ACF NEWS

WORLD MIND SPORTS GAMES 2008

The ACF has agreed to enter teams in each of the Men’s and Women’s chess teams competitions in the World Mind Sports Games, to be held in Beijing from October 12 to 18.

Each of the two teams will comprise four players plus one reserve, for whom accommodation in Beijing will be provided without charge.

Organisers have also indicated the likelihood of free air travel from Sydney to Beijing and return for team members.

The competitions for both teams comprise:

The Games’ closing ceremony in which team members are invited to take part is on October 18.

Flight departure dates for all team members have not yet been confirmed but are expected to be:

Selection of team members will be in accordance with clause 12 of the ACF Selections Procedures By-law, visible at www.auschess.org.au/constitution/index.html.

Team Manager / Captains

Applications are also invited from persons willing to serve as Team Manager and/or Team Captain for one or both teams, for whom complementary accommodation will be provided and possibly free air travel.

Inquiries & Applications

ACF OLYMPIAD PROVISIONAL SELECTIONS 2008

from Kevin Bonham, ACF Selections Director

Dear Olympiad applicants, selectors and interested members of the chess community,

The provisional selections for the upcoming Olympiad are:

Open Team

Womens Team

Appeals

Any applicant may appeal the result of the selections within seven days, ie by Tuesday 23 July. Appeals can be made only on one or both of the following grounds:

* That there was a material error or omission in the selection process that has disadvantaged the applicant. (Appeals cannot be made on the grounds of any alleged material error or omission relating to the eligibility of an applicant for selection, except for an alleged error concerning the 20 game requirement.)

* That the applicant was clearly ranked such that no selectors could have reasonably given the applicant that ranking based on the information supplied to the selectors. Note: It is not sufficient to appeal on the basis that a player thinks that he/she should have been selected. The ranking of the selectors has to be clearly incorrect and unreasonable.

Any player wishing to appeal shall send their appeal as an attached document to the ACF Selections Director, Kevin Bonham, email k_bonham@tassie.net.au (or by post to 410 Macquarie Street, South Hobart Tas 7004). Appeals must be accompanied by a deposit of $200 to the ACF also by Tuesday 23 July - please ask for appropriate ACF bank account details if required. The deposit will be refunded if the appeal is successful.

If any appeals are lodged, applicants for the relevant team(s) will be advised and invited to respond as soon as possible.

Congratulations to the successful applicants, commiserations to those who are not in the teams at this stage and thanks to all the applicants for their patience with the lengthy selection process. I wish to particularly thank the selectors, Ingela Eriksson (Women's team), GM Ian Rogers (Open team) and IM Guy West, Ian Rout, FM Tim Reilly, and FM Geoff Saw (these four for both teams) for their many hours of very dedicated work on these very challenging selections. I also thank Selections Co-Ordinator N Y Wong, GM Ian Rogers and ACF Ratings Officer Bill Gletsos for their assistance in providing and collating much of the material used by the selectors in considering their decisions. And, once again, I thank all the applicants for their interest in representing their country in this event.

Kevin Bonham
ACF Selections Director

MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS GRAND PRIX

http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=grandprix

Coming Grand Prix Events

EVENTS CALENDAR

Malaysian Chess Festival 2008

ChessBase article

ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team Event, August 15-17.
IGB-5^th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship 2008, August 18-24.
ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team Event, August 30 - September 1.
Flyer here.
Enquiries Some financial assistance may be available for interested players. Contact Brian Jones for more information.

IGB-5^th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship 2008

Venue Ballroom, 5th Floor, CitiTel Mid Valley Hotel, Mid Valley Megamall, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 KL.
Format 11 Round Swiss.
Entry fee Unrated US $200, 1600-1999 $150, 2000-2199 $125, 2200-2299 $100, 2300-2399 $75, 2400-2499 $50.
Prizes See flyer.
Registration 7.30 to 8.30 a.m., Monday, 18 August.
Enquiries aham@pc.jaring.my
Flyer here.

Surfers Paradise Open

Venue Quality Hotels, Mermaid Waters, cnr Markeri Street and Sunshine Boulevard, Mermaid Waters, Gold Coast, QLD, 4218.
Format Three 6 Round Swisses. 'Paradise' August 29 - August 31. 'Surfing' August 30-31. 'Fun' August 30.
Entry fee 'Paradise' $90 (GMs free), 'Surfing' $60, 'Fun' $30.
Prizes 'Paradise' $2000, $1000, $500, $200, $100. 'Surfing' $500, $200, $100 (& rating group prizes). 'Fun' $100 (& runnerup medal).
Registration Entries and payments closing on Monday, 25 August 2008.
Enquiries info@kingsofchess.biz or (0061) 07 5578 5872
Flyer here.

