Tournament:
127 players braved the tough conditions with the sweltering heat at the Xmas Swiss Chess Challenge 2017. Top seed was Yifu Wu rated 816, and there were 94 rated players, with the lowest around 300. The arbiters were very impressed that the vast majority, in fact 124 of those who entered, managed to last for the whole day, and played in all 8 rounds!
Yifu had taken a safe draw in Round 5 with 4th seed Andrew Roseby (698), knowing that he could still claim outright 1st place in the tournament if he won all the remaining games. The two leaders after Round 5 were Brendan Anderson (693) and Georgios Andromedas (622), who battled each other in the following round. In an almost impossible turn-around, Georgios was way down on time, to his last 30 seconds, and was a whole piece down in a rook endgame. He somehow scrambled his way out by setting up a checkmate, using his active king and rook!
In Round 7, Yifu was able to topple Georgios and take over first place. The placings were finalised after Round 8, which left a clear winner (Yifu), outright second place (Georgios), and equal 3rd-5th places, with the trophies to be resolved on tiebreak (click HERE for more information). Congratulations to Yifu and all of our other prizewinners!
Thanks to the Sydney Latvian Society Club, who provided us with the hall and canteen area, to our hard-working arbiters, parent helpers, canteen ladies, and everyone who attended and helped us to finish the tournament on time.
We hope to see you all at another chess event soon!
The final standings / crosstable and list of prizewinners can be downloaded from the links below.
