Report on the 2003 NSW Open
by DOP Charles Zworestine
GM Ian Rogers first place with a picket fence score.
I have a theory: really good players get one "get out of jail card" per tournament. Sometimes they don't need to use it: after all, there's a reason they are good players! Sometimes they use it to get back into a game, but still end up losing; after all, anyone who gets a winning position against them is usually a pretty good player themselves. And often they use it up and win with it. Again, that's one of the reasons why they are good...
Well, if my theory is correct, then this year's NSW Open provided yet another example! Held at Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club and attracting a good field of 79 players, this event was FIDE rated for the first time, and played at a time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move from the start. (This meant a very busy and exhausting Sunday, when there were three games; I'd be interested to know if players think this is too much...). Perhaps this was what attracted the country's long time Number 1 player, Grandmaster Ian Rogers; perhaps it was the decent prize money ($800 first prize); or perhaps it was the chance to play an event on his front doorstep instead of travelling interstate. In any event, of course it was Rogers who used up the aforementioned "get out of jail card", against... you'll just have to read my round-by-round report to find out!
Round 1: The upsets began early on, with Matthew Sweeney defeating Lloyd Fell and Andrew Field grinding down Kerry Stead. From a position one pawn up, Andrew eventually forced an ending and won a second pawn; Kerry at one stage could have forced him to mate with bishop and knight, but declined and lost. Pedro Kirchnei, a dangerous unrated player, won a complicated game from young (9 year old!) Raymond Song. Rising star Ronald Yu was the exchange down, but had two beautiful bishops and a pawn for it to help him gradually grind out a tough win (in one of the last games to finish) against Alex Mendes da Costa. All the other top seeds won easily.
Round 2: The top two seeds again won quite handily, with Ian Rogers' opponent Henning Muller rapidly losing the exchange and resigning on Board 1, while Armen Ayvazyan defeated Joel Harp on Board 2. There was an upset on Board 3, though, with Catherine Lip drawing an opposite coloured bishop ending against Tim Reilly. Another junior, Vincent Suttor, held Brian Jones to a strategic (he had to go and watch the rugby!) draw on Board 5, while Theos Rippis also had an upset draw against Raul Samar on Board 6. The battle of the Xies went to George over Ken, while James Cronan had an upset win in the last game to finish over Michael Salter after his bishop and two connected passed pawns were too much for Michael's rook. Kirchnei continued his upset run when all the tactics worked in his favour against Ilya Zvedeniouk.
Round 3: Could the grandmaster really be upset by a young teenage upstart? Time for the "get out of jail card": Australian Junior Champion Tomek Rej fell prey to the wiles and experience of a swindling Ian Rogers. A pawn up in a rook and pawn ending, Tomek looked good. Unfortunately, he idled a bit too long: Rogers stole his isolated h-pawn, thus turning the more advanced of his doubled isolated g-pawns into a strength. Ian was then able to ram this passed pawn home to steal an unlikely victory; by his own confession, he was a bit lucky...
Ian Rogers (2581) - Tomek Rej (2106) [C69] 2003 NSW Open (3) Board 1 8/6/03
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 f6 6.d4 Bg4 7.dxe5 Qxd1 8.Rxd1 fxe5 9.Rd3 Bd6 10.Nbd2 Nf6 11.b3 0-0-0 12.Bb2 Rhe8 13.Re1 Bb4 14.a3 Bxf3 15.axb4 Rxd3 16.cxd3 Bh5 17.Nc4 Nd7 18.f3 Bf7 19.Rc1 Bxc4 20.Rxc4 Rd8 21.Rc2 Nf6 22.Rc3 Rd4 23.Ba3 Ne8 24.Kf2 Nd6 25.Bb2 Rxb4 26.Ke3 Kd7 27.g3 g5 28.Ba3 Rb5 29.d4 Ra5 30.Bxd6 cxd6 31.f4 Ra2 32.dxe5 dxe5 33.Rd3+ Ke7 34.fxg5 Rxh2 35.Kf3 Rh1 36.Kg4 Rf1 37.Rd2 Rf7 38.b4 Ke6(=) 39.Rd8 Ke7 40.Rh8 Kd7 41.Kh5 Rg7 42.g4 Ke7 43.Rb8 Kd6 44.Rf8 Ke6 45.Rf6+ Ke7 46.Kh6 Rg8 47.Rf5 Rd8 48.Kxh7 Rd3 49.g6 Rh3+ 50.Rh5 Rg3 51.Rh4 1-0
Ronald Yu drew from a position of strength against Armen Ayvazyan on Board 2, while Karel Hursky also scored an upset draw against visiting Malaysian star Chee Yin Thaw on Board 3. Although Goris did topple George Xie on Board 5, draws this round were as common as flies at a sausage sizzle: Canfell-Capilitan, Lee Jones-Cronan and Brian Jones-Rippis all ended in draws. However, the draw disease was not catching for the majority of the juniors, with many of them again scoring upset wins over higher rated players.
