2009 Geelong Open

The 2009 Geelong Open was a class 2 Australian Grand Prix tournament held from the 18-19th of July. It was held in the Court House Building. The top seed was IM Leonid Sandler (2228).

Here are the final results:
1st-2nd IM Leonid Sandler, (soon to be FM) Bobby Cheng (2130) on 5/6
3rd-4th Laurence Matheson (1989), Milenko Lojanica (1974) on 4.5/6

Beating the Grandmasters

I have come up with a new YouTube Chess Series called Beating the Grandmasters. Here is a preview.

Coming Australian Grand Prix Events

I apologise that I haven't had much of a chance to give updates on coming events. The following are events that are coming soon. These events are part of the 2009 Yulgilbar-Think Big Grand Prix, a large chess competition with prizes (all strong events are normally part of the grand prix).

		ANU Open	ACT	Canberra	25/07/09	26/07/09	4
		ANU U1600	ACT	Canberra	25/07/09	26/07/09	4
		Bundaberg Open	QLD	Bundaberg	01/08/09	02/08/09	2
		Hobart Weekender	TAS	Hobart	15/08/09	16/08/09	1
		North Queensland Open	QLD	Townsville	15/08/09	16/08/09	1
		Blayney Open	NSW	Blayney	12/09/09	13/09/09	2
		Nell Van De Graaff Classic	QLD	Gold Coast	19/09/09	20/09/09	3
		MCC Memorial Weekender	VIC	Melbourne	19/09/09	20/09/09	1
		Bendigo Surfers Paradise Open	QLD	Surfers Paradise	26/09/09	27/09/09	5

2009 Freytag Checkmate Open

The 2009 Freytag Checkmate Open was held at Rostrevor College in Adelaide from the 4-5th of July. There was a strong turnout of 40 players with top seed being IM (GM next rating period) David Smerdon (2526). This was a class 5 Grand Prix event.

Here are the final results:
1st David Smerdon (2526) on 6/7
2nd FM (IM next rating period) James Morris (2089) on 5.5/7
3rd-5th Trevor Tao (2397), Yi Yuan (2199) and GM Darryl Johansen (2459) on 5/7

Click here to see the final crosstable for the 2009 Freytag Checkmate Open.

2009 Victorian Junior Chess Championship

The 2009 Victorian Junior Chess Championship was held at Box Hill Chess Club (Melbourne) from the 27th of June to the 2nd of July. There were two sections, the under 12 and the under 18. The top seed was Bobby Cheng (2130).

Here are the final results to the under 18:
1st Jason Tang (1838) on 8.5/9, and winning the title of Victorian Junior Champion
2nd Bobby Cheng on 7.5/9
3rd-4th Thomas Feng (1524) and Jonathan Tang (1291) on 6.5/9

The under 12 was won by Ari Dale (1001), Joshua Devarajh (673), Kyle Gibson (1222) and Anurag Sannidhanam (1516) with 6/7. Ari Dale won the under 12 title on countback.

Click here to see the final cross table for the 2009 Victorian Junior Chess Championship.

Click here to see the final cross table for the 2009 Under 12 Victorian Junior Chess Championship.