The Netway Masters tournament of 1992 was organized as an appreciation of Australian invitations that had been extended to New Zealand players in recent Sydney tournaments. It was also a chance for young players to gain IM norms.
Sponsorship was arranged with the Auckland Company Netway Communications and invitations were sent to Lembit Antsovich Oll and Anthony Miles with the rest of the twelve player field made up of Australian and New Zealand players. This made the tournament a Category V event, in which seven points from eleven games were needed to gain an IM norm.
The tournament was not without incident. At the opening reception, Lembit Oll was unwell and wanted to play out his games on a short time control. Other players disagreed with this proposal and Oll therefore withdrew from the tournament. With Oll's withdrawal, it looked as though the tournament would collapse, but Ian Rogers cut short his holiday in the Australian Outback, stepped into the breach and saved the day. Ortvin Sarapu, who was Oll's host for two weeks, was very upset with the situation and it showed in his play. On the positive side, Benjamin Martin played very well and obtained an IM norm of seven points with three rounds to spare. The two grandmasters, Miles and Rogers showed their class and finished in joint first place.
The tournament ran from the 31st of March to the 12th of April and was held in Durham House, Finance Plaza in Albert Street in Auckland, New Zealand. The Auckland Chess Association team responsible for running the tournament included Paul Stanley Spiller (Coordinator), Ewen McGowen Green (Funding), Robert Gibbons (Tournament Arbiter), and Ortvin Sarapu, Martin Paul Dreyer and J Nigel Metge (Committee).
The playing sessions were six hours long, beginning at 1 pm and finishing at 7 pm. Adjournments went for a further two-hour playing session. The time control was 40 moves per hour and 20 moves per half hour thereafter.
Auckland, New Zealand, 31 March - 12 April 1992
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts
1 Miles * ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 10
2 Rogers ½ * 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10
3 Martin 0 0 * ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 8
4 Levi 0 0 ½ * 1 1 0 ½ ½ 0 1 1 5½
5 Garbett 0 ½ 0 0 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5
6 Sarfati 0 0 0 0 ½ * 1 1 1 1 ½ 0 5
7 Small 0 0 0 1 ½ 0 * ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 5
8 Noble 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1 ½ ½ 4½
9 Sarapu 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 3½
10 Wallace 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 * ½ 1 3½
11 Dreyer ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * 0 3
12 Metge 0 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 0 0 1 * 3
The Netway Masters 1992 Trophy was presented to Tony Miles on tie-break.Prizes in New Zealand dollars were:
1st $1500
2nd $ 750
3rd $ 400
4th $ 200
5th $ 150
The sources for this collection were the Netway Masters tournament bulletins and the book 'Mr Chess' The Ortvin Sarapu Story by Ortvin Sarapu. ISBN 0 473 01607 9.
Original collection: Game Collection: Netway Masters Tt 1992, by User: Benzol.
Kibitzing
