2013 Dubbo Open - Day 2

Jeffrey Plew completed the 'double' at the 2013 Dubbo Open, winning both the NSW Country Championship, and the Dubbo Open itself. He started the day with a win over joint leader Harry Press, before drawing his round 5 game with Don Keast. The draw allowed Trent Parker to catch up, and their final round game decided the tournament. Plew gained an advantage over the opening and soon Parker's pieces were caught in a set of pins and discovered attacks, forcing a quick resignation. With this win Plew reached 5.5/6 meaning the remaining games were for the minor placings only. On board 2 Don Keast looked like he had a better position against David Lovejoy, but having avoided a repetition, Keast ran short of time and blundered into a mate in 1. This left Lovejoy with outright second while Kempen and Press drew on board 3 to share third place with Parker, and tournament surprise Dragan Granjas.
Ryan Keeble was the best placed Under 1500 player, with Ben Martin and Andrew Mower sharing the Under 1300 prize. Local Dubbo Junior Nikhil Rajesh picked up the best Junior prize after scoring 3.5/6 including a final round draw with Bill Egan.
As the arbiter I found the tournament very enjoyable and quite easy to run. In fact most of the hard work was in the Saturday night Handicap Blitz, where one game ended with a player picking up an opponents piece and checkmating himself with it!