Dandenong Summer Swiss 2008
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This 8-round tournament began 30/1/08 with only one game not going
according to ratings in the first round, that was a top board draw between
Milenko Lojanica and Chris Potter.
Following are the first round results and the pairings for the second round.
Results Rd 1
1 Potter, Chris 1511 [0] .5:.5 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [0]
2 Machell, Don 1921 [0] 1:0 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [0]
3 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [0] 0:1 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [0]
4 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [0] 1:0 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [0]
5 Pispek, Peter 1448 [0] 0:1 Lushaj, Tahir 1841 [0]
6 Burak, Mehmed 1740 [0] 1:0 Lane, Victor 1417 [0]
7 Potter, Daniel 1404 [0] 0:1 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [0]
8 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [0] 1:0 Tolpigin, George 1329 [0]
9 Maku, Budai Unr [0] 0:1 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [0]
10 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [0] 1:0 De Winter, Stephen Unr [0]
11 Mison, Ashley Unr [0] 0:1 Shaw, Graham 1568 [0]
12 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [0] 1:0 McEachern, Graham 1154 [0]
13 Seehusen, John 1129 [0] 0:1 Chua, Manny 1546 [0]
14 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [0] 1:0 Lee, Geoff 1086 [0]
15 Gray, Alan 847 [0] 0:1 Barta, Gerard 1539 [0]
16 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [0] 1:0 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [0]
Results Rd 2
1 Shaw, Graham 1568 [1] -:+ Machell, Don 1921 [1]
2 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [1] 1:0 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [1]
3 Chua, Manny 1546 [1] 0:1 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [1]
4 Campara, Miralem 1769 [.5] 1:0 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [1]
5 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [1] 1:0 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [1]
6 Barta, Gerard 1539 [1] 0:1 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [1]
7 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [1] .5:.5 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [1]
8 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [.5] 1:0 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [0]
9 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [0] 0:1 Potter, Chris 1511 [.5]
10 McEachern, Graham 1154 [0] 0:1 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [0]
11 Potter, Michael 1575 [0] 0:1 Maku, Budai Unr [0]
12 Lee, Geoff 1086 [0] 0:1 Pispek, Peter 1448 [0]
13 Lane, Victor 1417 [0] 1:0 Seehusen, John 1129 [0]
14 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [0] 0:1 Potter, Daniel 1404 [0]
15 Tolpigin, George 1329 [0] 1:0 Gray, Alan 847 [0]
16 Pronk, Syf 1333 [0] 1:0 Mather, Craig Unr [0]
17 Lushaj, Tahir 1841 [1] .5: BYE
18 Mison, Ashley Unr [0] 1: BYE
Round 2 saw some additional players added to the field, there are now 34 entries.
Five players remain in the lead on 2-points.
A reminder to all players that this tournament has prizes for U1600 & U1400 rating groups.
In the U1600 there are three equal leaders; Mirko Kudric, Chris Potter and Ramo Burzic all on 1.5-points.
Top seeds Ramo Burzic and Rhys Hopkins, (1-point), play each other in the third round.
In the U1400 there are three players; Syf Pronk, George Tolpigin and Ashley Mison all on 1-point.
** Daniel Potter, (who for years has been winning or challenging for
various U1400 prizes at Dandenong), has finally got his rating to 1404.
Making this years U1400 a very open affair, with a winner almost impossible to predict.
