Kevin Bonham
08-03-2004, 05:38 PM
Charles Chadwick of Hobart is the new Tasmanian Champion after finishing outright 2nd in the Tasmanian Championships to Malaysian visitor Lim Yee Weng, who is ineligible for the title as he lacks the residency requirements. The tournament had an unusually cosmopolitan flavour with entrants from as far away as Germany, Malaysia and even WA. 23 players competed, while another three from the Qg3 Chess Club were prevented from doing so by a car breakdown en route. 2003 state champion Peter Knight did not defend his title.
Lim had a close and long game with Chadwick but thrashed most of his opponents and had a very showy win against German tourist Werner Doblies in which Lim (Black) planted pawns on c4,d4,e4 and f4 then sacrificed his queen on g4 (as taking it would have allowed a rook mate on the h-file, Doblies resigned). With Lim destroying the field, the race for the Tasmanian Championship title was congested and very confusing. At the start of round 6 there were five equal leaders in the title race, but of these Frame lost to Lim, Slidziunas lost to Radosavljevic, and Pavicic and Donnelly drew with each other. With Chadwick in trouble against Doblies it seemed that Tasmania would have four or five state champions but Doblies trapped his own queen while attacking and had to shed a piece, leaving Chadwick as the only one of the five to win.
Top-seeded local Kevin Bonham celebrated his highest ever rating with a real train wreck of a tournament (perhaps down to fitting too many non-chess activities into the same weekend), blundering a rook in time trouble in a drawn ending against Lewis and another one to a tactic in a strong but tricky position against Ledger. Janice Martin was a worthy winner of the U1500 ratings prize, not only drawing with Bonham but also beating Radosavljevic - however the latter recovered impressively from 1/3 to share third place. Burnie junior Thomas Hendrey also recorded a very good result and was unlucky not to do even better.
Tasmania's new State Champion is a solid, mostly positional player whose game has improved greatly over the last few years. Charles likes to play slowly and carefully and finished most of his games with little time on the clock - the most hair-raising being a wild scramble against Donnelly which Chadwick won with his flag apparently teetering, although it turned out he had about 30 seconds left.
A strange case involved John Bund, who claimed to have no rating despite a player of the same name from the same state being master-listed in the 1800s based on a provisional rating earned decades ago. When Bund insisted he had never played a rated game in Australia, the organisers treated him as unrated and gave him the bye in the first round. Bund objected to this as well, was soundly beaten by Doblies in round 2, and was not seen thereafter. On a more positive note, Evyonne Yin Ken Shien was everybody's favourite player after leaving Snickers bars on all boards prior to round 5, and Phil Donnelly came up with a nice TN in Tassie tournament recording by bringing a scanner to the tournament, quickly capturing the scoresheets of most of the top board games. (How many he manages to decipher remains to be seen!). A tournament booklet will be produced in the coming weeks.
RESULTS
6/6 Lim Yee Weng (FIDE2311, Malaysia) (Ineligible for Tas Champs Title)
4.5/6 Charles Chadwick (1822) (Tasmanian Champion)
4/6 Mile Pavicic (2002), Phil Donnelly (1647)(U1700 ratings prize), Dragan Radosavljevic (1728), Nigel Lewis (1566)
3.5/6 Kevin Bonham (2039), Nigel Frame (1833), Werner Doblies (German rating 1740, Germany), John Slidziunas (1777), Janice Martin (f,1467)(U1500 ratings prize)
3/6 Neville Ledger (1640), Thomas Hendrey (j,1327), Denis McMahon (WA, 1650), Graham Richards (1445)
2.5/6 Tony Sturges (1344)
2/6 Milutin Ivkovic (1606), John Adams (1400), Neil Thornton (1271)
1.5/6 Joe Basic (1468)
1/6 Tony Salter (1292), Evyonne Yin Ken Shien (f,U/R,Malaysia)
1/3 John Bund (U/R?,Qld) (Unauthorised Withdrawal)
Basic authorised forfeit to Salter.
Bund and Yin Ken Shien received byes.
Bund forfeited to Lewis round 3 without notifying the organisers and was scratched.
Lim had a close and long game with Chadwick but thrashed most of his opponents and had a very showy win against German tourist Werner Doblies in which Lim (Black) planted pawns on c4,d4,e4 and f4 then sacrificed his queen on g4 (as taking it would have allowed a rook mate on the h-file, Doblies resigned). With Lim destroying the field, the race for the Tasmanian Championship title was congested and very confusing. At the start of round 6 there were five equal leaders in the title race, but of these Frame lost to Lim, Slidziunas lost to Radosavljevic, and Pavicic and Donnelly drew with each other. With Chadwick in trouble against Doblies it seemed that Tasmania would have four or five state champions but Doblies trapped his own queen while attacking and had to shed a piece, leaving Chadwick as the only one of the five to win.
Top-seeded local Kevin Bonham celebrated his highest ever rating with a real train wreck of a tournament (perhaps down to fitting too many non-chess activities into the same weekend), blundering a rook in time trouble in a drawn ending against Lewis and another one to a tactic in a strong but tricky position against Ledger. Janice Martin was a worthy winner of the U1500 ratings prize, not only drawing with Bonham but also beating Radosavljevic - however the latter recovered impressively from 1/3 to share third place. Burnie junior Thomas Hendrey also recorded a very good result and was unlucky not to do even better.
Tasmania's new State Champion is a solid, mostly positional player whose game has improved greatly over the last few years. Charles likes to play slowly and carefully and finished most of his games with little time on the clock - the most hair-raising being a wild scramble against Donnelly which Chadwick won with his flag apparently teetering, although it turned out he had about 30 seconds left.
A strange case involved John Bund, who claimed to have no rating despite a player of the same name from the same state being master-listed in the 1800s based on a provisional rating earned decades ago. When Bund insisted he had never played a rated game in Australia, the organisers treated him as unrated and gave him the bye in the first round. Bund objected to this as well, was soundly beaten by Doblies in round 2, and was not seen thereafter. On a more positive note, Evyonne Yin Ken Shien was everybody's favourite player after leaving Snickers bars on all boards prior to round 5, and Phil Donnelly came up with a nice TN in Tassie tournament recording by bringing a scanner to the tournament, quickly capturing the scoresheets of most of the top board games. (How many he manages to decipher remains to be seen!). A tournament booklet will be produced in the coming weeks.
RESULTS
6/6 Lim Yee Weng (FIDE2311, Malaysia) (Ineligible for Tas Champs Title)
4.5/6 Charles Chadwick (1822) (Tasmanian Champion)
4/6 Mile Pavicic (2002), Phil Donnelly (1647)(U1700 ratings prize), Dragan Radosavljevic (1728), Nigel Lewis (1566)
3.5/6 Kevin Bonham (2039), Nigel Frame (1833), Werner Doblies (German rating 1740, Germany), John Slidziunas (1777), Janice Martin (f,1467)(U1500 ratings prize)
3/6 Neville Ledger (1640), Thomas Hendrey (j,1327), Denis McMahon (WA, 1650), Graham Richards (1445)
2.5/6 Tony Sturges (1344)
2/6 Milutin Ivkovic (1606), John Adams (1400), Neil Thornton (1271)
1.5/6 Joe Basic (1468)
1/6 Tony Salter (1292), Evyonne Yin Ken Shien (f,U/R,Malaysia)
1/3 John Bund (U/R?,Qld) (Unauthorised Withdrawal)
Basic authorised forfeit to Salter.
Bund and Yin Ken Shien received byes.
Bund forfeited to Lewis round 3 without notifying the organisers and was scratched.