Tournament:_________2011 CROYDON OPEN

Where:________Croydon RSL, 1 Civic Square, Croydon, VIC
Type: ________7 Round Swiss
Dates:_________7 Thursday nights beginning 13th October
Starting Time:___7.45pm (please register by 7.30pm on the first night)
Time Control:___60min/30s
Forfeit Time:____30 minutes
Byes: ________Two half-point byes allowed in the first 5 rounds, only.
Rated:_________ACF Rated
Arbiter:________Ian Birchall

REVISED ENTRY FEES:

Adult non-members: $30

Members and juniors: $20

FIDE titled players free.

REVISED CASH PRIZES

1st place: 35% of prize pool ($140 guaranteed minimum)

2nd place: 25% of prize pool ($100 guaranteed min.)

3rd place: 20% of prize pool ($80 guaranteed min.)

Rating prize (bottom half of field): 10% of prize pool ($40 guaranteed min.)

Junior prize: 10% of prize pool ($40 guaranteed min.)

Contact: ian.birchall@croydonchess.com


We also have a zero cost subsidiary tournament for local junior players:

Tournament: 2011 Croydon Junior Open 2011

Type:________7 Round Swiss
Dates:_______7 Thursday nights beginning 13th October
Starting Time:__6.35 pm
Time Control:__20min/5s
Rated:_______Unrated
Cost:________Free
Prizes:_______Medals

 1 Steve Scott     1004    0:1    Guy West           2300
 2 Ian Birchall    1938    1:0    Kenneth Minty      869 
 3 Carl Dingfelder 622     0:1    Christopher Potter 1505
 4 Jean Watson     1368    0:1    Antares Car        612 
 5 Emily Lin       217     0:1    Richard Goldsmith  1336
 6 Cameron Yung    1237    1:0    Selwyn Lo              
 7 Geraldine Quah          0:1    John M Fleming     1193
 8 Rodney Matthews 1028    1:0    Grace Quah             
 9 Greg Thomas             1:0    BYE                    
10 Pearl Yung      926    .5:0    BYE

B1: A straight-forward winning plan from Guy. 3.e4?! gives black the opportunity to pile up on f2 with Bc5 and R & Q along the half-open f-file. The g-pawn gets pushed to remove the blockading N on f3 and Steve's position falls. Interesting might have been 6.Bc4, offering the e-pawn but making it difficult for black to castle king-side.

B2: Ian was outplayed by Ken in the opening (where 3.Nc3?! and 4.a4?! were part of the wrong plan), but things began to turn around after 8...Ng4?! (Nbd7) and 10....Ne5?! (Nxe3) when white's central pawn phalanx and more coordinated pieces gave him the advantage.

B3: A King's Indian variation resulted in fairly even position, but with considerable central tension. While black kept up the piece pressure, probing for weaknesses, white aimed for e4. Carl should have prepared the way with 14.g3, as Chris's Nf4 in response proved devastating.

B4: An exciting, topsy-turvy game, where Jean could have put the game away early with 11.cxd4 or 12.Bf3, but instead let Antares of the hook. Antares responded with the clever in-between move, 13.b5! , and suddenly black was on top! 14.Qc2? lost a piece to Qxc6, but the alternatives were only a bit better. Jean fought back with an exchange sac and, after a couple of errors from Antares, resulting in him losing a piece and leaving his king in the centre, the game was almost back to even. However, Jean couldn't maintain the pressure and Antares made good use of his rooks to infiltrate the white position and force resignation. A big win for Antares! :clap:

B5: Young Emily played the first few moves well, but couldn't find a good plan to continue the game. Perhaps 5. 0-0 getting her king into safety or 5.d4 opening up the position and allowing easy development would have been wiser options. Richard calmly took all offered material and won comfortably.

B6: An unexpectedly poor game from Selwyn from move 9 onwards. He played far too quickly and didn't think enough about his moves. On the other hand, Cameron's king's knight must have won a few immunity challenges, as it remained en prise from move 10 to move 22 while picking up a bishop, a rook and a pawn, but survived to contribute to the mating net at the end of the game.

B7: The opening was fairly even, but then John's probing knight manoeuvres proved effective when Geraldine allowed a fork winning a pawn and the exchange.

B8: Grace played a very good opening, but missed a number of tactics that gradually depleted her forces. Rodney's speculative 9.Nb5 should have been met by 9...Nc6 with a good game for black, not retreating the bishop and allowing 10. Nc7 losing the exchange.

 1 Guy West           2300 [1]      1:0    Cameron Yung    1237 [1]  
 2 John M Fleming     1193 [1]      0:1    Ian Birchall    1938 [1]  
 3 Christopher Potter 1505 [1]      1:0    Rodney Matthews 1028 [1]  
 4 Richard Goldsmith  1336 [1]      1:0    Greg Thomas          [1]  
 5 Antares Car        612  [1]     .5:.5   Pearl Yung      926  [.5] 
 6 Emily Lin          217  [0]      0:1    Jean Watson     1368 [0]  
 7 Selwyn Lo               [0]      0:1    Steve Scott     1004 [0]  
 8 Kenneth Minty      869  [0]      1:0    Geraldine Quah       [0]  
 9 Grace Quah              [0]      0:1    Carl Dingfelder 622  [0]

B1: An unusual choice to retake with 4....Nxd5?! allowed white to dominate the centre early (a Grunfeld set-up without the pressure of black's fianchettoed bishop along the a1-h8 diagonal). Guy pushed d5 to disrupt black's development. Cameron responded aggressively, giving up two pieces for a rook, a pawn and hoping for more. Unfortunately, for Cameron, the resulting position proved to be very much in white's favour.

