ACF NEWS: 2008 AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Australian Junior Championships are underway. Follow the Under 18, Under 18 Girls, Under 12 and Under 12 Girls tournaments here.

ACF OFFICE BEARERS

The following ACF non-elected office bearer positions remain vacant:

• Olympiad Appeal Coordinator
• Ergas Training Squad Coordinator

The ACF is seeking expressions of interest from anyone wishing to fill either of these positions. Please contact ACF Secretary, Jey Hoole             jeydh4@hotmail.com or Jey.Hoole@affa.gov.au or ACF president, Gary Wastell gwastell@netspace.net.au  as soon as possible if you are interested.

The position of ACF Newsletter Editor has been filled by Joseph Tanti of South Australia. Joseph was the ACF Secretary from 2001-2003 and has held several administrative positions with NSW and SA, junior and senior associations.

2008 OLYMPIAD SELECTIONS

The 38th FIDE Chess Olympiad will be held in Dresden, Germany, from 12-25 November 2008.

I am writing to advise strong players intending to apply for the Olympiad teams for Australia for 2008 of the expected date on which applications for selection will close. This will have a bearing on any intending applicants who are short of game practice and need to get rated games played by that deadline to meet the ACF's 20 games rule which comes into effect at this Olympiad.

The intended selection deadline is Friday 20 June 2008. If any change to this is expected I will notify it to this list, but I do not expect it to change.

The 20 games rule, adopted a few years ago but only now coming into effect, requires each applicant for the Australian Olympiad teams to have played 20 rated games in the previous year by the selection deadline (ie 20 June 2007 - 20 June 2008). The definition of a rated game includes any game rated by the ACF and/or FIDE that is not a rapid play game. A game rated by another federation (eg BCF) will also count where requested, provided that an adequate formula for converting that federation's ratings to either ACF or FIDE ratings exists. Of course, any game can only be counted once.

Players should also note that the number of players per team has been changed. Both open and female teams will now consist of five players each, of whom four will play in each round.

I expect to declare applications open, via the ACF Newsletter and via a post to the Olympiad Notices thread on the ChessChat forum (http://chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=7026) around early April.

Best regards,
Kevin Bonham
ACF Selections Co-Ordinator (Non-Junior Events)
k_bonham@tassie.net.au

ACF SELECTIONS EMAIL LIST

A backup email list exists for people interested in receiving calls for applications for adult-event selections when these are sent out. I may also use this list to send out advance information about upcoming events for which selections will be called, before the formal selections process has been determined. This list will be additional to, and not a replacement for, use of the ACF Newsletter to call for selections.

TO JOIN THIS MAILOUT LIST:

Simply email k_bonham@tassie.net.au with "join selections mailout list" in the subject field of your email, and I will add you to the list for the next email (messages are sent infrequently, and mainly in the leadup to particular FIDE events). If you wish to join from a different or any extra email addresses, include a note to that effect. You can unsubscribe or change email address by emailing me at any time.

THE FINE PRINT:

The list is intended as a backup for the process of announcing calls for selection in ACF Newsletter only. Anyone with an interest in applying for ACF selections is expected to subscribe to the ACF email newsletter and remain subscribed at all times to the best of their ability. All care will be taken with the upkeep of this list, but as email is not completely reliable, no responsibility for delivery failures of emails sent to the address subscribed will be accepted. Subscribers are responsible for ensuring their email address remains current, and any address that bounces repeatedly will be dropped. This list will not cover junior-only events.

I hope this list will assist in ensuring more players are aware, well in advance, of upcoming opportunities to represent Australia.

