tried to show a Fischer Random game on this blog before. but here goes. It is from the current Freestyle Chess event in Paris, and sees Carlsen grinding out a win in Carlsen style

Carlsen,Magnus (2837) - Abdusattorov,Nodirbek (2773)
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Paris Kn Paris, France (1.2), 09.04.2025

OK, that did not work (I think the ChessTempo viewer does not handle Fischer Random)

So lets try this method

MIO Round 1

 The Melbourne International Open has kicked of in Melbourne, with a strong field contesting the Masters Section. Three GM's are at the top of the field, and the median rating is around 2100. As with events of this type, not everything went according to rating, with a few draws, and a couple of upset wins for the lower rated players. 

Alongside the Masters section is the Amateur section which attracted 87 players. Again there were a few upsets, but the top seeds seemed to do well enough.

Tomorrow is a double round day (9:30am, 3pm), followed by a single round day on Wednesday. The tournament website is https://melbourneio.com.au/ and from there you can find all the tournament results, as well as links to live coverage of the games.