City of Sydney Championships

This year's City of Sydney format, four games played over two consecutive weekends, has failed to solve the problem of falling attendances. Played at North Sydney, a popular venue, only 21 players (including three overseas visitors) turned out for the main event, and 20 for the Under 1700 section.

Leading the Championship after four rounds is Polish junior Darek Swiercz who visited Rooty Hill last week for the WSCP Lightning tournament. On 3.5/4 he is just half a point ahead of Tomek Rej, NSW Champ Greg Canfell, Ronald Yu and Jason Hu. He is yet to play Tomek and Greg, the only two players rated ahead of him.

Also in the event are Rooty Hill players Joshua Christensen and Carrie Evans. Both are eligible for the U1700. Joshua managed a draw against Anthony Lo and Carrie has yet to score, although her first-round loss to German visitor, Sebastian Hermann, was a 74-move marathon. She resigned two pawns down in a bishop ending.

The U1700 has three joint leaders after the first weekend. They are Herman Rachmadi, Trent Parker and David Evans, all on 3.5/4. They are just ahead of Horst Bleicher, Mary Wilkie and Kinto Wan on 3.

Kinto is somebody worth watching—he's likely to make his mark. Rated on 847 he is undefeated so far. He beat the very experienced Horst Bleicher and Michael Tracey and drew with Phil Willis and myself. He's probably the smallest, youngest boy in the competition and it won't be surprising to see his rating take an enormous leap in the next list.

Standings for both events are available on the Rooty Hill web page here: http://www.rootyhillchess.org/cos07.html