Oceania Zonal Chess Tournament for Men and Women

Website in preparation.

Venue Outrigger Twin Towns Resort
Format Nine round swiss for Men and Women (or a round robin if appropriate).
DOPs Chief Arbiter: IA Charles Zworestine. Assistant Arbiters: IA Gary Bekker & Graeme Gardiner.
Entry fee dependant on rating. See flyer.
Prizes Men: $1500, $1000, $750, $500, $400, $250, $150. 1^st under 2000 $300. 1^st under 1800 $300. Women: $750. $500, $300. 1^st under 1800 $300.
Registration by Friday, 6 June, 2009. The organiser may, at his discretion, accept late entries.
Enquiries to Graeme Gardiner, 11 Hardys Road, Mudgeeraba Qld 4213. Phone 5522 7221. Fax 5522 7760. Email ggardiner@gardinerchess.com.
Flyer here.

OVERSEAS EVENTS CALENDAR

Notice of the following overseas events have been received by the ACF. Brief details follow. For more complete information, please contact auschessnews@gmail.com.

Mlada Boleslav Open 2008, Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic, 27 July - August 3 2008, GM, IM, FIDE Open and National Open events.

Euro Chess Tournament, the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, Young Masters invitation Tournament (1-9 August), Open Dutch Youth Championships (4-9 August).

Asian Club Cup 2008, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 11-19 September 2008, 7-round swiss teams, Entries to ACF by 1 Aug 2008, Accommodaton provided, Fares not provided, Fees payable by players.

COMPLETED EVENTS

2008 NSW Open

from DOP Charles Zworestine

Momentum Maintained

Momentum maintained? Haven’t we had enough by now of Charles’ ridiculous obsession with alliteration? And what momentum is he talking about, anyway? Well, last year’s NSW Open attracted a total of 107 players (50 in the Open, 57 in the Under 1600), up a couple of dozen on the year before: a certain degree of momentum, as numbers were moving in the right direction! Maintaining that momentum was important; so the NSWCA were very happy that numbers actually increased even further this year to 110, with the Open again attracting 50 players but the Under 1600 this time getting even more with 60 players. Like last year, Parramatta RSL was a good venue; and with people itching to play chess again following a couple of month layoff after another successful Sydney International Open and Doeberl Cup, again this proved to be a very popular event. An even more cosmopolitan tournament this year attracted players from the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, as well as visiting Macedonian IM Atanas Kizov; so at the standard Fischer time controls of 90 minutes each plus 30 seconds per move from the start, the players were all set for another good event…

Open Event

Top seed here was Serbian (hopefully soon to be Australian) GM Dejan Antic, followed by IM Stephen Solomon (the Australian Champion), IM Atanas Kizov, IM George Xie, FM Igor Bjelobrk and FM Jesse Sales (all sorted by FIDE ratings). All won convincingly in the first round – except George Xie! South Australian Peter Sanders (1802) played a good game against him, successfully worming his way through all of George’s complications to end up forcing a draw in a rook and pawn ending (see game below). George did miss good chances to win; still, an excellent effort from a player making a comeback after about 10 years of not playing chess…

 George Xie (2417) - Peter Sanders (1802)
NSW Open 2008 (1) 07/06/2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 a6 5.Nge2 e6 6.Nxd4 cxd4 7.Ne2 b5 8.Bb3 Qb6 9.d3 Bb7 10.a4 Nf6 11.axb5 axb5 12.Rxa8+ Bxa8 13.Bg5 Be7 14.0–0 Qc5 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nf4 0–0 17.Qh5 Qxh5 18.Nxh5 Be7 19.f4 Rc8 20.f5 Rc5 21.Ra1 Bc6 22.g4 Bg5 23.Ng3 g6 24.Rf1 Kg7 25.Kg2 h6 26.Kh3 Re5 27.fxg6 fxg6 28.Ne2 Be3 29.c3 dxc3 30.bxc3 h5 31.Ra1 hxg4+ 32.Kxg4 d5 33.h4 Rh5 34.Kf3 Bc5 35.Nf4 dxe4+ 36.Kg4 Rf5 37.Nxe6+ Kh6 38.d4 Bd6 39.Ng5 Bd7 40.Be6 Bxe6 41.Nxe6 Rf3 42.Rg1 Rxc3 43.Ng5 Be7 44.Rf1 Bxg5 45.hxg5+ Kg7 46.Rb1 Rd3 47.Rb4 Rd1 48.Kf4 Re1 49.Rxb5 Kf7 50.Ke5 e3 51.Rb7+ Ke8 52.Ke6 Kd8 53.Rb8+ Kc7 54.Rb2 Rd1 55.Rc2+ Kd8 56.Re2 Rxd4 57.Rxe3 Rf4 58.Re5 Ke8 59.Ra5 Kf8 60.Ra7 Kg8 61.Rb7 Rf5 62.Ra7 Kh8 63.Ra8+ Kg7 64.Ra7+ Kg8 65.Rb7 Rxg5 66.Kf6 Rf5+ 67.Kxg6 Rf8 68.Rg7+ Kh8 69.Rh7+ Kg8 ½–½

