Monday, June 30, 2008

Russian Edges Wohl for Vinos

Russian IM Eduard Fomichenko took out the 11th International des Vins du Médoc Open with 8 points in total. He pulled that one off on account of a superior tiebreak over Alex Wohl who also tallied the same number of points. For Wohl, his solid performance there (drawing against two international masters and beating all others over 9 games) should give Australian selectors some extra consideration for the upcoming Olympiad.

On that note, the number of women putting their names in for the Olympiad selections has increased dramatically since our last posting. Ex-dance star WIM Arianne Caoili, and who is presently Australia's leading woman player, has decided to apply along with seasoned weekend warrior WIM Narelle Szuveges and Queensland talent WIM Alexandra Jule. Who will I pick, you ask. Here goes:

IM Irina Berezina
WIM Arianne Caoili
WIM Laura Moylan
Giang Nguyen
WIM Alexandra Jule

Giang is good. She scored 5.5 and 5.0 points in this year's SIO and Doeberl Cup respectively, in both cases finishing above more fancied players. As for Jule, well, there's a giant killer right there. On her day, the Queenslander can be quite dangerous. Who can forget this?

2006 Queenstown Chess Classic
Jule, Alexandra
Dive, RJ.
A47

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. c3 b6 4. Bf4 Bb7 5. e3 d6 6. Be2 Nbd7 7. Nbd2 Qc7 8. h3 e5 9. dxe5 dxe5 10. Bh2 Nd5 11. Nc4 f6 12. a4 Be7 13. Qb3 a6 14. Rd1 Rd8 15. O-O Bc6 16. Ncd2 Qb7 17. e4 Nc7 18. Nh4 Bxe4 19. Nxe4 Qxe4 20. Bg4 c4 21. Bxd7+ Rxd7 22. Qxb6 Nd5 23. Qc6 Kd8 24. Qa8+ Kc7 25. Qxh8 Qxh4 26. Qa8 Nb6 27. Qa7+ Kc6 28. Rxd7 Nxd7 29. Qxa6+ Kc7 30. Rd1 Bc5 31. Qa5+ Kc8 32. Qa8+ Kc7 33. Qf3 h5 34. Rd2 Qg5 35. Qd5 Qf5 36. a5 Qb1+ 37. Rd1 Qf5 38. Kh1 g5 39. Qxc4 g4 40. b4 gxh3 41. bxc5 Qxf2 42. Qd5 hxg2+ 43. Qxg2 Qxc5 44. Qd5 Qe7 45. a6 Nc5 46. a7 1-0

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You might need to take Caoili out. Apparently she does not have played the games required under the "20 game rule".

Kevin Bonham said...

The anonymous comment above is uninformed and incorrect. Caoili has played exactly 20 games that meet the requirements of the rule - seven in last year's ANU Open, nine in this year's Doeberl, and four in the 2008 ANU Autumn Cup. The latter have not yet been rated, but are acceptable because they will be rated and the results have been verified with an appropriate official source.

If the anonymous poster had checked the files available on the Olympiad Appeal website at the time they posted, and also read the original call for applications, they would be able to see that their assertion was unfounded.

All other applicants have also met the 20-game rule; had any not done so they would have been excluded within days following the close of applications on June 20.

- Kevin Bonham
ACF Selections Director.