The annual club championships have begun at Melbourne Chess Club, and this year I am the arbiter for the event. Although players are still able to enter, the final numbers will most likely be around the 47 mark that the tournament is currently at. Most of the top seeds have started well & are on the expected 2/2, however top seed Guy West has started with two draws & is now stuck playing in the main tournament hall, rather than the smaller room used for the top boards, at least for the next few rounds!
As you would expect with a club as diverse as MCC, the players cover a wide range of both ages & ratings, which makes for an interesting competition on a number of levels.
As with other events, results are being posted on Chesschat.
As for the games themselves, they have also been quite varied, from wild attacking games, to slow positional grinds, with everything in between. So far I have seen everything from 1.f3 & 2.Kf2 through to highly theoretical lines of the Ruy Lopez & Sicilian Defencse!
Below are the two most interesting games (in one way or another) of the first two rounds. The first is the top board draw in round 1, where Guy West goes astray with his attack against David Lacey & is ultimately lucky to escape with a draw in a worse ending, while the second is Malcolm Pyke's round 2 game, where a few misteps by Jim Papadinis, combined with Pyke's relentless attack, make for a quick finish.
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