News From Australia

Sydney Open and Olympiad Appeal

The 2008 Sydney International Open Chess Tournament took place on 25-29 March at Parramatta Town Hall. Scheduled close to the Doeberl Cup, it allowed foreign players to make a useful trip to Australia and also many local people to make a good vacation planning. GM Gawain Jones and IM Zong-Yuan Zhao bravely attacked with black pieces in the last round and it paid dividends as wins allowed them to catch GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly and GM Zhong Zhang on the first place tie. Zong-Yuan Zhao holds huge rating gain in reserve for the April list and should be promoted to Grandmaster on the next FIDE meeting.

There was no compulsory Gibraltar rule this time, and some Grandmasters took the advantage of making friendly draws in the last two rounds. GM Dejan Antic, once again, had denied repetition claim, this time in the 5th round. Visit the official website and The Closet Grandmaster blog for more information about the event.

Now that chess world's attention on the Australian events is peaking, it is a good moment to mention that there is ACF Olympiad Appeal ongoing with aim to gather funds for the Australian team's airfare to Dresden. Australia is one of about 30% of teams at the Olympiad where all the players pay all their expenses and have no government or commercial support. The public appeal usually raises $A400-600 per player, and each player has to find about $A2.000 for the ticket.

This means that players sometimes drop out of the team for money reasons, but all candidates know in advance that they have to find $A2.000 every two years to represent their country and most manage to do so. For 2002 Bled Olympiad the team was partly sponsored by Ansell. Australian Sports Ministry gave some money once, but this was controversial for most sports people who don't consider chess to be a sport, and it never happened again.

From the donation page: We ask you all to reach for the hip pocket, and give what you can to the ACF Olympiad Appeal. No donation is too large or too small - all will get the teams that much closer to Germany and will be acknowledged on this site. All donors to the last Olympiad Appeal received email bulletins from the players direct from Turin. A similar thank-you gesture for donors is anticipated from the players in Dresden.

Last round results

GM Akobian Varuzhan ½ - ½ GM Zhang Zhong
GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar ½ - ½ GM Gagunashvili Merab
IM Kizov Atanas 0 - 1 GM Jones Gawain
GM Chandler Murray G 0 - 1 IM Zhao Zong-Yuan
GM Antonio Rogelio ½ - ½ GM Johansen Darryl
GM Malakhatko Vadim 1 - 0 FM Metz Hartmut
IM Solomon Stephen 1 - 0 Dragicevic Domagoj

Sydney Open final standings

1-4. GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (IND 2579), GM Zhong Zhang (SIN 2617), GM Gawain Jones (ENG 2562) and IM Zong-Yuan Zhao (AUS 2487) 7.0
5-12. GM Merab Gagunashvili (GEO 2553), GM Rogelio Jr Antonio (PHI 2529), GM Varuzhan Akobian (USA 2599), IM Igor Bitansky (ISR 2424), GM Vadim Malakhatko Vadim (BEL 2600), IM Stephen Solomon (AUS 2468), GM Darryl Johansen (AUS 2475) and IM Gary Lane (AUS 2412) 6.5

Photos by Amiel Rosario of The Closet Grandmaster

GM Murray Chandler, Managing Director of Gambit Publications

Varuzhan Akobian, winner of the 2008 Doeberl Cup

Bellow is the last video from Doeberl Cup, including interviews with IM David Smerdon, Amiel Rosario and GM Varuzhan Akobian. See also GM Ian Rogers' blog at the USCF website.