Mate in Mingara

Bleary eyed and tired I once again got myself up out of bed at quarter past 3 in the morning in order to walk to the station to catch the 4.53 train out of Picton headed for the Central Coast and the Mingara Recreational Club. Hey its ok. I got to catch up with some sleep on the train. Making sure that I set my alarm for the views of the rising sunshine glistening over the Hawkesbury River between Cowan and Gosford. Visitors to the City should take this train ride and maybe alight at Hawkesbury River Railway Station and have a look around Brooklyn. I would say that that stretch of Railway would have to be one of the most beautiful stretches of train track in the world…. Well at least for the most beautiful for a suburban train service.

The Mingara Recreation Club is set in amongst the hills of Tumbi Umbi.
The Tournament room was excellent. Spacious, Well lit. And coffee and Tea was supplied for nothing.

In previous years this event had been an under 2000 or under 2100 event but this year it decided to become part of the Grand Prix, and thus changed to an Open event. There were 4 players with ratings in excess of 2000: IM Gary Lane, FM Igor Bjelobrk, Paul Broekhuyse and Johny Bolens.

Round 1 saw all the higher rated opponents win with the exception of Mike Canfell who could only draw against Alex Mehan in a very long game that slightly delayed the game for round two. And although he eventually went down Gary Losh fought very hard against Johny Bolens. At one point Johny didn’t realise that he was in check. Strange thing to happen coming from the king of blitz….

Round 2 saw local PHD student Andrew Philips come up against Gary Lane on board one, with the International Master winning that encounter. Board two saw Igor Bjelobrk defeat Johnathan Adams, Paul Broekhuyse accounted for Nick Kordahi, Johny Bolens defeated Emma Guo and Sartaj Hans defeated Heath Bonnefin to be the only 5 players on 2/2
Mike Canfell (1746) certainly started the tournament badly; In the second round he was defeated by John Pascoe (1487), which left him on .5/2. The other upsets for the round were Norm Greenwood (1515) going down to Alex Mehan (1390), and Graeme Deacon (1403) defeated the rusty Tony Eves (1566). Meanwhile Tony Baldwin and Myself finished almost simultaneously with 10-11 move miniatures against our rather embarrassed opponents. Its Just not chess.

In round 3 the big boppers started to play each other with Lane playing (and beating) Bolens on board 1, Bjelobrk defeating Broekhuyse on two and Sartaj Hans joined the leaders on 3/3 by defeating Alex Mehan who was the only person on 1.5 at that point in time. Draws occurred on a couple of the lower boards: Emma Guo drew with Graeme Deacon and Norm Greenwood drew with Anthony Eves. As for the break Tony and I had. I (Trent Parker) went on to cause an upset on board 6 to defeat Jonathan Adams. Whilst Tony hit a brick wall coming up against the resurgent Mike Canfell.

First night came to a close and time to go and get some good nights rest.

At the half way mark there were 3 leaders on 3/3: Lane, Bjelobrk and Hans closely followed by Broekhuyse, Bolens, Phillips, Bonnefin, Kordahi, an Parker all on 2/3

At this time I’d like to Say thank you very much to Hugh Windsor? Who offered to bring me from Tuggerah Station to Mingara on the Sunday, when I had thought that the first bus to Mingara arrived at 10.20 – 20 minutes past the starting time of the round. This would have been a long way around for him considering that he lives at Long Jetty! I later found out that there was an earlier bus that got me to the bus stop down across the intersection.

Bzzzzzzt there goes my alarm! Its 6.15 gotta get up and catch the 7.20 train from Wyee…..Oh I’ll just lay down for another moment.

45 minutes later I was up and racing around trying to get everything ready in five minutes so I could take the fifteen minute walk to the station. What fun! Not quite at the station I see the train coming. I have to start running……. I was lucky that the guard or driver saw that I was struggling to get to the train so they waited a minute longer for me! Thank the lord!

I arrived at the Mingara club at about 9.15 with plenty of time to spare. Round 4 was to start at 10.00 sharp. On board One Igor Bjelobrk was drawn to play Sartaj Hans, On board two Lane battled it out with Nick Kordahi, Bonnefin played Broekhuyse, and Bolens played Andrew Phillips. Meanwhile I floated down to play Emma Guo. Bjelobrk was handed the win by forfeit as Sartaj Hans did not show up and did not give any warning. All the other games mentioned above went according to rating (except for mine). In my game against Emma Guo I lost a piece early as I was concentrating too much on my attack. Later on I retrieved the piece and a few moves later I offered a draw…..I was a pawn up but I thought it was the fairest result at that moment. There were no upsets for the round.

It was time for the top two seeds to battle it out in the fifth round. Lane v Bjelobrk. A battle of the Kings Indian type ensued. Bjelobrk, after receiving the forfeit round 4, defeated Lane. Broekhuyse and Bolens played out a draw. There was no other upset other than the top board , however there was one draw for the round: Emma Guo and Andrew Phillips Drew.

Round 6 saw Bjelobrk and Bolens play on board 1 which ended in a short draw. Thus securing the Mingara Open title for Igor. Board two saw Gary Lane defeat Paul Broekuyse. Upsets for the round included Parker defeating Tony Eves (1566), there was no other real upsets Canfell and Kordahi played out a draw.

All in all an excellent tournament. Thanks to Keith Farrell for Arbiting/ DOPing another excellent tournament.

Congratulations Igor Bjelobrk on winning the tournament and Congratulations to Gary Lane on his second place
Congratulations to Johny Bolens, Jonathan Adams and Mike Canfell on their third place. See more people there next year