Nisipeanu & Vajda Win Doeberl, Ly Surprises in Sydney

The two traditional spring tournaments in Australia, the Doeberl Cup and the Sydney International, were held earlier this month. In Canberra there was a tie for first place between Romanian grandmasters Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Levente Vajda. In Sydney a talented local player was successful: Moulthun Ly.

The 52nd (!) Doeberl Cup was held between April 17th and 21st at the Woden Tradies in Canberra, Australia. It was a 9-round Swiss open tournament with two games per day. 

Dutch GM Loek van Wely was the only player to start with 4.0/4, but in round 5 he went down against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who recently switched federations to Germany:

After that Van Wely had quite a bad second half of his tournament, scoring three draws and a loss against four 2300 players. The Dutchman dropped 22 Elo points (and another 9 in Sydney).

Where there had been some short draws earlier in the tournament, the last round was just full of fighting chess. You don't see decisive games on the first six boards in the final round in many open tournaments!

Both on 6.5/8, Nisipeanu and Vadja ended up winning the tournament together as they beat Ikeda and Zhao respectively.

One notable guest at the Doeberl Cup this year was Garry Kasparov, whose FIDE Presidential campaign tour hit Down Under in April. There was a book signing event, and he joined commentator GM Ian Rogers for a while.

Photos courtesy of the Doeberl Cup on Facebook where you can find many more!

Doeberl Cup 2014 | Final Standings (Top 30)

(Full final standings here)

Right after (as in: the next day) the Sydney International started. It was held between April 22nd and 27st at the Town Hall in Parramatta, a business district in Sydney. It had a similar format: 9 rounds, Swiss, and also more than one game per day. A pretty tough schedule especially for players who played in both events, and there were quite a few!

The local International Master Moulthun Ly became the surprising winner this year in Sydney, who took clear first place with 7.0/9. The winners in Canberra ended half a point behind, together with FM Ikeda, GM Van Wely and Mu Ke.

Ly clinched 4,000 Australian dollars (about 2680 Euros or US $3700) and scored his first GM norm. 

After two wins, Ly held Nisipeanu to a draw - or should we say, Nisipeanu held Ly to a draw?

With the following win Ly moved to 5.5/6.

Draws with Ikeda, Melkumyan and Vajda were enough for Ly to finish in clear first place. One player he could thank afterward was Dutchman Lars Ootes, who held both Van Wely and Nisipeanu to a draw in the final rounds! Here's his last round:

Sydney International 2014 | Final Standings (Top 30)

(Full final standings here)