2009 Gold Coast Open

The 2009 Gold Coast Open was played from the 27-28th of June. It was held at the Outrigger Twin Towns Resort in Tweed Heads (same as the Oceania Zonal from two posts before). The top seed was GM Gawain Jones (2560).

Here are the final results:
1st GM Gawain Jones with 6/7
2nd-5th In countback order, Puchen Wang (2361), David Smerdon (2526), Stephen Solomon (2379) and Max Illingworth (2190) with 5.5/7

Click here to see the final crosstable for the 2009 Gold Coast Open.

2009 Box Hill Club Championship

The 2009 Box Hill Club Championship was a 9-round tournament from the 24th of April to the 26th of June, held at Box Hill Chess Club. The top seed was Douglas Hamilton (2144). Laurence Matheson (1926) comfortably led the tournament from start to finish.

Here are the final results:
1st Laurence Matheson with 8/9
2nd-3rd Bobby Cheng (2133) and Jason Tang (1808) with 7/9

Click here to see the final crosstable for the 2009 Box Hill Club Championship.

2009 Oceania Zonal

The 2009 Oceania Zonal was held at Tweed Heads, Gold Coast (Outrigger Twin Towns Resort) from the 20-26th of June. It was a strong tournament with a whole range of titled players. The top seed was GM Zong-Yuan Zhao (2583).

Here are the final results:
1st IM and soon-to-be GM David Smerdon (2489) with 7.5/9
2nd-7th (in countback order) FM James Morris (2114), GM Zong-Yuan Zhao, FM Igor Bjelobrk (2332), IM Stephen Solomon (2455), Bobby Cheng (2103) and Michael Steadman (2262) with 6.5/9

This zonal tournament gives out official chess titles. It is worthy to note that FM James Morris achieved the IM title, while Bobby Cheng and Michael Steadman both received FM titles.

In the female tournament, there were 18 players with the highest seed being IM Irina Berezina (2252).

Here are the final results:
1st WIM Arianne Caoili (2172) with 8/9
2nd IM Irina Berezina with 7/9
3rd WFM Sue Maroroa with 6/9

I'm not too sure about this, but I think Sue Maroroa receives the WIM title, while Vaness Reid (1837) and Sarah Anton (1718) both get WFM titles.

Click here to see the final crosstable for the 2009 Oceania Zonal Open tournament.

Click here to see the final crosstable for the 2009 Oceania Zonal Womens tournament.

2009 CV Secondary Schools Chess Championship - Balwyn Cup

The 2009 Balwyn Cup, part of the CV Secondary Schools Chess Championship, was held at Balwyn High School. A whole flurry of secondary schools attended. It was a 7-round tournament. Teams consist of 5 players, where players cannot play against teammates but can still play against players from other teams from the same school. In the end, the score for the team is determined by adding the number of points of the 4 best performers.

Balwyn High led the tournament almost all the way. However, with a spectacular last round, Scotch College slipped ahead to win the tournament.

Here are the final results:
1st Scotch College
2nd Balwyn High
3rd Brighton Grammar

The Scotch College 1st team comprised of Derek Yu (1838), Eugene Schön (2136), Zhigen Lin (2200), Richard Owen and Nicholas Liu (1583).

2009 Victorian Open

The 2009 Victorian Open had a great turnout of 94 players. It was held at Box Hill Chess Club (Melbourne) from the 6th-8th of June. The top seed was GM Gawain Jones (2560). This tournament has been registered as a Class 4 Grand Prix tournament, improving on last year.

Here are the final results:
1st-2nd IM Mirko Rujevic (2223, and winner on countback) and FM Erik Teichmann (2296) on 6/7
3rd-7th Domagoj Dragicevic (2166), GM Gawain Jones, IM Stephen Solomon (2379), IM Igor Goldenberg (2384) and IM Guy West (2292) on 5.5/7