Australian Championships 2008

The Australian Chess Championships is currently taking place in Sydney, Australia from 2 to 11 January, 2008. There are three divisions in the event: the main championship section, the major (U2100) and minor (U1600).

Going into the penultimate round, round 10, three players are leading the main section with 7 points apiece. They are Serbian GM Dejan Antic, currently a resident of Sydney, Australian IM Stephen Solomon and Brazilian visitor IM Herman Van Riemsdijk.

IM Gary Lane, the 2004 Australian champion, is also in this event but having a terrible time. After 9 rounds he has collected only 4.5 points. In round 7 Lane lost to a local 15-year old boy who sports a rating of 2152. Then in round 8, the world famous author dropped another point by losing to another past champion (1965 and 1982) FM Douglas Hamilton.

 

The Closet Grandmaster blog has regular updates of results almost immediately after rounds are played.