London Chess Classic 2009
8th Dec - 15th December 2009 Classic Open tournament
A Women’s Invitational tournament was held as part of the main congress at the London Chess Classic at Olympia. The tournament was the brainchild of IM Lawrence Cooper, the English Chess Federation’s Director of International Chess and was the first of what he hopes will become a regular series of women’s competitions in England. The dates weren’t ideal for his purposes as a number of prospective players at school and university couldn’t take part but he still put together a very interesting and varied line-up. The top seed and favourite was the highly experienced English IM Susan Lalic who, like her husband IM Graeme Buckley, is a busy chess teacher. She had to postpone her first round game until later in the tournament and started with a draw in round two. In round three, she met Arianne Caoili, the Philippine-born Australian woman IM who had got off to a great start with 2/2. The game started in a blur of tactics, with chances going begging for both players, but Susan emerged triumphant after 60 moves. In the end Arianne won by a clear two points from Susan. Lawrence Cooper watched play closely and concluded that “Arianne showed her resourcefulness [despite] several difficult positions and time trouble.” It was a gutsy performance, registering an impressive 2421 in terms of rating performance.
| London Classic Women London (ENG), 8-15 xii 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1. | Caoili, Arianne | wm | AUS | 2206 | * | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2421 | |||||
| 2. | Lalic, Susan K | m | ENG | 2310 | 1 | * | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2183 | |||||
| 3. | Van Weersel, Arlette | wm | NED | 2193 | 0 | 1 | * | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 5½ | 2151 | |||||
| 4. | Ikonomopoulou, Maria | GRE | 2065 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2128 | ||||||
| 5. | De Seroux, Camille | SUI | 1989 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4½ | 2094 | ||||||
| 6. | Winkelmann, Elena | GER | 2119 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2036 | ||||||
| 7. | Yurenok, Maria S | wf | ENG | 1968 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3½ | 2016 | |||||
| 8. | Smith, Olivia | wf | WLS | 2026 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | * | ½ | 1 | 3 | 1965 | |||||
| 9. | Chevannes, Sabrina L | wf | ENG | 2042 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 1 | 3 | 1963 | |||||
| 10. | Frick, Denise | wm | RSA | 1920 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * | 2½ | 1936 | |||||
