After a long and interesting trip via land, sea and air (we are now experts in the art of the long drop) we could eventually settle into the Marina hotel on the beachfront of the Black sea. The hotel is situated in a new suburb of Batumi and unfortunately does not yet have any phone lines, which makes contact with home rather difficult.
Batumi is an interesting place – very poor and in some cases extremely primitive. Their food is a long way off what we’re used to back home. They seem to exist on bread, cheese and cabbage. Communication is a huge problem, with very few of them understanding or speaking English and we’re trying to make do with lots of sign language. We seem to have sorted out our food preferences with them, but now have to master the quantity problem. All in all not too bad and we will survive and enjoy ourselves.
There are about 900 players from 60 different countries with Russia being notably absent. The players are playing in 3 separate halls. Luckily for us, our hotel is about a 10 minute walk from the playing venue where other countries are having to travel 45 minutes by bus to get to the venue.
Report: Round1
The first round had a few good results along with some disappointments. Jon Maloney beat a 2280 in a sharp tactical middle game and Heinrich Stander lost a promising position when his 2350 opponent started sacking pieces when Heinrich had a shortage of time. Lenke van Aarde outplayed her opponent in a Nimzo-Indian with a simple finish after holding an edge the whole game and Marcel Roberts did not hesitate to mate his opponent when the boy neglected to protect his king. Corne Blaauw’s opponent was too scared to show his face when he realised he had to play a South African player and decided to leave Corne with the full point. A few very close games ended in draws with Melissa Greeff, Letitia van Wyk, Angelique Hattingh, Ruan van Heerden and Henco Marais taking the half point. Henco was a disappointed man as he failed to extract the full point when his opponent swindled the losing position to finally end up obliging Henco to force a draw by repetition. A final score of 7.5 from 29 for the SA team.
WYCC 2006
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Report – Round 2
The second day of the tournament turned out not too rosy. Marcel Roberts decided to accept a draw in a position clearly favouring him(strange…) and the not yet FIDE rated player Jon Maloney (on board 9)again upset his opponent, the 15th ranked from India after drawing a better position where he actually missed a bishop h7 sacrifice that would have turned the game clearly in his favour. Stephan Ferreira destroyed a Peruvian on the white side of a classical Kings Indian and Rosaline Ockhuis won a nice game against a local Georgian player. Ezette Roos and Marco Pretorius assembled half points and counting two byes we ended with a final score of 6 points.
Round 3
Heinrich Stander quickly took the point from his Kenyan opponent and Melissa Greeff also had no trouble in defeating a Pirc. Another draw from Marcel Roberts in a position that he had quite few chances to take the full point leaves Marcel on two points. Marco Pretorius showed no mercy in a tactical Dragon and Leanne Naidoo also added a point to the team score. Lenke van Aarde took her second point from her opponent when the girl got lost in complications. Jon Maloney also got another half a point in a position that looked promising. Angelique Hattingh played a long game but when she left the board she took a point with her. Nina de Swart got the half point and including one bye the final score was 8 and a half.
WYCC 2006
Report - Round 4
Round 4 turned out to be more promising than the preceding ones. Craig Bornheim and Clara Roos decided to add a point to the days score. Marco Pretorius again did not give his opponent a chance and Marcel Roberts crushed the 17th seed. Christiaan Bester also took a draw after some complications settled leaving the u/10 boys with a very impressive two and a half out of three points. After some very unfortunate moves in time trouble both Heinrich Stander and Jason Naidoo drew better positions. Melissa again had no trouble winning. Laetitia van Wyk got the exchange and finished off her opponent. Nadia Joubert also decided to start attacking and her opponent could not hold on. A few other draws from Tasnim Amra, Riaan Cox, Jane Smith-Ballie and Henco Marais.