Sunday 27 July 2008

2008 ANU Open - Round 5

One thing that is great about this years event is the players are very committed to the tournament. We've only had 1 "no-show" at the start, and only 1 withdrawal. This commitment was tested this morning with Round 5 starting at 9:30am (although 1 complaint about the start time came from someone who lives 200m from the venue).
Almost every one trooped in on time, which was pretty good considering the late night attractions of the Tour de France and the Canberra party scene.
As for the chess IM David Smerdon took over the "Yellow" by defeating IM Andras Toth on Board 1. Ian Rout's colours were lowered for the first time, losing the FM Igor Bjelobrk on the next board. Further down FM Brian Jones made it two losses in a row for Junta Ikeda, while WIM Arianne Caoili went from winning, to drawing, to tragically losing to Milan Grcic. Luthien Russell scored yet another upser, this time over WIM Heather Richards to move onto the top boards for Round 6.
In the Minor Sophie Eustace and Sathya Chitturi (juniors both) share the lead on 5/5 and their 6th round game may decide that tournament.

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