Bjelobrk Wins Sydney Rapid

Powerhouse Igor Bjelobrk won the City of Sydney Rapid event yesterday on a score of 6/7 points. His only loss was to junior Max Illingworth. Defending champion and rapid specialist Jason Chan settled for 4.5 points.

The hot favourite George Xie garnered 5/7 points having been held to draws by less fancied opposition. And in the last round, Xie lost the Black side of an English to the eventual winner Bjelobrk.

NSWCA vice president Andrew Bird writes, "Bjelobrk, Xie and Ayvazyan all went into the final round on 5/6, after Bjelobrk's win it looked for a long time like Ayvazyan would win a good pawn up ending against Neil Wright to be joint winner, but 'tricky Wright' found some amazing resources to hold the endgame, leaving Igor 2006 City of Sydney rapid play champion".

We have the two important games below thanks to Andrew Bird. He also provides brief annotations.

Annotations by Andrew Bird
City of Sydney Rapid
Illingworth, Max
Bjelobrk, Igor
D20

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 c5 4. d5 Nf6 5. Nc3 b5 6. Bf4 Qa5 7. Bd2 e5 8. dxe6 Bxe6 9. e5 Nfd7 10. Qf3 Nb6 11. a4 b4 12. Nb5 Na6 13. Bg5 (Bjelobrk suggested 13. Bxc4! Bxc4 14. Qc6+ Kd8 (14... Ke7 15. Nd6!) 15. O-O-O with a huge attack) 13... Bd5 14. Qe2 h6 15. Nd6+ Bxd6 16. exd6+ Be6 17. Be7 b3+ 18. Kd1 Nb4 19. Nh3 Nc2 20. Qe5 Nd5 21. Bxc4 Nxe7 22. Bxe6 O-O 23. dxe7 Rfe8 24. Bd5 Rac8 25. Nf4 Qb6 26. Qf5 Qf6 27. Qxf6 gxf6 28. Rc1 Rxe7 white has a winning endgame, which he converted in the 10 second a move time scramble 1-0


Annotations by Andrew Bird
City of Sydney Rapid
Bjelobrk, Igor
Xie, George
A37

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. O-O Nge7 7. Ne1 d6 8. Nc2 O-O 9. d3 Be6 10. Ne3 Qd7 11. Rb1 Bh3 12. Ned5 Nxd5 13. Nxd5 Bxg2 14. Kxg2 Ne7 15. Nc3 d5 16. e4 dxe4 17. dxe4 Qc6 18. f3 Rfd8 19. Qe2 a6 20. Be3 Kf8 21. Rfc1 Rac8 22. Nd5 Nxd5 23. cxd5 Qd6 24. Rc2 Rd7? white is better here, but this is just a blunder (24... Rc7) 25. b4 b6 26. Qxa6 Suddenly blacks whole position collapses. 1-0