The third round of the Queenstown Chess Classic produced the biggest upset of the tournament so far when Australian Champion and top seed Grandmaster Ian Rogers lost an exciting attacking game to German player Michael Geveke. Due to a rule specific to this tournament that no game on the top ten boards can be agreed drawn in less than 30 moves, Rogers lost his chance to be able to offer a draw early in the game before his slightly worse position deteriorated too much. The no draw rule was stipulated by New Zealand born Grandmaster Murray Chandler who is the tournament's main sponsor and most of the top players (including Rogers) are in agreement with Chandler that such a rule adds to the fighting content of the tournament.
Rogers' loss leaves only one of the four Grandmasters, Slovenian Drazen Sermek on a perfect 3/3 with GMs Murray Chandler and German Hans-Joachim Hecht both having conceded draws. 84 year old International Master Bob Wade continued to delight the crowd with a spectacular double edged draw against Hecht today to follow his draw yesterday with 2nd seed Chandler.
Joining Sermek in the lead are fourteen other players including former New Zealand Champions Paul Garbett, Roger Nokes and Richard Sutton and Women's International Master Arianne Caoili of Australia.
Leading Results Round 3:
I Rogers (AUS) 0 - 1 M Geveke (GER) D Sermek (SLO) 1 - 0 P Green (NZL) T Reilly (AUS) 0 - 1 ZY Zhao (AUS) A Wohl (AUS) 1 - 0 M Steadman (NZL) S Lukey (NZL) 1 - 0 G Lane (AUS) D Smerdon (AUS) 1 - 0 A Setiawan (INA) S Wastney (NZL) 1/2 S Solomon (AUS) T Civin (CZE) 0 - 1 A Caoili (AUS) A Susilodinata (INA) 1 - 0 T Karolyi (HUN) P Froehlich (GER) 1 - 0 M Dougherty (CAN) M Chandler (ENG) 1 - 0 B Donaldson (NZL) R Wade (NZL) 1/2 HJ Hecht (GER)Photos:
Eight New Zealand Champions. Left to Right: FM Scott Wastney, FM Bob Smith,
IM Anthony Ker, FM Roger Nokes, IM Bob Wade (sitting), GM Murray Chandler,
IM Russell Dive, FM Richard Sutton. Photo by Cathy Rogers.
Board 1, GM Ian Rogers vs FM Michael Geveke. Photo by Cathy Rogers.