Gold Coast Open
2004
Gold Coast Open Report
by DOP
Charles Zworestine
Now I know
what Michael Slater feels like… Being stranded on 99 is not a good feeling.
Especially not when players are suggesting that I should play – you know they
must be getting desperate! Not that 99 players in the Gold Coast Open/Under 1600
event can really be considered a failure; but it was very nice when an extra
entry on the Sunday got us to 100 (35 in the Open, 65 in the Under 1600).
Anyway, we can’t really complain: the Gold Coast Open is still one of the most
successful weekenders in the country…
Of
course, no matter how organised Graeme Gardiner is, these things never
start on time – we did well to begin only 25 minutes late. With time controls
once more of 60 minutes plus 10 seconds per move from the start, this meant we
had to be careful not to fall too far behind schedule. We relied on the top
seeds winning their Round 1 games quickly, and they obliged: GM Ian Rogers
and IM David Smerdon especially. IM Stephen Solomon’s extra
exchange took a little longer to subdue Ben Lazarus, while WIM Arianne
Caoili was worse against Cathy Rogers until the latter walked into a
tactic which cost her a piece. And of course, not everything went according to
script, with Australian Junior Champion Denis Bourmistrov the highest
rated casualty after miscalculating and ending up a piece down against Alex
Toolsie…
Two
big upsets in Round 2, as the juniors triumphed over much higher rated
opposition. First Moulthun Ly defeated Michael Lip, then James
Obst stunned Stephen Solomon (and a large gallery of spectators!).
The Ly-Lip game was particularly interesting, with Moulthun’s queen triumphing
over Michael’s three minor pieces (see game below). Justin Pengelley
lost to
Rogers
on Board 1, while David Smerdon won his locked position
against John Myers, whom he was playing for the first time since Smurf
was 12! The other top seeds all won, except for a struggling Denis Bourmistrov
who was held to a draw by John O’Brien.
Ly, M
(1838) –
Lip, M (2061) [D35] 2004 Gold Coast Open (2), Board 6 27/06/2004
1.d4
d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 c6 7.Bd3 Ne4 8.Bf4 Nxc3 9.bxc3
Qa5 10.Ne2 Be6 11.0–0 Nd7 12.f3 g5 13.Bg3 h5 14.f4 Bg4 15.fxg5 Bxg5 16.h3
Bxe3+ 17.Kh1 0–0–0 18.Qb3 Rdg8
19.Rab1 b5 20.Bxb5 Qxb5 21.Qa3 Bxe2 22.Rxb5 Bxb5 23.Rxf7 Rxg3 24.Qd6 c5
25.Qxg3 cxd4 26.cxd4 Bxd4 27.a4 Be5 28.Qg6 Bc7 29.axb5 Re8 30.Rf1 Re5 31.Qa6+
Kb8 32.Qc6 Kc8 33.Rc1 1–0
We
were thinking of introducing height restrictions after Round 3, where little
Moulthun scored yet another upset by grinding down Alistair Compton in a
long ending. Ian Rogers beat Jacob Edwards in a queen and pawn ending,
David Smerdon came back from a pawn down to win a piece and eventually find a
nice checkmate against Kevin Casey, and Stephen Solomon recovered (yet
again!) from a losing position to beat Phachara Wongwichit. Arianne
Caoili won a messy time scramble against James Obst, then had to take a
prearranged half point bye in Round 4 to go to work! In this round Moulthun
finally got his comeuppance against Ian Rogers (who just took too many of his
pawns), as did a tired James Obst, who lost to Jacob Edwards despite having a
good position for much of their game. Time pressure cost Alistair Compton a draw
against Justin Pengelley; John Myers upset Michael Lip; and David Smerdon and
Stephen Solomon took the long way round to their eventual draw by repetition…
Round
5 saw Ian Rogers get to 5/5 by beating Smurf in a knight and pawn ending, while
Arianne drew an even contest ending in a mutual time pressure repetition against
Jacob Edwards. John Myers won a tactical slugfest against Moulthun, while Solo,
Alistair and Denis all won to stay among the leaders. Another win in Round 6
(against John Myers) saw Ian get to 6/6 and guaranteed at least equal first,
Solo and Smurf staying in touch with wins, but Arianne the only one still having
the chance to catch him after Denis refused her draw offer and proceeded to get
mated by her heavy pieces instead. But Arianne could not then stop Mr. Perfect,
who defeated her convincingly in the last round to win outright on 7/7. Solo
lost first one pawn, then two, but then activated his pieces and managed to win
against Kevin Casey anyway; this got him to 5½ and equal second with Smurf, who
beat John O’Brien.
