Melbourne Chess Club Allegro Championships - Day 1

This weekend I am the arbiter for the Melbourne Chess Club Allegro Championships. This is an annual event that attracts some of the best allegro (15 minute chess) players in Melbourne! This year there were 35 starters for the event, which meant that the main tournament room at MCC was almost full!

There have been a few upsets already, with FM Michael Baron held to a draw in round 1 by Marcus Raine, while round 2 saw upset wins for Milan Ilic & Tristan Krstevski. Round 3 saw upset wins for Garner, Voon, Palma & Wildes, while round 4 saw Morris & Rutherford emegre as equal leaders on 4/4, with upset wins for Jager, Palma, Sumargo & Krstevska.
Round 5 saw Rutherford & Morris share the point, to remain tied in equal first place. Upset results were recorded by Antolis, Archie Beaumont & Yu, while Ly & Palma held their higher rated opponents to draws. Round 6 saw Bhat claim a higher-rated scalp, while Ly & Yu held their higher rated opponents to draws. The final round for the day saw Morris & Rutherford solidify their lead over the field, with wins over Baron & Urban respectively. Upset wins were recorded by Tosevski & Krstevska, while most other results went according to seeding.

Full crosstables after day 1 can be seen at ChessChat.

Tomorrow will see the final 6 rounds of play, starting at 2pm. Will Morris & Rutherford continue their dominance over the field? Will a challenger emerge from the pack? What will develop for the divisional prizes, with a number of players already scoring multiple upset results?

Spectators are welcome at Melbourne Chess Club, or you can follow the tournament progress online either on the blog, or on Chesschat.

I have also recorded a few short (roughly 1 minute in length) video clips during the tournament, which you can see below.

Round 5 action!

Round 6 action!

Round 7 action!