Results Rd 3
1 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [2] 1:0 Machell, Don 1921 [2]
2 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [2] 1:0 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [2]
3 Lushaj, Tahir 1841 [1.5] 1:0 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [2]
4 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [1.5] 0:1 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [1.5]
5 Potter, Chris 1511 [1.5] .5:.5 Campara, Miralem 1769 [1.5]
6 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [1] 0:1 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [1.5]
7 Lycett, Garry 1815 [1] 1:0 Froiland, Gunnar 1589 [1]
8 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [1] 1:0 Lane, Victor 1417 [1]
9 Maku, Budai Unr [1] 1:0 Chua, Manny 1546 [1]
10 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [1] 1:0 Pronk, Syf 1333 [1]
11 Pispek, Peter 1448 [1] 1:0 Barta, Gerard 1539 [1]
12 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [1] 1:0 Mison, Ashley Unr [1]
13 Potter, Daniel 1404 [1] 1:0 McEachern, Graham 1154 [0]
14 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [0] 1:0 Lee, Geoff 1086 [0]
15 Gray, Alan 847 [0] 1:0 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [0]
16 De Winter, Stephen Unr [0] 0:1 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [0]
17 Mather, Craig Unr [0] 0:1 Seehusen, John 1129 [0]
18 Shaw, Graham 1568 [1] : BYE
19 Tolpigin, George 1329 [1] : BYE
The third round saw the leaders whittled down from five players to two,
with only Abdulwahab Rashid and Sadedin Redzepagic remaining on full points; 3 / 3.
Abdulwahab reversed his recent club championship defeat to Don Machell
whilst Sadedin caused a big upset downing Mehmedalija Dizdarevic. I was
surprised when after only 5 minutes Mehmedalija approached me looking for
another Black Queen, but sure enough his e-pawn had travelled e7 - e5 - f4
- g3 - h2 - g1(Q) all in the space of 7-moves, taking 3-pawns and a knight
along the way. Despite this Mehmedalija was forced to resign only 11-moves later.
White: Redzepagic Black: Dizdarevic
1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.f4 exf4 4.Bxg7 Qh4+ 5.g3 fxg3 6.Bg2 gxh2+ 7.Kf1 hxg1Q+
8.Kxg1 Qg4 9.Bxh8 f6 10.Nc3 Qg5 11.Rxh7 Bxc3 12.dxc3 Qe3+ 13.Kh1 Qxc3
14.Rb1 Ne7 15.Qd3 Qe5 16.Rf1 Nbc6 17.Bxf6 Qe6 18.Rh8+ 1-0
In other results Chris Potter gained his second draw against much higher
rated opposition, this time against Miralem Campara.
But the biggest upset of the night was Alan Gray defeating Nick Vitkovic
despite a 625-point rating gap. I didn't see a lot of the game but had
noticed that it looked very even and Alan was doing well. Next week Alan
faces a mere 570-point rating deficit which should be a breeze.
A very fortunate escape was granted to Garry Lycett who played newcomer
Gunnar Froiland. After taking all the material on offer and dismissing
Gunnar's attack as a pipedream Garry allowed a Queen check he originally
thought led to nothing. But eventually it dawned on him that moving his
King left led to a forced mate in four, and moving it right led to a forced
mate in five after a further rook sac from Gunnar. He moved right, Gunnar
missed the mate and it was all over shortly after.
Results Rd 4
1 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [3] 0:1 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [3]
2 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [2.5] 0:1 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [2.5]
3 Machell, Don 1921 [2] 1:0 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [2]
4 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [2] 1:0 Potter, Chris 1511 [2]
5 Campara, Miralem 1769 [2] 1:0 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [2]
6 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [2] 0:1 Maku, Budai Unr [2]
7 Potter, Daniel 1404 [2] .5:.5 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [2]
8 Shaw, Graham 1568 [1.5] 1:0 Pispek, Peter 1448 [2]
9 Tolpigin, George 1329 [1.5] .5:.5 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [1.5]
10 Pronk, Syf 1333 [1] 0:1 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [1]
11 Froiland, Gunnar Unr [1] 0:1 Chua, Manny 1546 [1]
12 Barta, Gerard 1539 [1] 1:0 Mison, Ashley Unr [1]
13 Seehusen, John 1129 [1] 0:1 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [1]
14 Lane, Victor 1417 [1] 1:0 Gray, Alan 847 [1]
15 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [1] 0:1 Lee, Geoff 1086 [0]
16 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [0] 1:0 De Winter, Stephen Unr [0]
17 McEachern, Graham 1154 [0] 1:0 Mather, Craig Unr [0]
Round four saw Abdulwahab Rashid emerge as the sole leader with 4 / 4 after
he defeated co-leader Sadedin Redzepagic on top board.
On board two top seed Milenko Lojanica sacrificed a piece for a strong
attack against Ramo Burzic. Ramo defended well but was eventually forced to
return the piece to stave off mate. After this Milenko had too many pawns
storming Ramo's exposed kingside and he was able to get the victory
comfortably.
Milenko went to outright second with 3.5-points and will play Abdulwahab
for top spot next week.
There are five players following on 3-points, only 1-point behind
Abdulwahab. Apart from Sadedin Redzepagic there is Don Machell, Miralem
Campara and Mehmedalija Dizdarevic who all won last night against Pezhman
Ghayoori, Ahmet Yilmaz and Chris Potter respectively. Pezhman simply went
wrong and dropped a piece, Ahmet was out-calculated in some complicated
tactics whilst Chris wasn't doing to badly but needs to work on his clock
management. Being 45 minutes behind on the clock early into a 60-min per
player game is always going to prove costly.
The other player on 3-points is newcomer Budai Maku, who looked completely
lost against Eddie Kocjancic when after being outplayed from the start he
had a queen, rook and bishop all en prise. I think Eddie must have stopped
concentrating and thought it was all over, it only took one lapse in
judgement and suddenly Eddie found himself a piece down and lost.
But Budai's comeback was surpassed by Victor Lane's recovery against Alan
Gray. Victor had allowed Alan to capture a rook thinking, wrongly, that he
had a forced mate. But being a rook up and the prospect of winning two
games in a row made Alan play too carefully, moving his king around instead
of utilising his material advantage. By not bringing either his knight on
a1 or rook on a8 into the game he was effectively playing a piece down
instead of a rook up. Victor just kept pushing pawns and pieces at Alan's
king hoping something would happen, eventually in time pressure Alan
succumbed and was beaten in a game he shouldn't have lost.
Normally it is the games against the higher rated players that go on the
longest, but last night the game between Henning Rasmussen and Geoff Lee
was easily the last to finish. It had been very close all night but at the
end Geoff was able to push two connected pawns to the sixth rank. These
more than made up for being the exchange down and shortly thereafter he was
able to force one of them through and Henning resigned.
The U1600 is being led by newcomer Budai Maku with 3-points. Following on
2.5-points are Ramo Burzic, Mendel Armerman, Graham Shaw and Daniel Potter.
Ramo, Mendel and Graham are three of the top four seeds in this group, but
at 1404 Daniel is the lowest rated player in the U1600 section so is doing
very well. There are no less than ten players in the U1600 still well in
contention with 2-points.
Results Rd 5
1 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [3.5] 1:0 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [4]
2 Campara, Miralem 1769 [3] 1:0 Machell, Don 1921 [3]
3 Maku, Budai Unr [3] .5:.5 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [3]
4 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [2.5] .5:.5 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [3]
5 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [2.5] +:- Shaw, Graham 1568 [2.5]
6 Chua, Manny 1546 [2] 0:1 Potter, Daniel 1404 [2.5]
7 Potter, Chris 1511 [2] .5:.5 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [2]
8 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [2] 1:0 Pispek, Peter 1448 [2]
9 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [2] 1:0 Tolpigin, George 1329 [2]
10 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [2] 1:0 Barta, Gerard 1539 [2]
11 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [2] 1:0 Lane, Victor 1417 [2]
12 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [2] 1:0 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [1]
13 Seehusen, John 1129 [1] 0:1 Froiland, Gunnar Unr [1]
14 Lee, Geoff 1086 [1] 0:1 Pronk, Syf 1333 [1]
15 Mison, Ashley Unr [1] 1:0 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [1]
16 Gray, Alan 847 [1] 0:1 McEachern, Graham 1154 [1]
17 Mather, Craig Unr [0] 0:1 De Winter, Stephen Unr [0]
In the fifth round the tournament lead changed hands when Milenko Lojanica
defeated Abdulwahab Rashid on top board. Milenko went to 4.5 / 5 and leads
by 1/2-point from Abdulwahab and Miralem Campara. There are a further five
players in touch on 3.5-points.
Miralem has struggled recently with illness but is getting back to his best
and last night he continued his good record against Don Machell with a fine
win. At the end Don continued to look for a perpetual but with only a queen
against two rooks and three connected passed pawns it was always going to
be difficult.
What is likely to be one of the quickest games of the year, (and I include
lightning tournaments in this), was Rhys Hopkins win over Peter Pispek. I
didn't see it but at least seven players hadn't started their games yet by
the time Rhys chalked up the point.
Chris Potter is having a good tournament. The two leaders playing on board
one next week have both played him earlier in the event, and neither was
able to beat him !! In Milenko's case it was the only 1/2-point he has
dropped in the whole tournament. Last night Chris drew with Eddie Kocjancic
meaning that 4-games against higher rated opponents, (Avg 1848 to Chris's
1511), have yielded him 3 draws and a loss. His only game against a lower
rated opponent (1472) was a win so he will be picking up rating points. And
yet despite having played so well he is still 1-point behind son Daniel who
is equal leader of the U1600 group.
The U1600 is being jointly led by Mendel Armerman, Daniel Potter and Budai
Maku with 3.5-points. Following on 3-points are six players with a further
two on 2.5-points. With the three leaders all facing tough opponents the
eventual winner in this group could be anyone.
The U1400 is headed by a group of four players, Syf Pronk, George Tolpigin,
Ashley Mison and Graham McEachern are all on 2-points and a point ahead of
the remainder.
Results Rd 6
1 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [4.5] .5:.5 Campara, Miralem 1769 [4]
2 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [4] 0:1 Maku, Budai Unr [3.5]
3 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [3.5] 1:0 Potter, Daniel 1404 [3.5]
4 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [3.5] 0:1 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [3.5]
5 Machell, Don 1921 [3] 1:0 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [3]
6 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [3] 0:1 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [3]
7 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [3] 0:1 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [3]
8 Potter, Chris 1511 [2.5] 1:0 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [3]
9 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [2.5] 1:0 Barta, Gerard 1539 [2]
10 Chua, Manny 1546 [2] 0:1 Pronk, Syf 1333 [2]
11 Froiland, Gunnar Unr [2] 0:1 Tolpigin, George 1329 [2]
12 Pispek, Peter 1448 [2] 1:0 Mison, Ashley 1209 [2]
13 Lane, Victor 1417 [2] 1:0 McEachern, Graham 1154 [2]
14 De Winter, Stephen 982 [1] 0:1 Gray, Alan 847 [1]
15 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [1] .5:.5 Seehusen, John 1129 [1]
16 Lee, Geoff 1086 [1] 1:0 Mather, Craig Unr [0]
17 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [1] 1:- BYE
In the sixth round Milenko Lojanica kept his 1/2-point lead with a draw
against Miralem Campara taking him to 5 / 6. The queen, d & e pawns came
off for both sides in the first seven moves. After that it was just develop
the pieces and then agree a draw.
Before the round there were two players within 1/2-point of Milenko, but
Budai Maku, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic and Sadedin Redzepagic all won to join
Miralem in equal second on 4.5-points.
The biggest upset was unrated newcomer Budai Maku defeating Abdulwahab
Rashid in a game that had looked close all night. Abdulwahab had given up a
pawn to have the two bishops and more activity, he won his pawn back but
Budai was able to create two passed pawns and pushed one to victory.
Mehmedalija had a tough game against Daniel Potter. Well, maybe for the
first 7 or 8 moves it was tough, but Daniel did something horribly wrong
and resigned by move 10.
Sadedin has had a good event and his win over Mendel Armerman will see him
playing for the tournament lead on board one for the second time. The first
time in round 4 he lost to Abdulwahab, next week he meets Milenko and with
White will no doubt play his usual 1.b4
A further 1/2-point back on 4 / 6 are Ramo Burzic, Rhys Hopkins, Don
Machell and Abdulwahab.
Ramo outplayed Bahri Senturk from the opening to register a very good win.
Rhys proved too good for Ahmet Yilmaz picking up pawns as he headed into
the ending with an overwhelming advantage. Don showed Mirko Kudric how
dangerous a group of pawns headed straight down the middle of the board can
be, especially against an uncastled king. Abdulwahab, after registering
four straight wins has lost the last two and will want to reverse the
trend.
With two rounds remaining these four are still in with a chance, but I
think they would need to win their last two games to grab an unlikely
tournament victory.
In other games Peter Pispek reversed last weeks result with a good game
against Ashley Mison.
Eddie Kocjancic proved his 88-point rating jump was no fluke when he
efficiently disposed of Gerard Barta.
Syf Pronk, in one of the best games of the night, had a very good win over
the higher rated Manny Chua.
Alan Gray proved that one rook is no match for two well placed bishops and
a passed pawn as he beat Stephen deWinter.
The longest game was a very interesting one between Chris Potter and
Pezhman Ghayoori. Chris had given up a knight for three pawns early and
kept this balance right through to an ending of rook + 3-pawns vs rook +
bishop. Chris had an advantage in that even if he blundered all three pawns
it would probably still finish in a draw. It looked easy but of course
Chris had used all his time and only had 30-seconds a move to think.
Eventually he was able to push his pawns down the board without giving
Pezhman any counterplay and secure the win.
The strangest ending was the draw claimed by John Seehusen against Henning
Rasmussen, after moves had been repeated twice John claimed the draw based
on "we are probably going to repeat moves again and that would be triple
repetition". Henning was easily winning and queried the draw claim with the
arbiter, (me), who explained to John that the same position has to actually
appear on the board and that "probably" didn't quite meet the guidelines.
John argued that he was sure Henning was about to play the same move again,
but not wanting to argue further the arbiter simply rejected John's claim
and restarted the clocks. At this point Henning, without actually playing a
move, agreed with John that he "probably would have" played the same move
and shook John's hand agreeing to a draw. The arbiter was going to ask
Henning why he wanted a ruling on the situation made in the first place,
and why in a winning position he would accept an opponent's draw claim the
arbiter had formally rejected. But having recently given up smoking, and
deciding that any answer would only cause him to take it up again, the
arbiter left them to it and contemplated the next time he was in serious
trouble claiming a draw, based on "he was probably going to stalemate me".
Or perhaps go all out and claim a win "my opponent was probably going to
blunder".
The U1600 is being led by Budai Maku on 4.5-points, ahead of Ramo Burzic
and Rhys Hopkins on 4-points. Mendel Armerman, Chris and Daniel Potter are
still in the running with 3.5-points.
The U1400 has Syf Pronk and George Tolpigin sharing the lead with 3-points
ahead of Froiland Gunnar, Ashley Mison, Graham McEachern, Geoff Lee and
Alan Gray all on 2-points. With Syf and George both facing tough opponents
next week this group is certain to be decided only in the final round.
Results Rd 7
1 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1607 [4.5] 1:0 Lojanica, Milenko 2046 [5]
2 Maku, Budai Unr [4.5] 0:1 Campara, Miralem 1769 [4.5]
3 Burzic, Ramo 1576 [4] 0:1 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1903 [4.5]
4 Hopkins, Rhys 1575 [4] .5:.5 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1842 [4]
5 Potter, Daniel 1404 [3.5] 0:1 Machell, Don 1921 [4]
6 Kocjancic, Eddie 1675 [3.5] .5:.5 Armerman, Mendel 1549 [3.5]
7 Kudric, Mirko 1514 [3] .5:.5 Potter, Chris 1511 [3.5]
8 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1542 [3] 1:0 Pispek, Peter 1448 [3]
9 Pronk, Syf 1333 [3] 0:1 Senturk, Bahri 1479 [3]
10 Tolpigin, George 1329 [3] -:+ Yilmaz, Ahmet 1477 [3]
11 Mison, Ashley 1209 [2] 0:1 Lane, Victor 1417 [3]
12 McEachern, Graham 1154 [2] 0:1 Chua, Manny 1546 [2]
13 Barta, Gerard 1539 [2] 0:1 Froiland, Gunnar Unr [2]
14 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [2] 1:0 Lee, Geoff 1086 [2]
15 Gray, Alan 847 [2] 1:0 Rasmussen, Henning 837 [1.5]
16 Seehusen, John 1129 [1.5] 1:0 De Winter, Stephen 982 [1]
17 Mather, Craig Unr [0] 1:0 BYE
Milenko Lojanica's march to first place was rudely interrupted by Sadedin
Redzepagic who for the second time defeated a much higher rated player with
1. b4
Sadedin is having a great tournament and now shares the lead on 5.5 / 7
with Miralem Campara and Mehmedalija Dizdarevic.