B2: Black had the better of the opening after 3.Bb5+ ?! and 4.Qe2?! From there, black was able to apply pressure, pick up pawns and steer the game to a comfortable win.

B3: A fairly eventful game. Chris scooped up a number of pawns, but then provided opportunities for counter-play to his opponent. Unfortunately, Rodney didn't make the most of them. In the opening, instead of taking a free pawn, black gave one up. Later, 12...Bxg2 released the pressure on white's position (12...Qd7 was better). 25.Qf3? gave up the exchange, while 28.Nd5 c6 29.Nb4 should have lost a piece and the game to 29...Rxc1. The move played, 29...Qd4, was OK, but the follow-up, starting with 31...Be3?, was both unnecessary and tactically unsound.

B4: Who said symmetrical openings are boring? Greg sprang a surprise counter to Richard's Queen's gambit with 2.c5!? and would have been rewarded if he'd played 5....Qf6 embarrassing white's rook. After that, Richard consolidated his extra pawn and built up enough pressure to crack Greg's defensive position.

B5: After Antares gave up a pawn in the opening, Pearl swapped down into an ending, but not always to her advantage. Giving up her good bishop for white's bad bishop and then swapping the other bishop at the cost of weakened pawns made the rook ending difficult. Antares played the ending well to finish with a draw.

B6: After Emily's early queen manoeuvres, perhaps an early d4 by black may have cramped white's game and secured the advantage. Emily played well to last 70 moves, while Jean played a steady game capitalising on her opponent's errors.

B7: An improved display from Selwyn in this game, but a couple of terrible errors by him in giving up pieces for pawns ensured a comfortable win for Steve.

B8: Geraldine should have taken the advantage with 3...exd4 after white's 3.c5?!, gaining time with Nc6 and pressuring the c-pawn if white recaptures with the queen. After 6.Bb5, 6...e4 or 6...cxd4 was necessary. Instead, Qe7 and 0-0-0 proved disastrous when Ken played Bxc6 and drove the attack home.

B9: Time wasting with 6.g3?! and 8.h3? in a French defence was severely punished when Carl was allowed to wreak havoc on white's centre and queen-side.

 1 Christopher Potter 1505 [2]      0:1    Guy West          2300 [2]  
 2 Ian Birchall       1938 [2]      1:0    Richard Goldsmith 1336 [2]  
 3 Cameron Yung       1237 [1]      1:0    Antares Car       612  [1.5]
 4 Pearl Yung         926  [1]      0:1    Jean Watson       1368 [1]  
 5 Carl Dingfelder    622  [1]     .5:.5   John M Fleming    1193 [1]  
 6 Rodney Matthews    1028 [1]      0:1    Kenneth Minty     869  [1]  
 7 Greg Thomas             [1]      1:0    Steve Scott       1004 [1]  
 8 Geraldine Quah          [0]      0:1    Emily Lin         217  [0]  
 9 Grace Quah              [0]      1:0    Selwyn Lo              [0]

B1: This game should be enough to stop anyone playing the English Opening. A few simple moves, followed by a queen swap, and it's white who's fighting to achieve equality! Attacking black's centre early with 4.Nf3 or 5.d4 seemed the way to go. Later, Chris didn't realise the f-pawn was immune and played the weakening 8. e6 instead of the calm 8.Nf3. As it was, Guy's bishops cut mercilessly through white's camp and and Chris could do little against the onslaught.

B2: An interesting battle developed after black's 3...c5 in the Queen's Gambit. Instead of the sensible and more usual 4.cxd5, Ian chose the complications of 4.dxc5?! and Richard gave up a pawn rather meekly. Ian chose to swap down to an ending, when he should have made more of his middle-game advantages. Then, giving up the 2 bishops made the ending much more difficult than it should have been. With two pairs of rooks on the board and B v N, Ian manoeuvred to get the best set-up to push d5 and, from there, the win was reasonably straight-forward.

B3: 6...Nxe4 would have been equal, but 6...Qd6 left black open to a cheap fork and losing a piece soon after. Cameron wrapped up the game quickly after that.

B4: After 8.Bc2? white's king was stuck on e1, so the opening up of the centre resulting from e4 and e5 probably wasn't a good idea. By the time Pearl's king found shelter, Jean was a pawn up and had a dominating position with her d and e pawns streaming forward into the white position. Good, aggressive play from Jean.

B5: Unfortunately, after having the better of John in the opening, 9.Ne5? lost a piece for Carl. However, John was in a generous mood and returned the piece when 15. ...Bxh2+? didn't quite work. Later, he also gave up an exchange to keep queens on after 27...Rxe5?. Eventually, John's harassing tactics around Carl's king paid off and Carl had to give up his queen for rook and bishop to avoid mate. The resulting position allowed John to force perpetual check.

