Hu Drew with two GMs? Antic Wins NSW OPEN

"Hu drew with two Grandmasters!"


"I dunno. Who drew with two two Grandmasters""


"Hu did!"


"What?"


"No Watt didn't play"


"geez, you know more than what i do!
___________________________
Ok Jokes aside.


A great turnout for the NSW Open gave to a great competitive atmosphere at the Parramatta RSLL Club over the weekend of the 9-11 June. There were 50 players in the Open division and 57 in the Minor division. There were 17 players rated over 2000 (or thereabouts)


The top three seeds in the open division were GM Ian Rogers, GM Dejan Antic and Andreas Toth with Bjelobrk fourth seed. The first round went pretty much to script with Rogers mating Nick Kordahi with a rook sac, Antic defeating Sherab Guo-Yuthok, Toth accounting for Edwin Wu and Bjelobrk defeating sydney trickmaster Herman Rachmadi. Draws were had by Arthur Huynh (1833) against fellow SAC employee Neil Wright (2217), Allen Setiabudi (1618) drawing with fellow ACT player Ian Rout (1859). The only upset of the round was Brendan Norman (1801) defeating the eccentric Johny Bolens (2190)


Meanwhile in the lower division the top seeds didn't have it as easy. Top seed Emma Guo defeated Mick Waters and Trent Parker defeated Phil Willis but the other three seeds did not get the full point: Mark Ryan (1355) defeated Anthony Villanueva (1587), Kaz Kulpa (1575) drew with Gary Mann (1325) andTony Spirov (1299) drew with Ian Dickson (1551).

Other draws for the round included Teresa Grbin (1491) with Sathya Chitturi (987), Michael Ngo (1455) drawing with Caroline Shen (821) and Oscar Wang (1376)drawing with Kevin Zhou (unr)


In round two some interesting results started to come. In the Open division the biggest upset was Jason Hu drawing to GM Ian Rogers in a Rook and Pawn endgame. The other top boards went to plan: Antic defeated Alex Mendes Da Costa. Angela Song Paid Sydney a visit for this tournament but could not defeat Toth and Bjelobrk defeated the growing Max Illingworth. Draws were agreed to between Gareth Charles (2093) and Hamish Selnes (1800), WIM Laura Moylan (2053) and Jeffrey Tse (1735), and between Arthur Huynh and Brendan Norman.


In the Under 1600 division the upsets kept coming on the top boards: Matthew Koutnik (1495) defeated Emma Guo (1587), Trent Parker turned an exchange up into a drawing position and finally into a loss against Danny Wayne Bisson (14); Leo Kang kept his winning ways by beating Peter Zekic and St George junior John Papantonio (1460) defeated Parramatta local Shane Burgess(1521). draws occured between Caroline Shen )821_ and Teresa Grbin (1491), Kevin Zhou (unr) against Michael Ngo (1455), Mick Waters (1367) and Jim Shan (1020), and Will Chaffey against Razzardini (1218). Upsets were caused by Michael Tracey (1449) over Norm Greenwood (1520), Patrick Keuning (1390) over Chris Cooper (1512). Amir Karibasic (1390) over Phil Bourke (1505), Bruce Harris (1371) over Ernesto Alberici (1495), Mark Ryan (1355) defeated Horst Bleicher (1495), Joshua Lau (1279) defeated Kaz Kulpa (1575). Chitturi (987) defeated Oscar Wang (1376) and Phil Patterson (1408) was defeated by Megan Setiabudi (1107). and finally Phil Willis (1250) was defeated by promising young junior Sean Gu (864)


And this was the end of the first day. Time to get some real earnt rest to get refreshed for the long day two. Three rounds!


Round three started on time. We saw Atzmon-Simon lose to Antic, Toth defeated Junta Ikeda, Ayvazyan defeated Brian Jones and Ian Rogers defeated Brendan Norman. The top upset of the round was Jason Chan defeating Igor Bjelobrk in an interesting game where Igor allowed Jasons rook to get to the seventh. Draws were played out by Hamish Selnes (1890) against Laura Moylan (2053), Bolens (2107) with Guo-Yuthok (1857), Ben Encel (1228) with Tom Tomas (1648), Alex Stanke (1600) against Chris Nikolaou (1684), and David Evans (1628) against Johnathan Ren (1346). The only upset for the round was Tamzin Oliver (1458) over Ric Ambatali (1644).


