35th Begonia Open 2001

THE 35TH BALLARAT BEGONIA OPEN WEEKENDER - Bas van Riel

He has done it again..! GM Darryl Johansen won the Ballarat Begonia long weekender for the 12th time. Very convincingly, he scored 6.5/7  allowing only a draw in the last round against joint runner-up Igor Bjelobrk.
Although we were down on numbers (79) compared to last year, the top was very strong with 9 players above a 2000 rating including 3 (grand-) masters. Again, the tournament proved very popular amongst the juniors.
In the third round proceedings were hotting up with a crushing win of Bjelobrk over Baron. The 4th round saw the match between defending champion, Mirko Rujevic and Johansen, decided in favour of the latter, and a win by Bjelobrk over Guy West, who incidentally had a bad run. By round 5, most of the favourites had lost some (half) points with Stewart Booth in second spot. But he too was also rolled by Johansen in round 6, and a group including Bjelobrk, Rujevic, Booth, Baron, Sandler, and Anderson were fighting for the runner-up prices. This was shared at the end by Bjelobrk, Rujevic (who won from Sandler in a tense battle), and Baron who beat Booth in a long, final game. Chris Fenwick had a good tournament and finished 5th on 5.5 points.
The B-group was won by local hero P.Cook (5), the C-group equally by D.Schepisi, A.Ghobrial and Z..Lojanica (on 4) First prize of the D-group was equally split between the juniors D.Lindberg and S.Ferris.

Bas van Riel & Shaun Press:
Although numbers(79) were down compared to last year, the top was very strong with nine players above a 2000rating, including one GM and IMs Guy West and Leonid Sandler. Again, the tournament proved very popular amongst the juniors. GM Darryl Johansen won the Ballarat Begonia long weekender very convincingly for the twelfth time. He scored 6.5/7, allowing only a draw in the last round against joint runner-up Igor Bjelobrk.
By the third-round proceedings were hotting up with Igor Bjelobrk crushing Michael Baron, the latter making a return to weekend chess after a break of a couple of years. FM Mirko Rujevic was hoping to repeat his first place, as well as his win over Johansen in their fourth-round clash. Rujevic had to be happy with a share of second after Johansen reversed last year’s result.
The fourth round also saw the match between defending champion, a win by Bjelobrk over Guy West, who incidentally had a bad run. By Round 5, most of the favourites had lost some (half) points with Stewart Booth in second spot. But he too was also rolled by Johansen in Round 6 and a group including Bjelobrk, Rujevic, Booth, Baron, Sandler, and Alistair Anderson were fighting for the runner up prizes.
These was shared at the end by Bjelobrk, Rujevic (who won from Sandler in a tense battle), and Baron who beat Booth in a long, final game. Chris Fenwick had a good tournament and finished fifth on 5.5 points. The A-group was won by local hero Patrick Cook (5). The B-group equally by David Schepisi, Adel Ghobrial and Zdravko Lojanica (on 4). First prize in the C-group was equally split between the juniors Douglas Lindberg and Shaun Ferris (3.5).