Monday, January 12, 2009

Xie and Wohl Win Aussie Open

In case you've not heard the news - international masters Alex Wohl and George Xie came out equal first in the just finished Australian Open. Thanks to his superior countback score, Alex gets to hold onto the trophy. Both players gave nice speeches, with George reading from prepared notes while Alex expressed how nice a place Manly is to play chess.

The following game was judged by FM Greg Canfell as winner of the tournament's brilliancy prize.

Australian Open, Manly
Tan, Kevin
Papp, Alexander
B78

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. O-O-O Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 12. h4 h5 13. Rdg1 Nc4 14. Bxc4 Rxc4 15. g4 hxg4 16. h5 gxh5 17. fxg4 Bxg4 18. Bh6 Rxd4 19. Qg5 Ne8 20. Rxh5 Bxh5 21. Bxg7 Bg6 22. Bxd4 Nc7

Position after 22...Nc7

23. Bh8 e5 24. Bf6 Ne6 25. Qh4 1-0

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find the title a little missleading. Have they shared the title? After all, hasn't Alex won the title? Xie played against a very weak field and he lost to some very weak players and only made a comeback at the end, but his rating performance (which can sometimes be a pretty good way to measure a result in a competition) must have been at least 100 points lower.
I don't mind either way, I just want to know if the title is shared or Alex gets it.

Anonymous said...

congratulations alex from israel!!!!!!!!

xxx
Arianne