Igor Bjelobrk NSW Open Champion
Report by DOP Charles Zworestine:
Trivia question: when was the last time Ian Rogers lost two games in an Australian weekender? Nobody I have asked can remember. It certainly does not happen very often! So it's definitely news when it does... And over the queen's birthday long weekend at Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, in the 2005 NSW Open, it happened...
Mind you, a strong field of 56 challengers, headed by IM Stephen Solomon and FMs Bjelobrk, Xie and Canfell, was always going to give GM Rogers some trouble... No problems in Round 1 for any of them; but what a sensation in Round 2! While the other top seeds all managed to win, Rogers was in a dogfight against Junta Ikeda, the 13 year old Canberran junior star who was thrilled to be playing Ian for the first time. An early positional exchange sacrifice left Ian with a pawn for it and with tons of pressure on Junta's weak pawns, of which he eventually picked up two more. But Junta fought and fought and then... Ian lost on time! Amazing, at the standard FIDE time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move from the start (Fischer), but true - Ian simply thought for too long in a still difficult and complicated position, forgot about his clock and lost on time...
After this anything would have seemed tame, but the other players still produced plenty of exciting chess while Ian climbed his way back up the field. Tomek Rej and Igor Bjelobrk had a thrilling draw after Tomek sacrificed a piece for three pawns and an attack, but Igor was rock solid and kept complicating until neither player could make progress... Solomon ground down Ayvazyan positionally, but Canfell could not crack Bolens and drew... Xie won, while Junta continued his run with a winning attack against Victor Berezin... In Round 4 Junta finally lost to Bjelobrk, while Xie won a piece and the game against Solo. Canfell missed a mate in one and only drew with Gareth Oliver after the latter got a perpetual check, while Rej beat Broekhuijse and Rogers won a long struggle against Bolens.
Round 5 was a tough one on the Sunday night: three games in a day at this time control is always hard. This explains a tired Xie and Rej agreeing to a draw late at night; Solomon and Bjelobrk fought it out, but in the end left too few pawns and also drew. Rogers ground it out to win a position with mutual pawn weaknesses against Gareth Oliver, but it was a hard fight and Gareth may have missed a draw. Canfell beat Junta Ikeda... Then In Round 6 Greg drew with Tomek, while the other top board games were all decisive: Rogers took a while but eventually broke through with a winning attack against Xie's pawnless king, Igor beat Ayvazyan and Solo beat Bolens with a typical Solo swindle!
This all set up a thrilling finish, as Solo drew a rook ending a pawn down against Tomek, and Canfell's two rooks could not crack Berezin's queen (so they also drew). As Xie beat Raymond Song, this meant the top board game between Rogers and Bjelobrk was always going to be decisive. Trying to play Like Tal, Ian lost a piece but went for an attack; but Igor was rock solid, hung on and inflicted the GM's second loss! So Igor, pictured below, won the event on 6/7, with George Xie outright second on 5.5. A traffic jam of 8 players followed on 5/7 in third place, including Jason Chan and Kevin O'Chee who shared the 1850 - Under 2000 rating prize; the other prizes were won by Angela Song and Hamish Selnes on 4.5 (1700 - Under 1850), and Anthony Pickering and Sherab Guo-Yuthok on 4/7 (Under 1700).
The Under 1600 event attracted another 58 players, making a total of 114: an excellent turnout. The juniors were expected to dominate, and indeed caused many early upsets e.g. Jason Cohn beating Rod Plant in Round 2. By the end of Round 3 Jamie Boyce (a junior!) and Doug Moore shared the lead on 3/3; Jamie had it on his own after beating Doug in Round 4. But then he popped a piece to Andrew Brown in Round 5, who thus shared the lead with David Lam on 4.5/5; and after they both lost in Round 6, the oldies were back! Norm Greenwood, David Evans and Paul Reynolds shared the lead on 5/6; and the former two maintained it by winning last round games to come equal first on 6/7. Third and the 1350 - Under 1500 prize were shared on 5.5/7 by Jamie Boyce, Trent Parker and Jason Cohn; other prizes were won by Leo Kang and Andrew Nguyen = 1st 1200 - Under 1350 on 4/7, and little Edison Tsui and Emma Guo = 1st Under 1200 on 3.5/7.