Mehmedalija defeated Ramo Burzic while Miralem finally put a stop to Budai
Maku's run with a quick win on the Black side of a Petroff.
White: Maku Black: Campara
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Nbd2 Bg4
8. Nxe4 Bxf3 9. gxf3 dxe4 10. fxe4 Qxd4 11. Bd2 0-0-0 12. Qg4+ Kb8 13.
0-0-0 Ne5 14. Qe2 Ba3 15. Bc3 Qxc3 16. bxa3 and then White resigned as the
position is hopeless. eg; 16...Nxd3+ 17. Rxd3 Qa1+ 18. Kd2 Qxh1
So with one round to play there are three equal leaders with a further two
players, Don Machell and Milenko Lojanica, 1/2-point behind. With Miralem
and Sadedin to play next week the three players on 4.5 are now out of the
running for first place.
But with the pairings the way they are a draw on top board next week could
see a four-way tie if Milenko and Don both win, or it could allow
Mehmedalija to grab outright first if he can defeat Milenko.
I didn't see a lot of the games last night, but this tournament has been
unusual in that the longest games have been coming from the lower boards
who are normally the first to finish. Last night the bottom two boards
didn't end until well after all the other games. John Seehusen had a K+Q vs
K+N against Stephen DeWinter and took a long time but eventually won the
game. Only the previous week I had explained to Stephen about the 50-move
rule, I'm not sure how many moves John took, some spectators suggested 120
but I think that was out of frustration. I was really hoping Stephen would
claim a draw based on "John's probably going to take more than 50-moves",
it would have been tempting to uphold it. After this game finally ended
Henning Rasmussen conceded defeat to Alan Gray giving Alan his second
consecutive win. Next week Alan will be going for a "threepeat" and a
personal world record.
The biggest upset of the night was undoubtedly Gunnar Froiland's win over
Gerard Barta. Gunnar had been doing well but when Gerard blundered a rook
to a bishop fork it was all over.
Ashley Mison hasn't been playing at his best and suffered another defeat
last night. It turns out he had three heart stints / stents implanted last
Friday, so it was a good effort just to turn up. Unfortunately the last
person you are likely to get sympathy from is the one sitting on the other
side of the chessboard.
The U1600 is being led by Budai Maku and Rhys Hopkins on 4.5-points, Rhys
managed a draw against Abdulwahab Rashid but next week plays Don Machell in
what will be a tough game. Budai will take on Mendel Armerman. Hot on their
heels are no less than seven players on 4-points. Six of these are paired
against each other so barring an unlikely three draws some will get to
5-points, putting the pressure on Budai and Rhys to score. It also means
the two players on 3.5-points are out of the running.
The U1400 leaders, Syf Pronk and George Tolpigin both lost and were joined
by Gunnar Froiland and Alan Gray making a four-way tie for the lead with
3-points ahead of John Seehusen on 2.5-points. The pairings in this group
mean that Ashley Mison, Graham McEachern and Geoff Lee are still in with a
chance on 2-points. In fact if the results all went according to rating
there would be a six-way tie.
Results Rd8
1 Campara, Miralem 1743 [5.5] 0:1 Redzepagic, Sadedin 1617 [5.5]
2 Dizdarevic, Mehmed 1930 [5.5] 1:0 Lojanica, Milenko 2023 [5]
3 Machell, Don 1941 [5] 1:0 Hopkins, Rhys 1564 [4.5]
4 Rashid, Abdulwahab 1882 [4.5] .5:.5 Kocjancic, Eddie 1763 [4]
5 Armerman, Mendel 1578 [4] +:- Maku, Budai [4.5]
6 Burzic, Ramo 1595 [4] 1:0 Yilmaz, Ahmet 1515 [4]
7 Senturk, Bahri 1510 [4] 1:0 Ghayoori, Pezhman 1489 [4]
8 Lane, Victor 1413 [4] 0:1 Potter, Chris 1537 [4]
9 Potter, Daniel 1405 [3.5] .5:.5 Kudric, Mirko 1461 [3.5]
10 Chua, Manny 1600 [3] 1:0 Gray, Alan 891 [3]
11 Tolpigin, George 1316 [3] 0:1 Vitkovic, Nick 1472 [3]
12 Pispek, Peter 1400 [3] 1:0 Pronk, Syf 1346 [3]
13 Froiland, Gunnar [3] 1:0 Mison, Ashley 1209 [2]
14 Lee, Geoff 1001 [2] 1:0 Seehusen, John 1098 [2.5]
15 De Winter, Stephen 982 [1] -:+ McEachern, Graham 1126 [2]
16 Mather, Craig [1] 0:1 Rasmussen, Henning 884 [1.5]
The final round of the tournament involved five players vying for outright or equal first place.
Mehmedalija Dizdarevic knocked Milenko Lojanica out of contention with a
very well played game to go to at least a share of 1st with 6.5 / 8
Milenko would have been disappointed, outright leader after Rd6 he lost his
last two games to finish in a group at 5th - 10th place with 5-points.
This left Miralem Campara and Sadedin Redzepagic fighting it out on top
board to see if one of them could catch Mehmedalija. It had been an even
game all night when suddenly Miralem blundered and Sadedin was able to cap
off a wonderful tournament for him with equal 1st place.
Miralem finished outright 4th on 5.5-points after Don Machell was able to
snatch victory against Rhys Hopkins and move to 6-points and outright 3rd place.
Congratulations to Mehmedalija and Sadedin who were the two most consistent
performers and well deserved their victory. Both players lost only one
game, (Sadedin to Abdulwahab Rashid and Mehmedalija to Sadedin), throughout
the event. This is easily Sadedin's best performance at the club, with wins
against higher rated opponents like Dizdarevic, Lojanica and Campara his
rating will certainly take a jump from this.
The U1600 saw Mendel Armerman win on forfeit against Budai Maku to go to
5-points and the lead. Chris Potter then finished his tournament with a win
against Victor Lane to join Mendel on this score. Chris had a good very
result that will see him pick up rating points, six of his eight opponents
were rated above him and he played four of the top eight seeds.
The winners of the games Ramo Burzic vs Ahmet Yilmaz and Bahri Senturk vs
Pezhman Ghayoori could also get to equal first in this group, but both
games were being very hard fought and were in the balance.
Of course Rhys Hopkins could spoil it all by beating Don Machell and
finishing on 5.5-points and outright 1st, but nobody worried about this as
they all knew Don was far too good for him.
Eventually Ramo turned the tables on Ahmet in a very complicated position.
Ahmet was the exchange down but had two passed pawns and his queen and
bishop had Ramo's king only one move away from mate. But Ramo defended well
and it only took one mistake from Ahmet and suddenly Ramo was able to
produce his own threats, force multiple exchanges and go into a winning
ending. Thus Ramo joined the leaders with 5-points and this was a very good
result considering the draw he faced. Ramo lost to the top seed, Lojanica,
and he played against both winners, losing to Dizdarevic and drawing with
Redzepagic. He made an effort to spend more time thinking than his usual
blitz speed, and it showed in his result. By avoiding the mistakes made
through playing too fast he showed that he is a dangerous player for anyone to face.
Meanwhile Bahri had won a rook against Pezhman but allowed three connected
passed pawns. Both players still had a queen but Pezhman gave his up for
Bahri's rook thinking he could queen the pawn on the seventh and force a
winning ending. But Bahri was able to pin Pezhman's king in front of the
pawn and gradually move his king down the board to round up the pawn and
the win. So Bahri joined the others in a four-way tie for 1st.
