2004 Coal City Open
Arthur Huynh accepts the first prize cheque from Allan Wright (photo by Keith Farrell)
And He May Not Have Played…
by DOP Charles Zworestine
Despite
being down on numbers (29 as opposed to 44 last year), this year’s Coal City
Open was interesting for several reasons! It wasn’t meant to be, but it ended
up an Under 2000 event (top seed was Neil Wright at 1995). The event was highly
competitive throughout, with many top board draws resulting. As a consequence,
the outright winning score was an unusually low one for this type of event. And
the winner may not even have played: he was still in Sydney at the start of
Round 1, got to Round 2 late but still won, was in dead lost positions in Rounds
4 and 6 yet still ended up undefeated…
First round
results all went according to rating, except for Colin Parsons losing on time in
an unbalanced position against George Lithgow (Fischer time controls: one hour
plus ten seconds per move from the start). One big upset in Round 2, though
Brendon Norman may claim there should not have been: he butchered a won position
and lost to Beck Harris… Alex Mendes da Costa was lucky to get his attack
through and win from a piece down vs Norm Greenwood.
Neil Wright
and Bernard O’Riordan played an intriguing top board game in Round 3: Neil’s
extra pawns led to him queening, but winning queen vs rook and knight he was
careless, and unnecessarily let his opponent get his king into a mating net! He
should then have been forced to take a draw by perpetual check – until Bernard
misplayed it, let Neil’s king escape and lost instead… Jason Chan and Max
Illingworth drew a boring manoeuvring game. David Castor won pawns and the rook
and pawn ending against Alex Mendes da Costa. Brendon blundered again, letting
Norm queen a pawn and so draw when he should have lost...
So to Round
4, the last Saturday round, where Neil and David had a solid draw (despite David
engaging in complications and almost losing!), and Max and Bernard drew too
after Bernard, with an attack for a pawn, misplayed a possible win and took a
perpetual check instead. A tired Jason Chan was winning against Arthur Huynh,
first a pawn then an exchange up – until he missed a mate in one! No other
major upsets, except for young Matthew Koutnik’s win over Klaus Menge (a 900
point rating gap there!). So the first day ended with 3 players equal leading on
3½/4: Neil, David and Arthur. A bag of 5 players were still in contention on 3,
breathing down their neck; Sunday was obviously going to be a fascinating day…
A soporific
group of players drew their top board games in Round 5, the Sunday morning
round: Neil and Arthur, David and Max… Alex beat Vaness Reid after she
blundered her knight to a pin, while Ben Harris joined the leaders by upsetting
Ian Dickson. George also scored an upset, beating Tony Keuning in an ending. Not
much changed after Round 6, where the top 4 boards were all drawn: mostly in
endgames, although Max missed several chances to beat Arthur and Ben took a draw
rather than playing an ending an exchange ahead after David (who had been
winning) was careless. George Lithgow continued his outstanding tournament by
upsetting Gary Losh to move to within half a point of the leaders.
And so we
had a thrilling finish, with 5 equal leaders on 4½/6 (Neil, David, Alex, Arthur
and Ben) and 5 on 4 (Jason, Bernard, Max, Vaness and George)… Things were a
bit more decisive in the last round, despite Neil surviving Ben’s attack and
drawing; but Arthur got a crushing attack for a pawn against David, and
Jason’s attack against Alex also crashed through. This left Arthur outright
first on 5½/7, with a bunch of 5 players equal second on 5. Among them was
ratings prize winner Ben Harris (Under 1600). Despite losing to Bernard,
George’s fantastic tournament ended with him winning the Under 1400 prize
outright.
Prize Winners: 1st Arthur Huynh 5½/7; 2nd = Neil Wright, Jason Chan, Bernard O’Riordan, Max Illingworth, Ben Harris (1st Under 1600) 5; 1st Under 1400 George Lithgow 4.
