Sunday 20 November 2016

2016 Vikings Weekender - Day 1

The 2016 Vikings Weekender is underway, with 4 of the 7 rounds played today. Numbers were good this year, with 65 players across both events, with 25 (or 23) in the top section, and 40 in the Minor.
Joint leaders after 4 rounds are top seed IM Anton Smirnov, and Fred Litchfield. The two drew there third round game, and have won all the rest. Smirnov had a couple of quick wins in rounds 2 and 4, beating me in 12 moves after I blundered a piece in the opening, and IM Junta Ikeda in 20 moves in a very sharp Sicilian. Litchfield started off with wins over Kevin and Fiona Shen, before beating Jason Hu in a game where Litchfield sacrificed his queen for piece activity and an eventual mating attack.
Tied for third on 3.0 are Ikeda, IM Andrew Brown (who arrived late and was paired with 'house man' IM Vlad Smirnov in Round 1!), and tournament surprise Saffron Archer. Archer picked off a couple of higher rated scalps in today's games, and will face Smirnov in round 5.
The Minor had its share of upsets as well, with a number of higher rated players coming unstuck. Mark Patterson and Thomas McMenamin lead the event on 4/4 and they play in tomorrow mornings first round.
Scores from the tournament can be found at http://tournaments.streetchess.net/vikings2016/ along with a link to live coverage of the top 4 boards from the Open.


Hu,Jason - Litchfield,Fred [A40]
2016 Vikings Weekender Tuggeranong (4.2), 19.11.2016

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