MCC Championship Round 4

In round 4 of the Club Championship the field tightened up. The top board game was a bit of a tense draw with a bit of probing but no real risks being taken. This left West and Cheng in joint first, but they were joined by James Morris and Justin Tan. These talented young players beat the current joint Victorian Champions Chris Wallis, and Dusan Stojic, respectively. Half a point behind these comes the pre tournament favourite, Darryl Johansen who was held to his second draw in the tournament by Jesse Jager. They are joined by third seed Anatoli Sirota who was happy in the end to take a perpetual against Malcolm Pyke. Perhaps the result of the round, though was Kozo Simutanyi's win against IM Mirko Rujevic, which brings Kozo up alongside the group half a point behind. This is actually quite a big group with both experienced (Dragicevic, Dizdarevic), and new talent (Lekkas, Zelesco) and an fantasically over performing club stalwart, Richard McCart. It is too early to really say that the eventual winner will be coming from this group, but the next couple of rounds will no doubt see a big shake up of the standings.

The critical moment of the game Rujevic-Simutanyi, where black spotted a trick that is would be more typical of his IM opponent. Answer at the end of the article.

In the diagram above, Kozo as black played 15..Nxf2! winning a crucial pawn in a position he was already better.