Li Chao wins the Doeberl Cup in Canberra
Posted in ChessBase on Апр 8, 2010
08.04.2010
– This tournament, in Australia's capital, is named after the architect Erich Doeberl, who strongly supported it during his lifetime (it is still named after him). It was a nine-round Swiss Premier open, with close to a record number of participants. The Europeans suffered from jet lag, the locals made norms. Highlight: commentary by Australia's strongest ever player, Ian Rogers. Report by GM Dejan Bojkov.
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The Doeberl Cup in Canberra
By GM Dejan Bojkov, Bulgaria
At the beginning of 20th century there was a strong debate which major city
would be the capital of Australia. There were two main contenders – Sydney
and Melbourne, but somehow none of them prevailed. Finally, a compromise decision
was taken that there is an independent capital, somewhere between the two major
cities, and this is how the town of Canberra was created. It now has approximately
300,000 inhabitants, and the Australian institutions are situated here.
In proper perspective: Canberra, the capital of Australia, in the map on
the top left
This year’s Doeberl cup took place between 1-5 Aprils in Australia’s
capital. The tournament is named after the architect Erich Doeberl, who strongly
supported the tournament for the years that he lived, supplying the bigger part
of the price fund, and sometimes giving additional funds when he was especially
satisfied with the course of the event (unfortunately that noble chess lover
passed away some years ago, but the tournament is still named after him).
It was a nine-round Swiss Premier open, including additional sections-Major,
Minor and U 1200. We can claim that it was quite successful, as the altogether
number of participants almost caught up with the old record of most participating
players (268, back in 1985, as our chief arbiter Shaun Press had explained to
me).
For financial reasons there were double rounds almost every day, starting from
the first round. Australia is a long way away from Europe, and the first days
it was more survival than chess tournament, as the jet lag took its toll. Waking
up at four a.m. is not a nice way to prepare for a morning game, and in that
relation the Aussies (or Ozzies, as the locals call themselves) have a definite
advantage against the guest players. Going a bit in advance I would say that
they managed to use that perfectly by scoring one GM and three IM norms in the
tournament, which was huge success, and one of the main ideas of the event as
the chief organizer Charles Bishop explained at the closing ceremony.
One of the most interesting features of the event was the so called fighting
price fund. An extra thousand dollars were to be distributed for those who win
their last efforts, but there were two additional conditions – those players
should not have made any grandmaster draws (GM draw here was considered a game
that ends in a draw before the thirtieth move), and the contenders for the price
are only players who have equal or more points to the score of the player on
board four.
Curiously, no one could win that price this year. The lowest score on board
four was 5.5 points, which meant that only the top five boards were competing
for the fighting fund. The first board saw a quick draw between Li Chao and
Malaniuk, which secured a clear first for the Chinese player, who had the white
pieces, and eventually a shared third for the Ukrainian.
The winner: Chinese GM Li Chao
A smooth tournament for Li Chao, since he was not ever in danger in any of
his games. Board two saw an eventful game between Panchanathan and Smerdon,
which eventually ended peacefully but after a long fight. It was Indians only
draw in the tournament, but at an inconvenient moment. Board three saw a drama,
as another Indian GM- Kunte, who was dictating the game, blundered a whole queen
against the local George Xie. Xie, though, had a quick draw in the last but
one round and was already out of the fighting fund fight. Nevertheless he can
be completely satisfied with his tournament – clear second place, but
what is more important, he scored his last and definite GM norm, that will soon
bring him the title.
Board four saw Roy Chowdhury winning as white against Zhao Zong Yuan, but he
also had an under-thirty move draw (this was however questionable, since his
draw was a repetition of moves that might have been avoided).
Last, but not least we had the most eventful game of the round between Gawain
Jones and Rej Tomek. White was first completely winning (extra exchange), then
completely lost (clear piece down in an endgame), and finally it was a draw.
Tomek’s consolation was the achieved IM norm, and two more Australians
managed to do so.
Top final standings (after nine rounds)
Rank Title Name Rating Pts 1 GM Li, Chao 2613 7.5 2 IM Xie, George 2470 7.5 3 GM Malaniuk, Vladimir 2582 6.5 4 GM Panchanathan, M.C. 2543 6.5 5 GM Smerdon, David C 2530 6.5 6 IM Roy Chowdhury, Saptarshi 2429 6.5 7 GM Barua, Dibyendu 2479 6.5 8 GM Bojkov, Dejan 2505 6.5 9 IM Solomon, Stephen J 2426 6.5 10 GM Jones, Gawain 2556 6.5 11 FM Rej, Tomek 2348 6.5 12 FM Teichmann, Erik 2325 6.5 13 Ly, Moulthun 2315 6.5 14 FM Boyd, Tristan 2308 6.5 15 GM Zhao, Zong-Yuan 2592 5.5 16 GM Kunte, Abhijit 2528 5.5 17 FM Cheng, Bobby 2271 5.5 18 IM Sandler, Leonid 2319 5.5 19 IM Morris, James 2236 5.5
There was very little time for sight-seeing after the closing ceremony, and
we used it to visit the nearby Canberra nature park and make pictures of the
kangaroos.
Participants on the free day outing
Native Australians in their native surroundings
Kangaroos (photo by )
are marsupials from the family Macropodidae, endemic to the continent of Australia,
though smaller macropods are found in New Guinea as well. The name comes from
"gangurru" in the Australian Aboriginal language. According to a common
myth it translates to "I don't understand you", and was the answer
given to Captain James Cook when in 1770 he asked locals what the animal was
called. This story was debunked in the 1970s by linguist and spoil-sport John
B. Haviland.
Commentary by GM Ian Rogers
One of the most remarkable points of the tournament was the live commentaries
of GM Ian Rogers. Australian’s best player ever was annotating for the
wide audience throughout the whole round, supporting by his wife Cathy.
Here is an excerpt of Ian Roger's commentary from round one (others are
indexed at the end)
Rogers on round seven
Round eight, the last that is currently available
LinksTo read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the |
