| 7 Round Open Swiss Tournament Starting Time: 7:30 PM (Monday Night) |  
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Click to view (result and pairing) or
 FM Lee R Jones |
Round 1 (16 Aug)
As always there was a traffic jam after round one with fifteen players sharing the lead on one point. It won’t stay like that for long. Bill Herreros (1469) won the Upset Award by defeating David Harvey (1843) Click here to view game while Joe Frias (1416) drew with Frank Barisic (1818). Lloyd Fell (1253) played like his namesake and was in a strong position when he accepted a draw from Danilo Esguerra (1709) while unrated Mohammed Anjum made Peter Cassettari (1874) work hard in the longest game of the night.
Round 2 (23 Aug)
Round 2 sorted out the field very quickly and only five players (Brian Jones, Lee Jones, Jim Holland, Mark Simpkin and Joe Ymalay) were left on two points. The results mostly went according to the ratings, but there were some interesting results. Levi Descallar (1724) continued the good form he showed in the Grade Matches and drew on the top board with Tony Bouchaaya (2201). It was good enough to win the upset prize. On board 17 unrated Rick Warner toppled Eddie Quesada, setting up an interesting game with Rick Carballo in the next round.
 Rick Warner |
Round 3 (30 Aug)
Only two players are left with three wins: Lee Jones and Brian Jones. They’ll play their version of the OK Corral next week. There were some interesting games in the round. Joe Frias upset Levi Descallar whose queen abdicated on move 14. Keith Farrell & Edis Franca had another quickie (see it here). Allan Butler had a good win against Marcus Dabb, while Eddie Quesada and Munir Anjum had an interesting draw (see games). The two Ricks had an against-the play result -- Rick Carballo walked Rick Warner’s king up to the middle of the board but was hit with a rick-ochet when black’s knight twice saved the day. I planned to win the Upset Award but Leonardo Tenorio wouldn't cooperate: (games). Instead it went to Joe Frias against Levi Descallar, last week’s winner with a 308 point difference.
Round 4 (6 Sep)
Brian Jones, Lee Jones and Tony Bouchaaya all moved on to 3.5 and a share of the lead. Brian and Lee probably know each other’s game too well and fought out a draw while Tony Bouchaaya won against Peter Cassettari. Jim Holland beat Joe Frias and Mark Simpkin won against Henry Rara to share the 4th/5th places on 3 points. David Harvey and Robert Ambalong played out a draw on board 4. Peter Watts won the upset prize for his game against Ken McGillivray and, if there was a speed prize it would have gone to Keith Farrell who beat me in ten minutes.
 Keith Farrell |
Round 5 (13 Sep)
FM Lee Jones took outright lead tonight with 4.5 with a win against Joe Ymalay. Tony Bouchaaya, Brian Jones and Jim Holland are only half a point behind, sharing second place. On board 1 Tony Bouchaaya and FM Brian Jones fought out a draw and it was interesting that Brian, with black, didn’t castle till move 20 and Tony didn’t castle at all (see game). On board 3, by contrast, Mark Simpkin and Jim Holland both castled, but after Mark launched a kingside attack both kings found themselves looking naked; but it was Jim’s counter-attack that got home first (see game). Robert Ambalong was able to force the exchange of the last two pieces to get an easy end game against Edgar Facelo and Danilo Esguerra overlooked a double attack on move 41 in his loss to Chris Rust. On board 19 Lloyd Fell’s Caro-Kann helped win a 74 move marathon against Edis Franca. Click here to see the first 30 moves. Norie Tiqui (1635) took the upset prize with a good win against David Harvey (1843).
Round 6 (20 Sep)
In what is shaping up to be the closest Open for years there are ten players within a point of the lead with one round to go. Tony Bouchaaya and Jim Holland share the lead with five points but they’re being pressed by Lee Jones, Peter Cassettari, Leonardo Tenorio and Robert Ambalong on 4.5. Brian Jones, Joe Ymalay, Levi Descallar and Bill Herreros are right behind them on 4. Edgar Facelo had to weather a complicated attack from Henry Rara for his win and Robert Ambalong launched a Hagar attack (that’s Hagar the Horrible!) when he sacrificed a bishop on move 23 to batter down the walls of Mark Simpkin’s castle. Click here to view game Only half a point off the lead Robert will miss the last round when he leaves for Canada on Sunday. Best wishes for the trip, Roberto!
The upset award went to Lloyd Fell for his win over Eddie Quesada.
 Jim Holland |
Round 7 (27 Sep)
In a storybook finish. Jim Holland, playing his first tournament for 27 years beat FM Brian Jones in Round 6 (click here) and Tony Bouchaaya in Round 7 (click here) to win the tournament. His only loss was to FM Lee Jones. Final leading scores were Jim Holland 6, FM Lee Jones 5.5, Tony Bouchaaya, Joe Ymalay and FM Brian Jones 5.
Brian Jones with white showed there is life after the Sicilian when he destroyed Leonardo Tenorio's pawns, sacrificed the exchange, and persuaded the black king to go on a pilgrimage to the queen's side where . . .well, you check it out! Click here
But it was not only the big names who played well: Norie Tiqui, Bill Herreros, Keith Farrell and Joe Frias had good results as did Frank Kresinger. Frank is also playing in the NSW U1600 Championship and after five rounds is only half a point from the lead. Newcomer Edgar Facelo showed that you don’t need a competition rating to make your presence felt. He scored 3.5 from his six games, defeating strong players like Frank Barisic, Marcus Dabb and Henry Rara. The upset award went to Keith Farrell who conceded his opponent almost 500 points.
 Joe Ymalay & Peter Cassettari. |
Division prizes:
Joe Ymalay U1900 Norie Tique U1700, Keith Farrell and Lloyd R. Fell U1400.
Joe Frias won the performance prize.
Upset prize winners, awarded round-by-round, were:
Bill Herreros, Levi Descallar, Joe Frias, Peter Watts, Norie Tique, Lloyd Fell, Keith Farrell.
Congratulations to all.
To read what the Mt.Druitt - St.Marys Standard wrote about the Rooty Hill Open click here.
And for a second story from the Hills Shire Times click here.
-- Report by David Evans
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