But then it dawned on them that Rhys looked likely to produce an upset.
Going into the ending against Don with a knight and 3-pawns vs a bishop and
2-pawns he appeared to be winning, and four people were very interested
spectators knowing Rhys could go past them. But if you want to beat Don the
ending is not the easiest place to do it, I have noticed over the years
that it is one area he excels in. Rhys continued trying for the win but
eventually it all came down to each having only a king and 2-pawns, with
the pawns facing each other on the a and h files. Don was going to win
Rhys's h-pawn and Rhys had two choices with his king; a) try to box in
Don's king in front of its own pawn, doing this Don would then have to
abandon his h-pawn and race back to win Rhys's a-pawn and try to queen his
own. b) go after Don's a-pawn and try to win the race of queening pawns.
Option a) would be a draw but unfortunately Rhys went with option b) and lost.
So congratulations to Mendel, Chris, Ramo and Bahri for equal 1st place in this group.
Commiserations to Rhys who in the last two tournaments at Dandenong has
gone into the final round with a 1/2-point lead in his rating group, only
to find himself paired with a much higher rated opponent while those behind
him play each other with the winners passing him to claim the prize. And in
last years club championship the four players 1/2-point behind going into
the last round were all in the group chasing him this time.
The U1400 almost sent the club bankrupt buying trophies. Of the four
leaders going into the last round three of them; Alan Gray, Syf Pronk and
George Tolpigin lost early. Graham McEachern won on forfeit to join them,
and then Geoff Lee concluded a well played game against John Seehusen with
a victory to make it six players equal 1st on 3-points.
Of these six Gunnar Froiland was still playing against Ashley Mison. Had
Ashley won he would also have got to 3-points to make it a seven-way tie !!
As it turned out this was one of the most interesting games of the night.
With most of the material still remaining Gunnar had more space and
activity but Ashley had a passed kingside pawn that could potentially cause
Gunnar problems. A piece sacrifice by Gunnar seemed dubious to me but was
assisted by Ashley's bishops being stuck in a corner behind their own pawns
and not having much influence. Eventually a combination saw Gunnar have a
queen for the two bishops and Ashley had little option but to resign.
Gunnar performed very well in his first tournament at Dandenong to claim outright 1st in the group with 4-points.
Prizewinners;
= 1st: Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, Sadedin Redzepagic 6.5 / 8
U1600: Mendel Armerman, Ramo Burzic, Chris Potter, Bahri Senturk 5 / 8
U1400: Gunnar Froiland 4 / 8
Final Standings
1-2 Dizdarevic, Mehmedalija 1930 6.5
Redzepagic, Sadedin 1617 6.5
3 Machell, Don 1941 6
4 Campara, Miralem 1743 5.5
5-10 Lojanica, Milenko 2023 5
Rashid, Abdulwahab 1882 5
Burzic, Ramo 1595 5
Armerman, Mendel 1578 5
Potter, Chris 1537 5
Senturk, Bahri 1510 5
11-13 Kocjancic, Eddie 1763 4.5
Hopkins, Rhys 1564 4.5
Maku, Budai 4.5
14-22 Chua, Manny 1600 4
Ghayoori, Pezhman 1489 4
Kudric, Mirko 1461 4
Yilmaz, Ahmet 1515 4
Vitkovic, Nick 1472 4
Pispek, Peter 1400 4
Lane, Victor 1413 4
Potter, Daniel 1405 4
Froiland, Gunnar 4
23-27 Pronk, Syf 1346 3
Tolpigin, George 1316 3
McEachern, Graham 1126 3
Lee, Geoff 1001 3
Gray, Alan 891 3
28 Rasmussen, Henning 884 2.5
29-31 Lycett, Garry 1821 2
Barta, Gerard 1539 2
Mison, Ashley 1209 2
32-33 De Winter, Stephen 982 1
Mather, Craig 1
