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THOMSON CUP INTERNATIONAL 2013

The turnout of 73 players was less than satisfactory, probably because there is still a week of school before the holidays begin on 1 June. Nonetheless, the tournament went ahead with the best playing conditions for the participants and we truly thank those who came to play.

Some of my students took part, all except 3 won prizes. For the Silver section, Nicholas Low finished 11th while Zhong Kai and Nicholas Teo came in 17th and 6th respectively. Adrian Yeo won Best Performance for Gold Section (as he was rated below 1600 and came in 13th). 

 

I managed to persuade my new student to play and he enjoyed his tournament making friends in between games.

                                   

The games at the Gold Section were fiercely contested, with Tan WeiLiang and Jared Neubronner (both our past winners) leading the pack at Round 3, but fortunes started to change at the 2nd day. Weiliang could not convert his attack against Robert Suelo and lost, crashed against Cyrus the next round which ended his hopes of regaining the title. Robert continued his winning run with a win against Urcan Olympiu setting the showdown  between him and Tin JingYao in the final round. Interested readers can follow the commentaries wonderfully captured by Junior Tay here.  

For the first time in our tournament history, 3 players tied for first in the Silver section and the winner had to be settled with a playoff of 1 blitz game. The winner was Warren Lim who is now the Silver section champion and will look forward to playing in the Gold Section next year.



The winner on tie-break (as JingYao beat Robert and Urcan overcame Paul Butteumueller) was a beaming Cyrus Low who captured his first Thomson title, having outplayed Kelvin Wee at the last round. Cyrus was put to the test in games against Urcan ,who at one stage had a passed pawn ready to queen but was kept on the ropes to play for a draw in view of time pressure). He went into a theoretically inferior position against Tan Weiliang but kept his cool and started making inroads when Weiliang blundered a pawn who had 3 pawns for the piece plus rook against Rook and Bishop. A well deserved victory for Cyrus who has supported the tournament for the past 4 years and we look forward to his title defence next year.


All participants had burgers this year for their meals which went down well with the children. Hopefully we will get a better turnout next year. 

Thanks to Chris, Kenny, Hafiz, Weixiang and Brandon for all the help given during the 2 days! And of course to Thomson CC for the use of the hall. 









Comments

  1. IM Kevin GohMay 29, 2013 at 9:37 PM

    Hi John,

    Just a correction - the line Cyrus played against Weiliang is actually a theoretical line that is championed by several 2600s and has been established to be sound and fully equal. It seems that there is more than 1 way to draw against the 6.Bg5 Najdorf.

    Thanks,
    Wei Ming

    ReplyDelete

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