The Indonesian Open Chess Championship (IOCC) 2013 has now finished its second to last round.
On top board it was the match-up of the resourceful IM Nguyen Duc Hoa (6.5/9) who had been taking his chances well, against long time leader GM Alexey Dreev (7/9), but this time the vastly experienced Russian was a little too strong in a game that was last to finish.
The adjacent second board saw GM Alexander Moiseenko (6.5/9) facing new co-leader GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (7/9) but had a surprisingly easy, even routine win.
GM Sandro Mareco (6.5/9) was paired against GM Nigel Short (6/9) on third board and despite the very best efforts of both players to win it was a still a draw, with yet another fortress constructed by the Englishman, a result that also left them both still unbeaten.
All still in with a chance provided they won, were all the remaining 6 pointers, but it was only on fourth board that GM G N Gopal proved up to the challenge with a win against GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.
The main standings going into the eleventh and last round are therefore:
1. Dreev 8/10, 2. Moiseenko 7.5/10, 3-5. Mareco, Ganguly, and G N Gopal 7/10, 5-13 Short, Dao Tien Hai, Abijeet Gupta, Vadim Malakhatko, Oliver Barbosa, Batchuluun Tsegmed, Vaibhav Suri, Elisabeth Paehtz, and Susanto Megaranto 6.5/10.
Of those looking for title norms, Anjas Novitas, despite losing, still extended his IM norm to 10 games while Dewi AA Citra brought more joy to Indonesia with a WIM norm. (Photos below)
Indonesia Open – Round 9 Report
The Indonesia Open Chess Championship 2013 entered round nine this morning, the first of two rounds today, with the eleventh and final round tomorrow!
On top board the first seed, GM Alexander Moiseenko (6/8), got another shot at GM Alexey Dreev (6.5/8) after defaulting against him earlier in round six and it was an engrossing struggle where in the end Moiseenko’s extra pawn could not make the difference.
GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (6) from the start will have sensed his chance after yesterday’s win and on second board pushed GM Renier Vazquez Igarza (5.5/8) hard for a fine win built on superior opening preparation while on third board GM Sandro Mareco (6) could only draw with GM Dao Tien Hai (5.5)
A little further back, the more fascinating match-ups were GM Nigel Short (5.5) up against the currently red hot WGM Elisabeth Paehtz (5.5) where it proved to be a stalemate, GM Ivan Ivanisevic (5.5) against IM Nguyen Duc Hoa (5.5) in a battle of determined players where the Vietnamese once again impressed, while a former prodigy in GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (5.5) played former world championship contender in GM Jaan Ehlvest (5) and the game fittingly ended in a draw!
There was also quite a buzz among the Indonesian officials, players and spectators even before the start as three locals, IM Dede Lioe (5) was in line for a GM norm and his fellow SEA Games trainees, Mohamand Ervan and Masruri Rahman (5) already achieved IM title norms!
In fact no less than 12 players had a chance for title norms this round but only FM Anjas Novitas, with a determined win over IM Denny Juswanto when only needing a draw got an IM norm.
In other notable results, GM Abhijeet Gupta (4.5) beat GM Munkhgal Gombosuren in a wild game (4.5), GM Oliver Barbosa (4.5) outplayed GM Antoaneta Stefanova in unorthodox fashion (4.5), GM Cao Sang (4.5) prevailed against GM Salem A R Saleh (4.5), GM Shyam Sundar M (4.5) proved too strong for GM Hossain Enamul (4.5), IM Dede Lioe (4.5) lost against GM Batchuluun Tsegmed (4.5),after losing control of a promising position, GM Susanto Megaranto (4.5) won comfortably against Mohamad Ervan (4.5), IM Steven Yap Kim (4.5) could not hold GM GN Gopal (4.5), GM Vaibhav Suri (4.5) outclassed Masruri Rahman (4.5), IM Nguyen Van Huy (4.5) lost against GM Vadim Malakhatko (4.5) and IM Oliver Dimakiling (4.5) surprisingly crashed against GM Darwin Laylo (4.5).
So going into the tenth and penultimate round in the afternoon session, the leaderboard is:
1-2. Dreev and Ganguly 7/9, 3-5 Moiseenko, Mareco and Nguyen Duc Hoa 6.5/9, 6-19 Short, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Malakhatko, Abhijeet Gupta, Barbosa, Vaibhav Suri, Syam Sundar, Cao Sang, Batchuluun Tsegmed, Megaranto, G N Gopal, Laylo, Dao, and Paehtz 6/9.
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