International Round Up 01/12/09

[LozCooper]

International Round Up 01/12/09

IV Palma Open 21-28 November 2009
http://www.chesspalma.com/
http://chess-results.com/tnr27543.aspx

Stewart Haslinger continued his impressive run this year by finishing 2nd= with 7/9 level with GMs Rozentalis & Kunin and half a point behind the winner GM Andrey Sumets rated 2604 from the Ukraine. Stewart was eleven seed and there were 9 2600s in the event. His performance was 2640 and he faced 6 IMs and 2 GMs and he finished strongly with 3.5/4 from his last 4 after getting slightly bogged down with draws early on. An excellent result in what has been an excellent year for him. His round by round results are shown below:

Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Pts. Res.
1 89 Planas Gene Juan 2112 ESP 4,0 s 1
2 44 IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 2427 IND 5,0 w ½
3 46 IM Zude Erik 2409 GER 5,0 s 1
4 36 IM Gaponenko Inna 2457 UKR 6,0 w ½
5 42 IM Guerra Bastida Diego 2429 ESP 5,0 s ½
6 32 IM Henrichs Thomas 2471 GER 6,0 w 1
7 20 GM Bhat Vinay S 2510 USA 6,5 s ½
8 24 IM Sengupta Deep 2488 IND 6,0 w 1
9 26 GM Lajthajm Borko 2481 SRB 6,0 s 1

Gary Quillan, Mark Lyell and David Spence also played in the event, all finishing with 5/9.

Leuven Open 12-15 November
http://www.leuvencentraal.be/lc/view/nl ... euven.html

Congratulations to Stephen Berry who shared 1st= with Stefan Docx with 6/7. The other English results were Mark Davey and Gerald Parfett on 3.5, Alistair Morton and John Nyman on 3, Mark Huba on 2 and Kevin Huntley on 1.5.

Elsewhere it was a relatively quiet week for English players playing internationally so I extended my search far and wide to find something else to report. I managed to find that Kanwal Bhatia had played over the weekend in Philadelphia and looking back found that Heather Richards has played two tournaments in Australia, albeit early in 2009 and late 2008! Whilst this hardly breaking news it's pleasing to see both women are still playing whilst overseas and will hopefully remain available to play for England in the future.

National Chess Congress Philadeplhia USA
http://www.nationalchesscongress.com/

Kanwal Bhatia finished on 3/6 in the Premier. Her results were as follows:

Round 1 Mackenzie Molner 2397 LOST
Round 2 IM Irina Krush 2451 LOST
Round 3 HALF POINT BYE
Round 4 Alan G Soble (US rating) 2122 DRAW
Round 5 James C Pinkerton 2033 WIN
Round 6 Jake S* Miller (US rating) 2033 WIN
1/3 v 2294 + 1.5/2 v Unrateds.

As is the norm in US tournaments players were required to bring both chess set, pieces and clock to the game. When neither Kanwal or her opponent could provide a clock in round 6 the arbiter helpfully suggested they play without one! Eventually Kanwal purchased one from the bookstall but as they failed to provide any correctly sized batteries a return trip to the bookstall was required. At this point they offered her $5 and pointed her in the direction of the hotel gift shop! Thankfully the game eventually got underway and Kanwal won to reach 50%.

Newcastle (Australia)
http://www.chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=9315&page=4

Although this is a result from earlier this year it's welcome proof that Heather Richards is still playing, albeit less frequently since her move to Australia.

Norman GREENWOOD NSW 1750 WIN
Ron GROENHOUT NSW 1706 (UNR) WIN
Gary W LANE NSW 2377 DRAW
Jesse Noel SALES OS 2331 LOSS
Alex MEHAN NSW 1534 (unr) WIN
James MORRIS VIC 2200 WIN
Andrew BIRD NSW 2182 LOSS
2.5/5 v 2168 + 2/2 unr
Delving further back into time I found the following result from a tournament that she played in 2008.

2008 ANU Open Australia

http://www.ianandjan.com/ian/results/we ... u-open.htm

Emma Guo 1910 WIN
Michael Dunn (NSW) 1932 WIN
IM David Smerdon 2470 DRAW
FM Jesse Sales (NSW) 2331 LOSS
Luthien Russell 1738 LOSS
Leon Kempen (Vic) 2018 WIN
Yi Yuan 2097 DRAW
4/7 v 2070

Thankfully the London Chess Classic starts next week so I will have more recent news to report! Check out http://www.londonchessclassic.com/index.htm for the latest news and updated list of entries in the open.

In addition to the individual websites the latest international chess news can be found at the following link: http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic786.html

Lawrence Cooper
Director of International Chess
English Chess Federation 01/12/09