Tuesday 15 June 2010

2010 NSW Open - Zhao wins

GM Zong Yuan Zhao recovered from his earlier tournament setback to win the 2010 NSW Open with 6/7. The last round saw a clash of the top 2 seeds, Zhao and IM George Xie, but a quick-ish draw saw Zhao reach 6/7. IM Gary Lane had a chance to catch Zhao if he could defeat Gareth Oliver, but Oliver completed a very successful tournament by drawing with his titled opponent. This left Xie and Lane in second place, with Zhao the outright winner.
In the Minor (Under 1600) event, 4 players shared first place on 6/7. Willis Lo went into the last round on 6/6 but a loss to Mark Stokes saw Stokes, Matthew Bennett and Alana Chibnall share the winners cheque with Lo.
The organisers were extremely pleased with the 148 player entry, knowing that such numbers point the tournament on a sound financial footing for future years. And it is hard to disagree with GM Zhao's comments at the closing ceremony that Australian Chess is "undergoing a renaissance period", at least where tournament numbers are concerned.

1 comment:

Garvin said...

In NSW and VIC maybe? In all the other states, I would disagree.