Round 4: Far from being worn out by their efforts of the previous round, Rogers and Rej both made their opponents feel their wrath! Rogers took a pawn and easily warded off Seberry's attack, while Rej made short work of fellow junior Kostia Lubarsky. Meanwhile, Goris joined Rogers on 4/4 by beating Agulto. Close behind them on 31/2 were Ayvazyan (who beat Lee Jones), Reilly (defeated Capilitan), Samar (a winner over Hursky) and Canfell (who won against James Cronan). Ronald Yu upheld the junior honour by drawing with Chee Yin Thaw; while Joshua Levin held Theo Rippis to a draw, and Heather Huddleston upset Duncan Peters.
Round 5: White did well at the top here, with Rogers (over Goris), Reilly (versus Samar), Brian Jones (against Ilya Zvedeniouk) and George Xie (over Henning Muller) all winning with the White bits. Canfell drew with Ayvazyan on Board 2, while more juniors scoring good draws were Ken Xie (with Agulto) and Gareth Oliver (with Lee Jones). Harp's draw with Thaw was funny for its finish: in check from a knight, Harp blithely tried to advance a forked pawn! When he realised it was check and he must thus lose his last pawn, Harp accepted the draw. Ronald Yu had a "grandmaster draw" with Seberry in the following game, which Ralph made me promise to publish "but only if you call the opening Double Dutch" (Ronald is a known 1.f4 player):
Ronald Yu (2057) - Ralph Seberry (2121) [A03] 2003 NSW Open (5) Board 8 8/6/03
1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 f5 (At this point, Ronald laughed; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em...) 3.e3 Nf6 4.b3 e6 5.Bb2 Bd6 6.Be2 0-0 7.0-0 Qe7 8.Ne5 c6 9.d3 Bc5 10.d4 Bd6 11.Nd2 Nbd7 12.c4 Ne4 13.a3 Nxd2 14.Qxd2 Nf6 15.Bd3 Bd7 1/2-1/2
Round 6: Clearly the form players of the event, Rogers and Rej made short work of Reilly and Ayvazyan respectively. Rogers turned his thematic pawn sacrifice into decisive piece activity, while Rej also got active and turned the tactics in his favour:
Tim Reilly (2253) - Ian Rogers (2581) [E81] 2003 NSW Open (6) Board 1 9/6/03
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 0-0 5.Be3 d6 6.f3 c5 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Bxc5 Nc6 10.Nd5 Nd7 11.Ba3 e6 12.Nc7 Rb8 13.Nb5 b6 14.0-0-0 a6 15.Nd6 Nc5 16.Ne2 Bd7 17.f4 e5 18.f5 Bf8 19.fxg6 hxg6 20.b4 Bxd6 21.bxc5 Bf8 22.Nc3 bxc5 23.Nd5 Nd4 24.Bb2 Bh6+ 25.Kb1 Ba4 0-1
Armen Ayvazyan (2334) - Tomek Rej (2106) [E07] 2003 NSW Open (6) Board 2 9/6/03
1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.d4 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 Nbd7 7.Nc3 dxc4 8.e4 c5 9.e5 Nd5 10.Ne4 cxd4 11.Qxd4 b5 12.a4 Nb4 13.Qc3 Bb7 14.Nd6 Bxd6 15.exd6 Nd5 16.Qc2 a6 17.Bf4 Nc5 18.Ng5 Nd3 19.Be4 N5xf4 20.Bxb7 Qxg5 21.axb5 Nh3+ 22.Kg2 Qxb5 23.Bxa8 Rxa8 24.Kxh3 Qf5+ 0-1
Goris upset Brian Jones, and George Xie ended Greg Canfell's chances. Juniors starred yet again, with Lubarsky scoring an excellent win over Thaw, as did Catherine Lip over Agulto and Gareth Oliver over Kerry Stead. The all-junior battle between Ken Xie and Ronald Yu ended in a fighting draw, as did Heather Huddleston's game against Junta Ikeda.
Round 7: The final round was a trifle anticlimactic, as Rogers cleaned up George Xie to claim outright first on 7/7. Tomek Rej ended his sensational tournament with a win over Goris to clinch outright second on 6 points; with his only loss being the unfortunate one to Rogers, the Australian Junior Champion could be well satisfied with his efforts. Reilly made short work of Lubarsky to move to third place, but Seberry seemed to take an age to join him: Gareth Oliver's position eventually unravelling like spaghetti after a Seberry breakthrough. Catherine Lip and Raul Samar fought to the death to try to join the tie for third, but in the end had to settle for a draw in the last game to finish. In Catherine's case, this meant a share of the Under 2000 prize with Henning Muller (who upset Brian Jones).