Round 2 was still fairly predictable at the top, with most of the top seeds grinding down their opponents in longish positional games. Joshua Lau got a forced repetition of position to score an upset draw with Johny Bolens; but by far the luckiest player of the round was Max Illingworth, who stole half a point against Josh Christensen! Having sacrificed a piece for an attack that was not really there, Max ended up in an ending of bishop and pawns vs bishop, knight and pawns; how Joshua let him pull off the tactic that won back the piece and drew I will never know…

The leading lights kept motoring in Round 3, as Dejan Antic dismantled the Tomek Tank by winning first a pawn and then the exchange; and Stephen Solomon won a nice attacking game by sacrificing a rook to defeat Paul Broekhuyse (see game below). Kizov ground down Ayvazyan, and Sales beat Gary McNamara to join Antic, Solo and Kizov in the lead on 3/3. Jason Hu was better, but could only draw his ending with Igor Bjelobrk; these two were joined on 2½/3 by George Xie (beat Christensen) and Max Illingworth (won a piece in a long game against Bolens).

 Stephen Solomon (2441) - Paul Broekhuyse (2112)
NSW Open 2008 (3) 08/06/2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 d6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.Bg5 Bd7 7.Qd3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Rc8 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.0–0–0 b5 11.e5 dxe5 12.Nxb5 Qxa2 13.Bc3 Qa1+ 14.Kd2 Qa4 15.Bxe5 Be4 16.Qd4 Bxc2 17.Qxa4 Bxa4 18.Ra1 Rd8+ 19.Ke1 Bb3 20.Nc7+ Kd7 21.Bb5+ Kc8 22.Rxa7 Rd1+ 23.Ke2 Rxh1 24.Bc6 Bc4+ 25.Kf3 Nd7 26.Ra8+ Nb8 27.Nb5 Bd5+ 28.Bxd5 e6 29.Bc6 Kd8 30.Rxb8+ Ke7 31.Re8# 1–0

One of the great miracles of Australian chess occurred in Round 4, when Stephen Solomon misplayed a won queen ending to only draw with Kizov; Solo is now only about 1000½ points ahead… Meanwhile Antic got the outright lead on 4/4 by exploiting Sales’ weak pawns to win their ending. Solo and Kizov were joined on 3½/4 by Igor Bjelobrk, who survived an indifferent opening to beat George Xie by mangling his pawns; and Jason Hu, who gained superior activity to upset Max Illingworth by getting at his king. Among surprise players on 3/4 were Joshua Lau, who won an exchange to stun Paul Broekhuyse; Andrew Furst, who won a nice game to upset Gary McNamara (see game below); and the unrated Fluen Magalona, who beat Jason Chan.

 Gary McNamara (2084) - Andrew Furst (1860)
NSW Open 2008 (4) 08/06/2008

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.d4 0–0 6.Be2 e5 7.0–0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Ne8 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.b4 Ng6 14.c5 Rf7 15.Rc1 h5 16.Qc2 g4 17.Kh1 Qg5 18.cxd6 cxd6 19.Bb5 Bd7 20.Bxd7 Rxd7 21.Nb5 a6 22.Na3 Rc7 23.Qd2 Rac8 24.Rxc7 Rxc7 25.Nd3 Nh4 26.Bxh4 Qxh4 27.Rc1 Qd8 28.Rc2 Bf6 29.Nc1 Bh4 30.Nb3 Rg7 31.Nc4 b5 32.Nca5 Bg3 33.hxg3 fxg3 34.Qe3 Qh4+ 35.Kg1 Qh2+ 36.Kf1 gxf3 37.Qg1 Rf7 38.Rc1 f2 39.Qxh2 gxh2 40.Ke2 f1Q+ 0–1

