For only the second time Tasmania has three champions after Tony Dowden, Alastair Dyer and Neil Markovitz tied for second on 5/7 behind tournament winner Vladimir Smirnov (6.5/7), who was ineligible for the title.

The tournament (directed by Russell Horton with assistance especially from Neville Ledger, Nigel Lewis and David Hughes) was hosted by the Burnie Chess Club at Havenview Primary School and attracted a large, and by Tasmanian standards quite strong, field of 28 entrants. The games were played in a combative spirit with several spectacular and/or dramatic encounters and the modest number of draws that occurred on the higher boards were without exception hard-fought.

The presence of FM Smirnov not only enabled Tasmanian players to test their skills against a much stronger opponent than usual but also added interest to the event in the form of a mobile zero-point bye for title contenders. There was some speculation that this might lead to an unjust result but the three-way tie was fitting as there was no one standout player among the Tasmanian contenders. Although one of the three co-champions (Dyer) did not play Smirnov, Dyer's play was clearly worthy of a share of the title.

Round 1: I predicted that the top half of the field would not have it their own way and thus it proved to be. The only upset win was an impressive game by Tony Sturges against Henry Sheerwater, although Tony felt lucky as he was intending to force a draw when Henry resigned!
There were also four draws - Nigel Lewis (who is often dangerous against strong adults) with Neil Markovitz, David Hughes against Kevin Bonham (Hughes resisted impressively despite being a pawn down from the opening and eventually Bonham fell for the kind of swindle he normally inflicts on others and was lucky not to lose), Jamie Briant against Marcus Bretag, and remarkably the improving Harry Briant (648) holding Vincent Horton (1444).

Round 2: The top board games went as expected, although Bonham tripped over his own attack in an awful fashion against Jamie Briant and spent most of the game piece for pawn down before Jamie unwisely decided to return material and play for an endgame draw (he didn't get it). An even better result for Harry Briant this round defeating Nigel Lewis, and another low-rated junior giving a star junior trouble was Ashton Fitzallen (812) drawing with Mason Carter (1325).

Round 3: The games of this round, both going beyond three hours, were Dyer-Dowden (just held by the latter in a very unpleasant looking rook ending) and Lawrence Bretag-Harvey (as would be expected from the styles of both players an incredible tactical mess with Lawrence at one stage a rook or so down before recovering the material bit by bit leaving Harvey to dodge draws in an unclear queen ending - with this as the third game of the day both players must have been exhausted.)

Markovitz outplayed Nigel Frame, winning a piece with some endgame tactics, and Marcus Bretag (not having such a good tournament after his brilliant Launceston Weekender =1st) lost to Dylan Kuzmic. In the mismatch of the tournament (on paper) Harry Briant played Kevin Bonham across a 1200+ point rating gap and played more like a 1400s than a 600s player before succumbing to pin tactics.
FM Smirnov now led on 3/3 with Dowden, Dyer, Markovitz and Bonham on 2.5/3

Round 4: The first outright contender to visit top board was Tony Dowden, who launched a big attack with an early Nxf7! in a spectacular game; it appears the attack was sound but the moves to make it work were extremely hard to see after Smirnov cleverly locked the knight on f7; Smirnov went on to win after a long struggle. Markovitz may have been slightly better against Dyer and declined a draw offer but eventually had to settle, as did Bonham against Frame after Frame's "bad" bishop escaped in a sharp Moscow Sicilian.

Round 5: The "zero-point bye" script was disrupted unexpectedly when Bonham somehow saved a knight ending a pawn down against Smirnov. Frame held Dowden to a draw and Alastair Dyer won a very interesting game against Phil Donnelly, with his rook and two outside passed pawns in the endgame too much for two minor pieces. Vincent Horton moved into the title picture by defeating Reg Harvey after Reg, who gives living meaning to the Fritz expression "contempt for draw", turned down three (!) draw offers. Kevin Hendrey starred in a remarkable (even by Hendrey family standards) display of clock brinksmanship against Anton Smirnov - at one stage down to three seconds against over an hour, Kevin managed to surf the increment all the way to victory.

Smirnov (4.5) now led Markovitz and Dyer (4) and Bonham and Vincent Horton (3.5).
Ashton Fitzallen was absent ill for rounds 5 and 6, and his absence created a serious pairings headache for the organisers trying to avoid affecting the integrity of the Tasmanian Women's Champion title. The danger was that Nina Horton would receive a free point on account of Fitzallen's absence, having already defeated him, while Gemma Woodwell would be unable to gain a bye herself as Owen Short's notified absence from round 7 would return the number of players to even if Fitzallen was still absent. Eventually this problem was resolved by Graham Richards agreeing to take the bye instead of Nina, and with a further minor tweak it was possible to arrange for Nina and Gemma to play off for the Women's title in the final round.

Round 6: Markovitz really got a zero-point bye against FM Smirnov, self-destructing in just 19 moves! Alastair Dyer looked like winning or at least not losing against Bonham before messing up a bishop-vs-knight ending by failing to exploit Bonham's bad pawns and making his own pawns bad instead. Vincent Horton had another of his characteristically gritty wins, this time against Phil Donnelly. Russell Horton repeated Jamie Briant's mistake of simplifying from material up against a stronger player (in this case Frame) only to find that he had gone into a lost ending in the process.
Partway through this round the silence was shattered by a good-natured cry of "you bastard!". Several players left their games and drifted to the board in question in time to see Reg Harvey (who thereby secured the Seniors Champion title) demonstrate the queen-sac smothered mate he had just delivered OTB against Henry Sheerwater!
Smirnov was now guaranteed outright first unless he lost to Vincent Horton. With one round to go, Vicent Horton and Bonham (4.5) were leading the title race, but had tough assignments with black against Smirnov and Dowden respectively. The others in contention for the title were Dowden, Markovitz, Dyer, Frame and Reg Harvey (all on 4).

Round 7: Smirnov won a pawn against Vincent Horton and easily prevailed. First to get a hand on the cup was Markovitz, who was two pawns up pretty quickly against Harvey and went on to win. Dowden-Bonham (which white had to win to retain his title, while black only needed to draw) was a showy opposite-sides castling game where Bonham's attack never really got going because of positional errors and Dowden crashed through with tactics and mating threats to simplify to an easily won position. Dyer had looked better against Frame early on but the game seemed to be drifting to a draw when Frame, presumably figuring this would do neither of them the slightest good, tried to win and ended up losing. Thus Tasmania had three champions - and both overnight leaders in the title race had been leapfrogged in the final round.

Moving up to join Bonham and Vincent Horton on 4.5 were Lawrence Bretag with a win over Sheerwater, and Nigel Lewis, who had promised "revenge!" on Russell Horton for a recent Burnie Club game when their pairing was announced and duly delivered. Meanwhile in the Women's Champion decider, Nina Horton offered a draw, which Gemma Woodwell declined, but Gemma dropped a rook a few moves later and thus Nina retained her title alone.
Anton Smirnov saved his best result for last defeating Marcus Bretag and easily winning the Under 12 prize; Vincent Horton won the U1700 on countback from Lawrence Bretag while Nigel Lewis won the U1400.