Best regards to all,
Kevin Bonham
ACF Selections Co-Ordinator (Senior Events)
k_bonham@tassie.net.au

MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS GRAND PRIX

For scores and the full calendar of events see http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/gran dprix/index.cfm

Coming Events

EVENTS CALENDAR

2008 Australia Day Weekender

Venue Zillmere & Districts Community Sports Club, O'Callaghan Park, 360 Zillmere Road, Zillmere, Qld, 4034.
Format 10 player Round Robin groups by ACF Dec 07 rating.
Entry fee $40.
Prizes $100; $50; $30 per group.
Registration by 8 pm 25/1/08 to avoid a $10 late fee.
Session times 10am, 12.30pm & 3pm daily.
Rate of play 60 mins + 10 secs per move.
Enquiries Gail Young, 0411 704 815, qwcl@hotmail.com
Webpage http://www.caq.org.au/htm/2008ADW.pdf

2008 Gold Coast Tin Cup

The 2008 Gold Coast Tin Cup is for players rated under 1750. Come join this fun event where the titled players can only watch and wish that they were playing. February 16 & 17th at Somerset College Sports Pavillion, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba (300m west of Somerset College). Prizes include $500 for 1st, $200 for 2nd and $100 for third. Rating groups will have $100 for 1st and $60 for 2nd. New this year is the awarding of medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the divisions for players under 1000 (no cash prizes for these divisions). For details and an entry form just visit Tin Cup entry form, email outreachchess@bigpond.com or call Peter Bender on 07 5556 0434.

March Madness Open

Venue Zillmere & Districts Community Sports Club, O'Callaghan Park, 360 Zillmere Road, Zillmere, Qld, 4034.
Format 7 rounds.
Entry fee Open $60, Under 1000 $50. ($10 discount if paid by 14/2/08. $10 surcharge to unregistered players on 1/3/08).
Prizes Open $600; $500; $400; $300; $200 (+ rating group prizes). Under 1000 $125; $100; $75.
Registration 8.30-9.00am 1/3/08.
Session times 4 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday, starting at 9.30am.
Rate of play 60 mins + 10 secs per move.
Enquiries Gail Young, 0411 704 815, qwcl@hotmail.com
Webpage http://www.caq.org.au/htm/2008MarchMadnessOpen.pdf

Doeberl Cup

New website soon!

Sydney International Open

http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/open/index.cfm

COMPLETED EVENTS

Australian Schools Teams Championships

The winners:

• Secondary Open Champions - Balwyn High (Vic)
• Secondary Girls Champions - North Sydney Girls High (NSW)
• Primary Open Champions - Hawker Primary (ACT)
• Primary Girls Champions - Curtin Primary (ACT)

The home page for the event is here.

2008 Australian Chess Championship

Congratulations to IM Stephen Solomon, 2008 Australian Chess Champion. The Championship event was won by GM Dejan Antic (SER) (8.5/11), with Stephen (the leading Australian) and IM Herman Van Riemsdijk (BRA) equal second (8).

Chief Arbiter, Charles Zworestine, has been kind enough to forward the following round summaries. The rest will soon follow. Readers impatient to see the full results, or play over some of the games mentioned, can visit the tournament website.

What an eventful opening day! Many times Australian Champion GM Darryl Johansen (the second seed) said that he had never seen a more curious first round. To be fair, Darryl himself escaped the carnage with a nice win against David Hacche, eventually refuting David’s pawn sacrifice with an exchange sacrifice that turned his passed d-pawn into a monster! Top seeded GM Dejan Antic was also immune, as his opponent Malcolm Pyke popped a piece after an interesting tactical struggle; and third seeded IM Stephen Solomon got a typical classical position and slowly outplayed Gareth Charles. No, it was lower down that the upsets started; but boy, was there some damage done by the lower seeds…

It all began with the first Championships game to finish, where the ever dangerous Gareth Oliver played a fascinating game against fourth seeded IM George Xie. A neat tactical trick (Bxe6) in the opening won Gareth a pawn (George could not take the bishop because his queen would have been trapped!); but Gareth then allowed George to complicate, and an intriguing struggle ensued. Two exchange sacrifices later George (Black) had a dangerous passed pawn on c3, but his king was exposed; and Gareth eventually got his queen and rook in to mate the White king and score the first upset! No such upsets on Board 5 (fifth seeded IM Gary Lane won a time scramble against Dusan Stojic), but then the juniors began striking: Max Illingworth getting a beautiful position out of the opening against sixth seed Igor Goldenberg. This was another classic battle, with Igor losing the exchange but fighting back to get two pawns and the two bishops as compensation; it was a shame that he then blundered a piece and suffered an upset loss anyway…

