Australian Championship 2010-Zhao Wins

Australian Chess Champions 2010 is reaching final. Both GM Zhao Zong Yuan and IM George Xie have been secured their first or second position way before final round. A standing before final round says both are at 9 points while closest pursuider (Gawain Jones, Vladimir Smirnov and Darryl Johansen) all at 6.5 point!

GM Zhao Zong Yuan is a Beijing-born and now an Australian citizen studying pharmacy, he is age 24 while George Xie Wendi is at 25 in 2010. And by winning his last round against FM Tomek Rej in a tactical 1.d4 and a quick win, Zhao Zong Yuan is the Australian Champion for 2010 edition.


[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "NSLCC, Cammeray, NSW"]
[Date "2010.01.13"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Zhao,Zong Yuan"]
[WhiteElo "2572"]
[Black "Rej, Tomek"]
[BlackElo "2364"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Nxc3 7.bxc3 e5 8.O-O Be7 9.d3 O-O 10.Rb1 Qc7 11.Be3 Rd8 12.Nd2 Be6 13.Qa4 Bd7 14.f4 Nd4 15.Qd1 Nf5 16.Rxb7 Qxb7 17.Bxb7 Nxe3 18.Qc1 Rab8 {18.. Nxf1 19.Bxa8 Nxd2 20.Bg2 exf4 might be still small edge lose for Black} 19.Rf3 exf4 20.gxf4 Nf5 21.Be4 Rb6 {21..Nd6 should better} 22.Nc4 Rg6+ 23.Kh1 Rb8 24.Ne5 Rgb6 25.Nxd7 Rb1 26.Rf1 1-0

IM George Xie is also secured a second GM norm and FM Vladimir Smirnov gets an IM norm, according to The Closet Grandmaster blog. But in final round IM George Xie Wendi finally lost to IM Soloman Stephen in a Sicilian Game.

Speaking about Sicilian this tournament contained a lot of them. Most trivial is everybody seems like to test the regular chess writer IM Gary Lane in this opening. Gary Lane encounter about 6 games where his Black side opponent reply 1..c5 for his 1.e4. IM Vladimir Feldman is the last one to test this to Lane, in a now popular Dragdorf variation.

[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "NSLCC, Cammeray, NSW"]
[Date "2010.01.13"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Lane,Gary"]
[WhiteElo "2377"]
[Black "Vladimir, Feldman"]
[BlackElo "2271"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6 3.f4 d6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 g6 7.d3 Bg7 8.O-O O-O
9.h3 Nd7 10.f5 b5 11.a3 Rb8 12.g4 Nd4 13.Nxd4 cxd4 14.Ne2 Bb7 15.Bf4 Rc8
16.Qd2 Qb6 17.Rf2 a5 18.b4 a4 19.Raf1 Rc7 20.Bh6 Ne5 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22.g5
Rfc8 23.f6+ Kf8 24.Qf4 e6 25.Qh4 Rxc2 26.Qxh7 Ke8 27.Nf4 Rxf2 28.Rxf2 Rc1+ {A blunder, Black went for attack in a not favourable position, ..Qc7 is
computer's remedy} 29.Kh2 Qc7 30.Nxe6 Qc8 31.Nf4 Qc7 32.Ne6 Qc8 33.Nxd4
Kd7 34.Ne2 Rc2 35.d4 Qe8 36.dxe5 Qxe5+ 37.Kg1 Qa1+ 38.Rf1 Qa2 39.Bf3 Bxe4
40.Bxe4 Rxe2 41.Bf3 Rc2 42.Re1 Kc7 43.Qg8 1-0

See games collections here.

Partial Final Standing :
1. GM Zhao Zong-Yuan 10
2. IM George Xie Wendi 9
3. GM Gawain Jones 7.5
4. GM Darryl K. Johansen 7
5. FM Vladimir Smirnov 6.5
6. IM Stephen Solomon 6.5
7. Max Illingworth 6.5
8. Junta Ikeda 6
9. IM Gary Lane 6
10.IM Alex Wohl 6
11.FM Douglas Hamilton 6
12. Yuan Yi 5.5
13. FM Tomek Rej 5.5
14. Ly Moulthun 5.5
15. FM Gene Nakauchi 5.5
16. IM James Morris 5.5
see complete result here.

A great tournament where many of these young player are keen to play unorthodox opening, like in Michael Morris vs Max Illingworth in 1.f4 g6 Bird's Opening, 0-1.