Ian Rogers -- Junta Ikeda
NSW Open Sydney
2005.06.14 0-1 B40d
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.b3!?
An idea pioneered by Alekhine, if I'm not mistaken
Canfell -- Oliver
NSW Open Sydney
2005.06.15 1/2-1/2 B25r
1.e4
Igor Bjelobrk -- Ian Rogers
NSW Open (7) Sydney
2005.06.13 1-0 E81d
Annotations by Igor Bjelobrk
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 Bg7 4.e4 O-O 5.Nc3 d6 6.Nge2 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Ng3 exd5 9.cxd5 a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.Be2 h5 12.Bg5 Qa5 13.Qc1 Re8 14.O-O Nh7 15. Bh4 Ne5?!
Place Name Feder FIDE Loc Score
1 Bjelobrk, Igor VIC 2370 2399 6
2 Xie, George NSW 2364 2367 5.5
3-10 Solomon, Stephen J QLD 2412 2411 5
Rej, Tomek NSW 2231 2214 5
Rogers, Ian NSW 2576 2648 5
Canfell, Gregory J NSW 2367 2327 5
Berezin, Victor OS 2337 2274 5
Chan, Jason NSW 2118 1982 5
O'Chee, Kevin NSW 1983 5
Song, Raymond NSW 2085 2035 5
11-13 Oliver, Gareth ACT 1998 1987 4.5
Song, Angela NSW 1889 1801 4.5
Selnes, Hamish QLD 1952 1771 4.5
14-27 Ikeda, Junta ACT 1999 1990 4
Ayvazyan, Armen NSW 2221 2180 4
Bolens, Johny NSW 2225 2014 4
Tse, Jeffrey NSW 1725 4
Ingram, Ben W NSW 2043 1910 4
Broekhuijse, Paul NSW 2201 2016 4
Cronan, James NSW 2065 1930 4
Huang, Justin NSW 2010 1795 4
Cvetkoski, Tode NSW 1754 4
Pickering, Anthony NSW 1689 4
Guo-Yuthok, Sherab ACT 1828 1692 4
Huynh, Arthur NSW 1797 4
Redgrave, John NSW 1749 4
Tomas, Tom NSW 1948 1722 4
28-32 Stojic, Danny NSW 2059 3.5
Oliver, Shannon ACT 1945 1660 3.5
Muller, Henning NSW 2006 1902 3.5
Wu, Edwin NSW 1622 3.5
Ali, Mosaddeque ACT 2031 1777 3.5
33-42 Mendes da Costa, Alex NSW 1953 1876 3
Stead, Kerry NSW 2099 1950 3
Dunn, Michael Gl NSW 1813 3
Illingworth, Max NSW 2031 1820 3
Cabilin, Jeff NSW 2035 1967 3
Keuning, Anthony V NSW 1609 3
Fell, Lloyd S NSW 1904 1800 3
Cafolla, Peter QLD 2116 2116 3
Escribano, Jose NSW 2057 1674 3
Rachmadi, Herman NSW 1675 3
43-48 Vojvodic, Branislav NSW 2292 2.5
Xu, William NSW 1472 2.5
Rout, Ian C ACT 2124 1901 2.5
To, Anthony NSW 1601 2.5
Hvistendahl, Robert NSW 1641 2.5
Forace, Lee VIC 1645 2.5
49-52 Canfell, Mike J NSW 1690 2
Datuin, Marc NSW 1651 2
Zielinski, Konrad NSW 1790 2