An intriguing top board battle in Round 5 saw the Australian Champion paired against our sole grandmaster; and Solo prevailed in a fascinating ending with passed pawns on both sides of the board (see game below)! I was not sure whose pawns were stronger; but Stephen assures me he was winning… On Board 2 Jason Hu scored an excellent draw with Atanas Kizov; the IM sacrificed a piece for an attack, but could get no more than a perpetual check. Jesse Sales won a piece to beat Igor Bjelobrk, while Tomek Rej beat Joshua Lau in a king and pawn endgame a pawn up. Andrew Furst continued his good run by drawing with Armen Ayvazyan by again charging up his black kingside pawns… Andrew Brown also reached 4/5 by beating Fluen Magalona in a scrappy game where Andrew won a pawn but carelessly gave it back, but then his opponent unnecessarily sacrificed the exchange; even then he reached a drawn endgame, but made one more mistake and Andrew found a way to win by forcing mate in rook vs bishop.

 Stephen Solomon (2441) - Dejan Antic (2476)
NSW Open 2008 (5) 08/06/2008

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nbd7 6.Nf3 h6 7.Bxf6 Nxf6 8.Bd3 c6 9.Qd2 Qc7 10.0–0–0 b6 11.Rhe1 Be7 12.Ne5 Bb7 13.f4 0–0 14.Qe3 c5 15.Nxf6+ Bxf6 16.dxc5 bxc5 17.Bc4 Bxe5 18.Qxe5 Qxe5 19.Rxe5 Bxg2 20.f5 exf5 21.Rd7 Bf3 22.Rxc5 f4 23.h4 Bg4 24.Re7 Rad8 25.b4 Rd1+ 26.Kb2 Rd7 27.Re4 Kh7 28.Rxf4 f5 29.Be6 Rb7 30.Kb3 g6 31.b5 Kg7 32.c4 Re7 33.Rc6 Rf6 34.Bd5 g5 35.hxg5 hxg5 36.Rf1 Be2 37.Rg1 g4 38.a4 f4 39.a5 Rxc6 40.Bxc6 Re6 41.Bd5 Re3+ 42.Kb4 Rg3 43.Ra1 f3 44.b6 axb6 45.axb6 Rh3 46.b7 Rh8 47.Ra8 f2 48.Rxh8 1–0

Stunning surprises were the order of the day at the top in Round 6, as Tomek Rej survived a terrible opening to do a Solo on Solo! Giving Solo a dose of his own medicine, Tomek came back from material down to end up with two rooks and bishop against queen; Solo fought like a tiger as always, but in the end it was not enough (see game below). Jason Hu drew from a position of strength against Antic, while Kizov and Sales also drew; then Andrew Brown stunned George Xie by maintaining the balance in time pressure, then getting the better of tactics to wind up a piece up! All this left the amazing situation of Tomek Rej and Andrew Brown joint leaders on 5/6 going into the last round, followed by a large group of players on 4½/6. Among them was Andrew Furst, who scored another upset win when he won a piece to defeat Johny Bolens.

 Tomek Rej (2289) - Stephen Solomon (2441)
NSW Open 2008 (6) 09/06/2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Ne4 7.Qc2 c5 8.dxc5 Nc6 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Nf3 Bf5 11.b4 0–0 12.Bb2 b6 13.b5 bxc5 14.bxc6 Qa5+ 15.Nd2 Rab8 16.c7 Rb3 17.Rd1 c4 18.g4 Bg6 19.Bg2 Nxf2 20.Qxb3 cxb3 21.Kxf2 Qxc7 22.Nf3 Be4 23.Nd4 Re8 24.Bf3 Qf4 25.h4 h6 26.h5 Rc8 27.Rc1 Rc2 28.Nxc2 bxc2 29.Kg2 Qxg4+ 30.Kf2 Qf4 31.Rhg1 f6 32.Rg4 Qh2+ 33.Ke3 Qb8 34.Bxe4 Qxb2 35.Bxd5+ Kf8 36.Kd2 Qxa3 37.Bf3 Qa5+ 38.Kxc2 Qxh5 39.Kb3 Qe5 40.Re4 Qd6 41.Rc8+ Kf7 42.Rec4 Qd1+ 43.Kc3 Qa1+ 44.Kd3 f5 45.R4c6 Qd1+ 46.Kc4 Qa4+ 47.Kd5 Qa5+ 48.Kd4 Qa1+ 49.Ke3 Qg1+ 50.Kd2 Qd4+ 51.Kc2 Qa4+ 52.Kb2 Qb4+ 53.Kc1 Qa3+ 54.Kd2 Qa5+ 55.Ke3 Qe5+ 56.Kf2 f4 57.R6c7+ Kg6 58.Rc6+ Kf7 59.Rc5 Qd4+ 60.Kg2 g6 61.R8c7+ Kf6 62.Rd5 Qb6 63.Rdc5 Qb1 64.Rxa7 h5 65.Ra6+ Kg7 66.Rcc6 h4 67.Rxg6+ Kh7 68.Rgb6 h3+ 69.Kh2 1–0

