Stojic Dusan-Dragicevic Domagoj
The first ever Noble Park Club Championships was a strong tournament which was played over 9 very competitive rounds. It was a strong tournament with 2 FM's Abdulwahab Rashid and James Morris participating. Also involved were number of strong FIDE rated players meaning there were a lot of FIDE rating points available for grabs. The tournament began very well for James Morris, who won his first 5 games to have a 1.5 point lead over 4 players. However, James lost couple of games in a row to allow other players such as Domagoj Dragicevic, Dusan Stojic, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic ,Carl Gorka and Eugene Schon to catch up. Anyhow, in the last round it came down to anything possible in the last round including a three way tie. Mehmedalija Dizdarevic and Eugene Schon were leaders on 6/8 ahead of three players on 5.5/8. Both Mehmedalija and Eugene were up against higher rated players in Dusan Stojic and Domagoj Dragicevic, and on this occasion the players with higher rating won their games putting them on 6.5/9. Carl Gorka had a chance to also join the tie for first place, but he ended up loosing to Shaun Ferris. So after a tense last round there was a two player tie for first place.
Dusan Stojic and Domagoj Dragicevic, players that tied for equal first place in 2007 Noble Park Club Championships had to play a playoff to decide club champion for that year. The playoff format which was decided by the club prior to the playoff was 2 games with 90 minutes + 30 sec/move. If the score after the two games was 1-1, there would have been 2 rapid games, and in case that was equal, there would have been lightning games until the champion was decided. The games, as decided by the two players were played in Melbourne Chess Club in the space of three days. First of all, both players and Noble Park Chess Club would like to thank Melbourne Chess Club for happily allowing the games to be played at their venue. Domagoj has played in number of Club Championships prior to this playoff including Dandenong, Melbourne, Box Hill, but has never managed to win any of them. Dusan has also played in several Club Championships in Melbourne and Box Hill. He has gained some experience in his loss against FM Igor Goldenberg for the Victorian Championship title. So to both players this was an important playoff.
Now to the actual games. Prior to going to the playoff, Domagoj has had a good record over Dusan, so he was confident going into the matches. On the other hand, Dusan would have been keen to reverse his record against Domagoj. In game 1, Dusan drew white colours. The game started with Dusan playing 1.e4, and Domagoj coming back to playing 1..c5. It turned out to be Scheveningen Sicilian. Domagoj seemed to have misplaced it a little bit by playing
12..Na5
( 12..b6 looks like a better alternative), and then few moves later Dusan got an initiative on the queenside from which he was able to gain an advantage, which turned into a better endgame for Dusan.
Dusan seemed to have misplaced the ending a little bit, and Domagoj ended up getting away with the draw. In time trouble, Dusan missed a tricky way to win.
30. c4! dxc4
(Domagoj cannot play Rd8 and recapture because of the pin along the d-file) 31.Bxc6 dxc6 32.b7 c3 (the only way to stop the promotion of the b-pawn) 33. e6! Kh7 (33…fxe6 34.Ra8 c2 35.Rxf8 and Rf1) 34.e7 Re8 35.Rc1 and winning easily.
Game 2 was another Sicilian, but this time a closed Sicilian. Domagoj actually used this opening to beat Dusan at last year's Victorian Open, but of course Dusan would have played the line differently and he did. The game was pretty even until Domagoj misplaed some moves, and allowed Dusan to get into really nice position, and win very nicely on the kingside, where he would have mated Domagoj or won some material just before Domagoj resigned. Domagoj's run of bad moves started with
19.Rfb1?
(19.Rab1 was clearly better) and then later on 21.Qc2?! (maybe 21.Ng4 f6 22.f4 e4 23.Rd1 gave white some chances, although black still holds the advantage.) At the end this meant that Dusan won the playoff 1.5-0.5, and therefore became the first ever club champion of Noble Park. Domagoj acknowledges that Dusan was the better player in the playoff and deservedly has taken the title. A big congratulations to Dusan for winning the championship.
