Monday, October 29, 2007

Aagard Wins Arco

IM Alex Wohl drew his last round game against GM Igor Naumkin to end his Arco tournament on 7 points from nine rounds. It was a 4-way finish at the top, but Scot GM Jacob Aagard was declared winner on tiebreak.

On the other hand, last year's champion IM Roland Salvador pulled off a win in the last game to settle with 6.5 points.

And by the way, I just noticed that there is another Filipino player in Arco. It is FM Virgilio Vuelban who also totalled the same tally as his compatriot.

Top finishers in Arco:

7.0 - Aagard, Serafimov, Wohl, Naumkin
6.5 - Salvador, Vezzosi, Lazic, Vuelban, De Santis

Back home, the Surfers Paradise Open was won on the weekend by GM Dejan Antic. Scoring 6 points from seven games, Dejan finished above both GM Roland Schmaltz and Moulthun Ly who each totalled 5.5 points. Surely, though, the highlight of this event must be the disastrous run of one IM Gary Lane. The popular author could manage only 4.5 points. His weekend included this terrible loss to Victorian player Dromagoj Dragicevic.

Surfers Paradise Open
Dragicevic, D.
Lane, IM Gary
C52

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 d6 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.dxe5 Bb6 9.Nbd2 Na5 10.Qc2 Nxc4 11.Nxc4 Qe6 12.Nxb6 The first new move, according to my database. 12...axb6 13.exd6 Qxd6 14.0–0 Ne7 15.Rd1 Qg6 16.Bf4 Bg4 17.Qd3 And now, as if forgetting the lessons in his own popular books on tactics and mates, IM Lane commits a most terrible error. 17...Bxf3?? 18.Qd7+ 1–0

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

amiel, a highlight of the event can't really be lane's poor performance - it's noteworthy but not a highlight. some of the highlights were brian thomas good performance (5/7), ly's 3rd placing and nakauchi beating some big names (sales/lane in succession).