CHESS Sarapu In Lead With Averbakh

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31255, 30 December 1966, Page 10

CHESS Sarapu In Lead With Averbakh

The Australian champion, D. Hamilton (Melbourne), and the Philippines international master, Rodolfo C. Tan Cardoso, drew their game after five hours and 42 moves in the third round of the Canterbury Chess Club’s centennial tournament yesterday.

The Russian international grand master, Yuri L. Averbakh, and the New Zealand champion, O. Sarapu (Auckland), won their games, and share the lead in the A grade championship, with the maximum of three points each from three rounds.

Averbakh beat P. Dozsa, a former Hungarian champion, now living in Adelaide, in a game which lasted four hours and a half. It was Dozsa’s first loss in the tournament. Sarapu won his game against M. Fuller (Sydney), who had won his previous two games. Sarapu and Averbakh will play each other today, in what is likely to be one of the most exciting and most important games of the tournament.

The New Zealand championships are being incorporated in the tournament, and the title will go to the top New Zealand player. After three rounds, Sarapu leads the New Zealanders with the maximum of three points, and the young Christchurch player, B. R. Anderson, is second with two points.

After his loss to Hamilton on Wednesday, Anderson yesterday beat another Australian, L. Neibergs, of Melbourne. Another young Christchurch player, A. Wilkinson, drew his game with a South Australian, D. Hester. In the B grade championship, Miss M. McGrath (Wellington), the only woman player in the tournament, beat the young Invercargill player, R. Keating. The blind Auckland player, T. Free, also won his game when he beat P. Fraemohs (Christchurch). The Kawerau player R.

Waayman, and G. Kerr (Dunedin) share the lead in the B grade with the maximum of three points each. Waayman yesterday beat L. Sneyd (Invercargill), and Kerr beat N. Fulton (Ashburton). About 25 spectators who watched the closing stages of the Averbakh-Dozsa game were assisted by a demonstration board near the grand master’s table. Cardoso's game with Hamilton was also the centre of interest for many spectators during the first hours of play. After three rounds, leading positions in the A grade are:—three points, Sarapu and Averbakh; two and a half points, Cardoso and Hamilton; two points, Anderson, Fuller, Dozsa, W. Leonhardt (Western Australia), R. Brent (Melbourne), D. H. Tabak (Melbourne), J. Tindale (Melbourne) and T. Shaw (New South Wales). In the B grade, Waayman and Kerr have three points each; and A. Day (Auckland), G. Hall (Christchurch), and I. R. Mitchell (Auckland) two and a half points each. Results of third-round games were:—

A Grade. —D. Tabak 1, E. Malltts 0; R. Brent 1, G. Haase 0: A. Rudzltls 1, M. Taylor 0; O. Sarapu 1, M. Fuller 0; Y. L. Averbakh 1, P. Dozsa 0; R. C. Tan Cardoso i. D. Hamilton i; J. Tindale 1, B. Krstic 0: P. Coffin 1. C. Merrick 0; A. Nyman 1, R. Baeyertz 0; L. Cornford 1, K. Steele 0; W. Leonhardt I, G. Trundle i; A. Wilkinson I. D. Hester J: B. Anderson 1, L. Neibergs 0; J. Alexander I, T. Shaw i; A. Flatow i, J. Harraway i. B Grade.—P. Boag 1, J. McArthur 0; J. Arbuthnot i, R. Gordon i; A. Hollander I, W. Beutner I; I. Mitchell 1, M. Ponimonl 0; D. Moulin 1, R. Cornelissen 0; M. Leese 1. P. Tindale 0; C. Whitehouse i, L. Whitehouse i; W. Breza 1. H. Brokking 0; A. Day i, G. Hall i; R. Waayman 1, L. Sneyd 0: G. Kerr 1, N. Fulton 0: W. Lynn 1, M. Morrison 0; Miss M. McGrath 1, R. Keating 0; T. Free 1, P. Fraemohs 0; E. Green 1.