City of Melbourne Open round 3

After an absence last week, the live commentary is back! (but I will warn you that I won't be around next week). This week is significant because after 7.15pm tonight, no new entries will be accepted into the tournament. There is a rumour that Felix Wyss has returned from his travels and is looking to enter the tournament. If he shows up, then there will be an even number of players in the event, solving the bye issue....unless, of course, someone else enters! The big result of the last round was the top board loss of IM James Morris at the hands of Justin Penrose.

I've had a few clerical things to do around the club, but the early signs are already interesting. Dusan Stojic has had to delay his game as he has been in a car accident. He will still come in to the club to play his game against Michael Addamo but a little later, which Michael has agreed to.

Since then, Roger Beattie has left the club, without finishing his game, though I'm not sure what the circumstances were. I'll check it out in a bit.Felix Wyss is in the building and as far as I know in the tournament, though without a game tonight. And Tom Kalisch is also in the building, so Felix does have someone to play some blitz with.

1 hour update

James Morris was an early winner tonight:

The board 1 game between Mirko Rujevic and John Dowling sees the IM pushing hard. Follow it live. The game on board 3 is interesting with David Beaumont playing the ever popular Dragon against Domagoj Dragicevic and David is not afraid to sacrifice to open lines.

The Dragon seems very popular at the club at the moment. Both Rad Chmiel and John Beckman are facing it and have chosen Maroczy set up's. Marcus Ogden preferred a Hedgehog type Sicilian against Ari Dale.

In the top room board 3 sees an open centre between Thai Ly and Malcolm Pyke. There could possibly be some active piece play or exchanges to the endgame happening here. Urban-Penrose is an unclear position that started from 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6.

Dusan Stojic finally arrived at the club looking hassled but has started his game with Michael Addamo choosing a Benoni. Michael has used as a classical set up with Be2 and Nf3-d2.

In the main room, both McCart brothers are in even and tough looking games that one would imagine will not be finishing too soon. Damien Feaine has chosen the solid London against Shaun Hose, and is playing much more safely than he has in the past. But the strangest position is in the game between Zachary Loh and Kerry Stead where neither side seems to want to develop before creating a number of weaknesses within their positions!

2 hours down

We have a number of winners already. Besides Morris, there have been wins for: Ari Dale, Peter Wolf, Paul Kovacevic and James Martin. Abraham Widjaja has been awarded a full point for Ian Stone's no show, but the most bizarre result of the night was Ruben Nowak's win over Roger Beattie. I don't know the details but after about 10 moves Roger left the board and the game. As he didn't return the game counts as a win for his opponent.

I am having to leave fairly soon but I will collect the score sheets on Wednesday when the MCC holds its endgame study group. Perhaps we may be studying the position of the game between Alex Kaplan and Richard Voon which has all the major pieces gone, but no minor pieces. Richard has some space but neither side has what could be called a harmonious piece deployment.

Ok, my final report. On the top boards, Domagoj is 4 pawns up on David Beaumont who's attack never really seemed to happen. I prefer Mirko on board 1, but that is probably because I enjoy space. John Dowling is a tough player to put away. Board 3 was a draw between Thai Ly and Malcolm Pyke, while board 4 is still too early to have settled in to a pattern. David Garner and Dean Hogg both ended up winning their games, and Dean Hogg's was a particularly nice effort against Garth Fitzmaurice who is another player tough to put away. There is still plenty of chess happening at the MCC, but I have to go now. I will leave you with another minor piece endgame, this time between Jim Papadinis and Roger McCart.

A couple of games that I have to hand: