Overview

The TCA State Championship for 2015 was held in Hobart last weekend between the 7th and 9th of March.  After an interesting start with all 4 top boards drawing in the 1st round the field shook out to declare the top 2 seeds Ian Rout and Kevin Bonham joint champions after 7 rounds.

In the field there were 2 new unrated players who proved to be tough opposition.  A special mention must go to Biswash Tamang who scored 4 out of 7 in his first TCA appearance and was looking in contention after the first 4 rounds.  The tournament also saw a bright new junior William Rumley (613) formally of the ACT perform well above his rating.  While his overall score does not reflect his performance he did score a victory over HICC coach Alex Nagy (1500) in round 2.

Going into the last round Kevin Bonham led the field with 5 from 6 after his draw against Ian Rout.  Meanwhile Ian Rout and David Hughes were tied for second on 4.5 from 6 with David having the white army against Kevin in the last round; this meant it all boiled down to the round 7.  Kevin accepted a draw against David, while Ian defeated his opponent to claim the title with Kevin.  Both finished on 5.5 from 7.

Round 1

The top 50% of boards drew in round 1.  With 2 joint champions, let's have a look at their games.

ROUT,Ian (1938) - LITTLE,Ian (1465) [C47]

Tasmanian Chess Championships Princes Street Primary School (1.1), 07.03.2015

 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bc5 6.Nxc6 dxc6 7.Qxd8+ Kxd8 8.Bc4 Ng4 9.0–0 Ne5 10.Bb3 f6 11.Na4 Bd6 12.Be3 b6 13.Rad1 Bd7 14.h3 Kc8 15.c4 c5 16.Nc3 Kb7 17.Nb5 Bxb5 18.cxb5 c4 19.Bc2 a6 20.f4 Nd3 21.Bxd3 cxd3 22.bxa6+ Rxa6 23.a3 Ra4 24.Rxd3 Rxe4

½–½

O'MARA,John (1408) - BONHAM,Kevin (1918) [A00]

Tasmanian Chess Championships Princes Street Primary School (1.2), 07.03.2015

 1.b4 e6 2.Bb2 Nf6 3.a3 d5 4.e3 b6 5.Nf3 c5 6.b5 Bd6 7.c4 0–0 8.Be2 Bb7 9.0–0 Nbd7 10.d4 Qc7 11.Nbd2 cxd4 12.exd4 dxc4 13.Rc1 Rac8 14.Bxc4 Qb8 15.Qb3 Bf4 16.Rcd1 Ne4 17.Nxe4 Bxe4 18.Nd2 Bf5 19.g3 Bg5 20.f4 Be7 21.Bd3 Bxd3 22.Qxd3 Nf6 23.Rc1 Qb7 24.Qf3 Qd7 25.Qd3 Rfd8 26.Rxc8 Rxc8 27.Rc1 Rxc1+ 28.Bxc1 Qd5 29.Qc4 Qxc4 30.Nxc4 Nd7 31.Kf2

½–½

Round 6

Our 2 joint champions met in the penultimate round before the fireworks of the top 2 boards in round 7.

BONHAM,Kevin (1918) - ROUT,Ian (1938) [E68]

Tasmanian Chess Championships Princes Street Primary School (6.1), 08.03.2015

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0–0 d6 5.d4 0–0 6.c4 Nbd7 7.Nc3 e5 8.e4 exd4 9.Nxd4 Nc5 10.h3 a5 11.Bf4 Nfd7 12.Qd2 Ne5 13.b3 Ncd3 14.Bg5 f6 15.Bh6 Bxh6 16.Qxh6 Bd7 17.Qe3 Nb4 18.a3 Nbc6 19.f4 Nxd4 20.Qxd4 Nc6 21.Qd5+ Kg7 22.Rad1 Qe7 23.Qd3 Be6 24.Nd5 Qf7 25.Rde1 Rfe8 26.Ne3 Rad8 27.Qc3 Bc8 28.b4 axb4 29.axb4 Nb8 30.Nd5 Be6 31.e5 dxe5 32.fxe5 f5 33.Nf6 Rf8 34.Nd5 Rfe8 35.Nf4 c6 36.g4 Kg8 37.Nxe6 Rxe6 38.gxf5 gxf5 39.Qf3 Nd7 40.Qxf5 Qxf5 41.Rxf5 Rde8 42.b5 Nxe5 43.Rc1 Kg7

½–½

Final scores and cross table are below.