The results on almost all boards in the second round went according to ratings, with nine players moving into a share of the lead on 2 / 2. A further ten players are on 1.5

There was only one major upset, Sujendra Premaka continued his form with a win over former club champion Miralem Campara. But although he is unrated I'm not sure this is even an upset, nobody beats both Pecori and Campara in two weeks unless they are a very good player.

There were also a number of hard fought draws. Nick Vitkovic, Chris Potter and Phillip Drew played very well to hold their higher rated opponents, Nick probably should have won after being a piece up against Mendel Armerman at one stage.

Top players Ascaro Pecori and Richard Voon both need to string some wins together after their first round defeats, although both won in round two they each had tougher fights than they would have expected. Next week Pecori plays an in form Phillip Drew, (who defeated Voon in round one), while Voon plays Peter Pispek who is playing much better recently.

Round three will also be tougher for the top ranked players. Former top seed* Malcolm Pyke meets Tahir Lushaj who drew with him in the club championship, Milenko Lojanica plays FM Abdulwahab Rashid and Don Machell is up against the dangerous Sujendra Premaka..

* Taking over as top seed is NY Wong (2142) who entered the tournament from round three. Starting on zero he will have a hard time catching the leaders.

This tournament also has trophies for Rating Grp A (U1600) and Rating Grp B (U1400).
Leading the U1600 is Graham Shaw, Nick Vitkovic and Chris Potter all on 1.5
Leading the U1400 is Frank Drazzi and Phillip Drew also on 1.5

Only three players remain on full points after the third round. Malcolm Pyke, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic and Abdulwahab Rashid are the joint leaders on 3 / 3 followed by five players on 2.5-points and a large number on 2-points.

A surprise result on board two where Abdulwahab accounted for one of the favorites, Milenko Lojanica. If Abdulwahab is getting back to top form he could be capable of winning. Another couple of upsets came with Gerard Barta (1082) defeating Manny Chua (1574) and Frank Drazzi (1194) beating Sam Biondo (1608).

One day Sam will learn that in a tournament with a guillotine time limit, (All / 100 minutes with no increments), it is no use spending 99 min 37 sec to play your first twenty moves. No matter how good a position or how much material you are up 23 sec is not enough to finish the game off.

A few other notable results came from youngsters Matthew Potter and Phillip Drew who managed to hold their higher rated opponents Frank Silas and Ascaro Pecori to draws.

There are eight equal leaders in the U1600 section, all on 2 / 3 whilst the U1400 section is being led by Frank Drazzi on 2.5

At the halfway point in the eight round tournament a sole leader has emerged with Malcolm Pyke's victory over Mehmedalija Dizdarevic in the fourth round. The reigning club champion is now on 4 / 4 and leads by 1/2-point from three players; Don Machell who won quickly over Abdulwahab Rashid, Matthew Potter who is having a very good tournament and Sujendra Premaka who was probably a bit fortunate in his game against TG Pramod.

Apart from the Machell - Rashid game all the top board games were long games and a few were influenced by the guillotine time control. On top board Malcolm managed to make 10 of his opening 14 moves with pawns as he built up space on the queenside. Heading into the endgame Malcolm was able to position his rook on Mehmedalija's second rank, winning a pawn. In the end Malcolm had a knight on c3 and a rook on the second rank, both threatening Mehmedalija's king, stuck on a1, with mate. Mehmedalija was forced to defend with his own knight on c1. When Malcolm played Rc2 Mehmedalija's own rook was forced to the first rank to defend the knight. Malcolm was then able to push his spare pawn and there was nothing Mehmedalija could do about it.

Sujendra Premaka continued his good tournament with his win over TG Pramod. At one stage TG looked to be winning covincingly, with a piece and four (!) pawns for a rook. But in severe time trouble TG blundered a piece and Sujendra's extra rook was too much to cope with.

Of the twelve players within 1-point of Malcolm a few of them, Don Machell, Milenko Lojanica, Richard Voon and Frank Silas especially, can still make life difficult for him. And if Ascaro Pecori recovers from his bad start to the event he could be a danger in the closing rounds.

Leading the U1600 group are Frank Hewitt, Bahri Senturk & Bob Parrot all on 3-points, a full point ahead of a group of six players. But with Bob away for the next two weeks and Frank and Bahri facing tough opponents next week the players a point behind have a good chance to catch up.

Leading the U1400 group are Frank Drazzi & Michael Potter, both on 2.5-points, they are only 1/2-point ahead of five players.

Round 5 saw Malcolm Pyke relenquish sole leadership when he could only draw against the unrated Sujendra Premaka. (Sujendra is still unrated in the recently released March ratings) This draw allowed Don Machell to join Malcolm at the top when he defeated Matthew Potter. At one point in this game Matthew was a piece and a pawn up, with a pawn on the seventh rank.

