George Trundle Memorial Round 1.

George Trundle Memorial

Mt Eden

For you non-antipodeans, the "George" is an annual IM round-robin event played at a comfortable pace with one round a day. The venue is the Auckland chess centre in Cromwell st and our accommodation is a pleasant three bedroom apartment at the base of Mt Eden, a major landmark in Auckland. From the top one can see both the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea.

The tournament is expertly organised by Mike Steadman, a strong player himself, so the playing conditions are as they should be. Since there is only one game a day and just a short walk to the venue, I'll be blogging again. In my last tournament, the Gold Coast open, the schedule just did not permit any other activity. 

Luckily David Esmonde shouldered the burden, as well as running all the live transmission, and published photo's, games and short reports here.

 http://livechess.aunz.net/index.php/gold-coast-open-2018/view-games/

The only improvement would be live transmission of the games but I'm sure that will happen in a future George. 

Round 1

I have played Paul frequently, but not lately. He was one of New Zealand's top players, and regular Olympiad team member, for decades. I had a decent score, but most of our games were very hard fought. Today Paul made things difficult for himself with 4...d6. Having already played f5 was not beneficial.

[Event "George Trundle Memorial"]
[Site "Auckland"]
[Date "2018.07.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Wohl, Aleksandar"]
[Black "Garbett, Paul"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2335"]
[BlackElo "2197"]
[ECO "A00u"]
[EventDate "2018.07.08"]

1.g3 e5 2.Bg2 f5 3.c4 Nf6 4.d4 d6 5.dxe5 dxe5 6.Qxd8+ Kxd8 7.Nc3 c6
8.Nf3 Bd6 9.Bg5 Ke7 10.O-O-O Bc7 11.e4 Re8 12.Bh3 fxe4 13.Bxc8 Rxc8
14.Nxe4 Nd7 15.Rhe1 h6 16.Nxf6 Nxf6 17.Bd2 e4 18.Bc3 Re8 19.Nd2 Kf7
20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.Nxe4 Re7 22.Nc5 Rxe1 23.Rxe1 b6 24.Nd3 Rd8 25.Nb4 Rd6
26.Kc2 a5 27.Nd3 b5 28.Re4 f5 29.Rh4 Bd8 30.Rf4 Bg5 31.Rxf5+ Ke6 32.
Re5+ 1-0

A good start but a long eight rounds to go. I am playing a talented young Melbournian, Chris Wallis today with black, so no walk in the park.