After a first night of social games at our new venue, the club got down to some serious chess with the 2009 Spielvogel Memorial. A 7 round Swiss in honour of a great player and administrator from the past, the tournament offers players a chance to warm up for the forthcoming Begonia Open, and attracted 9 players including 2 new members.

Top seed, and club champion, Patrick Cook faced newcomer Yu Liu, and wheeled out his favourite Larsen’s Opening. It didn’t take long for White to win material and he continued to do so until Black, a rook and 5 pawns down, asked “can I surrender?”

Veteran John Abson took on 2^nd seed Jamie Brotheridge in an open Sicilian. White was unable to cope with Black’s aggressive style and lost his Queen in the early middlegame and did not survive long after that.

Kevin Perrin, the doyen of Ballarat chess, met Michael Schreenan with an English Opening. White quickly gained the upper hand and soon picked up Black’s Queen and finished off his opponent soon after.

The other newcomer, H. Zhang, met Rob Loveband in a closed Sicilian. White was able to put up some resistance to the 4^th seed, but was eventually outplayed and Black won as expected.

Chris Segrave, still on his honeymoon!, was given the bye for round 1.