Copyright (c) 2008 Dandenong Chess Club Inc.

                       Dandenong Rapidplay 2008

                     **************************************

30 players entered the Rapidplay championship and after the first three

rounds there is only one player, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, on the maximum of

3-points.

He is closely followed by five players on 2.5-points, with another seven on

2-points.

As is usual in this sort of tournament there were a number of games decided

by the clock. Not necessarily by running out of time, but by blundering

deep in time-trouble. In round one Chris Potter had played very well

against Don Machell to reach a good position and even had 8-minutes to

Don's 3-minutes. When I returned Chris was still fighting but was down to

less than a minute, Don still had 3-minutes, under time pressure Chris made

a move he would never make normally and Don won. A completely different

scenario occured in the third round when Don played Mehmedalija Dizdarevic.

Rather than blunder in time-trouble Don outplayed Mehmedalija to the point

where he had Queen, Rook and Pawns vs a lone Pawn. With another 3-seconds

on his clock Don probably would have mated Mehmedalija, but with 1-second

left he sensibly tried to capture the last pawn to ensure at least a draw.

Unfortunately he fumbled and lost on time.

Matthew Potter made a return to the club and did very well on his first

night back. A draw in round one against second seed Abdulwahab Rashid was

followed by wins against Garry Lycett and Ramo Burzic. He was even able to

show that 1. h4  is a good opening, especially when your opponent blunders

on moves 3, 5, 6, 8, 10 etc.

His brother Daniel played very well to hang for a draw in a bishop and pawn

ending against John Seehusen, and that experience came in handy in the

third round when he was able to hold on in another close ending against

Philip Drew.

Probably the worst Potter at the quicker time limits is father Chris, but

after his round one loss he went on to win two in row, including defeating

Premier Grade champion Eddie Kocjancic.

The quickest game was in the third round between the brothers Lojanica, I

didn't see it but I am guessing they looked at the starting position ,

decided it looked pretty even and agreed a draw.

Congratulations to Don Machell who won all three games last night to emerge as the outright winner of the Rapidplay tournament.

After round 7 there wer four equal leaders on 5.5-points, Don, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, Milenko Lojanica and Abdulwahab Rashid..

In the eighth round these were whittled down to three when Abdulwahab lost to Milenko. It looked at tha stage that Mehmedalija had the easier last round pairing, playing Philip Drew, while Don and Milenko had to battle it out against each other.

Don produced a wonderful game to defeat Milenko, leaving it up to Mehmedalija to win in order to catch him. Although a piece up from early in the game Mehmedalija was not able to break through Philip's stubborn defence until the very end. But by then it was a time scramble that saw Mehmedalija's time run out with Philip still having the luxury of 3-seconds remaining. It was strange because Mehmedalija was the one with more time on the clock entering the time scramble. I think being a piece up in these

situations is almost a handicap, trying to win takes more time than simply moving randomly. With both players showing 11-seconds Mehmedalija calculated a forced victory that eliminated Philips remaining material, but it took 5 precious seconds that cost him in the end.

Don's win was well deserved, his only loss was to Mehmedalija, on time in a

completely won position. Oddly enough it was a similar situation that

caused Mehmedalija to relenquish first place to Don.