B6: White gained a strong position in the opening after black's unorthodox 3....Be6?. However, steady, purposeful play from Ken saw him gradually get on top against Rodney's more aggressive, but risky, approach.

B7: Black had a strong position out of the opening – good bishop, better development and half open file in line with white's king. However, 14....Nf5 was the wrong idea. 14...Qc5 followed by b5 bearing down on white's king would have been strong. Playing 16...Be4 and not considering white's response proved costly for Steve. A piece up, Greg's steady play ensured victory.

B8: Emily played sensible chess, pawn storming on the queen-side after Geraldine castled there. She was helped by her opponent, firstly neglecting development of her bishop, inexplicably giving up the exchange and then giving up a piece. A nice sacrifice by Emily at the end to force mate.

B9: With both players intent on playing far too quickly, bad errors, on both sides, were bound to occur – giving away free pieces, not saving pieces, not winning the exchange. Only Grace's purposeful attack on her opponent's king saw her win this game.

 1 Guy West          2300 [3]      1:0    Ian Birchall       1938 [3]  
 2 Kenneth Minty     869  [2]      0:1    Christopher Potter 1505 [2]  
 3 Jean Watson       1368 [2]      1:0    Greg Thomas             [2]  
 4 Richard Goldsmith 1336 [2]      0:1    Cameron Yung       1237 [2]  
 5 John M Fleming    1193 [1.5]    1:0    Rodney Matthews    1028 [1]  
 6 Steve Scott       1004 [1]      0:1    Carl Dingfelder    622  [1.5]
 7 Emily Lin         217  [1]      1:0    Grace Quah              [1]  
 8 Selwyn Lo              [0]      0:1    Geraldine Quah          [0]  
 9 Pearl Yung        926  [1]     .5:0    BYE                          
10 Antares Car       612  [1.5]   .5:0    BYE

B1: The opening was a Najdorf with 6.f4. After Ian played 7....Nc6?! without much thought (7...Nbd7 or 7...Qc7 are normal), Guy struck back with 8.fxe4! and black was on the back foot from there on. The simple and active 16...Nd4, instead of the awkward 16....Nb8?, would certainly have given white greater difficulty and may have led to equality (according to Fritz). Sustained pressure from Guy, preventing black from coordinating his pieces, while alternating the focus of attack between the f and d files had its effect. The game was well over by the time Ian help-mated himself.

B2: White's 3.b3 in the Petroff worked well when black played passively. With the d5 strong point in front black's backward d pawn, strong dark-squared bishop and better development, Ken held the advantage out of the opening. However, these advantages gradually disappeared as Ken exchanged pieces and Chris began to developed counter-play on the Queen-side and down the a-file. Ken's last opportunity to keep the game alive would have been 36.Re2.

B3: Perhaps Jean could have achieved more in the opening against Greg's unusual play. However, her positive play and her placing of pieces on good squares ensured that she always had the advantage. A couple of tactics won pawns and Greg quickly resigned.

B4: The opening skirmishes were a little strange with black offering up a piece for 2 pawns. Richard tried to be tricky with 9.b4?, lost the opportunity and ended up a pawn down instead. However, Cameron's extra pawn was backward on a half-open file and he had a big pawn for a light-squared bishop, so white was still on top. White broke through on the c-file and regained the pawn, but again, strangeness ensued, as this time white refused to use his rook to win black's a-pawn. Instead Richard swapped his active rook for black's defensive rook and ended up in a tricky endgame with two pieces each. Cameron allowed Richard to create a passed pawn on the king-side, but Richard should have played 46.f6 giving his king a pathway via the centre. Instead, 46.Kh5? allowed Cameron's king to invade the queen-side and escort his own passed c-pawn. Richard's last chance was to take black's bishop on move 49 and go into a Q & P endgame, still with winning chances. 49.Ke6?? was the losing move.

B5: Rodney lost a pawn in the opening, but made the running for most of the game. He harassed the white position and made some headway at times, but John was able to keep the advantage. At one stage, Rodney may have been able to take a draw by repetition, but chose to play on. Eventually Rodney blundered, but by that stage John had broken through in the centre and was well on the way to promoting a pawn.

B6: Both players were willing to exchange pieces and lock up the position, so a draw appeared to be in the offing. When Steve finally decided to open up a file with 36.g4 the remaining pieces were exchanged. The problem for Steve was that he was then left with a lost K & P ending. 47.Rg4, or later, 49.Kf3 followed by 50.e4 may have drawn. Carl had an easy path for his king into white's position, through f5 - e4 – d3, and he had enough pawn moves up his sleeve to overcome any opposition from white's king.

B7: Grace forgot to play 4....d4 in response to Emily's 4.Ng5. Her king was exposed early and she lost her queen to a knight fork. After that, she did well to survive for almost 40 moves. Aggressive, but sensible play from Emily.

B8: After missing the win of a piece with 11.Bxd7+ followed by 12.cxd4, white succumbed meekly to a simple mating attack.