While visiting Brazilian IM Herman van Riemsdijk was grinding down a rusty Andrew Bird in a long endgame on Board 7, another sensation was occurring on Board 8, where eighth seeded FM Igor “Iggy” Bjelobrk was playing Black against Queensland junior Ben Lazarus. I thought Ben was true to his surname when he turned the heavy piece ending (two rooks and a queen each) where his opponent had connected passed pawns on e4 and d3 into a rook and pawn ending a pawn ahead; but Iggy swears he was never winning. He certainly should have been drawing, as his rook was behind his opponent’s extra passed a-pawn; but somehow he managed to turn this into another upset loss in time pressure! While Moulthun Ly won a longish game against Stewart Booth on Board 9, Greg Canfell was a bit luckier to win on time in a drawish ending against Barak Atzmon-Simon on Board 10. Then another upset, as Vincent Suttor (another recent ex-junior!) converted an extra pawn into a win against FM Jesse Sales – as Black!

No shocks on the next couple of boards, as Tomek Rej got away with hanging a rook (his opponent didn’t see it!) to beat Michael Wei and Tristan Boyd accounted for Romeo Capilitan; but Paul Broekhuijse was not so keen to follow the script! He took care of Israel Yadao by winning pawns, consolidating and eventually making his advanced passed pawn count. The upsets were then completed by Ascaro Pecori, who offered Sam Chow a draw; Sam refused and then found a way to lose instead! While Doug Hamilton was taking care of Jason Hu, visiting German Felix Klein may have been a bit lucky to win a queen and pawn ending against James Morris – it might have been drawn… Hani Malik was better, a pawn up, but also found a way to lose against Junta Ikeda; and Michel Morris was beating Ronald Yu, but found a way to stuff up tactically to lose what should have been a winning ending.

So to the Major, or Reserves (“I always thought the Reserves is for old people” – Bob Liang), where the top four seeds (Adrian Rose, visiting Korean Sanghoon Lee, Johny Bolens and Tim Hare) all won. Mike Canfell scored the first upset, holding fifth seed Phil Viner to a draw on Board 5. Rebecca Harris then accounted for Korean ninth seed Junil Choi, winning a pawn early and ending up triumphing after many tactics in a pure opposite coloured bishop ending when her passed a-pawn crashed through! Frank Barisic’s upset win against Svetozar Stojic was a bit hairier, as Svetozar just won an exchange for a pawn early and seemed to be winning easily. Whether he relaxed or not I don’t know, but Frank soon got compensation and then won the exchange back; the resulting queen and pawn ending was as tricky as such endings usually are, but Frank managed to swap off queens eventually into a dead won king and pawn endgame.

And the upsets did not end there! Frank Low took care of Vasil Tulevski, who won a pawn but then gave it back and found himself in a difficult rook and pawn endgame due to his opponent’s outside passed a-pawn; it may have been drawn, but Frank played it well and ended up cashing in for yet another upset victory. Meanwhile Bill Egan began a good run by drawing with Richard Lilly… There were no further upsets in the Major, and no upsets at all in the Minor – unless you count unrated Richard Davies’ win against sixth seed Tereza Grbin. But all other higher rated players won, and unfortunately our visiting Korean juniors all lost; better luck next round…

One of the most noticeable things about Day 1 was the almost complete lack of draws; none at all in the Championships and the Minor, and only two in the Major! Such a deficit of peaceful finishes was always unlikely to occur on the first double round day, where players would have been looking to conserve energy – the odd “half point bye” is often a good way to do this… Mind you, Dejan Antic never thinks this way, as he always plays for a win; in this case he was the beneficiary of some generosity from Doug Hamilton, who walked into a pin and then just resigned! Darryl Johansen was not so lucky, as his two pawns for the exchange were only enough to draw with Felix Klein. Stephen Solomon handled Junta Ikeda rather easier on Board 3, obtaining two connected passed pawns right out of the opening and always looking better; he finished with a neat tactic to join Antic (and others) on 2/2.

One of those others was Gary Lane, who accounted for Ronald Yu in a rather short game; another was Moulthun Ly, who won a pawn and ground down Vincent Suttor in a rook and pawn endgame. Joining the group on a perfect score after 2 rounds was Greg Canfell, whose advanced passed c-pawn accounted for Max Illingworth; and surprise packet Ben Lazarus, who stunned Tomek Rej by winning the exchange early and eventually swapping off into a won king and pawn ending. Herman van Riemsdijk failed to join them, making another of the draws with Gareth Oliver as he survived creeping pressure and a rook and pawn endgame a pawn down to snatch the half point. Tristan Boyd and Ascaro Pecori also drew in a much shorter game, as did James Morris and Sam Chow. Meanwhile a simple interference tactic enabled Jesse Sales to win exchange and game against Romeo Capilitan; and George Xie’s passed d-pawn won a piece early to account for Paul Broekhuyse and get George off the mark.

One of the more interesting games was between Igor Goldenberg and Andrew Bird, with a most unusual material balance: Goldie had two rooks, bishop and pawn against Big Bird’s queen and five pawns! This is a tricky position to assess; but sadly for Andrew he lost his pawns and went down in a long game when he was about to get mated. Igor Bjelobrk and Stewart Booth both got off the mark as they drew their difficult queen and knight endgame, as did Michael Morris and David Hacche in a slightly shorter game. Michael Wei was less happy to draw with Malcolm Pyke, allowing the standard rook and knight perpetual check when he was the exchange and pawns ahead! In longer games, Israel Yadao took care of Barak Atzmon-Simon and Gareth Charles won the last game to finish against Jason Hu; Dusan Stojic rounded off the Championship games by winning pawns and the exchange to beat Hani Malik.

The 64 player field in the Major continued to follow the script on the top 4 boards in Round 2; but Kevin Sheldrick was not so fortunate, being forced to take a perpetual check draw in the end against Peter Abbott after an intriguing tactical battle! An upset win was scored by Jason Cohn, who beat Dick Voon; upset draws were scored by Paul Glissan against Michael Dunn and Mos Ali against Blair Mandla. Rebecca Harris was initially worse against James Watson, then could have won a piece; in the end after many vicissitudes, this game also settled into a perpetual check draw! Further upsets were scored by Frank Low, his rooks on the seventh mating or winning masses of material against Ganesh Viswanath; Bill Egan, who won pawns to beat Phil Viner; and Mike Canfell, who won a piece to beat Richard Lilly… The 36 player Minor was again more predictable, although Tony Baldwin drew a game he could have won against Howard Duggan; upsets were also scored by McGowan over Mehan and Mary Wilkie over Karayi.

Only two players were left on a perfect score after Round 3 of the Championships, with Gary Lane being the first to get there after positionally grinding down Ben Lazarus, who made it easy after Lane had won a pawn by blundering a piece in the end. It looked for all the world that Lane would be alone on 3/3, as Greg Canfell should have drawn with Stephen Solomon but found a way to lose; oh well, many people in Australian chess have been Soloed… Dejan Antic and Moulthun Ly failed to join Lane and Solo, drawing their game after MM (Magic Moulthun) accepted the GM’s draw offer in a slightly better position. Darryl Johansen also drew, just failing in his attempts to grind down Tristan Boyd to leave both players on 2/3. Joining Antic and MM on 2.5/3 were Herman van Riemsdijk and Felix Klein; the former used his monster knight on d5 to smash through Ascaro Pecori’s king, while the latter won queen for rook and bishop after the players had castled opposite sides to account for Gareth Oliver.

Lower down, it was time once more for the juniors to wreak their usual havoc! First Junta Ikeda won a fascinating game against George Xie, winning a rook early then giving it back in the complications; but he was always better, and ended up still material up to register another upset win. Then Max Illingworth struck again, winning a knight and pawn ending against Israel Yadao by exploiting his opponent’s weak pawns to create a crushing passed a-pawn which queened for another shock win! Igor Goldenberg won pawns and eventually a piece to win a long game against Ronald Yu; while Jesse Sales’ rook and connected passed pawns were rather lucky to beat Gareth Charles. Jesse ended up in a drawn endgame with rook and rook pawn against Gareth’s bishop, with a king blockade; how Jesse won I do not know, but win he did…

