Off To Doeberl!

The premier division of the Doeberl Cup started today. The first leg of a chess marathon for some including the Sydney International Open and the Bankok Open. My event, the minor does not start until tomorrow. I was a passenger in a cool car being the convertible of Matthew Sweeney. We cruised from Picton to Canberra in two hours talking about everything from chess to how Neurologists explain what happens to the brain with deja vu to how full we've seen Lake George.

I checked in at my accomodation and then headed to the Helenic club. One of the first things I heard over the phone from talking to my mate joshua Christensen was that Max Illingworth drew with american GM Akobian

The other GM's of the tournament largely had their own way in the first round. Dusan Stojic lost to Zhang Zong, Vadim Malakhatko defeated Edsil dilla, Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly won his game, Gawain Jones defeated WIM Laura Moylan, GM Merab Gagurashvili defeated WIM Arianne Caoili, Leon Dempen lost to GM Dejan Antic, and GM Darryl Johansen defeated Vincent Suttor. Upset draws for the first round included Igor Bjelobrk could only manage a draw against Svetozar Stojic. Velimir Kresovic drew with Hamish Selnes.

Now on to round two. Early results for the round two. include Gawain Jones defeated Guy West and Puchen Wang racked up a win for the Kiwi's. Max Illingworth went into a double rook endgame a pawn up but Igor created play and eventually was able to capitalise on a passed pawn.

Board one saw Zhong Zhang defeat Malaysian player Mas. Board two saw Vadim Malakhatko defeat Endre Ambrus. Board three saw GM Ganguly defeat IM Anna Zozulia. Gawain Jones scored a walk over as IM Guy West forgot that there was an extra round on the thursday. Dejan Antic accounted for Hartmut Metz. Irina Berezina and Vladimir Feldman were paired against each other and agreed to a friendly draw. Upsets included Edsil Dilla going down to Derek Yu, Leon Kempen lost to local canberran Ian Rout. Tony Davis drew with Dotsenko, Yi Yuan defeated WIM Laura Moylan, Adrian Flitney defeated Robert Mitchell and Sanmorgan Goudar defeated Jonas Muller.