After 14 attempts and 28 years, Queenslander IM Stephen Solomon finally defeated all other contenders for the title of Australian Champion 2007-2008. GM Dejan Antic won the tournament but was not elligible for the title of Australian Champion.
After Round Ten we had our Brazilian visitor Mr Herman Van Reimsdijk whom had remembered Doug Hamilton from a tournament back in the early 1970's! Van Raimsdijk accounted for German visitor Felix Klein. Solomon had had yet another draw, this time with IM George Xie. Dejan Antic kept his chances alive by drawing his game with Max Illingworth on top board. Greg Canfell went down to Igor Goldenberg on board four. The only upset for round ten was Jesse Sales defeating underperforming GM Daryl Johansen in what probably was a drawn endgame. Draws included Ben Lazarus against Tristan Boyd, David Hacche against Sam Chow, Gareth Oliver against another underperforming Master in Gary Lane, Junta Ikeda drew with Barak Atzmon-Simon, Ascaro Pecori broke his losing streak by drawing against Jason Hu. And Dusan Stojic drew with Michael Wei, unfortunately giving Dusan the bye for round 11.
On top board George Xie accounted for Van Reimsdijk, board two saw Antic defeat Igor Goldenberg, Solomon was held to a draw by Tomek Rej, Young guns Max Illingworth and Moulthun Ly drew, as did Sales against Klein, Boyd against Chow, Hacche held Lane, Yu against Bjelobrk, and Malcolm "Macavity" Pyke drew against Gareth Charles. Gareth Oliver defeated NSW State Champion Greg Canfell, which was the only upset for the final round.
Congratulations to 16th seed James Watson for obtaining the chance of participating in the next Australian Championships by winning the Australian Major title. James won the title after obtaining a score of 8.5, equal with Korean Yongtae Kim. A playoff was played between the two which ended up in a blitz playoff for the trophy. James Watson eventually won the playoff and the trophy.
Congratulations to Bob Liang on winning the Minor division by defeating Tereza Grbin in the last round. Howard Duggan was unlucky to come up against me with a full head of steam having won the last four in a row. we both had our chances in the game. I ended up winning that game thus holding Howard back to second place and I defeated Anthony Villanueva in round 10 and Howard in round 11 to snatch third prize
To summarize the Parramatta Tournament: It was a fantastic tournament that would not been a success without the work of the big man - Shane Burgess. he worked his rear end off for this tournament. Even going to personal expense. The Australian Championship was won by a very worthy winner. However I was a little disappointed with the results of GM Johansen and Im Gary Lane. I think they would be disappointed too and I'm sure they will be hungry to make amends in future tournaments.
To those of you who read my blog I thank you and I appologise for the last few days of the championships. All my energy went into those games on the last few days so I did not get to blog much. And on the tenth day I rested!
Bring on Australia Day Weekender!
Bring on Toukley Open!
Bring on Newcastle Open!
Bring on Doeberl!
Bring on Sydney International!
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1 comment:
Thanks for the great coverage, Trent -- especially at the lower end of the tournament where we tend to get overlooked.
And congrats on your third. It was a nice way to finish.
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