IM Luis Chiong, Tan Weiliang and Kelvin Wee take pole positions at Queenstown Open.

Top seed IM Luis Chiong emerged the 2012 Queenstown Champion when his superior progressive tiebreak ensured he finished ahead of Tan Weiliang and Kelvin Wee after all 3 of them finished on 6/7.

Luis pushed ahead of his main rivals when in Round 4, he move ordered Weiliang in a complex Najdorf to gain the upper hand. Just when it seemed that he would simply run away with the title, Kelvin Wee dealt him a blow in the penultimate round by forcing him to sacrifice the exchange. It was a very satisfying win for Kelvin as he had regretfully let an IM off the hook earlier this year in Pardubice. Nevertheless, Luis won his final round against Lee Qing Aun to win the title.

Weiliang had to survive a difficult Evan Gambit position against Kelvin Wee after unwittingly walking into the famous Kasparov-Anand Riga Memorial 1995 Evans Gambit game. He somehow survived it to keep tabs on Luis. In the final round, he slowly but surely outplayed Nahim Zahar from the White side of a protracted Maroczy Bind. Nahim sacrificed a Rook for a Bishop and pawn to complicate matters but Weiliang was just too solid to let the position slip.

Here's how Kelvin notched his first win over an International Master.
 

Alos worthy of mention are the two juniors Qing Aun and Heng Zheng Kai. Qing Aun accounted for NM Koh Kum Hong in Round 4 after the latter repeatedly refused to accept draws in equal positions and subsequently overpressed. Zheng Kai showed he could take on the big boys as he finished unbeaten with 4.5/7. Had he converted his pawn advantage over Sundar Raman in the final round, he would have finished 5th. An impressive feat for a 10 year old boy.

Final results: Queenstown Open 2012