Nguyen, Peter NSW 1704 2
53-55 Miranda, Adrian NSW 1579 1.5
Russell, Luthien QLD 1356 1.5
Lorenzo, Julio NSW 1347 1.5
56 Mourelatos, Peter NSW 1
No Name Loc Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Rogers, Ian 2648 5 29:W 15:L 26:W 14:W 16:W 4:W 3:L 2. Solomon, Stephen J 2411 5 30:W 17:W 9:W 4:L 3:D 14:W 8:D 3. Bjelobrk, Igor 2399 6 31:W 18:W 8:D 15:W 2:D 9:W 1:W 4. Xie, George 2367 5.5 32:W 19:W 11:W 2:W 8:D 1:L 12:W 5. Canfell, Gregory J 2327 5 33:W 20:W 14:D 16:D 15:W 8:D 7:D 6. Vojvodic, Branislav 2292 2.5 34:W 23:D 13:D 20:L 30:D 36:L 38:- 7. Berezin, Victor 2274 5 35:W 24:W 15:L 18:D 20:W 37:W 5:D 8. Rej, Tomek 2214 5 36:W 25:W 3:D 13:W 4:D 5:D 2:D 9. Ayvazyan, Armen 2180 4 37:W 26:W 2:L 21:W 22:W 3:L 18:L 10. Cafolla, Peter 2116 3 38:D 40:D 27:L 33:L 44:D 55:+ 43:D 11. Stojic, Danny 2059 3.5 39:W 28:W 4:L 24:W 37:D 12:L 34:L 12. Song, Raymond 2035 5 40:L 50:W 31:W 25:W 27:W 11:W 4:L 13. Broekhuijse, Paul 2016 4 41:W 49:W 6:D 8:L 18:D 21:L 27:W 14. Bolens, Johny 2014 4 42:W 27:W 5:D 1:L 40:W 2:L 35:D 15. Ikeda, Junta 1990 4 43:W 1:W 7:W 3:L 5:L 22:D 36:D 16. Oliver, Gareth 1987 4.5 44:D 38:W 23:W 5:D 1:L 25:W 28:D 17. O'Chee, Kevin 1983 5 45:W 2:L 28:W 37:L 26:W 27:W 21:W 18. Chan, Jason 1982 5 46:W 3:L 32:W 7:D 13:D 31:W 9:W 19. Cabilin, Jeff 1967 3 47:W 4:L 37:L 51:W 28:L 39:W 30:L 20. Stead, Kerry 1950 3 48:W 5:L 55:+ 6:W 7:L 28:L 31:L 21. Cronan, James 1930 4 49:L 43:W 41:W 9:L 42:W 13:W 17:L 22. Ingram, Ben W 1910 4 50:D 44:W 40:W :D 9:L 15:D 37:D 23. Muller, Henning 1902 3.5 51:W 6:D 16:L 45:D 49:D 35:L 48:W 24. Rout, Ian C 1901 2.5 52:W 7:L 48:W 11:L 31:L 40:D 45:L 25. Mendes da Costa, Alex 1876 3 53:W 8:L 49:W 12:L 45:W 16:L 42:L 26. Illingworth, Max 1820 3 54:W 9:L 1:L 39:W 17:L 44:W 40:L 27. Dunn, Michael Gl 1813 3 55:W 14:L 10:W 29:W 12:L 17:L 13:L 28. Song, Angela 1801 4.5 56:W 11:L 17:L 48:W 19:W 20:W 16:D 29. Fell, Lloyd S 1800 3 1:L 42:D 44:W 27:L 38:D 48:D 50:D 30. Huynh, Arthur 1797 4 2:L 45:D 53:D 41:W 6:D 42:D 19:W 31. Huang, Justin 1795 4 3:L 46:W 12:L 43:W 24:W 18:L 20:W 32. Zielinski, Konrad 1790 2 4:L 47:W 18:L 49:L 46:L 53:L 56:W 33. Ali, Mosaddeque 1777 3.5 5:L 48:L 46:W 10:W 35:L 45:D 53:W 