2011 WA Open Chess Championship


This year’s WA Open was held at the Moresby Street Hall in Kensington on 12/13 & 19/20 of March 2011. The tournament was missing a few top names, but was quite an interesting event nevertheless. As with last year, people taking half point byes and withdrawing during the tournament did cause some confusion. At the beginning, there were 27 players, but this had dropped to 23 by the finish.

David Ellis won the tournament, repeating his victory from last year, with the same score: 6 points, with no losses. He had to struggle long and hard for a draw against Aston Taminsjah in round 6, which may have been the critical point of the tournament. Aston continues to make rapid progress, achieving his best result, so far, in WA. He has now qualified for the WA Closed Championship, and it will be very interesting to see how he goes in that tournament.

Akef Saleh and Gordon Dunlop had solid results, finishing equal third. Gordon drew with David Ellis and Aston Taminsjah.

All of the rating group winners finished in a big group on 4 points: Natalie Maris, Girma Orssengo, Evan Yeung, Joseph Cheong and George Carolin-Unkovich.

There were two WA titles won in the tournament:

David Ellis is the 2011 WA Open Champion and Natalie Maris is the 2011 WA Womens Champion.

The three WA Closed Championship qualifying places will be allocated in the following order: 1. David Ellis, 2. Aston Taminsjah, 3.Akef Saleh 4. Gordon Dunlop, 5. Nedeljko Tomic.

Report by Haydn Barber.


Prize Winners


  WA Open Champion          David Ellis
  WA Womens Champion        Natalie Maris  

  Open
  1st	David Ellis                6/7
  2nd 	Aston Taminsjah            5½
  3rd	Akef Saleh                 5

  U/1900
  1st 	Gordon Dunlop              5
  2nd	Nedeljko Tomic             4½

 U/1800
 =1st 	Natalie Maris              4
	Girma Orssengo             4

  U/1600
  1st 	Evan Yeung                 4
  2nd 	Trevor Allsop              3 

  U/1400 + Unrated
  1st 	Joseph Cheong              4
 =2nd 	Bernard Laugery            3
	Alex Krievez               3

  Best Junior
  1st 	George Carolin-Unkovich    4
  2nd 	Zachary Vowles             3½ 


Final Standings


 Place Name                     Loc  Club   Score M-Buch. Progr.  

 1     Ellis, David             2026        6        21.5   24.0
 2     Taminsjah, Aston         1811 Junior 5.5      22.0   23.5
 3-4   Saleh, Akef              1906        5        21.5   22.0
       Dunlop, Gordon           1840        5        21.5   21.5
 5     Tomic, Nedeljko          1848        4.5      20.0   20.5
 6-14  Elkington, Derek         1872        4        20.5   18.5
       Maris, Natalie           1668        4        20.5   18.5
       Dempster, Dave           1907        4        18.5   18.0
       Donaldson, Tom           1958        4        18.0   15.5
       Orssengo, Girma          1686        4        17.5   16.0
       Holland, Dennis          1861        4        17.0   16.5
       Yeung, Evan              1421        4        17.0   15.0
       Carolin-Unkovich, George 1311 Junior 4        16.0   15.0
       Cheong, Joseph                       4        16.0   12.0
 15    Vowles, Zachary               Junior 3.5      17.0   12.0
 16-20 Shaw, Robin              1723        3        19.5   15.5
       Maris, Fred              1610        3        18.0   14.0
       Krievez, Alex                        3        16.0   12.5
       Allsop, Trevor           1440        3        14.5   11.0
       Laugery, Bernard         1176        3        14.5   10.5
 21    Szabo, Tamas             1599        2.5      18.0    8.0
 22    McArthur, John           1455        2        17.5    5.5
 23    Shitole, Yash                 Junior 1.5       8.0    3.0
 24-26 Donaldson, Gary          1508        1        16.0    3.0
       Veettil, Abhinav              Junior 1         9.0    3.0
       Hvistendahl, Robert      1767        1         1.5    2.5
 27    Xiong, Sean                   Junior 0         3.0    0.0


Final Cross table


 No Name                     Loc  Club   Total  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    

 1  Ellis, David             2026        6     21:W  4:D 16:W  7:W  3:W  2:D  5:W
 2  Taminsjah, Aston         1811 Junior 5.5   18:W  9:W 11:W  3:D  4:D  1:D  8:W
 3  Saleh, Akef              1906        5     19:W 10:W  5:W  2:D  1:L  8:D  6:W
 4  Dunlop, Gordon           1840        5     14:W  1:D 13:W  6:W  2:D  5:L  7:W
 5  Tomic, Nedeljko          1848        4.5   20:W 17:W  3:L 12:W 16:D  4:W  1:L
 6  Elkington, Derek         1872        4     12:W  7:D 26:+  4:L 11:D 16:W  3:L
 7  Maris, Natalie           1668        4     15:W  6:D  8:W  1:L 10:D  9:W  4:L
 8  Dempster, Dave           1907        4     24:W 16:D  7:L 10:W 18:W  3:D  2:L
 9  Donaldson, Tom           1958        4     22:W  2:L  0:D  0:D 14:W  7:L 17:W
 10 Orssengo, Girma          1686        4     25:W  3:L 15:W  8:L  7:D 20:W 13:D
 11 Holland, Dennis          1861        4     13:D 21:W  2:L 19:W  6:D 17:D 12:D
 12 Yeung, Evan              1421        4      6:L 14:W 22:W  5:L 17:D 18:W 11:D
 13 Carolin-Unkovich, George 1311 Junior 4     11:D 24:W  4:L 16:L 25:+ 15:W 10:D
 14 Cheong, Joseph                       4      4:L 12:L 20:W 22:W  9:L 21:W 16:W
 15 Vowles, Zachary               Junior 3.5    7:L  0:W 10:L 17:D 19:W 13:L 24:W
 16 Shaw, Robin              1723        3     23:W  8:D  1:L 13:W  5:D  6:L 14:L
 17 Maris, Fred              1610        3     27:W  5:L 19:D 15:D 12:D 11:D  9:L
 18 Krievez, Alex                        3      2:L 22:D 23:+ 25:W  8:L 12:L 19:D
 19 Allsop, Trevor           1440        3      3:L 25:W 17:D 11:L 15:L 24:W 18:D
 20 Laugery, Bernard         1176        3      5:L 23:D 14:L 24:W 21:W 10:L 22:D
 21 Szabo, Tamas             1599        2.5    1:L 11:L 24:W  0:D 20:L 14:L  0:W
 22 McArthur, John           1455        2      9:L 18:D 12:L 14:L 23:L  0:W 20:D
 23 Shitole, Yash                 Junior 1.5   16:L 20:D 18:-  0:  22:W  0:   0: 
 24 Donaldson, Gary          1508        1      8:L 13:L 21:L 20:L  0:W 19:L 15:L
 25 Veettil, Abhinav              Junior 1     10:L 19:L  0:W 18:L 13:-  0:   0: 
 26 Hvistendahl, Robert      1767        1      0:D  0:D  6:-  0:   0:   0:   0: 
 27 Xiong, Sean                   Junior 0     17:L  0:   0:   0:   0:   0:   0: