HISTORIC HORTON TIES FOR TAS OPEN
The 2008 Tasmanian Open attracted 25 players and was the strongest all-Tasmanian event of at least the last two decades,
with five players rated over 1900 and another five in the 1700s, and six past or present state champions playing.
Yet what could have been a showcase of the strength at the pointy end ended up saying more about the depth of the state's current chess scene,
with one of the winners even coming from outside the top ten seeds.
Round 1
This depth was evident from round one, in which the underdogs (most outrated by >400 points) managed four draws.
First to draw was Mason Carter, after one weakness was not enough for Julian Steward (1992 state champion, recently returned to tournament chess) to win a pawn ending.
Fellow junior Vincent Horton was held to a draw by Tony Sturges (whose rating has crashed to 1166 mostly through draws and losses to much weaker juniors than Vincent!)
- Tony forced a draw by perpetual check in a feisty late middlegame.
Carey Kuzmic missed some wins before drawing a same-coloured bishop ending against Nigel Frame, and Kevin Hendrey defended very doggedl as he held off Glen Gibbs' maneuvering.
Round 2
Surprisingly, Dowden and Bonham (the top two in many other Tas tournaments) met in round two.
A game that could have gone either way swung Dowden's way with a devastating queen sac offer; Bonham declined it to avoid mate but resigned a few moves later to stop Dowden doing it again!
Top seed David Small defeated Alastair Dyer in a tough fight, and Neil Markovitz weathered a very prolonged attack from Andrew Kruup.
Charles Chadwick held a rook ending a pawn down against Peter Knight, while Frame and Glen Gibbs conceded draws to Sturges and Mason Carter respectively.
Round 3
Round three began on Sunday morning without Andrew Kruup who withdrew (without notice, alas) after having his credit card and mobile phone stolen on Saturday night.
Small and Dowden drew after seventeen tense and deeply considered moves, but those who expected the same in Markovitz-Knight were wrong as the HICC champion downed the twice state champion decisively.
Bonham was equally destructive, wiping out Ivkovic with a temporary queen-sac combo, while Gibbs' junior problems just got worse with a loss to Vincent Horton, despite having a couple of very ominous-looking knights early on.
Dylan Kuzmic drew with Dyer and the battle of the Nigels was a hard-fought draw and a good result for Lewis (playing his first weekender in Hobart for decades).
The last game going, Chadwick-Steward, had a dramatic conclusion as Chadwick played a good knight - bad bishop ending superbly until, with the crucial win of a pawn just two moves away, he blundered the knight ... and then resigned an apparently drawn position.
Round 4
Markovitz now led but a draw with Dowden brought him back as Small defeated Mason Carter and Vincent Horton accounted for Steward.
What looked like a 1000+ point mismatch between Bonham and bottom seed Adam Carter was actually a tough game as Bonham knew nothing about Carter's Grob and struggled into the middlegame
a pawn down with a silly position before finding a decisive tactic.
Peter Knight conceded a draw to Russell Horton after Russell saw his own crucial move, and it was draw number four for Nigel Frame, this time to Dylan Kuzmic.
Gibbs could have been 1/4 against juniors this round but Andrew Fifield missed his chances, so all the 1700s players were now out of major contention - but one sub-1700,
Vincent Horton, was now co-leader.
Round 5
Small and Markovitz played the third straight board 1 draw, and Bonham won a pawn early against Steward and duly converted despite prolonged resistance.
Chadwick atoned for the morning's disaster by impressively outplaying Dyer with the two bishops against bishop and knight in an endgame with mutual time trouble.
The big action was on board 2, where Dowden made a huge mistake against Vincent Horton on move 6 (!) and was lost on the board for dozens of moves,
even going a piece and a pawn down (with compensation) in a messy endgame.
In his young opponent's critical time trouble, Dowden surged back to such an extent that he himself had an overwhelmingly won position(!) before overlooking a simplifying resource,
which Horton found to scramble to a drawn KP vs K ending.
Round 6
Going into the last round, Small, Markovitz, Vincent Horton and Bonham all lead, with Tony Dowden half a point behind.