In the under 1600 Division; Leo Kang was going strong by defeating John Papantonio, Michael Tracey (1449) caused an upset by defeating Peter Hannigan (1514), Benjamin Cheung defeated Rick Keuning, Amir Karibasic caused an upset to defeat Matthew Koutnik and Danny Bisson and Bruce Harris joined the chasing pack by beating Mark Ryan and Garry Mann respectively. Draws were had by Roger Jeffreys (1383) against Anthony Villanueva (1587). Teresa Grbin (1491) with Kinto Wan (1171), J. Cooper with Horst Bleicher (1495), Oscar Wang (1376) against Chaffey (unr), and Danny Yan (unr) against Clarise Koh (860). Upsets for the round were Ian Dickson (1557) losing to Joshua Lau (1279), Shane Burgess losing to Cedric Koh, C. Cooper (1512) losing to Thai Pham (1171) in an interesting line of the french where Cooper as white played 2.Bb5!? Valsalan Karayi lost to unrated Kevin Zhou, Sean Gu (864) defeated Kaz Kulpa (1575) who then withdrew from the tournament. Jin Shan defeated Armando Razzardini.


It was time for some of the big guns to start playing each other with Antic playing Ayvazyan, Chan playing Toth, Gareth Charles playing Ian Rogers and Bjelobrk playing Jason Hu. they all went to rating: Antic, Toth Rogers and Bjelobrk all won. There were only two draws this round: Mos Ali (1798) drawing with Barak Atzmon-Simon (2157) and Herman Rachmadi drawing with Anthony Keuning. Upsets for the round included Junta Ikeda (2215) losing to Max Illingworth (2103) , Arthur Huynh (1833) defeating Laura Moylan (2053), Mark Baterowicz (1568) defeating Edwin Wu (1812), and Allen Setiabudi (1618) defeating Frank Barisic (1702).


Leo Kang finally lost some points in round 4.... well half a point, drawing to Michael Tracey. Bruce Harris drew with Benjamin Cheung, Danny Bisson defeated Karibasic and the resurgent Trent Parker won a hard fought game against Joshua Lau to come back into contention. Draws for the round included Cedric Koh (1225) against Peter Zekic (1468), Aiswerya Shankar against Oscar Wang, Phil Willis (1256) against Megan Setiabudi (1107) and Charles Bishop (845) against unrated Danny Yan.
Upsets for the round included Norm Greenwood (1520) losing to Michael Ngo (1455), Michael Ryan (1355) defeating Bourke (1505), Kevin Zhou defeating Anthony Villanueva (1587) and Armando Razzardini (1218) losing to Josha Biship (1047)


Round 5 saw seeds 1 and 3 face off whilst Rogers kept climbing up the boards by beating Ayvazyan in an endgame very similar to the Rook and pawns engame against Jason Hu except Ian had the reverse side and had one pawn further down the board. Alex Mendes Da Costa lost to Igor Bjelobrk, Illingworth drew with Chan and Arthur Huynh continued his excellent run by drawing with FM Brian Jones. Other draws for the round included Jeffrey Tse (1735) against Mos Ali (1791), Richard Parfait (1975) drew with Laura Moylan (2053), Andrew Brown (1914) drew with Angela Song (2063),Jamie Boyce (1844) drew with Hamish Selnes (1844), Encel (1228) drew with Cohn (1701) and Barisic (1702) drew with David Evans (1628). Upsets were caused by J. Nguyen (1738) over Ian Rout (1859), Alexander Stanke (1600) over Herman Rachmadi (1862), and Jonathan Ren beat Joshua Christensen when he forgot to turn off his mobile phone and it rang!


Benjamin Cheung defeated Danny Bisson, Michael Tracey lost to Bruce Harris, and Kang ploughed on by defeating Karibasic. Draws for the round included: Emma Guo (1587) drawing with Kevin Zhao (unr), Trent Parker (1546) drew with Matthew Koutnik (1493) where if black or white pushes too hard for the win the other player breaks through.Ian Dickson (1557) drew with Cedric Koh (1225), John Cooper (unr) drew with Phil Willis (1256), Megan Setiabudi (1107) drew with Kinto Wan (1171) and Nick Mann (1217) drew with Chaffey (unrated)


What a day!! Went for a walk around parramatta in between rounds four and five to clear the head. Phil Bourke and I stayed up until about 3 talking about chess and analysing different variations of various situations...... fun stuff!!! Woke up to finish strongly!!!