Prizes:
1st
Ian Rogers 7/7; 2nd = David Smerdon, Stephen Solomon 5½; 1st
= Under 2000 Toshi Kimura, John Myers 4½.
2003
Gold Coast Under 1600 Report
The
usual juniors queued up to try to win this one! The first round went largely
according to seeding, except for Nathan Fisher’s upset draw with Bruce
Harris. A few more upsets in Round 2, as Ross Mills shocked visiting
ACT third seed Jesse Maguire and another interstate visitor, Adelaide
Soltysik (NSW), held sixth seed Dion Sampson to a draw. Things got
more exciting in Round 3, despite predictable wins to top seed Craig Stewart
and fifth seed Nenad Chelebichanin. Much more interesting were James
Morris’ lengthy upset win over second seed Nathan Anderson, and Robert
Hvistendahl’s heart-stopping win over Amy Evans (see game below),
where after many fluctuations he got to Amy’s king before she got to his…
Hvistendahl,
R (1556) –
Evans, A (1418) [C13] Gold Coast Under 1600 (3), Board 3 27/06/04
1.e4
e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4 c5 7.Bxe7 Qxe7 8.Nb5 Nb6 9.Nd6+
Kf8 10.dxc5 N6d7 11.Nxc8 Qxc5 12.Nd6 Nxe5 13.Ne4 Qb4+ 14.c3 Qxe4+ 15.Ne2 Nd3+
16.Kd2 Nxf2 17.Qb3 Nxh1 18.Qxb7 Qxh4 19.Qxa8 Qg5+ 20.Kc2 Qf5+ 21.Kb3 Ke7
22.Nd4 Qf4 23.Bb5 Ng3 24.Re1 Rd8 25.Qxa7+ Kf6 26.Qa8 Qc7 27.Re3 Nd7 28.Qc6 Qb8
29.Nxe6 fxe6 30.Qxe6+ Kg5 31.Rxg3+ Qxg3 32.Qe7+ Kg6 33.Qxd8 Nf6 34.Be8+ Kh6
35.Bf7 Qxg2 36.Qd6 Qe4 37.Qh2+ Kg5 38.Qg3+ Kh6 39.a4 Qc4+ 40.Ka3 g5 41.Qd6 Kg7
42.Qe7 Qf4 43.Bxd5+ Kg6 44.Bf7+ Kg7 45.Be8+ Kh6 46.Qf8# 1–0
Round
4 left us with two outright leaders on 4/4, after Craig beat Howard Chuang
and Nenad took care of Robert. James Morris had a longish draw with Dion Sampson
to get to 3½, where he was joined by Bruce Harris and Alex Jule (who upset Jim
Laky). So to Sunday morning and Round 5, where Nenad took the outright lead
over Craig, but still had James Morris breathing down his neck on 4½ after the
latter won a long ending against Bruce Harris. Draw city on the next three
boards: opposite coloured bishops in Alex vs Jesse, Robert unable to break
through Howard and a tired Dion drawing with Amy. This left five players on 4/5,
a heap on 3½ and an exciting finish in prospect…
James
Morris took the outright lead (5½/6) by beating Nenad in Round 6, by half a
point from Nenad, Mike Duffin (who beat Laky) and Alex Jule (upset
winner over Jim Ritchie). Craig Stewart and Kelvin Finke
were largely out of contention after their Board 2 draw. It took him a while,
but little James then converted his extra piece to beat Mike Duffin in the last
round and win outright on 6½/7. Nenad got second by beating Alex Jule, and Dion
claimed third over Craig Stewart.
Prizes:
1st
James Morris 6 ½/7; 2nd Nenad Chelebichanin 6; 3rd Dion
Sampson 5½; 1st Rating Group A Alex Jule 5; 1st = Rating
Group B Sam Grigg, Yitao Lei 4½; 1st Rating Group C Zane Adams 4; 1st
= Rating Group D Daniel Barrett, Shaun Curtis, Mikio Kimura, Oliver McCarthy,
Christina Webb, Kantley Wu 3.