Charles Chadwick was also half a point back but had to miss the last round because of work commitments.
Dowden needed to beat Nigel Frame for a shot at a five-way tie for first, but didn't do so.
Markovitz got tangled up and dropped a pawn against Horton, but a draw was agreed with Horton short of time but with a winnable endgame.
Now if anyone could win in Bonham-Small they would take the title outright, but Small's winning chances in a messy queen ending disappeared when he allowed a more or less forced perpetual check.
Dylan Kuzmic beat Ivkovic to win a well-deserved ratings prize after an excellent tournament, while Mason Carter again made his presence felt with the better side of a draw with Dyer
(Carter's third draw against a 1700+ player from four attempts in the event), his underrated dad defeated Janice Martin in a 500+ point upset, and David Hughes was delighted with his win against Steward.
All up, in fifty games where the rating difference exceeded 200 points (often greatly so) the underdogs had racked up five wins and seventeen draws.
It was history all round for the winners, with Small and Markovitz winning the Open at their first attempt and Bonham extending his record collection of Open wins to six (three of them ties).
But the most historic result was Vincent Horton's first win of a rated adult tournament, and at age 12 he appears to be the youngest Tasmanian player to ever win one.
Vincent did seem ready to move up a notch with a strong performance in the March state championship, but few would have expected this success so soon.
Is it the first of many?
We shall see ...
RESULTS
4.5 David Small 2073, Neil Markovitz 2022, Kevin Bonham 1931, Vincent Horton 1529j
4 Tony Dowden 2026, Peter Knight 1982, Glen Gibbs 1781
3.5 Charles Chadwick 1778 (absent round 6), Nigel Frame 1746, David Hughes 1424
3 Dylan Kuzmic 1321, Russell Horton 1449, Alastair Dyer 1708j, Andrew Fifield 1243j*, Adam Carter 901*
2.5 Julian Steward 1748, Mason Carter 1299j#, Kevin Hendrey 1353j
2 Nigel Lewis 1431, Tony Sturges 1166, Milutin Ivkovic 1471, Carey Kuzmic 1273*, Nina Horton 1025*
1 Janice Martin 1408, Andrew Kruup 1508 (withdrawn after forfeiting round 3).
* = includes bye, # = includes forfeit win
Dowden - Bonham
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.Qg4 Ne7 6.dxc5 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Ng6 8.Bd3 Nd7 9.Nf3 Qa5 10.Bd2 Nxc5 11.0-0 Nxd3
12.cxd3 Qc7?!
13.Rfe1 Bd7 14.Rab1! a6 15.h4 h5 16.Qb4 Bb5! 17.Qd4 Ne7! 18.c4?! dxc4 19.Rec1 Rd8 20.Qe4 Qd7 21.Bb4 Nf5? 22.dxc4 Bc6 23.Qf4 Bxf3? 24.Qxf3! Nxh4 25.Qe4 Nf5 26.Ba5 Rb8 27.Rd1 Qe7?? 28.Qc6+!! Kf8 29.Rd7 Qg5 30.Rdxb7 As ...Re8 31.Qxe8+! mates and everything else loses a rook, black resigns. 1-0
Markovitz - Knight
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.0-0 c5 6.Nc3 Be7 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 Nc6 9.Qf4 a6 10.Rd1 d6 11.Be3 Qc7?! 12.Rac1 Rb8? 13.Nd5! exd5 14.cxd5 Qd7 15.dxc6 Bxc6 16.Rxc6 [16.Ne5 is easier] 16...Qxc6 17.Nd4 Qc8 18.Nc6 Rb7 19.Nxe7 Rxe7 20.Qxd6 Qc7 21.Bc6+ Kf8 22.Bf4! Qxd6 23.Bxd6 g6 24.Ba3 Ng8 25.Rd7 h5 26.h4 Rh7 27.Rb7 f5 28.Rxb6 Kg7 29.Bxe7 Nxe7 30.Rxa6 and black resigned a few moves later 1-0
More games and discussion at Chess Chat
and two Vincent Horton games here and here
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