A week after hostilities in the SIO ended - about 40 or so players returned to Parramatta on Saturday to contest the 2008 City of Sydney Rapid tournament. A small turnout but we did have the likes of GM Antic, international masters Swiercz, Xie and Kizov as well as a few FIDE masters including the always smiling Jesse Sales. Plus, never to be discounted is Sydney junior powerhouse Max Illingworth.
For a small event we had almost every imaginable drama. Apart from the usual over-the-board action, there were Irish dancers, an emergency evac, broken equipment, and a pairing program that couldn't quite seem to count correctly! There was even one apparently total novice for whom the "touch move" rule was completely new. You just had to laugh at it all, else you'd go crazy.
After seven rounds, which was nearly cut to 6 thanks to a schedule clash with an over-60's dance ball, four players came out on top with 5.5 points apiece. They were GM Dejan Antic, Max Illingworth, IM Xie and IM Swiercz. Other top finishers were as follows:
5.0 Kizov, Smirnov, Sales
4.5 Mandla, Peters, Jones L., Escalante, Rosario
4.0 Agulto, Tumanon, Bolens, Dunn, Rachmadi, Christensen, Pan
My 4.5 points was good enough for $65. And I must thank our friends in the NSWCA for their decision to pool the U1800 and U2000 prizes together as it meant that I ended up with more cash. I don't exactly understand this new prize system, but I wasn't about to complain.
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