Excitement pervaded in the last round, as the amazing Board 1 pairing Andrew Brown vs Tomek Rej resulted in a draw, enabling potentially 6 players to catch them in a tie for first on 5½/7! This was duly achieved by Antic, who beat Kizov; and Solo, who ground down Bjelobrk after securing a positional advantage and converting it into a won rook ending a pawn up. Sales had a more nervous time of it, starting off a piece for two pawns down in a complicated position against Andrew Furst; but then in an exciting game Andrew got carried away and sacrificed too much trying to checkmate Jesse, and Jesse eventually prevailed. Jason Hu then finally completed the sextuplet, somehow winning his game against Gary McNamara from a pawn down for much of the game after Gary neglected to play a winning in between move, and so wound up in a lost king and pawn ending instead of a won one! So the six way tie for first did happen; while Furst took out the U2000-1850 prize, Michael Dunn drew with George Xie from an exchange up to take out the U1850-1700 prize and John Redgrave upset Jason Chan to win 1st Under 1700.

Prize Winners: = 1^st GM Dejan Antic, Andrew Brown, Jason Hu, Tomek Rej, FM Jesse Sales, IM Stephen Solomon 5½/7; 1^st U2000-1850 Andrew Furst 4½/7; 2^nd U2000-1850 Jason Chan 4; 1^st U1850-1700 Michael Dunn 4½; = 2^nd U1850-1700 Peter Abbott, Mos Ali 4; 1^st Under 1700 John Redgrave 5; = 2^nd U1700 Joshua Christensen, Emma Guo, Tom Tomas 4.

Under 1600 Event

Top seed here was the evergreen Eddy Katnic (1599). Being the top seed never seems to be of much benefit in these events; and this one proved no exception, Katnic being paired with the rapidly improving and dangerous 7 year old Anton Smirnov! Eddy lost one piece, then another after a minor dispute as to whether or not his hand had left the relevant piece; witnesses said it had, and two pieces down he went on to lose. More early upsets saw 4th seed Edward Naoumov go down to Thai Pham; 10th seed Chris Sparks lose to Garry Jennings; Valsalan Karayi to Paul Palmer; and Bill Herreros to yet another rapidly improving junior, Dane Zielinski-Nicholson.

In Round 2, 10 year old Andrew Pan scored a good upset win against Martin Van Elmpt. Dane Zielinski-Nicholson will never again forget the Philidor position after losing his drawn ending against Ian Dickson; in a way this was a shame, as both players had played well in a fascinating double rook ending to reach the final drawn position. Anton Smirnov should have beaten Graham Saint, but misplayed a material advantage and only drew. Patrick Beahan scored an upset win over Trent Parker, while Michael Tracey scored an upset draw with Muhamed Buza.

Ian Dickson ground down Jack Ruan in the top board game in Round 3, cashing in on an extra exchange to share the lead on 3/3 with Vaness Reid, Adrian Chau, Hamish Griffin and James Satrapa. Of these, upset wins were scored by Vaness over Nathan Adler, James over Dennis Wan and Hamish against Muhamed Buza. Anthony Villanueva and Harry Ruan missed a chance to join them when they drew on Board 2. Trent Parker made hard work of it but finally ended Anton Smirnov’s run by getting his pieces in to attack Anton’s king.

An exciting top board game in Round 4 saw Vaness Reid a pawn up in a double rook and knight against double rook and bishop endgame; she gave the pawn back to get at the opponent’s king, which she ended up checkmating (see game below). This left Vaness equal first on 4/4 with Hamish Griffin, who beat Ian Dickson. Harry Ruan upset Graham Saint to reach 3½/4, where he was joined by Anthony Villanueva (who beat James Satrapa) and David Adler. In the longest game of the event so far, David had an even more exciting game than Vaness, coming back from the dead (a piece down) to defeat Michael Ngo via a triumphant passed c-pawn.