The Final Day; Day 3 and the two grandmasters were due to play each other. Would it be the match of the tournament? MMMMmmmm no. It finished in a draw before I had forked my Opponent's King and Queen in the early middlegame.On board two Toth defeated Bjelobrk, Wright defeated Illingworth on three, Brian Jones lost to Bolens on Four, Atzmon-Simon lost to Jason Hu on five and Jason Chan drew with Arthur Huynh on 6. Other draws included Mos Ali (1798) against Junta Ikeda (2154) , Angela Song (2063) against Alex Stanke (1600) , Sherab Guo-Yuthok (1875) against Peter Abbott (1929) , Jamie Boyce (1844) against Mal MacMillan(1695). Upsets included: Brendan Norman (1801) over Andrew Brown (1914), Tamsin Oliver (1458) over Aurel-John Buciu (1537) and Joshua Christensen (1608) finally got a point over Frank Barisic (1702).

In the Under 1600 Leo Kang found himself leading outright after defeating Benjamin Cheung, Bruce Harris lost to John Papantonio who was now only half a point behind Leo on 5/6, On the third board Danny Bisson drew with Emma Guo and on the fourth board I defeated Michael Ngo when he did not notice that I was threatening the fork of the Lady and her King. Other draws include Clarise Koh (1225) against Valsalan Karayi (1420) , Aiswerya Shankar (unr) against drew with Anthony Villanueva (1587) , Phil Willis drew with Caroline Shen and Thai Pham (1171) drew with Dennis Yan (unr). Upsets included Kevin Zhao over Peter Zekic (1648), Phil Bourke (1505) losing to Matthew Ryan (1355), Horst Blecher (1495) losing to Queenslander Amir Karibasic (1390) , Joshua Lau (1279) defeated Oscar Wang (1376) , Megan Setiabudi (1107) defeated Norm Greenwood (1520). On one of the end boards it was a case of a very young Junior playing against an elderly Blind Gentleman. Alex Momot the senior defeated the promising young gun Anton Smirnov.

Round 7, the last round of the long tourney.
The Open division saw Jason Hu come up against his second grandmaster of the tournament where a draw was agreed! Effectively giving Jason 1/2 against grandmasters for the tournament! On Board two Rogers battled it out with Toth to eventually arrive at a draw. The third board clash, Bolens - Wright, ended up a draw after a swindle. On Board 4 Arthur Huynh's excellent tournament ended with a loss to Igor Bjelobrk.
Draws for the final round included: Max illingworth (2103) with Barak Atzmon-Simon (2093), Mos Ali (1798) drawing with Laura Moylan (2053), Jeffrey Tse (1735) against Brendan norman (1801), Andrew Furst (1752) drew with Angela Song (2063), Peter Abbott (1929) drew with Alex Stanke (1600), Jamie Boyce drew with Joseph Nguyen, Allen Setiabudi drew with Tom Tomas, Encel drew with Oliver, Barisic drew with Nikolau and David Evans drew with Joshua Christensen. The only upset for the round waw Aurel-John Buciu (1537) defeating Ambatali (1644).

The Prizes for the Open division were:
U1700 Alex Stanke 3.5/7
1850-1700 =1st: Mos Ali, Brendan Norman, Arthur Huynh on 4/7
u2000-1850 equal first: Jason Chan, Alex Mendes Da Costa 4/7
Open Positions 4-9 Johny Bolens, Neil Wright, Igor Bjelobrk,
Jason Hu, and Armen Ayvazyan.
Open Position 2-3: Andreas Toth, GM Ian Rogers5.5/7
Open Position 1: GM Dejan Antic 6/7

Board One saw Myself, Trent Parker, play white against Leo Kang, Board two saw John Papantonio play Michael Koutnik, Board three saw Ben Cheung play Kevin Zhou, Board four saw Teresa Grbin play Danny Bisson. It was time to Jostle for the prize positions. Leo Kang was out in outright first on 5.5/6, John Papantonio on 5/6 and a small pack chasing on 4.5/6. As many as 5 players could have come equal first. So Board four : Teresa Grbin won and Cheung won on board three so it was up to the top two boards to sort things out. John Papantonio's chances of winning the tournament outright started slipping away in a drawn rook and pawn and bishop each endgame until Matthew left his Rook en prise and went on to lose the game. So now if Leo Kang won his match he would win the tournament outright, draw he shares first prize and loss: he hands victory over to John Papantonio. An intersting game ensued on the top board. Victory to the white pieces! John Papantonio won the tournament on 6/7 and Leo Kang joined Myself, Teresa Grbin and Benjamin Cheung on equal second. When Joshua Lau (1279) drew with Valsalan Karayi (1420) and Megan Setiabudi (1107) defeated Patrick Keuning (1390) they shared equal second prize under 1300 division. Cedric Koh (1225) defeated Michael Tracey (1449) to take out the first prize u1300 with a score of 4.5. The under 1450-1300 equal first was won by Mark Ryan and Amir Karibasic on a score of 5/7. The unrated Prize was won by Kevin Zhou.