Again there were a few more draws this round, with Doug Hamilton drawing a fairly simplified position against Paul Broekhuyse, James Morris drawing quickly with his coach and mentor David Hacche and Hani Malik and Romeo Capilitan agreeing to a draw to both get off the mark. But the other results were all decisive, with Tomek Rej attacking violently to end up winning queen and game against Dusan Stojic. Sam Chow won the exchange and a long game to beat Vincent Suttor, finishing by checkmating his beleaguered opponent; while Iggy Bjelobrk trapped his opponent’s rook to defeat Australian Junior Champion Michael Wei. Stewart Booth’s two rooks took care of Malcolm Pyke’s queen; and Andrew Bird converted a big space advantage to beat Michael Morris. Jason Hu relegated Barak Atzmon-Simon to being the only player on 0/3 by winning a long endgame the exchange ahead.

The top two seeds kept winning in the Major, Adrian Rose accounting for Ben Harris and Sanghoon Lee for Frank Barisic. Dizdarevic won a tactical struggle to upset Johny Bolens, while Tim Hare won exchange and game against Frank Low to leave us with four players on 3/3. Henk Jens drew a longish game with Alex Mendes da Costa to join a group of 6 players on 2.5/3, which included Kevin Sheldrick after the South Australian defeated Jason Cohn. James Watson was also in this group, his usual violent attacking style smashing Paul Glissan. Bill Egan continued his good run by drawing with Junil Choi; Alex Jule upset Dick Voon, as did David Webster with Ganesh Viswanath; while 89 year old Lloyd Fell was thrilled with his upset victory over Arthur Huynh after the latter gifted him a rook!

Things were really beginning to get interesting in Round 3 of the Minor, with four players reaching 3/3: seeds 2 and 3, David Evans and Anthony Villanueva, were among them after beating Michael Courtney and Daniel McGowan respectively. Young Bob Liang was also up there after defeating Richard Davies; while one of the grande dames of Australian chess, Mary Wilkie, struck a blow for seniority and also joined the group on a perfect score by scoring a nice upset win over Trent Parker. Howard Duggan drew with top seed Abel Urdanegui, who had already conceded a point after missing the first day (he got the starting day wrong!). David Soul also scored an upset draw, this time against Mick Waters. But the most significant upset win was scored by a junior (who else?), Andrew Pan taking care of Michael Tracey to reach 2/3.

An outright leader emerged in the Championships after Round 4, with Stephen Solomon winning the top board game in Gary Lane’s time pressure after the latter walked into a knight fork in an inferior ending where Solo’s rooks had already decisively penetrated Gary’s position. Dejan Antic was always better in his rook and opposite coloured bishop endgame against Felix Klein, winning the German’s h-pawn and thus obtaining a decisive passed h-pawn which marched to victory. Moulthun Ly drew an intriguing Board 3 game against Herman van Riemsdijk where MM sacrificed a piece for an attack, the Brazilian had to give back the exchange but thereby survived and they ended up in a drawn two knights vs rook ending. Darryl Johansen’s passed c7 pawn as White proved decisive against Junta Ikeda, while Jesse Sales won to tactics in an endgame against Ben Lazarus and Tristan Boyd’s hack attack succeeded (much to the West Australian’s surprise) against Greg Canfell! Tomek Rej and Igor Goldenberg agreed a draw when the position was about to simplify into a drawn rook ending, while the only other draws were Israel Yadao’s perpetual check against Andrew Bird and Romeo Capilitan’s swindle to snatch a draw from two pawns down against Barak Atzmon-Simon.

A few less upsets this round, as Igor Bjelobrk ground down Max Illingworth (“Max has become a hairy little wombat, hasn’t he?” – George Howard) in a long positional struggle ending in tactics, while Sam Chow decisively attack Stewart Booth’s king and Doug Hamilton did much the same to defeat Gareth Oliver. Ascaro Pecori beat Paul Broekhuyse in a wild game where both kings were being attacked, and George Xie recovered from his poor start to win pawns and game against Dusan Stojic. Ronald Yu won Vincent Suttor’s weak c-pawn, after which poor Vincent’s position completely collapsed! Jason Hu used his passed g-pawn to win his knight vs bishop endgame against David Hacche, while Gareth Charles won a long game against James Morris by mating James’ king (have a look at the final position) in the endgame! Malcolm Pyke defeated Hani Malik after the latter walked into mate; and the Championships were rounded off by Michael Morris, who upset Michael Wei in a knight vs bishop endgame.

