Results
Most pleasing was that the field included 23 local players, compared with just six at last year's Mingara Open weekender.
The traditional weekender has been discontinued in favour of the one-day format. The main differences are shorter games (25-minute time control), prizemoney evenly spread among rating divisions rather than going mainly to the top few players, and entry fees reduced to just $10. All entry fees along with $300 in sponsorship from Mingara Recreation Club gave the tournament a $760 prize pool. The money was evenly spread to pay first ($75), second ($45) and third ($32) in each of five rating divisions.
The aim of evenly spreading prizemoney was to make the tournament attractive to lower and middle-rated players, which it did. The field included 23 Central Coast players compared with just six at Last year's Mingara Open. The surprise for organisers was that there was also large contingent of visiting top-league players including current Australian Lightning Co-champion Jesse Sales, who finished in a traffic jam on second place with Vlad Smirnov, Gosford player John Curtis, and an increasingly challenging Blair Mandla.
Six players were in reach of first place going into the final round, but it was Jason Hu who emerged alone at the top after gaining a three-pawn advantage and winning on time against Sales. Other Central Coast players to figure in the prizemoney were David Castor, Ivan Kodzoman, Ben Young, Neil Clark and the wonderful 72-year-old Alex Momot, who lives at Laurieton but is "claimable" as a local because of his regular extended visits to be near family.
There were plenty of highlights for the locals. The 19th seeded Kodzoman scored upset draws against the fifth, eighth and ninth seeds, Ben Young held the much higher-rated Zach Berry-Porter to a draw and Neil Clark scored an upset over Mike Weltner (who took the "traveller's award" after coming all the way from Old Bar).
Carlos Gutierrez sat 13 places below Shaun Booth on the ratings ladder but held him to a sixth-round draw and local junior Mustafa Ahmed-Aziz, who was playing for experience and not expected to collect points, sported a big smile as he left with two wins and a draw.
See results and cross table below.
Group 1 (9 players rated 2029 and higher): 1 Jason Hu (6/7), 2= Vlad Smirnov, Jesse Sales, John Curtis, Blair Mandla (5.5/7).
Group 2 (9 players rated 1592 to 1974): 1= Jason Chan, Mike Van Renen (5/7), 3= David Castor, Peter Abbott, Herman Rachmadi (4.5/7).
Group 3 (9 players rated 1416 to 1582): 1 Ivan Kodzoman (4.5/7), 2= David Adler, Matthew Koutnik, Anton Smirnov (4/7).
Group 4 (9 players rated 1254 to 1406): 1 Graeme Deacon (4/7), 2= Ben Young, George Smit (3.5).
Group 5 (10 players rated up to 1208): 1= Wally Savovski , Neil Clark(3.5/7) 3= Alex Momot, Adam Miller (3/7).
Chess sponsor Keith Hogan of Australian Commercial Kitchens donated a trophy for the open winner, Jason Hu, and a chess set for the player who performed highest above own rating, which was won by Ivan Kodzoman.