 Vaness Reid (1497) - Adrian Chau (1527)
NSW Under-1600 2008 (4) 08/06/2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qb3 a5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 h6 7.e3 b6 8.f3 d5 9.b3 0–0 10.Bd3 Bb7 11.Ne2 Nbd7 12.0–0 c5 13.Bb2 Qc7 14.Rac1 Rfc8 15.Kh1 Qd6 16.Rfd1 Qe7 17.Bb1 dxc4 18.bxc4 cxd4 19.exd4 Ba6 20.Ba2 Ra7 21.Nf4 Qd6 22.Qe3 Nf8 23.d5 exd5 24.Bxf6 Qxf6 25.Nxd5 Qe6 26.Qxb6 Qxb6 27.Nxb6 Rc6 28.c5 Rac7 29.Nd5 Rd7 30.Re1 Ne6 31.Nb6 Rd2 32.Bxe6 fxe6 33.h3 Rd3 34.a4 Rd4 35.Re4 Rb4 36.Ree1 Rd4 37.Kg1 Kf7 38.Kf2 Ke7 39.g4 g5 40.Kg3 Kf6 41.h4 e5 42.hxg5+ hxg5 43.Rh1 Kg6 44.Rh8 Be2 45.Rch1 Rxc5 46.R1h6+ Kf7 47.R8h7+ Ke8 48.Re6+ Kd8 49.Rg6 Bc4 50.Nxc4 Rcxc4 1–0

Vaness Reid’s top board win against David Adler snared her the outright lead in the Under 1600 on 5/5, after Harry Ruan and Hamish Griffin (Board 2) drew their game and so failed to join her. Harry was a pawn up in a pure opposite coloured bishop endgame, but could make no progress and so agreed a draw… Hamish was joined on 4½/5 by Anthony Villanueva, who won a long game to beat Eddy Katnic. Harry was joined on 4/5 by Adrian Chau, who beat his brother Jack Ruan (after the latter says he blundered); and Nathan Adler, who defeated James Satrapa. Speaking of brothers, Adrian’s brother Bernard Chau stole a full point to upset Martin van Elmpt; dead lost when his knight could not stop a White passed pawn on h6, he somehow tricked his opponent into not queening it, won the h-pawn and ended up winning from a losing position!

A top board draw by Vaness with Hamish Griffin in Round 6 enabled Anthony Villanueva to catch her in the lead on 5½/6; she doubled Hamish’s pawns but could not find any entry points, so in the end with no way through she offered a draw. Anthony defeated Trent Parker to set up a final round showdown with Vaness, while Harry Ruan joined Hamish in equal second on 5/6 by upsetting Adrian Chau. An exciting finish was in order, as Norm Greenwood and Dennis Wan both reached 4½/6; Norm by beating Jonathan Yuen, and Dennis by defeating David Adler. Dennis’ son Kinto Wan was also doing well, this round upsetting Graham Saint to reach 4/6.

As in the Open, this event saw an exciting top board finish in the last round, with Vaness Reid a pawn up but in danger of being attacked by Anthony Villanueva – until she turned the tables by “sacrificing” a piece for three pawns! Then Anthony was the one being attacked, and he had no better than to allow Vaness to swap off into a winning ending where Vaness’ four pawns killed his knight. So Vaness won the event outright on 5½/6, with Hamish Griffin second on 6/7 (but ineligible for a prize due to being unrated) after he beat Norm Greenwood. Harry Ruan had to be content with equal second prize with Villanueva on 5½/7 after his extra exchange was not enough to beat Dennis Wan – due to liquidation of pawns, he could only draw… Adrian Miranda’s last round upset win over Jack Ruan got him into a group of players sharing fourth prize on 5/7, which included Kinto Wan after he scored another upset win over David Adler.

Prize Winners: 1^st Vaness Reid 6½/7; = 2^nd Harry Ruan, Anthony Villanueva 5½; = 4^th Adrian Chau, Adrian Miranda, Trent Parker, James Satrapa, Dennis Wan 5; 1^st U1450-1300 Kinto Wan 5; = 2^nd U1450-1300 Daniel McGowan, Bob Sewell, Anton Smirnov, Michael Tracey, Michael Weltner 4; = 1^st U1300 Tony Lau, Erick McPherson, Caroline Shan 4.

TAILPIECE