2014 ANU Masters - Round 1

The 2014 ANU Masters began this evening, with a slightly smaller field than previous years.  The 8 player round robin brought together tournament winners from the previous year, as well as a couple of invited players to add a bit of starch to the field. Top seeds are IM Andrew Brown and FM Junta Ikeda, with Andrey Bliznyuk the highest rated ANU regular.
The first round saw 3 games played, and they were all hard fought. Wenlin Yin and Andrew Brown started with Yin making all the threats, while Brown was mainly concerned with keeping his position together. But once both players were short of time, Brown's position improved and he was able to win material while harrying Yin's king. Fred Litchfield won a piece for 3 pawns against Alana Chibnall, but offered his opponent a draw, apparently not trusting his position. However it was turned down, and once forced to play on, found that the extra piece was enough to clean up the pawns and win the ending.
Andrey Bliznyuk built up a winning position against Miles Patterson after a nice pawn sacrifice in the middle game, but running short of time avoided one trick, only to walk into a bigger one. Demoralised by the turn of events he then moved his king to a square that allowed a mate in 1.


Bliznyuk,Andrey - Patterson,Miles [E07]
2014 ANU Masters, 12.02.2014