Ordinarily the first round of a Swiss tournament is supposed to be the 'warm up' for the higher rated players, with the top half paired against the bottom half & there are usually very few upsets. Unfortunately for those in the top half at MCC, apparently a number of players in the lower half did not get the memo!
Justin Tan appeared to have things under control against Paul Kovacevic, but a lapse in concentration allowed Paul's queen to penetrate, forcing Justin to give up a piece to avoid checkmate & Paul wrapped up the game shortly afterwards. Adam Skinner continued his return to chess (he had played a number of years ago in England & the recent Australia Day weekender was his first tournament for a long time) with a win over Jim Papadinis. Finley Dale had Domagoj Dragicevic in a great deal of trouble & missed a likely win, but still managed to hold Domagoj to a draw. James Cameron help Sylvester Urban to a draw, while Laurent Michaille was unable to break the defenses of Alex Kaplan & they also drew their game.
The tournament itself is the usual strong tournament that has come to be expected from the Monday night MCC events, with two IMs & four FMs, with 7 players rated over 2200 FIDE, with a further five over 2000 FIDE in a field of 36 at present (entries are still allowed until round 3). Competition at the top should be close, with Dusan Stojic looking to defend his title, former Champions Guy West, Mirko Rujevic & Malcolm Pyke looking to once again be club champion, while youngsters Justin Tan, Chris Wallis & Ari Dale look to claim their first club championship.
The full results from round 1 are available on ChessChat.
Pairings will be posted on ChessChat on Wednesday evenings.
Below is the board 2 game between Justin Tan & Paul Kovacevic
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