ARIANNE CAOILI

from Chessbase.com
By John Saunders

London: Arianne wins Women's Invitational by two points

19.12.2009 – A number of subsidiary events took place during the Chess Classic in London, one of the most attractive of which was the Women's Invitational. It was won by a "chess tourist", Arianne Caoili of Australia, who had planned to visit London with her boyfriend Levon Aronian to see the sights. When he did not obtain his visa Arienne decided to play in the Invitational.

A Women’s Invitational tournament was held as part of the main congress at the London Chess Classic at Olympia. The tournament was the brainchild of IM Lawrence Cooper, the English Chess Federation’s Director of International Chess and was the first of what he hopes will become a regular series of women’s competitions in England. The dates weren’t ideal for his purposes as a number of prospective players at school and university couldn’t take part but he still put together a very interesting and varied line-up.

The top seed and favourite was the highly experienced English IM Susan Lalic who, like her husband IM Graeme Buckley, is a busy chess teacher. She had to postpone her first round game until later in the tournament and started with a draw in round two. In round three, she met Arianne Caoili, the Philippine-born Australian woman IM who had got off to a great start with 2/2. The game started in a blur of tactics, with chances going begging for both players, but Susan emerged triumphant after 60 moves.

But defeat by Susan did not seem to bother Arianne one bit. In fact, it seemed to spur her on as she proceeded to ‘do a Fischer’, winning all six of her remaining games. Susan couldn’t keep up with her, losing to the talented Dutch WIM Arlette van Weersel in round six and to the 16-year-old Swiss player Camille De Seroux in round eight.

Arianne Caoili, 22, did what the Aussie men and women
cricketers couldn’t do this year – triumph in England

In the end Arianne won by a clear two points from Susan. Lawrence Cooper watched play closely and concluded that “Arianne showed her resourcefulness despite several difficult positions and time trouble.” It was a gutsy performance, registering an impressive 2421 in terms of rating performance.