34. Selnes, Hamish 1771 4.5 6:L 51:D 45:L 55:W 53:W 49:W 11:W 35. Cvetkoski, Tode 1754 4 7:L 52:D 50:W 42:L 33:W 23:W 14:D 36. Redgrave, John 1749 4 8:L 53:L 47:D 50:W 51:W 6:W 15:D 37. Tse, Jeffrey 1725 4 9:L 54:W 19:W 17:W 11:D 7:L 22:D 38. Tomas, Tom 1722 4 10:D 16:L 51:L 47:W 29:D 46:W 6:+ 39. Nguyen, Peter 1704 2 11:L 55:L 54:W 26:L 56:W 19:L 49:L 40. Guo-Yuthok, Sherab 1692 4 12:W 10:D 22:L 53:W 14:L 24:D 26:W 41. Canfell, Mike J 1690 2 13:L 56:W 21:L 30:L 48:L 47:L :W 42. Pickering, Anthony 1689 4 14:L 29:D 52:W 35:W 21:L 30:D 25:W 43. Rachmadi, Herman 1675 3 15:L 21:L 56:W 31:L 55:D 52:W 10:D 44. Escribano, Jose 1674 3 16:D 22:L 29:L 52:W 10:D 26:L 46:W 45. Oliver, Shannon 1660 3.5 17:L 30:D 34:W 23:D 25:L 33:D 24:W 46. Datuin, Marc 1651 2 18:L 31:L 33:L 54:W 32:W 38:L 44:L 47. Forace, Lee 1645 2.5 19:L 32:L 36:D 38:L 50:L 41:W 54:W 48. Hvistendahl, Robert 1641 2.5 20:L 33:W 24:L 28:L 41:W 29:D 23:L 49. Wu, Edwin 1622 3.5 21:W 13:L 25:L 32:W 23:D 34:L 39:W 50. Keuning, Anthony V 1609 3 22:D 12:L 35:L 36:L 47:W 51:W 29:D 51. To, Anthony 1601 2.5 23:L 34:D 38:W 19:L 36:L 50:L 52:W 52. Miranda, Adrian 1579 1.5 24:L 35:D 42:L 44:L :W 43:L 51:L 53. Xu, William 1472 2.5 25:L 36:W 30:D 40:L 34:L 32:W 33:L 54. Russell, Luthien 1356 1.5 26:L 37:L 39:L 46:L :D 56:W 47:L 55. Lorenzo, Julio 1347 1.5 27:L 39:W 20:- 34:L 43:D 10:- : 56. Mourelatos, Peter 1 28:L 41:L 43:L :W 39:L 54:L 32:L
Place Name Feder Loc Score
1-2 Greenwood, Norman NSW 1477 6
Evans, David A NSW 1575 6
3-5 Boyce, Jamie NSW 1560 5.5
Cohn, Jason NSW 1471 5.5
Parker, Trent NSW 1489 5.5
6-8 Law, Evan NSW 5
Reynolds, Paul J NSW 1590 5
Stojkovski, Vlade NSW 1561 5
9-16 Brown, Andrew ACT 1551 4.5
Parravicini, Matthew NSW 1557 4.5
Karayi, Valsalan NSW 1373 4.5
Lam, David NSW 1503 4.5
Katnic, Eddy NSW 1549 4.5
Jeffreys, Roger W NSW 1458 4.5
Plant, Rod NSW 1572 4.5
Tokarz, Michal NSW 1597 4.5
17-25 Kang, Leo NSW 1336 4
Moore, Douglas NSW 1508 4
Barasoain, Fernando NSW 1439 4
Kumar, Vikash Rosman NSW 1453 4
Wong, Ted NSW 1526 4
Nguyen, Andrew NSW 1245 4
Dickson, Ian C NSW 1542 4
Baker, John A NSW 1504 4
Sewell, Rob NSW 1479 4
26-33 Guo, Emma ACT 1129 3.5
Art, Carl NSW 1458 3.5