Both Malcolm and Don are now on 4.5 / 5 and leading by 1/2-point from a group of five players, with a further four players only 1-point behind on 3.5

Malcolm and Don play each other next week in a game that could decide the tournament winner. But neither of them should relax as amongst the chasing pack are some strong players, Milenko Lojanica, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic and Abdulwahab Rashid all won in round five and are still capable of winning the event if either leader falters in the remaining rounds.

Although it would be almost impossible for the tournaments highest rated player, NY Wong, to win the event, he could still have a big say in who does win. After missing the first two rounds he has moved to 3 / 5, (against much lower rated opposition), and if he could get to 5 / 7 he could cause some headaches for the leading group.

There were a few upsets in this round with Sam Biondo defeating TG Pramod in a mutual time-trouble scramble and Steven Doon beating the higher rated Bob Spiric after Bob earlier turned down a draw offer. Richard Voon's comeback after a first round disaster was halted when he fumbled what looked to be a winning position and allowed Garry Lycett to win a piece and eventually the game.

An interesting game next week will be between Ascaro Pecori and former club champion Miralem Campara, both had bad starts to the tournament but are now back at 3.5-points. A loss by either player would put them out of the running, but the winner could still have an impact in the closing rounds.

The U1600 group saw the three leaders all lose in round 5, allowing another three players to catch them. It is now a six-way tie for the lead; Frank Hewitt, Bahri Senturk, Bob Parrot, Ahmet Yilmaz, Nick Vitkovic and Chris Potter are all on 3-points.

The U1400 group is being led by Branko Sljivovac on 3-points, only 1/2-point ahead of four players.

Round six saw the the two equal leaders meet on board one in a game that was the last to finish. In an interesting game Don Machell seemed to have a slight advantage over Malcolm Pyke with a protected passed pawn on d6 causing Malcolm some problems. Malcolm was able to eventually remove the dangerous pawns and get to a rook, bishop and 4-pawns each endgame where his own central pawns looked as though they would push through. But Don found a clever way to turn the tables, and suddenly he had an h-pawn and a c-pawn running down the board. But they couldn't run faster than time, (I think Einstein proved that), and Don's time ran out to give Malcolm a well deserved victory.

This win put reigning club champion Malcolm back into sole leadership on 5.5 / 6, with two rounds remaining he now leads by 1/2-point from two players. Mehmedalija Dizdarevic overwhelmed Abdulwahab Rashid in the opening and won quite easily while Sujendra Premaka continued his good tournament with a win over Matthew Potter. Both winners moved to equal second place on 5-points and will meet next week on board two in a game that will be vital for both players chances of tournament victory.

There are a further five players on 4.5-points. Milenko Lojanica, (who plays Malcolm next week), Ascaro Pecori and Don Machell are three of them who are still in with a chance to win the event. ** If Milenko manages to beat Malcolm it could be possible to have six equal leaders going into the final round.

There were a couple of upsets last night involving drawn games. Milenko Lojanica normally wins easily as white against Garry Lycett. Previous results with these colours between the two had Milenko winning 5 Sicilian Najdorf's and only losing (in 2001) when he played 1.g4. But in yet another Sicilian Najdorf Milenko was so surprised at not getting the usual kingside attack early that he offered a draw which Garry happily accepted.

And Geoff Lee was extremely happy to hold the higher rated Graham Shaw to a draw in a very complicated king and many pawns ending. Geoff looked to have the better of the position, but had to be careful not to let his king stray too far from Grahams pawns. In the end Geoff was content to settle for triple repetition.

The U1600 group saw only one of the six leaders win, Bahri Senturk's victory over Frank Hewitt took him to 4-points. He now has a 1-point lead over no less than eight players. But Bahri needs to play well against Abdulwahab next week or he is likely to be joined by at least four of the eight chasing him.

The U1400 group is being led by Frank Drazzi on 3.5-points, only 1/2-point ahead of four players. Frank has been playing very well in this event although he had a bit of luck last night when Mirko Kudric twice moved his king to the wrong square in a K+P vs K ending. Frank missed the win first time around but didn't let Mirko off the second time.

The penultimate round of this tournament saw Malcolm Pyke and Milenko Lojanica on board one repeat their recent Ballarat result, with a second draw in 5 days between the two. This allowed Mehmedalija Dizdarevic to join Malcolm as equal leader on 6-points following his defeat of Sujendra Premaka in a very interesting game. Mehmedalija had two pieces for a rook but Sujendra's queenside pawns looked as though they could be dangerous. Eventually Mehmedalija was able to wrap up the win, this was the unrated Sujendra's first loss in the event.

The two leaders are ahead of a group of nine players by a full point. As Malcolm and Mehmedalija played earlier in the tournament they will not be playing each other in the final round. This gives the players on 5-points a chance to catch them. If both leaders do happen to lose next week it would be at least a four-way tie for first and very likely an eight-way tie.