Moving on the to Major, and we found ourselves with only two players on a perfect score after Round 4: ex-Kiwi Tim Hare and Korean Sanghoon Lee. Tim outplayed Adrian Rose in a long game, while the Korean took care of Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. Meanwhile Kevin Sheldrick joined a group of three players on 3.5/4 by using a mate threat to win piece and game quite quickly against Henk Jens. The other two players on this score were Blair Mandla, who ground down Michael Dunn in a long rook endgame; and James Watson, who beat Alex Mendes da Costa by sacrificing a knight (not sure if soundly or not) and obtaining mate! Lloyd Fell continued his good run by drawing with Ben Harris, while lower down NSW junior Joshua Lau scored an upset draw with Roland Brockman.

Even the Minor could not yet get an outright leader, with Bob Liang and Anthony Villanueva both winning to share the lead on 4/4. Bob upset David Evans by winning pawns and grinding him down in a long endgame; and Anthony ended Mary Wilkie’s run by also winning pawns to triumph in an almost equally long game. Seven players reached 3/4 and were breathing down the leaders’ necks; among them were David Beveridge (upset Tereza Grbin), Patrick Beahan (stunned Valsalan Karayi) and the unrated Richard Davies (who won against Mick Waters). Junior Alex Mehan and Tony Lau failed to join this group when they drew their individual game. Lower down, David Soul scored an upset draw with Michael Tracey.

The second consecutive double round day was always going to result in a few tired players agreeing early draws; and this certainly happened in the Championships, where Stephen Solomon maintained his outright tournament lead by agreeing to a quick draw in a simplified position against Dejan Antic. The Board 2 draw between Herman van Riemsdijk and Darryl Johansen was even shorter, but trickier, as Darryl played an inferior move in the opening and was worse before fighting back; Herman agreed a draw when still slightly better… No such luck for Gary Lane, who suffered his second loss of the day when he went down to Jesse Sales in a very long minor piece ending a pawn down. The ever solid Tristan Boyd drew with Moulthun Ly when they simplified to an equal (and symmetrical) double rook ending, while Sam Chow and Igor Bjelobrk agreed a quick draw. The other Igor, Goldenberg, did better by defeating Doug Hamilton; it looked in the final position that Goldie just had too much material for Doug’s queen…

Next we move on to the youngsters, beginning with Tomek Rej who beat Felix Klein with a discovered attack winning a rook. George Xie also triumphed, defeating Ascaro Pecori with active rooks winning pawns; but Ronald Yu could only draw after simplifying against Greg Canfell. Queensland junior Ben Lazarus was much better against Junta Ikeda, but unwisely let the ACT junior fight back; they ended up in a fascinating ending with connected passed pawns on opposite sides of the board, but Ben’s were faster and he won anyway. Max Illingworth won a long two bishops vs bishop and knight ending against Gareth Charles. Jason Hu drew with Israel Yadao when everything got swapped off on the open c-file.

More draws occurred lower down, where Gareth Oliver and Michael Morris, after a fight, settled into a perpetual check endgame; and Andrew Bird and Stewart Booth drew a fairly locked endgame position. David Hacche and Vincent Suttor also drew a locked position, while Dusan Stojic beat Romeo Capilitan in a superior ending a pawn up. Paul Broekhuyse’s rook on the seventh and centralised queen were about to mate Malcolm Pyke when the latter resigned. Michael Wei beat James Morris when his heavy pieces got at James’ exposed king. Poor Hani Malik was relegated to last place after losing exchange and game to Barak Atzmon-Simon.

Things were really beginning to get interesting in the Major, where Sanghoon Lee and Tim Hare drew their top board game to share the lead with James Watson on 4.5/5. I thought Tim was better in the end and may have played on to win; but his extra exchange (for a pawn) was nullified by a lack of pawns, and so he agreed to a draw. James got a typical attack through to win material and defeat Kevin Sheldrick. Blair Mandla failed to join the leaders when he could only draw his game with Adrian Rose. Johny Bolens was still up there when he beat Peter Abbott; while Shannon Oliver scored an upset draw in a simplified heavy piece endgame with Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. Levi Descallar shocked Alex Mendes da Costa; Lloyd Fell continued his upset run by beating Michael Dunn; and Oleg Korenevski stunned Svetozar Stojic.

