2010 Christmas Open


The final Grand Prix event for 2010 - the Christmas Open (6 rounds) was held over the weekend of 27th & 28th of November at Moresby Street Centre in Kensington.


We had another reasonable turnout for the Christmas Open, with 25 players starting the tournament.

This was the last tournament in the 2010 WA Open Grand Prix, and is also part of the 2010 Yulgilbar-Think Big Australian Chess Grand Prix. The weather over the weekend was quite warm and humid but the Moresby Street Hall is air-conditioned, and this was working so well that some players even thought it was cold!

Tristan Boyd and Stephanus Kurniawan finished equal first on 5 points (no losses), but not without some anxious moments. Tristan had to be a bit rusty as his Chess opportunities have been a bit limited this year, and Stephanus had an important slice of luck in one game.

This result by Stephanus saw him clinch the 2010 WA Grand Prix - see elsewhere for the report.

Newcomer Marc Nichols, from Germany, showed that he will be a valuable acquisition for WA Chess. He blundered against Stephanus in round 5, whilst in a good position. A win there would have seen him leading with one round to go. One funny thing happened with Marc: before round 3 was complete, he wanted to go home, so he wanted to know what the tournament website name was! That would be nice, but we are not there yet.

It was good to see Marc Vlietstra back again. He must have been pleased with his win against Marc Nichols in the last round. Yita Choong and David Ellis both achieved another solid result. Nedeljko Tomic was also in this group, but was given the U1700 rating prize instead - more money! Ned has won a stack of rating prizes over the years.

Behrouz Ghorbanian, Tamas Szabo and Chris Doukakis should also be happy with their results.

Young Ignatius Yap entered the tournament, but was horrified at how slowly things happened! It did not help much that he had the bye in the first round. Anyway, he now knows what is involved and he will be back.

Report by Haydn Barber.


Prize Winners


  Open
 =1st	Stephanus Kurniawan 	  
	Tristan Boyd			 
 =3rd	Yita Choong			 
	David Ellis		(also U/2000)
	Marc Vlietstra		(also U/2000)  

  U/2000
  see above

  U/1700
  1st 	Nedeljko Tomic	 

  U/1500
  1st 	Behrouz Ghorbanian 

  U/1300 + Unrated
  1st 	Tamas Szabo		 
 
  Best Junior
  1st 	Chris Doukakis


Final Standings


 Place Name                     Loc  Score  M-Buch. Progr. 

 1-2   Boyd, Tristan            2261 5        15.5   17.5
       Kurniawan, Stephanus     2075 5        14.0   19.0
 3-6   Choong, Yita             2123 4        14.5   15.0
       Ellis, David             1862 4        14.0   14.0
       Tomic, Nedeljko          1632 4        13.5   12.0
       Vlietstra, Marc          1930 4        13.0   14.0
 7-11  Nichols, Marc            2000 3.5      16.5   16.0
       Seah, Eddy               1804 3.5      16.0   14.5
       Horstmann, Michael       2170 3.5      12.5   12.5
       Dempster, Dave           1812 3.5      12.0   11.5
       Ghorbanian, Behrouz      1498 3.5      11.5   11.5
 12-15 Donaldson, Thomas        1894 3        14.0   13.5
       Holland, Dennis          1816 3        12.5   12.0
       Szabo, Tamas                  3        12.0   10.0
       Donaldson, Gary          1466 3         8.5    7.5
 16-19 Maris, Fred              1542 2.5      12.0    9.0
       Petranovic, Aleksa            2.5      12.0    7.5
       Shaw, Robin              1684 2.5      11.0    9.5
       Doukakis, Chris          1499 2.5      11.0    9.0
 20-21 Colic, Igor              1550 2        12.0    7.5
       Carolin-Unkovich, George 1244 2         8.5    5.0
 22-23 Summerfield, John        1261 1.5       9.0    5.0
       Laugery, Bernard         1141 1.5       9.0    2.0
 24-25 Padmanabhan, Sundar           1        11.0    4.0
       Yap, Ignatius                 1         4.5    2.0


Cross Table


 No  Name                     Total  1    2    3    4    5    6    

 1.  Boyd, Tristan            5     13:W  8:W  5:D  4:D  6:W 11:W
 2.  Horstmann, Michael       3.5   14:W  7:D  3:L 10:W 11:L 15:W
 3.  Choong, Yita             4     15:W 10:D  2:W  5:L  8:W  4:D
 4.  Kurniawan, Stephanus     5     16:W  9:W 11:W  1:D  5:W  3:D
 5.  Nichols, Marc            3.5   17:W 25:W  1:D  3:W  4:L  6:L
 6.  Vlietstra, Marc          4     18:W 11:L 15:W  7:W  1:L  5:W
 7.  Donaldson, Thomas        3     19:W  2:D 10:W  6:L  9:D 13:L
 8.  Ellis, David             4     20:W  1:L 24:W 13:W  3:L  9:W
 9.  Holland, Dennis          3     21:W  4:L   :D 16:W  7:D  8:L
 10. Dempster, Dave           3.5   22:W  3:D  7:L  2:L 24:W 16:W
 11. Seah, Eddy               3.5   23:W  6:W  4:L 17:D  2:W  1:L
 12. Shaw, Robin              2.5   24:L 18:W 16:D 14:D 15:D 17:L
 13. Tomic, Nedeljko          4      1:L 24:W 23:W  8:L 17:W  7:W
 14. Colic, Igor              2      2:L 19:W 17:L 12:D 18:D 24:L
 15. Maris, Fred              2.5    3:L 20:W  6:L 22:W 12:D  2:L
 16. Doukakis, Chris          2.5    4:L 21:W 12:D  9:L 23:W 10:L
 17. Ghorbanian, Behrouz      3.5    5:L 22:W 14:W 11:D 13:L 12:W
 18. Donaldson, Gary          3      6:L 12:L 21:W 23:D 14:D 20:W
 19. Summerfield, John        1.5    7:L 14:L 20:W 24:L 21:D 23:L
 20. Carolin-Unkovich, George 2      8:L 15:L 19:L 21:W 22:W 18:L
 21. Laugery, Bernard         1.5    9:L 16:L 18:L 20:L 19:D 22:W
 22. Padmanabhan, Sundar      1     10:L 17:L   :W 15:L 20:L 21:L
 23. Petranovic, Aleksa       2.5   11:L   :W 13:L 18:D 16:L 19:W
 24. Szabo, Tamas             3     12:W 13:L  8:L 19:W 10:L 14:W
 25. Yap, Ignatius            1       :W  5:L   :    :    :    :