Sun, Sand, Surf, chess what else do you want?

4:20 pm; The Sydney-Brisbane overnight XPt slinks out of Sydney Central station and powers North through the suburbs of Sydney, Central Coast and Newcastle. My Desination: Surfer's Paridise, Queensland. The train will take me as far as the town called Casino where i will change over to a coach at the ungodly hour of 3:30. And Its time for me to sleep.



Iremember when I was a kid of about 15-16 My family and I came to the Gold Coast for a family holiday. We did the usual touristy things like Sea World and Movie World. We stayed at Conrad hotel Jupiter's Casino. I remember going walkabouts; catching the Monorail accross to the Oasis shopping Centre. Heading towards the beach and walking north is the BroadBeach Surf Life Saving Club. The Venue for this Surfer's Paridise Chess tournament.



The Train arrived in Casino half an hour late but the Surfer's Paridise bus made up time as it's first stop was not until Palm beach. The bus arrived in Surfer's Paridise at just before seven. Muddle headed and not sure which way to go I picked up some brochures and maps of the local area. My intended accomodation, the YHA, i discovered was on the other side of Surfer's paridise. so i decided to seek alternate accomodation. Walking south towards Broadbeach I came accross the Surfer's Paradise backpackers which had a vacancy. Then to the venue: a 10-15 min walk away.



The Broadbeach SLSC overlooks the beach (how else whould they save lives in the surf?). It is a bright venue without air conditioning although surprisingly the fans do make conditions bearable on a day without a cloud in the sky and muggy as.



Now to the chess:

Round one went to plan for the vast majority of higher rated players in both the Open and the U1600:

Francisco Chung lost to GM Roland Schmaltz, Antic defeated Narelle Szuveges in a Catalan Opening, Oleg Korenevski lost to IM Steven Solomon, IM Gary Land defeated Jonas Muller, Sam Griggs lost to IM Peter Froelich; Pinoy IM Jesse Sales defeated Mark Stokes, and Michal Van Pelt lost to Mouthun Ly. Unrated Joe Delmastro defeated Tony Weller in the only upset for the round.

The Under 1600 top seed Daniel Ford defeated Henry McLennan, board two saw Mike duffin defeate Peter Horan, board three saw John Ringrose lose to Aurel-John buciu, Peter radonovan defeated John Surridge. David Soul lost to Me in a french gone wrong for white. Upsets started on board 9 where Kyle Ringrose (909) defeated John Radovan (1423)



Round two saw Roland Schmaltz defeate Dusan Stojic, Edsil Dilla started a devastating run of losses against GM Dejan Antic, Steven Solomon was an exchange down against Lee Jones but Solo was able to put the squeeze on Jones' cramped position to come away with a win. Domagoj Dragicevic (2139) defeated Gary Lane (2405) in a board 4 upset. Froelich defeated Bruce Thomas, Ben Lazarus lost to Jesse Sales, Mouthun Ly defeated David Lovejoy, Gene Nakkauchi lost to Felix Klein. Upsets in the Open division include Tony Weller (1788) losing to John Alkin (1616), Alex Stanke (1613) defeating Francisco Chung (1761), Yi Liu (1510) defeating Oleg Korenevski (1695), Jonas Muller (1677) drew with Jessica Kinder (1588) Mark Stokes (1668) lost to Kieran Lyons (1439).

In the U1600 division Daniel ford defeated Alex "Arrogant One" Toolsie, Regina Edwards lost to Mike Duffin. Aurel-John Buciu defeated Peter Booy, Keiton Beilby (1354) defeated Peter Radovan (1530), Shayne Hunter defeated Kyle Ringrose and Jim Laky drew with Craig Stewart. I accounted for Anicha Bay in an interesting game where Anicha's Hyper Modern style opening against my huge centre ensured an interesting battle. I went down a pawn and then gained a piece for a pawn. Then I was able to make a Bishop sacrifice to gain the advantage.
Upsets in the U1600 included Vasile Buciu (1408) lost to Hans Peter Muller (1267), John Radovan (1425) lost to Anthony Solomon (1046) and DUnrated David Andrew defeated Jonathan Ringrose (1172).

Round 3 saw FM Jesse Sales lose to GM Schmaltz, Antic defeated Mouthun Ly, Felix Klein (2212) drawing with Stephen Solomon (2442), Domagoj Dragicevic (2139) drew with Froelich (2365), Sam Grigg (1676) defeated Edsil Dilla (2176), Lee Jones (2086) lost to Nenad Chelebichanin (1642), David Lovejoy (1865) drew with Yi Liu (1510). Other upsets in the Open division included Jessica Kinder (1588) over Tony Weller (1788), Oleg Koronevski (1695) losing to David Cigelj (1210), and Roy Christutad(1337) drew with Mark Stokes (1660).
In the U1600 division Shayne Hunter (1517) defeated Daniel Ford (1592), Mike Duffin smashed me in the Catalan, with me having almost the worst bishop in the world. Aurel John Buciu defeated Kieton Beilby. Craig Stewart accounted for Sebastian Jule, Hans-Peter Muller defeated Jim Laky. Upsets included Kyle Ringrose (909) drawing with Petrer Haron (1194). Lachlan Van Der Bergh (1137) defeated Eegina Edwards (1409). and Anicha Bay defeated Vasile Buciu (1408).

Round four ended up being delayed by half an hour as late finishes in the previous three rounds built up. In the open division it was the clash of the Grandmasters on board one...... obviously they wanted an early night and a grandmaster draw was agreed to. The game IM Stephen Solomon against Dragicevic ended up in a win to the International Master, Peter Froehlich (2365) lost to Felix Klein (2212). Gary Lane defeaterd Ben Lazarus. Local Queensland Junior Gene Nakauchi (1870) rolled Pinoy FM Jesse Sales (2312) who apparently tried too hard in a drawn position. Mouthun Ly derfeated Brian Tomas, and Nenad Chelebichanin lost to Dusan Stojic. Upsets for the round included Jonas Muller (1677) drawing with David Lovejoy (1868), Edsil Dilla (2176) continued his slide down the tables by losing to Jessica Kinder (1588), Mark stokes (1668) and John Alkin (1616) drew, and Tony Weller (1788) lost to Oleg Korenevski(1695).

So at the major break we have 1st Schmaltz, Antic, Solomon, Klein 3.5, 5th Lane, Ly, Stojic, Nakauchi, Grigg 3, Froehlich, Dragicevic, Kinder 2.5 as our leading scores

In the U1600 division Mike Duffin became the sole leader by defeating Aurel John Buciu, Craig Stewart locked in outright second by defeating Shayne Hunter, Daniel Ford accounted for Hans Peter Muller, Keiton Beilby missed some opportunities against myself but eventually blundered into a KQ fork. Board 5 was the battle of the Alex's. O'Flynn (1351) defeated Toolsie (1488). Haron defeated Anicha Bay and Sebastiean Jule (1351) drew with Lachlan Vander Bergh (1137). Other Upsets included Jim Laky (1348) defeating Henry MacLennan (1278). Brent Winston (920) defeated Regina Edwards (1409)

Leading scores for the homeward stretch: 1st Duffin 4, 2nd Steward 3.5, 3rd Ford, Buciu, Hunter, Parker, O'Flynn 3, 8th Toolsie, Booy, McLennan, Muller, Heron, Van Der Bergh, Winstan 2.5.