An outright leader finally emerged in the Minor when Anthony Villanueva was too strong for Bob Liang, thus reaching 5/5 and a full point lead. But six players were still breathing down his neck on 4/5, as the tournament was about to get interesting: second seed David Evans being among them after winning against Mary Wilkie. Michael Courtney and Patrick Beahan were also in this group after upset wins against Tereza Grbin and Trent Parker respectively.

Board 1 saw Stephen Solomon manage to maintain his outright lead on 5.5/6 after Round 6 of the Championships – but what a hair-raising way he chose to do so! Having “sacrificed” a queen for rook and knight, Solo was better but made very hard work of it – then of course there came the time scramble – and inevitably it was Solo who triumphed after Jesse walked into a tactic. All this increased Stephen’s lead to a full point from Herman van Riemsdijk, the Brazilian scoring an upset win over Dejan Antic after winning a pawn from the opening and not allowing any real counterplay on his king (he ended up getting at Dejan’s king instead!). Draws on the next three boards then saw a traffic jam of 8 players in equal third on 4/6. Darryl struggled against Tomek Rej, eventually having to sacrifice a piece for a passed pawn but hanging on for a draw; Moulthun Ly and Igor Goldenberg drew a long double rook and bishop ending where MM eventually won a pawn but it was not enough to win; and Tristan Boyd simplified to draw with Gary Lane and maintain his excellent result in the event so far.

In fact this was an unusual round from the point of view of the number of draws: only 7 games out of the 19 played produced decisive results! One of these was scored by George Xie, whose two pawns proved more than enough for the exchange against Igor Bjelobrk; another by Ronald Yu, who ended up in an ending two pawns ahead against Doug Hamilton. Paul Broekhuyse won a piece to beat Jason Hu; Junta Ikeda’s connected passed pawns in the middle of the board defeated Andrew Bird; and Gareth Charles fell into tactics to lose to Michael Morris. As for the draws, Lazarus-Illingworth was a simplified ending, as was Pecori-Klein; Israel Yadao and Dusan Stojic drew by repetition of position; and the bottom five boards were all draws, with not much to comment except that James Morris was a bit lucky to draw with Hani Malik. The most interesting draw was between Greg Canfell and Sam Chow, where Greg ended up a piece ahead (actually Sam sacrificed it playing for a win!) but Sam’s passed a-pawn proved to be enough compensation; in the end Greg’s pieces were too tied up for him to do anything!

Tim Hare had a bit of pressure early in his Board 1 Major game against James Watson; but James was able to lock up the position, and they soon agreed a draw. This left James and Tim equal first on 5/6 with Johny Bolens, who used a typical Bolens tactic to triumph against Sanghoon Lee. The tournament of course still remained ridiculously close, as a group of 8 players reached 4.5/6 just half a point off the lead; among them were Blair Mandla and Peter Fry, who drew their individual game in a simplified queen and rook ending. Jason Cohn was also there after his upset win against Ben Harris, a typical lengthy triumph in a double rook endgame a pawn ahead. The juniors wreaked their usual havoc with upset wins lower down: Joshua Lau won against Frank Barisic, and Luthien Russell defeated Norm Greenwood.

Anthony Villanueva made the Minor interesting with a brain snap in his Round 6 game against David Evans; he moved his king the wrong way in a king and pawn ending that should have been an easy draw (he was winning earlier)! The result was a five way tie for first on 5/6, David and Anthony being joined by Howard Duggan (who beat David Beveridge) and Bob Liang (who defeated Michael Courtney). Also up there was Patrick Beahan, who scored an upset win against Abel Urdanegui. With five players also on 4/5, all sorts of things were possible in this 37 player Minor! Also scoring an upset win was the usual under-rated junior, Andrew Pan, over Trent Parker; but some of the elder players struck with upsets too, Tom Accola beating Tony Lau and the somewhat younger Mario Pleno defeating Mick Waters.

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