Place Name Rtg Loc Score
1 Huynh, Arthur 1699 5.5
2-6 Chan, Jason 1978 5
Illingworth, Max 1761 5
Wright, Neil 1995 5
O'Riordan, Bernard 1804 5
Harris, Benjamin 1548 5
7-10 Castor, David 1934 4.5
Mendes da Costa, Alex 1782 4.5
Norman, Brendon 1905 4.5
Miranda, Adrian 1458 4.5
11-13 Reid, Vaness 1637 4
Keuning, Anthony 1610 4
Lithgow, George 1349 4
14-16 Koutnik, Matthew 531 3.5
McGuirk, Michael 1397 3.5
Parker, Trent 1298 3.5
17-23 Harris, Rebecca 1584 3
Dickson, Ian 1649 3
Losh, Gary 1458 3
Weltner, Michael 1487 3
Deacon, Graeme 1412 3
Wilkie, Mary 1252 3
Bellette, Aaron 3
24-25 Greenwood, Norman 1513 2.5
Parsons, Colin 1528 2.5
26-27 Menge, Klaus 1410 2
Chiddy, Lance 720 2
28-29 Nemeth, Bela 1465 1.5
Wright, Allan 1275 1.5
No Name Loc Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Wright, Neil 1995 5 16:W 9:W 5:W 3:D 8:D 6:D 13:D 2. Chan, Jason 1978 5 17:W 10:W 7:D 8:L 4:W 5:D 6:W 3. Castor, David 1934 4.5 18:W 11:W 6:W 1:D 7:D 13:D 8:L 4. Norman, Brendon 1905 4.5 19:W 12:L 15:D 25:W 2:L 22:W 9:W 5. O'Riordan, Bernard 1804 5 20:W 13:W 1:L 7:D 12:W 2:D 23:W 6. Mendes da Costa, Alex 1782 4.5 21:W 15:W 3:L 12:W 10:W 1:D 2:L 7. Illingworth, Max 1761 5 22:W 23:W 2:D 5:D 3:D 8:D 10:W 8. Huynh, Arthur 1699 5.5 :D 28:W 12:W 2:W 1:D 7:D 3:W 9. Dickson, Ian 1649 3 24:W 1:L 18:W 23:W 13:L 10:L 4:L 10. Reid, Vaness 1637 4 25:W 2:L 20:W 11:W 6:L 9:W 7:L 11. Keuning, Anthony 1610 4 26:W 3:L 19:W 10:L 23:L 28:W 12:W 12. Harris, Rebecca 1584 3 27:W 4:W 8:L 6:L 5:L 20:W 11:L 13. Harris, Benjamin 1548 5 28:W 5:L 21:W 15:W 9:W 3:D 1:D 14. Parsons, Colin 1528 2.5 23:L :D 22:L 17:L 27:W 21:W 24:L 15. Greenwood, Norman 1513 2.5 29:W 6:L 4:D 13:L 25:W 19:L 22:L 16. Weltner, Michael 1487 3 1:L 22:D 25:L 24:D 29:W 26:W 28:L 17. Nemeth, Bela 1465 1.5 2:L 25:D 23:L 14:W 22:L 29:L 20:L 18. Losh, Gary 1458 3 3:L 24:W 9:L 22:W 20:W 23:L 19:L 19. Miranda, Adrian 1458 4.5 4:L 27:W 11:L 26:W 28:D 15:W 18:W 20. Deacon, Graeme 1412 3 5:L 26:W 10:L 27:W 18:L 12:L 17:W 21. Menge, Klaus 1410 2 6:L 29:W 13:L 28:L 26:L 14:L :W 22. McGuirk, Michael 1397 3.5 7:L 16:D 14:W 18:L 17:W 4:L 15:W 23. Lithgow, George 1349 4 14:W 7:L 17:W 9:L 11:W 18:W 5:L 24. Parker, Trent 1298 3.5 9:L 18:L 27:L 16:D :W 25:W 14:W 25. Wright, Allan 1275 1.5 10:L 17:D 16:W 4:L 15:L 24:L 26:L 26. Wilkie, Mary 1252 3 11:L 20:L 29:W 19:L 21:W 16:L 25:W 27. Chiddy, Lance 720 2 12:L 19:L 24:W 20:L 14:L :W 29:L 28. Koutnik, Matthew 531 3.5 13:L 8:L :W 21:W 19:D 11:L 16:W 29. Bellette, Aaron 3 15:L 21:L 26:L :W 16:L 17:W 27:W