Korbe, Heinrich NSW 1445 3.5
Kresinger, Frank NSW 1432 3.5
Bisson, Danny Wayne NSW 1506 3.5
Ikeda, Miona ACT 1335 3.5
Zekic, Peter NSW 1495 3.5
Tsui, Edison NSW 970 3.5
34-43 Nabung, Alexander NSW 1418 3
Nichas, John NSW 1591 3
Kovacs, Robert NSW 1476 3
Tracey, Michael J NSW 1391 3
Wilkie, Mary E NSW 1285 3
Nabung, Christian NSW 987 3
Lau, Tony NSW 1174 3
Oliver, Tamzin L ACT 1216 3
Ng, Deborah NSW 1267 3
Ren, Jonathan NSW 1051 3
44-50 Harris, Bruce QLD 1438 2.5
Markson, Ellis NSW 1111 2.5
McCormack, Daniel NSW 1149 2.5
Keuning, Patrick J NSW 1248 2.5
Puse, Herminio NSW 1508 2.5
Lau, Joshua NSW 888 2.5
Knezevic, Mark NSW 2.5
51-54 Trzin, Gojko NSW 1538 2
Sweeney, Matthew NSW 1300 2
Wang, Patrick NSW 2
Burgess, Shane NSW 1386 2
55-56 Beveridge, David NSW 1338 1.5
Pierce, Charlie NSW 1.5
57 Chiddy, Rory NSW 1
58 Davis, Greg NSW 1192 0.5
No Name Loc Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Tokarz, Michal 1597 4.5 30:L 46:W 35:L 36:W 48:D 28:W 37:W 2. Nichas, John 1591 3 31:W 23:W 18:D 29:L 20:L 37:L 44:D 3. Reynolds, Paul J 1590 5 32:D 56:D 30:W 27:W 14:W 9:W 4:L 4. Evans, David A 1575 6 33:D 37:D 39:W 25:W 23:W 18:W 3:W 5. Plant, Rod 1572 4.5 34:W 24:L 32:L 40:W 27:W 48:W 10:D 6. Stojkovski, Vlade 1561 5 35:W 25:L 37:L 39:W 31:W 21:W 13:W 7. Boyce, Jamie 1560 5.5 36:W 26:W 22:W 14:W 9:L 24:D 18:W 8. Parravicini, Matthew 1557 4.5 37:D 45:W 17:W 18:L 26:W 35:W 22:L 9. Brown, Andrew 1551 4.5 38:W 28:W 24:D 32:W 7:W 3:L 20:L 10. Katnic, Eddy 1549 4.5 39:W 29:D 56:L 31:D 33:W 25:W 5:D 11. Dickson, Ian C 1542 4 40:L 42:W 36:W 28:W 22:L 32:W 24:L 12. Trzin, Gojko 1538 2 41:L 43:L 51:W 42:W 37:L 26:L 50:L 13. Wong, Ted 1526 4 42:W 30:W 48:D 24:L 32:D 43:W 6:L 14. Moore, Douglas 1508 4 43:W 40:W 25:W 7:L 3:L 23:W 56:L 15. Puse, Herminio 1508 2.5 44:D 32:L 53:D 47:D 46:L 41:L 57:W 16. Bisson, Danny Wayne 1506 3.5 45:D 33:W 29:L 43:L 47:W 44:W 26:L 17. Baker, John A 1504 4 46:D 44:W 8:L 53:W 35:L 55:W 29:D 18. Lam, David 1503 4.5 47:W 41:W 2:D 8:W 29:W 4:L 7:L 19. Zekic, Peter 1495 3.5 48:L 47:L 54:W 41:W 28:D 46:W 35:L 20. Parker, Trent 1489 5.5 49:L 51:W 40:W 35:D 2:W 29:W 9:W 21. Sewell, Rob 1479 4 50:W 48:L 38:L 52:W 30:W 6:L 41:W 22. Greenwood, Norman 