So there you have it: the NSW Open ending with a predictable Rogers victory, but only after having been made to fight all the way by Rej in particular. The innovation to make it an Open tournament was a success: six visitors were welcomed from Canberra (and three won prizes). The decision to FIDE rate the event was also a good one: three players without FIDE ratings got blocks, and two (Armen Ayvazyan and James Cronan) will get FIDE ratings as a result. The venue was good; there were very few disputes or complaints; and there were many juniors playing. It all augurs well for the future; hope we can get even more next year...
Prizes: 1st Rogers 7/7; 2nd Rej 6; 3rd = Reilly, Seberry 51/2; 1st = Under 2000 Lip, Muller 5; Junior Prize George Xie 5; 1st = Under 1800 Lubarsky, Wei, Gareth Oliver 41/2; 1st Under 1600 Ikeda 4; 1st Under 1400 Tracey 4; 2nd = Under 1600 Field, Hu, Huang, Levin, Mendes da Costa, Nichas 31/2; 2nd = Under 1400 Rebecca Harris, Patrick Keuning, Mandla 31/2.
Standings
Place Name Loc Score
1 Rogers, Ian 2581 7
2 Rej, Tomek 2106 6
3-4 Reilly, Tim 2253 5.5
Seberry, Ralph B 2121 5.5
5-12 Goris, Robert 2057 5
Ayvazyan, Armen 2334 5
Xie, George 2168 5
Lip, Catherine 1828 5
Samar, Raul 2177 5
Canfell, Gregory J 2157 5
Jones, Lee R 2107 5
Muller, Henning 1842 5
13-19 Lubarsky, Kostia 1770 4.5
Yu, Ronald 2057 4.5
Oliver, Gareth 1769 4.5
Harp, Joel 1879 4.5
Suttor, Vincent 1808 4.5
Stead, Kerry 1977 4.5
Wei, Michael 1799 4.5
20-35 Jones, Brian A 2184 4
Agulto, Edgardo 2122 4
Capilitan, Romeo 2010 4
Xie, Ken 1772 4
Thaw, Chee Yin 2194 4
Rippis, Theos 1826 4
Cronan, James 1683 4
Fell, Lloyd S 1768 4
Navarro, Sim 1971 4
Zvedeniouk, Ilia 1891 4
Song, Raymond 1612 4
Ikeda, Junta 1569 4
Tomas, Tom 1706 4
Huddleston, Heather 1608 4
Rosario, Amiel 1692 4
Tracey, Michael J 1348 4
36-48 Hursky, Karel P 1966 3.5
Levin, Joshua 1420 3.5
Huang, Justin 1477 3.5
Watharow, Sean P 1663 3.5
Harris, Rebecca 1303 3.5
Mandla, Blair 1236 3.5
Edwards, Chris J 1745 3.5
Clark, Domenic 1608 3.5
Hu, Jason 1512 3.5
Field, Andrew 1416 3.5
Mendes da Costa, Alex 1443 3.5
Nichas, John 1490 3.5
Keuning, Patrick J 1263 3.5
49-55 Kirchnei, Pedro 3
Jeffreys, Roger W 1402 3
Kulpa, Kazimierz 1443 3
Guo-Yuthok, Sherab 1379 3
Bisson, Danny Wayne 1401 3
Kresinger, Frank 1470 3
Canfell, Mike J 1511 3
56-66 Escribano, Jose 1574 2.5
Carballo, Rick 1528 2.5
Greenwood, Norman 1467 2.5
Tse, Jeffrey 1196 2.5
Bleicher, Horst 1683 2.5
Keuning, Anthony V 1550 2.5
Illingworth, Max 1295 2.5
Harris, Benjamin 1344 2.5
Song, Angela 1463 2.5
Oliver, Anthony 983 2.5
Peters, Duncan 1837 2.5
67-72 Wilkie, Mary E 1207 2
Sweeney, Matthew 1204 2
Soltysik, Adelaide 1138 2
Schuetz, Fred 1162 2
Gray, David Peter H 1306 2
Reese, Peter 1062 2
73 Szeto, Jonathan 1.5
74-78 Spirov, Tony 1207 1
Guo, Emma 403 1
Trkulja, Slavko 1541 1
Sutherland, Jordan 582 1
Salter, Michael 2072 1
79-80 Korbe, Heinrich 1496 0
Art, Carl 1394 0