Sunday, July 27, 2008

Smerdon Takes Out ANU Open

This weekend one of Australia's most prestigious tournaments was played in Canberra. It is, of course, the ANU Open. Shaun Press has been covering that event over at his blog.

And the winner? IM David Smerdon. Congrats to him! A fine outing for Australia's board 2 in the men's Olympiad team.

However, David's counterpart on the women's side, Arianne Caoili, had one of those weekends that's worth quickly forgotten. She lost to two local men, Ian Rout and the ever dangerous Milan Grcic. This is yet to be confirmed, but a Sydney-based source tells me that Arianne's loss to Grcic in the fifth round was particularly stunning. A rook and 3 pawns up to Grcic's single rook, Arianne went from winning, to drawing, to lost! I'd love to see that.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ian Rout beat a few good players in top group.

The time controls were absurd, good for some and unlucky for others (like Arianne and Junta)

Anonymous said...

The important thing was that Arianne was there playing and getting ready. Lots of good players struggle with 60min (my whole family does).

A few more tournaments and she will be able to turn on some really good chess at the Olympiad at the more sensible time control. :)

Giang had a good tournament.

Jenni

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's good that Arianne is out there playing and getting ready for the Olympiad. Now she’s entered the Surfers Paradise Open. She's an intrinsically strong player so with a bit of preparation the old form will come back. Best of luck at the Olympiad, Arianne. :-)