1477 6 51:W 49:W 7:L 37:W 11:W 56:W 8:W 23. Kovacs, Robert 1476 3 52:W 2:L 41:W 38:W 4:L 14:L 43:L 24. Cohn, Jason 1471 5.5 53:W 5:W 9:D 13:W 56:D 7:D 11:W 25. Art, Carl 1458 3.5 54:W 6:W 14:L 4:L 38:W 10:L 48:D 26. Jeffreys, Roger W 1458 4.5 55:W 7:L 43:D 44:W 8:L 12:W 16:W 27. Kumar, Vikash Rosman 1453 4 56:L 50:W 47:+ 3:L 5:L 33:W 51:W 28. Korbe, Heinrich 1445 3.5 57:W 9:L 49:W 11:L 19:D 1:L 32:W 29. Barasoain, Fernando 1439 4 58:W 10:D 16:W 2:W 18:L 20:L 17:D 30. Harris, Bruce 1438 2.5 1:W 13:L 3:L 49:W 21:L 51:L 46:D 31. Kresinger, Frank 1432 3.5 2:L 52:D 46:W 10:D 6:L 38:D 47:W 32. Nabung, Alexander 1418 3 3:D 15:W 5:W 9:L 13:D 11:L 28:L 33. Tracey, Michael J 1391 3 4:D 16:L 52:D 50:W 10:L 27:L 39:W 34. Burgess, Shane 1386 2 5:L 53:L 55:D 46:L 45:+ 50:D 40:L 35. Karayi, Valsalan 1373 4.5 6:L 54:W 1:W 20:D 17:W 8:L 19:W 36. Beveridge, David 1338 1.5 7:L 55:W 11:L 1:L :D 52:- 49:L 37. Kang, Leo 1336 4 8:D 4:D 6:W 22:L 12:W 2:W 1:L 38. Ikeda, Miona 1335 3.5 9:L 57:W 21:W 23:L 25:L 31:D 55:W 39. Sweeney, Matthew 1300 2 10:L 58:W 4:L 6:L 55:L 54:W 33:L 40. Wilkie, Mary E 1285 3 11:W 14:L 20:L 5:L 51:L 58:W 34:W 41. Ng, Deborah 1267 3 12:W 18:L 23:L 19:L 58:W 15:W 21:L 42. Keuning, Patrick J 1248 2.5 13:L 11:L 57:W 12:L 50:D 49:W 52:L 43. Nguyen, Andrew 1245 4 14:L 12:W 26:D 16:W :D 13:L 23:W 44. Oliver, Tamzin L 1216 3 15:D 17:L 45:W 26:L 53:W 16:L 2:D 45. Davis, Greg 1192 .5 16:D 8:L 44:L 55:L 34:- 57:- : 46. Lau, Tony 1174 3 17:D 1:L 31:L 34:W 15:W 19:L 30:D 47. McCormack, Daniel 1149 2.5 18:L 19:W 27:- 15:D 16:L 53:W 31:L 48. Guo, Emma 1129 3.5 19:W 21:W 13:D 56:L 1:D 5:L 25:D 49. Markson, Ellis 1111 2.5 20:W 22:L 28:L 30:L 52:D 42:L 36:W 50. Ren, Jonathan 1051 3 21:L 27:L 58:W 33:L 42:D 34:D 12:W 51. Nabung, Christian 987 3 22:L 20:L 12:L 57:W 40:W 30:W 27:L 52. Tsui, Edison 970 3.5 23:L 31:D 33:D 21:L 49:D 36:+ 42:W 53. Lau, Joshua 888 2.5 24:L 34:W 15:D 17:L 44:L 47:L 54:W 54. Chiddy, Rory 1 25:L 35:L 19:L 58:L :W 39:L 53:L 55. Knezevic, Mark 2.5 26:L 36:L 34:D 45:W 39:W 17:L 38:L 56. Law, Evan 5 27:W 3:D 10:W 48:W 24:D 22:L 14:W 57. Pierce, Charlie 1.5 28:L 38:L 42:L 51:L :D 45:+ 15:L 58. Wang, Patrick 2 29:L 39:L 50:L 54:W 41:L 40:L :W