Fabulous fighting chess at the Australian Open

The fabulous fighting Australian Open

By Jamie Kenmure

This year’s event had five Olympiad members playing with three from Australia, one from Mongolia and one from Germany. The three Australians were Moulthun Ly, Stephen Solomon and Max Illingworth, all IM’s and seeded 5th, 6th and 7th respectively. The 24th seed of the tournament was a member of the Mongolian Women’s Olympiad, Otgoljargal Sengeravdan. With 19 titled players in the event consisting of three GMs, six IMs, seven FMs, one WGM and two WFMs.

But top seed and board number two for Germany is none other than GM Igor Khenkin (above), who happens to be the world number 85. The heat was amazing in Sydney for many days – 40°+ degrees – and the tournament air-conditioning struggled to cope. Khenkin was clearly the most affected by this.

As a spectator and player, you knew it was going to be a fabulous tournament and a tough one at that. Here are the top ten seeds of the event:

Round 1 saw IM Trevor Tao and FM Bobby Cheng taking byes. Most of the other games went according to rating, with the exception of WGM Irine Sukandar drawing to Benjamin Encel. Also FMs Gregory Canfell and Christopher Wallis lost in the first round.

Round 2 saw veteran GM Darryl Johansen drawing to David Webster, FM Tristan Boyd losing to George Lester. Otherwise another round going to ratings. So only two round gone and six out of the top ten seeds were on the perfect 2/2.

Round 3 was the battle of the Georges. That’s right: George Lester held IM George Xie to a draw. Lester was having a great start to the tournament, beating FM Boyd the previous round and now drawing with the IM. George Xie already has his three GM norms, but just needs the rating, the hardest thing to do. Out of the big guns, only five players were on 3/3.

Round 4 was breaking the deadlock round. Draws galore except one IM had different ideas. This was none other than IM Max Illingworth. While the top four boards had draws, he decided it was time to keep his winning streak up and take the sole lead with 4/4 with a win over Michael Morris. Former World under 12 champion, FM Bobby Cheng, won against the recent edition to the IM club, Trevor Tao. FM Canfell fell to the hands of George Lester.

While young Max Illingworth been the leader of the tournament with 4/4, he had to come face to face and battle it out with GM Igor Khenkin. However, the result was in favour of the German. 2nd seed and Oceania’s top player, Zong Yuan Zhao, played Kiwi Luke Li Zuhao and won. IM Andrew Brown caused havoc for Moulthun Ly, the fifth seed, and won. FM Junta Ikeda won against the veteran Olympiad member and IM, Stephen Solomon. Lester’s luck also ran out to the hands of FM Cheng.

FM Cheng and GM Zhao came to battle and had a draw. FM Ikeda took down IM Xie and Yita Choong had a draw with GM Johansen. Round six was not an entertaining one for major upsets.

Getting to the business end of the tournament now, that being round seven, it was the battle of the heavyweights, GMs Khenkin v Zhao. Khenkin had the white pieces and was held to a draw. Illingworth won against Ikeda, Cheng won against Sukandar, the 2012 Asian Women’s Continential Champion. Johansen and Brown settled for a draw and FM Nakauchi impressed his way through the tournament with a win against IM Solomon. Stephen Solomon is definitely not having a good tournament at all.

The cheers began in Round 8 as GM Khenkin suffered a loss to the hands of FM Cheng. As a result of this win for Cheng he had secured an IM norm for the tournament, his second that he has. Other results though were Ly won against Illingworth, Ikeda drew with Zhao and FM Nakauchi who was in a lost position swindled FM Canfell.

After all the excitement of round 8, round 9 began. FM Cheng won again and was starting to be known as the Cheng Express. Khenkin and Ly drew, Illingworth and Zhao drew. Ikeda had a win against IM Brown and secured his second IM norm for his career. Otherwise results went as they should have.

Round 10 and 11 saw the Cheng Express do what’s best and win. In round ten he beat Ikeda to take the title a full point ahead of his closest rivals. Ly had a good win against Johansen and Khenkin won against Li Zuhao. Round 11 Ly and Cheng held for a 19 move draw which secured him the title. Cheng had received a half-point bye in the first round, and conceded only one draw to GM Zhao in the next nine games. His 90% result from the ten games played gave him a 2660 tournament performance rating. He and Ikeda scored IM norms. Cheng didn't have a chance to play the third grandmaster in the tournament, so he missed the GM norm his performance would otherwise have given him.

WGM Sukandar of Indonasia had an amazing win over GM Khenkin in round eleven

And while you are in the mood here are a few interesting tactical moments from higher-ranked games in the tournament. Note that you can select games in the dropdown menu on the left, and that you can click the diagram in the notation to get to the critical position. Have fun.

Top final ranking (after 11 rounds)

• Full results can be found here

Overall the tournament was a success, with FM Bobby Cheng winning the National Championship along with the Blitz Championships after a playoff having came equal first with IM James Morris. GM Zhao and IM’s Ly and Illingowrth finished equal second in the tournament and equal fifth went to WGM Sukandar and FM Canfell.

The tournament was sponsored by Hancock Prospecting, the company owned by the richest woman in the world, Gina Reinhart.

Links Official tournament site All games in zipped PGN You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.

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