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 Queenstown |
The Queenstown Chess Classic this year boasted a record field of 192 players from 5 continents. Titled players included four GMs, fifteen IMs, two WIMs, fifteen FMs and two WFMs. The total prize fund was over $35,000.
Rooty Hill members, IM Gary Lane, WIM Nancy Lane and FM Brian Jones all competed. I've included their games whenever they were available, but this wasn't always possible—for some rounds only five games were posted on the official site.
For IM Bob Wade this was a nostalgic tournament. Now aged 84, Wade was born in Dunedin and won the NZ Championship in 1948 shortly before leaving for Europe. He was the first Kiwi ever to be awarded the IM title. This was his first return for 56 years.
Wade is the author of more than thirty chess books and was Chief Trainer of the English team for many years.
In Round 2 Wade met another NZ chess legend, Murray Chandler, New Zealand's only GM. The two former NZ Champions drew their game.
Twelve-year-old Raymond Song (he had his birthday about the start of the tournament) created a sensation in the fourth round by defeated former NZ Champion and Olympian IM Russell Dive. Song was born in NZ but moved to Sydney five years ago. He was equal first in the World Under-10 Championship in 2004.
Ray is also a top competitive swimmer, usually swimming 4-5 kms a day in training.
Murray Chandler won a fine Round 6 game against IM Stephen Solomon to move into equal first place after tournament leader, nineteen-year-old Zhao Zong Yuan, faltered and lost against fellow IM Alex Wohl, a regular player on the European circuit.
Chandler has played in nine Chess Olympiads, three for New Zealand and six for England. He is now semi-retired from professional chess and runs the chess publishing company Gambit Publications in London.
By Round 8 Igor Bjelobrk had sufficiently recovered from a bout of illness, early in the tournament, to defeat IM David Smerdon. The win was enough for Bjelobrk (he was born in Croatia but now he's a Kiwi, having migrated to NZ at age twelve) to gain his first IM norm and join Murray Chandler in first place. The two men were the leading contenders for the NZ Championship which will go to the highest-placed Kiwi in this tournament.
The penultimate round saw Gary Lane uncharacteristically out-manoeuvred in a brevity by IM Peter Froelich. By contrast Chandler found a clever queening combination to defeat Bjelobrk in a game which lasted five hours.
Murray Chandler drew his last round game to finish half a point ahead of Ian Rogers (who drew) and David Smerdon (who won). They were followed by nine players on 7½ then Gary Lane on 7. Brian Jones scored 6 and Nancy Lane 5.The win makes Chandler, who has recently bought a house in NZ, the New Zealand Champion for 2006.
Games: You will find a selection of games in the panel at the left.
Cross Table: If you would like to view the cross table for the event CLICK HERE
—Report: David Evans