Saturday 31 March 2018

2018 O2C Doeberl Cup - Day 2

Day 2 of the 2018 O2C Doeberl Cup saw plenty of upsets across all the events. With the Major, Minor and Under 1200 events starting, the spacious venue at the Canberra Southern Cross Club filled up nicely, with around 240 players sitting down to play.
The big surprises in Round 3 were the loss by GM Qun Ma to IM Irine Sukandar, and FM Dusan Stojic's win over GM Anton Smirnov. However round 4 saw both giant killers come back to earth, with Sukandar losing to GM Deep Sengupta, and Stojic losing to IM James Morris.
After 4 rounds the lead is shared by GM Timur Gareyev, GM Deep Sengupta and IM James Morris, all on 4/4. Today sees the shift to the morning/afternoon schedule (never popular with the players), with Gareyev and Sengupta playing on the top board.
The Major has traditionally seen less upsets than either the Premier or Minor, and so it is this year. After 2 rounds most of the top seeds are on 2/2, although this will of course change when the begin to clash in the third round. The Minor on the other hand has seen most of the top 10 seeds drop points to lower rated opponents. Of course with 5 rounds left to play, there is a good chance that they can recover, setting up a challenging finish for all concerned.
Today's rounds start at 9:30 am (Canberra time), and you can see the live coverage (8 board from Premier, plus boards 1 from the Major and Minor) at the tournament website.

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