But the chances of both Malcolm and Mehmedalija losing in the last round are remote, between them they have 11 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss in the tournament, (and that loss was Mehmedalija's to Malcolm). But Ascaro Pecori, despite a bad start and not having a good tournament by his own standards, suddenly finds himself on board one in the last round with a chance of equal first. Ascaro is capable enough to win and Malcolm wont have it easy. On board two Mehmedalija will play Don Machell, who has caused Mehmedalija plenty of problems in the past. Don was perhaps fortunate last night when Sam Biondo offered a draw in what seemed to be a clearly won position for Sam. Sam knew he was winning but was concerned about his lack of remaining time, last week Don was a victim of time-trouble and this week it helped him.

Another victim of time-trouble in very unusual circumstances was Chris Potter. Chris's opponent NY Wong hadn't appeared at the start so Chris sat down, (as Black), to wait for him to arrive, White's clock had been started. After an hour elapsed Chris went to put up the result and realized that in fact he himself was White. The arbiter invoked rule 6.7 "Any player who arrives at the chessboard more than one hour after the scheduled start of the session shall lose the game unless the rules of the competition specify or the arbiter decides otherwise." As Chris was at the board, it could be argued that once the hour was up he hadn't lost on forfeit, he was just having a long think over his first move. Chris was awarded the point on forfeit regardless.

The U1600 group saw the leader, Bahri Senturk lose to Abdulwahab Rashid to remain on 4-points. This allowed five players to catch him, making it a six-way tie on that score going into the final round. Bahri plays equal leader Chris Potter in the last round, which could be the decisive game, as the other four leaders, Ahmet Yilmaz, Bob Parrot, Nick Vitkovic and Peter Pispek all have tough games against higher-rated players. And if Bahri and Chris draw there are another four players; Manny Chua, Don Maciulaitis, Tony Holland and Mirko Kudric on 3.5-points who could still catch them.

The U1400 group is being led by Frank Drazzi on 4.5-points, only 1/2-point ahead of Steven Doon. Frank has a very tough game in the last round against Sujendra Premaka while Steven is up against Tony Holland, which should be a close game. Still in with a chance in this group is Milivoj Savic on 3.5-points.

The final round should be exciting as there is a possibility, (although unlikely), of 16 trophies being awarded in this event. The top 15 boards will involve players still in the running for first or equal first in either the open or rating groups.

The final round of the Dandenong Summer Swiss saw first place undecided until the last two games of the night concluded. The second last game to finish was on board one where Ascaro Pecori made up for a disappointing tournament by defeating the equal leader, Malcolm Pyke. After losing his first round game and struggling to defeat some lower rated players Ascaro finally hit some form, but at the wrong time for Malcolm. Having been equal or outright leader for the first seven rounds Malcolm lost his first game at Dandenong since October 26th 2005, (almost five months !!), and it meant he needed Don Machell to defeat Mehmedalija Dizdarevic which would have caused a six-way tie for first place.

The board two game between Mehmedalija and Don was the last to finish, Mehmedalija needed only a draw to win the event but he seemed to have things well in hand and played for a win, which he achieved. With this victory came outright first place with a score of 7 / 8, a full point ahead of four others; Malcolm Pyke, Ascaro Pecori, Richard Voon and Sujendra Premaka who all finished on 6 / 8.

Congratulations to Mehmedalija who is always near the top of the leaderboard but hasn't won a tournament at Dandenong since September 2004 (Rapidplay).

Of the players who came equal second Sujendra Premaka had a very good event losing only one game, to the eventual winner, when he gets a rating it should be a good one. Ascaro Pecori and Richard Voon both had bad starts which probably allowed them easier pairings in the middle rounds, despite finishing on 6-points they are both likely to lose rating points from this tournament. Top seed and reigning club champion Malcolm Pyke was the only player to beat Dizdarevic, and only a loss to the third seed stopped him from back to back tournament victories at Dandenong.

Following these players in equal sixth place on 5.5-points were Milenko Lojanica, Abdulwahab Rashid, Garry Lycett and Mendel Armerman. Finishing in 10th - 16th places were seven players on 5-points, including Don Machell, such was the closeness of the scores that in the last game of the tournament Don went from a chance at equal first to finishing 10th !!

The U1600 rating group was won by two players finishing on 5-points, Ahmet Yilmaz and Bahri Senturk. They finished 1/2-point ahead of Manny Chua and Bob Parrot. None of the others on 4-points going into the final round were able to win, although Chris Potter was a piece up against Bahri before time-trouble, (severe time-trouble), intervened.

The U1400 group was won by Steven Doon with 5-points. He has been improving lately and this was his best performance at Dandenong so far. It is unlikely he will be competing for any U1400 prizes in the near future. He finished 1/2-point ahead of Frank Drazzi who also had a good tournament.