Monday 7 April 2014

Six In The Lead After Round Four


 (GM John Paul Gomez - Photo by Kristianus Liem)

With 3.5/4, GM's Sergei Tiviakov, R.R. Laxman, Nguyen Anh Dung, John Paul Gomez, Richard Bitoon and M.R. Venkatesh are all sharing the lead after four rounds of play in the DYTM Raja Dr Nazrin Shah KL International Open Championships.

The two Filipino GMs Gomez and Bitoon had important wins in round three against strong opponents in Nguyen Van Huy and Dzhumaev Marat respectively to move into a share of the lead as the other leaders failed to make further progress.

On the home front, young and leading Malaysian prospect Yeoh Li Tian found his second GM in a row in R.R. Laxman a bit too difficult but it was the same result with veteran GM Niaz Murshed who beat the Indonesian FM Kaisar Jenius Hakki.
(WGM Irene Sukandar - Photo by Kristianus Liem)

Two specially interesting match-ups was between Birthday girl and WGM Irene Sukandar and 13 year old Indian Tejaswini Sagar who is clearly with a bright future, and between FMs Pitra Andika and Nelson Mariano III, ending with Sukandar and Mariano prevailing.